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by: Gina Ranalli
List Price: $12.95Amazon.com's Price: $11.65 You Save: $1.30 (10%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780976631064
ISBN: 0976631067
Label: Afterbirth Books
Manufacturer: Afterbirth Books
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 188
Publication Date: April 30, 2006
Publisher: Afterbirth Books
Release Date: April 30, 2006
Sales Rank: 1043857
Studio: Afterbirth Books
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
It’s a night like any other for punk rock band Green is the Enemy. Having just completed a gig in their hometown of Seattle, they pile into their van, headed for San Francisco to open for their idols Peroxide and with any luck, get signed to Withering Skin Records. Unfortunately, things don’t go exactly as planned. They travel no more than a few blocks when an 8.5 earthquake strikes the city, tumbling buildings and opening streets, and sending the van crashing down into a huge crevasse.
Beneath the city of Seattle is another long buried city, known to locals as The Underground and it is here that the band find themselves, trapped and somehow vastly…changed.
Join Ro, Pawn, Dose and Whey as they fight to make it back in time for their gig, encounter strange creatures called Kreepkins, a surfer-dude warlock, a vengeful demon and a Metal Priestess who holds the key to their escape from the bizarre subterranean nightmare that is now their lives.
'It's like a fucked up version of The Wizard of Oz, with punk rockers.'
—Carlton Mellick III, author of Satan Burger and Punk Land
'I found Chemical Gardens to be a delightfully interesting read. Every time I thought I had the story pinned down it changed shape and went in an entirely unexpected direction. I can't wait to see what Gina does next.'
—Kevin Dole 2, author of Tangerinephant
'From the start, Gina Ranalli's Chemical Gardens does two things…makes you laugh and brings you along like you are a roadie for Green is the Enemy. After Mother Nature rocks out with her own musical style, Ranalli plops us smack underground where it's pretty clear that you aren't in Seattle anymore! A creative and funny, yet dark and 'kreepy' twist to a familiar favorite.'
—Nicole Del Sesto, author of All Encompassing Trip
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Loud, Proud & Bizarro?
A punk-rock version of Baum's "The Wizard of Oz" fairytale, Gina Ranalli's "Chemical Gardens" shows us how "not punk" it is to get trapped in a children's story. A splendid example of the uprising Bizarro genre, Ranalli's work becomes the antithesis of the contemporary values taught in children's literature. Children are taught to play by the rules and stay in line; thus, faltering means utter destruction. Ranalli's cast of characters are adolescent punkrockers determined to be anarchists, but forced ... Read More
Rating:  - Ideal for beginners to bizarro
The horror genre has recently unveiled a new, more experimental subgenre (the idea isn't new, but the name is). Entitled "bizarro fiction" by its practitioners, the writers known for this style embrace weirdness for its own sake, while still retaining the primary goal of telling an entertaining story (like David Lynch does for film). The relatively inexpensive Bizarro Starter Kit is available for those wishing to test this fascinating subgenre further (and it includes a novella by the author of Chemical ... Read More
Rating: - If Lloyd Kaufman directed the Wizard of Oz . . .
This is the book to get if you loved the Wizard of Oz during your childhood and your tastes have become intensely more deranged since then.
The book is a heck of a lot of fun. Along with me, Ranalli is part of the bizarro movement in fiction. It's comprised of authors doing some very strange things with literature. But above all, it's about entertaining the reader. And in a world where television, movies, and video games are king, this is a difficult feat. CHEMICAL GARDENS shines through.
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Rating: - Not without its flaws
Gina Ranalli's first novel, Chemical Gardens, is a great first novel though it is flawed. The book begins out strong with the band Green is the Enemy finishing up a gig and then heading to San Francisco only to be delayed by a huge earthquake, but it begins to lose energy as the band moves along on their journey. If you know the plot of the Wizard of Oz then you know the plot of Chemical Gardens. Also, as weird as it sounds, the anti-climax is kind of let-down. Other than that, great writing and really great ... Read More
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