Barny's Book Reviews #89

Well damn. This book should be next to "pulp fiction" in the dictionary. Short stacatto chapters, ripping through you like the fire from an old time gangster gun, a comic book without the comics.

It is the story of X, a masked wrestler, a hood, a member of an outcast society of hooded wrestling aficianados; who becomes entangled in solving a series of murders and unmaskings of hood prostitutes, who thanks to an unsympathetic "Skin" establishment likely wouldn't receive justice any other way.

One thing I found puzzling is the zeal that Hoods have about their masks, and the horror that the unmaskings provokes. Hoods are worn at all times, and there are even elaborate rituals involved with hygeine so that the whole face is never exposed. Infants are hooded almost immediately following birth. This elevation to the almost religious is never explained. Nor does it need to be, fuck it if you can't deal.

When this book first came to my attention, I thought "Hoodtown" meant "Hoods" like gangsters. Boy did I miss that boat.

In short, this is the book you want with you in the waiting room of your preferred dominatrix. Go buy it. Now.

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I started reading the Chronicles of Narnia as soon as I put down Hoodtown and I was enraptured from the first sentence. The Magician's Nephew is one hell of an opening, and I burned through about half it in one sitting. Damn.

Silly Little Doodles #89