Review by William Stack
The darkest funny you will ever read.
Malice in Blunderland was an unexpected find. It is also an extra pleasure in that nobody else has heard of it, so you look really cool when you recommend it to a friend. And you will. Often I have seen books described as laugh out loud funny. Yet upon reading are mildly whimsical at best. Gibbings has written a book that is so remarkably funny, I laughed so much that I had to get off my train, making me late for work. Malice in Blunderland does need to come with a warning though. It is very dark and explicit in content, laced with descriptions and a new lexicon that make you want to vomit and roar with laughter at the same time.
We follow the protagonist as his life falls further apart from the mess he is already in, and the mess all stems from the Mia, the girl who broke his heart. Another smart thing is the protagonist remains nameless, and that aids the nihilistic farce through addiction of katamine and sleeping in the toilets at work. Just when you think the poor chap’s life cannot get worse, he gets mistaken for a rapist, a drug dealer, hunted by a London drug cartel and used as a sex slave by the Ukrainian mafia. Even enduring a violent assault by a transvestite. What is an absolute delight about this book is that it has so many events that are so remarkably funny, the jokes are so many, and so vivid. Yet so well integrated in the plot that you can’t reveal them in a review without ruining the enjoyment for the reader.
Another thing about Malice in Blunderland is that it tries very hard to appear stupid. I am a grammar freak and hate poor spelling, so when seeing the warning I had a feeling of utter woe. Yet, like Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting, it sucks you in and becomes the fabric of the tale. Just when you are enjoying the simple yet hilarious farce, the ending is simply sublime. Such an unexpected twist that you get ‘On my God, I never saw that coming.’ Any book that can still shock you at the very end is such a wonderful thing. Every character is brilliant, form Bulldog, his hapless friend to Stadnyk, the Ukrainian mafia boss.
An assured cult classic, and should be made into a film, Malice in Blunderland is a master class in pulp fiction with an acerbic and dark humour that takes you by the scruff of the neck and makes you laugh at things you know you really shouldn’t. Five stars all the way. One of those oh so rare ‘must reads.’
