“Welcome to Richland, Ohio. Things aren’t great.

The town’s biggest employer is closing shop, and Richland’s on the brink. It’s where Mike Boyd, with his own set of problems, finds himself returning to after decades away.

He’s not planning to stay.

But Richland has other plans for Mike, his old friend Dave, and a newcomer Andi. They’re caught in a swirl of local troubles, private equity, executive theft… and something extremely weird involving Jeremy Keller’s prize cow.

Welcome to Richland. Leave your expectations behind. Bring a tarp.”

Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I got an eGalley of this from NetGalley for Review

Thoughts: This was a fun, quick read. It is a bit bizarre, but it was an easy and entertaining read. This is typical off-the-wall Scalzi. I have read many of Scalzi’s books. While this definitely wasn’t my favorite, it was still entertaining and well done.

The story is about a small town that is on the brink of disaster when the plant that supports the town is threatened with shut down. Mike is returning to this town, his childhood town, after being laid off from a job with the federal government. Then some odd things start happening around town.

This is a very odd, kind of feel good monster book. There is a lot of silliness here, and I enjoyed it. This does venture into being a bit ludicrous. Scalzi doesn’t spend a lot of time describing the various monsters so they were hard to picture. Initially, I thought they were all similar, but then it seemed like there was quite a bit of variation.

I don’t have a ton to say about this one. It was cute, weird, feel good, and a quick read. It’s fun but fairly forgettable. I didn’t engage with any of the characters all that well; you jump around between a lot of different people. However, character engagement wasn’t really the point of the story.

My Summary (4/5): Overall I enjoyed this. This is an odd, entertaining, and strangely cozy gory monster read. I didn’t find the characters all that interesting or engaging, but the situations they were in were incredibly odd and strangely endearing. This is a quick and easy read that leaves you saying “Huh, well, good for them.” I enjoyed my time with this book, but didn’t find it particularly memorable. I look forward to what other craziness Scalzi has in store for us in the future.