Muscle Memory

New Bizarro Author Series

by Steve Lowe

Billy Gillespie wakes up one morning to discover his junk is gone. In its place is his wife's junk. Billy is now Tina, and Tina is dead. That's because Billy's dead. His lifeless body is still in bed and empty beer bottles and a container of antifreeze litter the kitchen counter. Over the next 24 hours, Billy and an odd assortment of neighbors, all experiencing their own bouts of body switcheroo, try to figure out what happened and why. Can they do it before the Feds find Billy's body? Was it aliens that caused this, or God, or the government? And did Edgar Winter really sleep with his sheep? Pro football Hall of Famer Terry Bradshaw has those answers in a story that asks, What Would Kirk Cameron Do?

Genres: Bizarro Fiction, Horror, Science Fiction, Humor, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy

80 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 13, 2010

About the author

Steve Lowe misses riding Big Wheels in the cul-de-sac. He is the author of a handful of Bizarro books, including MUSCLE MEMORY, KING OF THE PERVERTS, and YOU ARE SLOTH! Hey, look! That's him over there! No, the other way. Yeah, that's definitely him.

Reviews

[Dan Schwent · Rating 3 out of 5]

What would you do if you woke up in your wife's body and saw your own body dead and poisoned on the bed? That's the problem facing Billy Gillespie one morning. Can Billy figure out what the hell happened and get back into his own body?

In this entry in the New Bizarro Author Series, Steve Lowe crafts a tale that asks the question "What Would Kirk Cameron Do?" When (most of) an entire town gets the old switcheroo pulled on it, chaos ensues and Steve Lowe is the one directing the chaos. Guys, imagine waking up and having to breast feed. That pretty much sums up the bulk of the book; coping with an unfamiliar body. Beyond that, you've got a cat in a dog's body, a man in a sheep's body, and government agents named Agent Tim and Agent Joey. Funny stuff.

I love that Steve Lowe worked in references to the body swapping comedies of the 80's. It was a really nice touch. The humor was better than I was hoping for. It was a little short but thems the breaks with the NBS.

With Muscle Memory, Steve Lowe enters the hallowed club of Goodreads Authors Who Aren't Assholes. Not only is he a funny guy in the Get the New Bizarro Authors a Book Deal Group, he's also pretty generous. How many authors do you know that would offer you a free copy of an earlier book when purchasing one of theirs? Being a whore for free books, I jumped at the chance and wasn't disappointed.

If 18 Again is a 1 and Like Father, Like Son is a 10, this book is a solid 8, right up there with Bodyswap, the episode of Red Dwarf where Lister and Rimmer switch bodies. Go out and buy it today. Steve would do it for you if your book was part of the New Bizarro Author Series.

Here's the interview I did with Steve Lowe.

[Jasmine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I hate you steve. like really really hate you. how can this book be only 56 pages long. I mean I was thinking it was about 75 and when it ended. Well I'm not speaking to you for at least the next 20 minutes because that was just mean.

This book is totally in my top 2 for bizarro novels. To avoid offense, I'll withhold the other contender so you can all pretend it's your novel. Fuck this is probably in my top ten novels overall. I love this book. In the book do you think what you think you think or some similar nonsense title there is a quiz on aesthetics. The point of the quiz being the thing you would take with you to a desert island is not the thing that you would claim is great art. We like to say things like "Look at that skill?" But really skill can go fuck itself. Well traditional "you can't compare modern writers to shakespeare type "skill"". Steve Lowe is totally better than shakespeare... Except maybe othello but that is another debate for another review.

I wasn't going to read this book today. See I started this other book the alternative hero but it has suggested listening and since I'm not a music person I have none of the right songs on my ipod and have to download them. So this morning I got up late and grabbed London is the best city in america because it was on my bed and this because it was in the barnes and noble bag on my desk chair and short so I could read it then move on to the book I wanted to read. Plus I told him I would read it like forever ago. But now that poor book. It isn't going to be able to compete with this amazingness.

Are you getting the point that this book is awesome?

Okay somethings actually about the book. It has a nice sentimental side and says hornbyesqe things like "when did we stop laughing." It takes an overused plot device and uses it ironically and in a new way, umberto would be proud. and it is fucking amazingly fun to read.



Steve... I want a longer book... NOW

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

What would I do if I woke up with breasts and a vagina? This is the ethical question Steve Lowe wrestles with in his opus, Muscle Memory.

Actually, that's not the only issue he wrestles with here. This is a book about guilt: the guilt of having neglected a person who loves you and not having the chance to take it back. It's about coming to terms with loss, and accepting loss, and accepting your own failures. These issues are just as important as ones having to do with waking up genderly resituated.

This book laughs with you, and tells you funny jokes, and very clearly came here to party. Then, it stabs you in the fucking head and you die before your death even registers. That's what this novella does. Which is a combination I LOVE: comedy by itself feels like angel food cake, but when you mix some real emotional resonance in with humor, you end up with the recipe for my favorite kind of book. This combination is often pulled off by Vonnegut and sometimes by John Irving, but I can't think of many other authors who I've felt truly made it work.

A lot of the humor comes from the fact that this book is a hilarious modern update of the "who's on first" joke, only in technicolor and with dick jokes. Main character wakes up in his wife's body. His own body, laying next to him, is stone dead. He quickly discovers that almost everyone is in someone else's bodies, most of the time spouses trading skins. Almost all the characters are in bodies that aren't really theirs, and they're trying to keep track of who is who, and figure out whether they should refer to the name of the BODY or the name of the person INSIDE the body, and figure out whether a man in a woman's body should be referred to as a he or a she...is all bizarro about gender identity? Anyway, this dynamic adds a lot of hilarity. So do bestiality humor, hiding-the-body humor, and a bunjillion other genres of humor.

I can tell that I should've started reading bizarro much sooner, because I've loved all of it I've read yet. Before trying it out, I was expecting something much closer to splatterpunk, but clearly that's not what bizarro is about. Lowe's main character is in an unbelievably strange world, yet the story really revolves around his attempt to come to terms with his wife's death and how he treated her before she died. The peripheral characters are also struggling with relationships in various ways, some of which are very funny. But, these characters are mainly foils to the main character's maturation.

I usually don't like short stories, and this almost qualifies as one. But, Steve packs a lot into sixty pages, keeping the story moving, showing us his character's internal struggles, and finally reaching a climax that I will say nothing about, because the last two pages are haunting and perfect. If you're lucky enough to find a copy of this, I would definitely recommend it. And if you can't find a copy, I still have Caris's signed copy at my apartment, and I'm sure he wouldn't mind if I gave it away.

[Lou · Rating 4 out of 5]

Take a dip into the wild side. When reading this I picture Jim Carrey starring in Freaky Friday with a Twilight Zone make over. Dumb founding and thought provoking enjoyable read. Anticipating a conjuring of sorts in his next bizarre story I really like his writing style in this and his other wolf story.

[Auntie Raye-Raye · Rating 4 out of 5]

Steve Lowe was the first of the 2010 NBAS that I came across. I've spent a majority of this year in excited anticipation for "Muscle Memory".

I really liked it. The Kirk Cameron references and the sheep/human body switch were especially hilarious. The characters are down home, everyman types. People that you'd probably run into at your local bar, and have a drink with. Also, I was thrilled and surprised that Steve was accurate on how it feels to be a woman.

It would be an excellent book for people new to the Bizarro genre. It's not super weird or ultra shocking. I'd recommend it to my redneck, blue collar working, Steelers loving, older brother. He'd enjoy it and not think I was a freak for giving it to him.

[Natalie · Rating 5 out of 5]

What if you woke up to find that your wife had post partum depression so bad that she was ready to murder you? What if she succeeded? But somehow you'd swapped bodies during the night? And so had your neighbors? You'd think that would be creepy, dark and sad, but its actually pretty damn funny.

It's less than 100pp long, you can read it in an evening and still have a little time left over for whatever you think you should be reading instead.

But, yes, this is such a fun and at the same time thoughtful book that you SHOULD put that other book aside for a while.

To make it even easier I put my copy up on swap (it's already taken, so you'll probably have to wait a while before you see that title on there again), but seriously, I bought a copy during Steve Lowe's "Buy a Book, Help a Kid" campaign and it arrived in two days. Less than 100 pp, two day delivery time, what's not to love?

I would love to see this story dramatized as a short film, heck -even a feature length film. It would be a BLAST and a challenge to act in it! Winona Ryder would be great for one of the roles.

This was the first book in a long time that I considered giving FIVE whole stars. So, here's the deal I made: If my pure enjoyment in this wacky tale of bodyswitching, post-partum depression, government conspiracy and implied bestiality inspired anyone to read this and they liked it too, and let me know by posting a comment to this review or sending me a message and I would up my rating to a FIVE. GR users, you have spoken! Thanks! And Steve Lowe, you deserve that five!

[Garrett Cook · Rating 5 out of 5]

Muscle Memory is unusual. Of course it's unusual. It's a Bizarro book. What kind of stupid thing is it to say that a Bizarro book is unusual? Muscle Memory is unusual in that it's strangely literary and more human than otherwise. The strangeness and the mystery come off as the mysteries of life and love and humanity. Muscle Memory is a body switching comedy. You've seen those, 80s movies where a kid and a dad undergo the old switcheroo until they both learn a lesson. Some of them like Vice Versa are pretty bad, some of them like Blake Edwards' Switch, which this reminds me of by its warmth and sensitivity are very good. Muscle Memory is character driven, funny and wise. Hopefully we will see more work from Steve Lowe and it will carry with it these traits.

[Eric Hendrixson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like Freaky Friday, 18 Again, and a number of body-switching movies that the author mentions throughout the book, Muscle Memory follows characters who have been switched into each others' bodies. We all know what's supposed to happen here. After some jolly skylarking around in each others' bodies, hilarity will ensue until the two figure out what caused the mix-up and switch it back. But here's the problem: Billy just woke up feeling hormonal in his wife's body, and his own body is dead.

Suffering from post-partem depression and receiving no support from her husband, his wife poisoned him the night before, only to switch bodies with him just before he died. That's plot twist number one, right in the first chapter. The second twist is that everyone in town has switched bodies with whomever (or whatever) he or she was closest to at the time of a mysterious flash. Busy with his new role as a single mother and trying to untangle when his marriage went so wrong, Billy is not very interested in what caused the flash, particularly since he has no body to switch back into.

While this is a solid comedy, the story maintains an emotional component that makes the characters evolve beyond comic props into people you care about. The simple body-switching setup becomes emotionally complex.

When I finished reading this book, I still had many questions, but since an emotional and physical resolution had been reached, the book ended. Apparently, the author felt the same way, since he wrote a sequel to to this book, which is a free download on Smashwords. Check both books out. http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/...

[Anita Dalton · Rating 5 out of 5]

The plot is, like a lot of bizarro, deceptively simple: A man wakens in his wife’s body and realizes his entire town has switched bodies with the person or animal they were closest to when the switch happened. Husbands and wives wake up in each other’s bodies, a suspected sheep-shagger is in the body of a ewe, the dog is meowing and the cat is barking. Hijinks should ensue and they sort of do, in the sort of small town quirkiness one sees in Chuck Klosterman’s novels. But the ramifications of body-switching in Lowe’s novel transcends the zany and heartwarming things that happened to LiLo and Jamie Lee Curtis as they discover how hard the other has it in this world and their love and respect for each other deepen, etc. No, though Lowe uses humor liberally through the book, like the appearance of Terry Bradshaw in a dream and the recurring jokes about bestiality, this book takes a far more penetrating look at the human condition. Read my entire review here.

[Jenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

My name is Jenn, and I'd never heard of the "Bizarro" genre before reading one of Steve Lowe's reviews. *waits for the obligatory and half-hearted "Hiiii Jennnnn...*cough*LOSER*cough*..."*

I'll be honest. I discovered Steve through his hee-hee-hee-larious reviews that probably made some other poor author schlub weep. He's a funny dude! But when I read the description of his book, I was scared. And not just I-live-in-Oklahoma-and-tofu-scares-me scared. I seriously thought this guy had been dropped on his head. Repeatedly. On purpose.

But now, I kind of feel like I owe him an apology...and possibly some money and my mom's meatloaf. This scary, weird, undescribable story was actually really good! I had an honest-to-god LOL moment in the third paragraph, and I never LOL and admit it.

There really isn't any way to summarize this story without making your friends worry that you took up drinking before 10am again. I'm just going to share it without a word and let them thank me later...with alcohol before 10am.

[Melki · Rating 5 out of 5]

An instant classic to be enjoyed by the whole family! My kids squealed with delight every time the talking sheep made an appearance. And we all drank shots of tequila whenever Terry Bradshaw's name was mentioned. Go Steelers!!! Hic.

[Jason Pettus · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)

I now receive on a pretty regular basis review copies of books from Eraserhead Press' "New Bizarro Author Series," a sort of proving ground for young genre writers where an inexpensive volume will be made of a novella or set of stories, and with that author in charge of hustling around and selling as many copies as possible, their future at Eraserhead largely swayed by how this first low-risk project of theirs goes. And as far as that's concerned, Steve Lowe's Muscle Memory is definitely one of the better ones I've read, if for no other reason than for merely maintaining a consistent tone throughout, and coming up with a unified plot that actually lasts from the beginning to the end, which sadly many of the titles in this series can't even manage to do. It basically follows a white-trash community after a night where all of its citizens somehow swapped bodies with whoever they were being intimate with that particular evening; so while most married couples turn into their spouses, for example, singles remain unaffected, those having affairs are quickly found out, and in one notorious incident a farmer changes bodies with one of his sheep. And while a facile investigation takes place to determine the cause of the switcheroo and how to fix it, the main point of the book is to instead examine how all these people suddenly see the world in a new way, trapped in these strange bodies pumping out strange hormones that their brains aren't used to; and indeed, this is the main reason to read the book as well, is for the endlessly funny situations Lowe manages to conjure up in service of this slight story, for one good example the hilarious image of a bunch of trashed middle-aged housewives at a redneck bar, smoking cigars and telling sexist jokes about their own boobs, just to all simultaneously burst into tears when a sad song comes up on the jukebox. I mean, don't get me wrong, this book is sophomoric, filled with ridiculously blatant humor that will have you groaning and guiltily laughing on every page; but that was Lowe's entire goal, making Muscle Memory a wild success as far as what he was trying to accomplish. Well worth your time if you like this kind of stuff, although you can safely skip it if you don't.

Out of 10: 8.2

[Kirk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow . . . when I started reading this book, I had no idea that it would finish as powerfully as it did. Muscle Memory starts casually, with a shoot-from-the-hip approach to tell, and descriptive finesse. I empathized with the characters because, in a sense, I grew up with them in my small town. Hell, I saw myself in a few of them. For the bizarro reader, there's just enough to keep you going. While at one end of the bizarro spectrum, at least for me, there are the outlandish texts, the bizarro realism, at the other end of the spectrum we have subtle bizarro, bizarro grounded in a world that is very real, much like our own. I enjoy bizarro in almost all manifestations, but there's a special place in my heart for bizarro with a message and for bizarro that gently guides us away from the shores of reality, but keeps us enmeshed in elements of the familiar. This would make a great introduction to bizarro for readers of literary fiction. Be warned: if you read this book you're likely going to learn something about the human condition, about love, and about yourself, especially if you're a man . . . or a man trapped in a woman's body for that matter.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book, a lot.

This is what you get when you mix together aliens, government craziness, divine intervention with a bit of gender/animal switcharoos, and of course Terry Bradshaw. I really don't know how to describe it better than that without giving too much away.

This so isn't your average "Freaky Friday" remix. It's so much more than that and the ending was wonderfully crafted.

My only complaint was that I wish it was longer. I honestly can't wait to read more from this author.

[Amy Eye · Rating 4 out of 5]

I hope my computer lets me put my review up for this book tonight! I finished it yesterday, and I was quite amazed, amused, and appalled all in one book. It was quite the feat.

Never before have I read the bizzaro genre, but I will say, I am in the market for a bit more. This was humor that i felt bad about laughing at, and thrilled to death about reading. It took me to a completely different level of reading enjoyment. Some things just are not laughed about in public, but man, when you get to get that guilty laugh in, it is soooo nice!!


The book starts out with a startling discovery: Billy's pride and joy (and no I'm not talking about his kid) is missing. At first, he is simply too tired to worry about it...until he realized he leaked down his front when the baby cried. Yes, he is lactating, and for good reason. His chest is now covered with his wife's breasts. Looking back into his bedroom, he is laying on the bed still...the day just gets stranger from there.

I honestly don't want to say much more about the book, because there are too many jokes that will be ruined if I say anything else. The humor is dry, the jokes are raunchy and sexist, and some of the situations are just flat out WRONG, but darn it, we all deserve to laugh at the unmentionables when we know it is only in fiction. I would suggest this to anyone with a dirty mind, or at least anyone who can laugh out loud at fart jokes....

[Gabriel · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's a reason why movies like Big, Like Father Like Son, Vice Versa and the Freaky Fridays let magic be the cause of the switch. Because the cause is not the important or the best part. The fun, the emotion, the core of these stories is how do you face the fact that you are not you anymore, someone else is.

And Muscle Memory does a great job of taking that theme and asking ... what if NO ONE in the town (well, almost no one) is themselves anymore? And what about murder the night before? And what about animals? And if you kill yourself in your new body, is that murder, suicide or both?

After starting with this strong premise and these great questions ... it ends. A random enlightenment occurs, but there is no conclusion to any of the threads that were pulled out for the loom. And that is why it only gets three stars instead of anything more. It needed the rest.

I'm glad to hear that Steve Lowe is looking at releasing a sequel that starts where this leaves off. Truth be told, that "sequel" is really the rest of this first book. I'm looking forward to hearing about the continuing adventures of Billy, Nico, Julia, Tucker and Edgar. But for now, there is no end, just a really neat beginning.

[Billie Tyrell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice little read about a trip to opposite land. There's something to be said for short stories and not wasting too many words and good on the publisher for cramming all this into 60 or so pages. If this were a Stephen King book you'd get 150 pages of people making coffee, drinking booze and shouting at one another in service stations before anything weird happens.

[NumberLord · Rating 5 out of 5]

You know how you hear about a book being good, and you think it can't really be THAT good? (I ran into this with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.) Okay, well, Muscle Memory falls into this category. I heard that it was good. But was it really THAT good? So I read it; and, yes, it was really THAT good. An easy five stars--although I would have given it 73 if that was an option. (And ignore the fact that Steve Lowe only gave it three stars; he doesn't know what he's talking about.)

If you've read the summary, then you know it involves Billy Gillespie switching bodies with his wife. I won't expand on that, because the events are more fun if you read them without knowing what's coming. So I won't say anything about Edgar.

And while this book is classified as Bizarro Lit, it really lies on the edge, in the sense that, other than the body-switching, this story is almost as normal as can be. The characters react in reasonable ways. (Hopefully the author won't get kicked out of the Bizarro Club for that.) And, since it is classified as Bizarro, it has to satisfy the rule of being under 100 pages. (Okay, not technically a rule, but Bizarro authors seem to write stories like Matthew Sweet writes songs.) And even though the ending leaves many questions unanswered, it still seems hauntingly perfect. But, if you want to continue the story, the sequel starts HERE on Steve Lowe's website.

[Sheldon · Rating 4 out of 5]

“I shoulda known something was up when the dog meowed at me.”

And thus begins Steve Lowe's Muscle Memory, a short but hilarious take on the oft copied but rarely improved upon body-switching sub-sub-genre. And Steve pulls no punches, going after several aspects of body-switching that aren't dealt with in “nicer” material.

Given how short the book is, it's difficult to write a lot about it without giving too much away. So to sum up, Billy wakes up in the body of his wife with his own body dead, finds that most of the town has switched bodies with their “significant others” (placed in quotes for...well, you'll find out), receives a visit from investigating Agents Tim and Joey, who only give their first names because of the new policy trying to make them appear warm and friendly, and finally has his life explained by the great sage Terry Bradshaw. If this hasn't made you want to read Muscle Memory yet, then nothing will aside from a body-swap of your own. Then you can use Muscle Memory as a how-to manual for your new life.

Steve has a great sense of humor and fun. You'll find yourself chuckling frequently, and whats more impressive is the way Steve will make you chuckle at some pretty average, everyday stuff. A short but fun read and a great little unexpected journey that comes highly recommended.

4 out of 5 stars.

[Hakim · Rating 4 out of 5]

"I SHOULDA KNOWN something was up when the dog meowed at me."

Best opening line ever!

I've played out the body-swapping scenario in my head so many times, it became an obsession at one point. What if I swapped bodies with Mark Zuckerberg (please) ? Kat Dennings's BF (please, please, please) ? A diabetic tortoise ? A Latvian nun ? The list goes on... So yes, I think it's a fantastic and intriguing story device.

Steve Lowe brilliantly explores the physical and psychological impacts of body-swapping (or 'the Old Switcheroo') in Muscle Memory. He offers us a very simple, funny and compelling story with very lovable and realistic characters, and a superb ending. I simply could not put my kindle down.

[Danger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beneath the ostensibly silly plot, there are some real emotions in this book, the body switching merely the catalyst in which Billy can look at his relationship and finally ask himself, What the hell happened to us? It's short, but it's length doesn't work against it, except for when I took this book to the amusement park and the dude running the roller coaster wouldn't let it on. "Go ahead," the book told me with a smile, "I'll wait." I ended up sitting next to this fat kid who screamed like a girl while the book sat by the fountain and flirted with the guy in the Daffy Duck suit. I suppose good literature is meant to be shared, but damn book, not in front of my face.

[Desiree reilly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is diffrent than normal book i read Why it a short one and the
author keep you wondering which is good what going to happen
the people and animals in town change for the night and then you be surprized
by the out take in the book this would be good for older kids in jr high
they would get a kick out of it i will say it good but weird and if the author
does not get the book out there will be no more form him
b

[Nate D]

I tend to over-describe things I like as "weird". Because I highly value invention, because I love to be surprised, many things I like tend to be weird, though many weird things are not necessarily things I like. To avoid saying that everything good is "weird" I seize on other modifiers like "bizarro" as in "punk-surreal bizarro-road movie" (hypothetical, but I would surely watch anything so described to me). To give a little more perspective, I also find Faulkner (pleasantly) weirder than expected for such a literary cornerstone and view a lot of mid-century French avant-garde as compellingly strange. Like I said, I overuse this description. But it turns out I need to watch my descriptors. Not only is The New Weird totally a genre since the 90s (China Mieville and Thomas Ligotti are better-known exponents) but evidentally now so is Bizzaro Fiction.

Apparently, these are different. While both suggest (to me) a conjoined modern cult-pulp progeny of older weirdos like Lovecraft and Philip K Dick perhaps tempered by a greater awareness of surrealism and modernism, the New Weird is generally considered to be aiming for a more literary approach, while Bizarro is the even-cultier, trashier outburst of a younger sibling, prone to shock tactics and exuberantly clever-stupid plot concepts (Shatnerquake). The titles and frequently godawful cover designs seem to bear this out (I'm getting real nostalgic for the heights of 70s sci-psych paperback covers, looking at these.)

Conveniently, the cover of Steve Lowe's Muscle Memory actually reminds me of these old 70s pulp images (good work Eraserhead press, your New Bizarro Authors series is notably free of bad Giger-ripoff visuals), and presents one of the seemingly more approachable premises. Steve says it's on the milder side of Bizarro, and I'd believe him: beyond the strange though not so unfamiliar premise of first page (man awakes to find himself in his wife's body, confusion ensues), this is actually pretty believable stuff. The plot points come fast and hard as they must for such a short but dense sci-fi novella, but direct conversational writing is sound and the characters' reactions to the events are impressively easy to swallow as the human core of the story is never neglected. And it's funny, the humor a little less dry than my preferences (see: eastern european black humor), but it works. Even the story's own cliches are mocked (raiding the basement for 80s body-switch movies like "Freaky Friday" as a misguided research attempt). And so, yes, this was totally enjoyable. My only real complaint is it's compressedness. Surely there's still more to be told here without risk of over-explaining.

My first foray into bizarro (unless The Pisstown Chaos fall under this umbrella as well?) has been a success, and I suppose I'll be further investigating these intriguingly murky, perhaps worrisomely pulsating industrial-discharge waters in the future.

[↜ƈɦǟռ☂ɛℓℓɛ↝ · Rating 4 out of 5]

★★★★ Muscle Memory by Kirk Goodie-Goodie Cameron AKA Steve Lowe

I won a signed copy of Muscle Memory by writing this review on King of the Perverts for his "Cage Your Sloth" contest he ran on Facebook.

This is my second Bizarro book, and I am sickly intrigued. But whatever, I did win a King of the Perverts contest. Enough said.

This book is a battle between Good(Kirk Cameron) vs. Evil(Steve Lowe)

Round 1 The Ol' Switcheroo

Billy Gillespie wakes up to his horse-like English Mastiff meowing in his face. He gets up to take his morning piss, when he realizes his hog and balls are missing, he's got female bits, and his tits are leaking, from the wailing baby, somebody shut that kid up, it hurts. That's when the "Oh shit" light bulb goes off. Female thoughts kick in and say, "Pop a squat you dumbass, before you get piss all over my night gown." Welcome to womanhood and the life of a new mother, Billy. Ah, hell, I'm my wife. She's a him, and he's a she, but what does that make number three, a Himp or a Sheem.

Winner by PMsL Steve


Round 2 Spooks and a Funeral

What else are you gonna do, when you find your dead body. Duh! Have it a funeral, of course. And what's a funeral, without deadly force? It's a spooky time.

Winner by SMHL Steve



Round 3 Coming Home

And when you find yourself in boxers saying "W.W.K.C.D?" you know your in trouble. That candy ass went and hired Terry Bradshaw to prance around in a nightcap. And then Steve forgot to send in the last few pages, because he was so damn busy selling underwear. So what should you do when you find yourself in a pair of his boxers? Beat your head on the effin' table repeatedly. It is the only way out of the situation.

Winner by SWTF Kirk


Battle Winner Steve Lowe

*Someone deserves a junk punch, for letting Kirk take Round 3. Just gotta find the person with the right junk.


Don't hate the judges, love the book!

Judged by: PissingMySelfLaughing, ShakinMyHeadLaughin, and SeriouslyWhatTheFucku

[Suz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book! This book is about a man (Billy) who wakes up in his wife’s body and discovers that almost everyone in the town has also switched bodies with whoever they were closest to at the time - their spouses, lovers, or even their sheep. So the cat is barking, the dog is meowing, one neighbor is a sheep and Billy and his other neighbors are trying to figure out what happened and how to fix it. There is also the not-so-minor complication that Billy’s wife poisoned him so he’s got to deal with his dead body and her in it instead of him. It is a funny, sweet and tragic journey to see the characters experience each other’s worlds, realize how hard things are for their spouses, and think that it may be too late to really show their appreciation. I like how the author combines humor (can’t get the image of Terry Bradshaw breastfeeding a baby out of my head!) with some heavy topics like exploring traditional male/female roles, and a man realizing he has neglected his wife and wanting a chance at redemption. This is a funny and thought provoking tale and I would definitely recommend it!

[William M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

4 AND ½ STARS

For an author’s first published book, Steve Lowe is off to a mighty impressive start. Mr. Lowe takes the rather common theme of body switching and adds some very cool and fascinating twists. So as to not spoil anything, I won’t go into story detail, but I can assure you that you will most likely enjoy the hell out of this book. The details between the sexes are spot on, and the self-deprecating humor by the protagonist is a riot. All this is balanced nicely with some very touching moments and surprising depth.

Smart, fast, and laugh-out-loud funny, “Muscle Memory” is definitely one of the better bizarro books that I’ve read. Since this story never really gets too weird or abstract, I would say this is the perfect book for new readers interested in experiencing what bizarro is all about. It has a mainstream idea along with a refreshing narrative, but at the same time, manages to infuse plenty of bizarro elements as well. This is an easily digestible and thoroughly entertaining book. Without question, I look forward to more work from Steve Lowe.

[Matthew Vaughn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading the premise of Steve Lowes Muscle Memory I knew I had to have it. Who doesn’t like a good body swapping story? Honestly I had never read one before, but I have seen most of the movies that were mentioned in the book. Most people have seen the classic ones from the eighties staring the likes of Kirk Cameron, Fred Savage, and George Burns among others. But I have never seen a movie where someone changed bodies with a sheep, so I ordered Muscle Memory from Amazon. Then I waited, and waited for a long while. I suppose this book was on back order, I don’t know, but when it finally came I read it instantly. It’s a quick read, my only complaint would be that’s it’s so short. But that’s not so bad, Steve Lowe wrote a sequel that’s just as good that you can download for free if you go to his website. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes funny well written stories. Hopefully we’ll be seeing some more Bizarro books from Steve Lowe in the near future.

[Tobyann Aparisi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very different from the normal genre I read. I won this on first reads, it is short and strange and leaves you hanging. And yet, I liked it. It gave me this sense of oh, I get it, I don't want to be an absentee person because this could happen to me and then what? It was entertaining and funny in places.... I love the Edgar character. I would read this type of book again, and look forward to reading something from Steve Lowe again. He has a very imaginative and funny mind.
Thank you for selecting me for the give away, and thank you for signing it. I really liked it and will share amongst my friends.

[Quinn · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first Bizarro read!

Compact story that uses an unusual device to explore the difficult questions in marriage. Characters are deftly drawn with astonishing economy; many writers could take a lesson here.

I only wish it had been longer, I wasn't ready for the story to end!

A reviewer I like makes a point of stating which readers might enjoy the book, a feature I admire greatly and would like to adopt in my own reviews. However, I honestly couldn't define those parameters with this book. Most likely, readers who are up for something different and a little challenging, who enjoy the surreal and can surrender to the story and let the ride take them where it may!

[Kevin Wallis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read a lot of Steve Lowe's work, mostly his horror pieces, and his first trip into Bizarroville tells me that, as sickeningly talented as he is at the dark and twisted stuff, he may be even more talented at the mind-numbingly weird. Don't get me wrong, though - Muscle Memory is still plenty twisted, but here Lowe aims more for the funny bone than the jugular. Not for the easily offended, but then again, which great works of fiction are?

I laughed out loud more times than I can count, and I can count pretty high. Seriously, I can't recommend this book highly enough.