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New Bizarro Author Series
Trashland A Go-Go
Alice in Wonderland, with garbage and a dead stripper!
Coco takes off her clothes for a living, until some nasty little bitch kills her while she's dancing. Thrown in the dumpster by her sleazebag boss, Coco awakens in a land of trash. With her new friend, Rudy (a dying fly), and her knight in garbage armor, the undead dancer tries to find her way home. But first she must escape from the evil Queen of this a jealous and insane Ruler of Refuse who has an intense fear of flies. With hints of The Matrix and The Whiz , this heady trip will satisfy your cravings for twisted fairy tales, rotting garbage, and charming weirdos.
Long live the Queen!
Coco takes off her clothes for a living, until some nasty little bitch kills her while she's dancing. Thrown in the dumpster by her sleazebag boss, Coco awakens in a land of trash. With her new friend, Rudy (a dying fly), and her knight in garbage armor, the undead dancer tries to find her way home. But first she must escape from the evil Queen of this a jealous and insane Ruler of Refuse who has an intense fear of flies. With hints of The Matrix and The Whiz , this heady trip will satisfy your cravings for twisted fairy tales, rotting garbage, and charming weirdos.
Long live the Queen!
98 pages, Paperback
First published October 22, 2011
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177 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
November 28, 2011
After a pole dance goes horribly wrong, Coco Darling is tossed into the garbage and wakes up in a land of garbage. Can she find her way home without running afoul of Queen?
Yeah, I may have unearthed the gem of the 2011-2012 New Bizarro Author series.
If the Wizard of Oz starred a stripper and took place in a land of garbage, it would be very much like Trashland A Go-Go. Coco is a strong leading lady, not waiting for some guy to come along and save her. She's also tough as hell. Could you dig your way out of a room that has walls made of dirty diapers? Yeah, me either.
Coco's journey is full of funny moments as well as disgusting ones. Imagine a woman walking across a trash-filled landscape wearing an ugly bridesmaid dress and interacting with her talking fly sidekick. The villains are vile, the trash world is utilized to its full potential, and there are parts of the book that will make you want to laugh or puke, or both at the same time. That's pretty much all I can say without giving away too much.
Trashland A Go-Go is one of those first books that you're astonished is someone's first book. The writing is polished, the pace is great, and there aren't any missteps. It's also pretty accessible for a Bizarro book. If you're looking to give the Bizarro genre a shot, you can do a hell of a lot worse than Trashland A Go-Go.
Yeah, I may have unearthed the gem of the 2011-2012 New Bizarro Author series.
If the Wizard of Oz starred a stripper and took place in a land of garbage, it would be very much like Trashland A Go-Go. Coco is a strong leading lady, not waiting for some guy to come along and save her. She's also tough as hell. Could you dig your way out of a room that has walls made of dirty diapers? Yeah, me either.
Coco's journey is full of funny moments as well as disgusting ones. Imagine a woman walking across a trash-filled landscape wearing an ugly bridesmaid dress and interacting with her talking fly sidekick. The villains are vile, the trash world is utilized to its full potential, and there are parts of the book that will make you want to laugh or puke, or both at the same time. That's pretty much all I can say without giving away too much.
Trashland A Go-Go is one of those first books that you're astonished is someone's first book. The writing is polished, the pace is great, and there aren't any missteps. It's also pretty accessible for a Bizarro book. If you're looking to give the Bizarro genre a shot, you can do a hell of a lot worse than Trashland A Go-Go.
August 27, 2012
A short synopsis: A stripper named Coco takes the pole on stage only to find a jealous rival has greased it down. She goes flying off the pole into the sound equipment and dies. Her craven boss and his rapey/necrophilic assistant cram her into a dumpster so they won’t have any trouble with the law and she wakes/comes back to life in an endless dump. Many disgusting things happen. Many. She is befriended by a fly, she meets the queen of the trash world and has to engage in a battle of wits and will to survive.
The hell of this discussion is this: what I don’t like about this book may really appeal to some of my readers. Seriously, I know there are several of you who are all, “Dead stripper in an endless wasteland of trash – where do I sign up?” So I’ll include some quotes so you guys can get a really good taste and smell of what this book is about.
You can read my entire discussion here.
The hell of this discussion is this: what I don’t like about this book may really appeal to some of my readers. Seriously, I know there are several of you who are all, “Dead stripper in an endless wasteland of trash – where do I sign up?” So I’ll include some quotes so you guys can get a really good taste and smell of what this book is about.
You can read my entire discussion here.
December 31, 2011
Trashland A Go-Go may well be the coolest book I've ever read and is total must read bizarro and just general must read for anyone who hasn't read bizarro. Trust me once you read this one you'll be assimilated too. Resistance is futile!
So Trashland A Go-Go is something like this. Coco is a stripper and after a coworker decides to be bitch queen she has a little accident and her coworkers instead of calling for help dump her body in the trash. She get's hauled away and wakes up wtf! again in a landfill wtf! then she meets and befriends a fly yep a fly wtf! who talks! wtf! wtf!
Coco and her new friend the fly ( his name is Rudy ) which by the way when you think about is is a really cool friend to have. I mean how many times have you said I wish I was a fly on a wall well just think if your friend was a fly and he spoke. Cool huh. Anyhoo back to Coco so she and her fly friend Rudy, they walk and walk all over the landfill trying to find a way out when they meet the Oracle. Ohhh like the Matrix except she doesn't bake yummy cookies and the kid with the spoon isn't there no instead she predicts the future like an Oracle will do but with meat. wtf! Yeah. Meat. And trust me you don't want her to pull a a toe or eye on you. No that's bad meat lol Meat, pulling meat on you. Get it. I have such a dirty mind. *cough* Moving on.
Poor Coco and her fly friend travel some more meet a hunky guy, a queen of the landfill who has a lightbulb for an eye. I wonder what happens when she has a great idea, hmmm oh yeah I forgot wtf! I think that should be like 10 wtf's though if you read the book it's more like 100 but to not give it all away the book rocks. I loved it. There is a condom weapon which totally make me cackle with glee omg that was awesome I so loved it and the way Constance wrote that scene pure win.
All in all this book is fantastically cool I sooooo loved it. Constance you are a bizarro queen. No killer spores needed just your awesome imagination. I highly recommend checking this great book out. It is fun and fantastic and lot's of other words that don't do it justice.
So Trashland A Go-Go is something like this. Coco is a stripper and after a coworker decides to be bitch queen she has a little accident and her coworkers instead of calling for help dump her body in the trash. She get's hauled away and wakes up wtf! again in a landfill wtf! then she meets and befriends a fly yep a fly wtf! who talks! wtf! wtf!
Coco and her new friend the fly ( his name is Rudy ) which by the way when you think about is is a really cool friend to have. I mean how many times have you said I wish I was a fly on a wall well just think if your friend was a fly and he spoke. Cool huh. Anyhoo back to Coco so she and her fly friend Rudy, they walk and walk all over the landfill trying to find a way out when they meet the Oracle. Ohhh like the Matrix except she doesn't bake yummy cookies and the kid with the spoon isn't there no instead she predicts the future like an Oracle will do but with meat. wtf! Yeah. Meat. And trust me you don't want her to pull a a toe or eye on you. No that's bad meat lol Meat, pulling meat on you. Get it. I have such a dirty mind. *cough* Moving on.
Poor Coco and her fly friend travel some more meet a hunky guy, a queen of the landfill who has a lightbulb for an eye. I wonder what happens when she has a great idea, hmmm oh yeah I forgot wtf! I think that should be like 10 wtf's though if you read the book it's more like 100 but to not give it all away the book rocks. I loved it. There is a condom weapon which totally make me cackle with glee omg that was awesome I so loved it and the way Constance wrote that scene pure win.
All in all this book is fantastically cool I sooooo loved it. Constance you are a bizarro queen. No killer spores needed just your awesome imagination. I highly recommend checking this great book out. It is fun and fantastic and lot's of other words that don't do it justice.
April 18, 2021
No surprise here: with a 98 pages novella, the book description is right on the middle!
The missing part of the description is that the book is really funny :-) But beware that it's sometimes really gross too (and I mean really really gross) :-/ I mean, ok, it's bizarro fiction, but did it require to be scatological at some part I don't think so.
4 stars, not 5 due to my last comment
The missing part of the description is that the book is really funny :-) But beware that it's sometimes really gross too (and I mean really really gross) :-/ I mean, ok, it's bizarro fiction, but did it require to be scatological at some part I don't think so.
4 stars, not 5 due to my last comment
November 16, 2011
Alice in Wonderland-with garbage and a dead stripper! Coco takes off her clothes for a living - until some nasty little bitch kills her while she's dancing. Thrown in the dumpster by her sleazebag boss, Coco awakens in a land of trash. With her new friend, Rudy (a dying fly), and her knight in garbage armor, the undead dancer tries to find her way home. But first she must escape from the evil Queen of this trashscape - a jealous and insane Ruler of Refuse who has an intense fear of flies. With hints of The Matrix and The Whiz, this heady trip will satisfy your cravings for twisted fairy tales, rotting garbage, and charming weirdos. Long live the Queen!
This book was the most fun I've had reading EVER! The descriptions were so vivid and at times laugh out loud hilarious. The setting was one I'd never been in -- especially not with a fly!
I hope that the author, Constance Ann Fitzgerald, keeps writing these fun romps. I read the book in one sitting and was sad to get to the end. I WANT MORE FROM THIS AUTHOR!!!!
This book was the most fun I've had reading EVER! The descriptions were so vivid and at times laugh out loud hilarious. The setting was one I'd never been in -- especially not with a fly!
I hope that the author, Constance Ann Fitzgerald, keeps writing these fun romps. I read the book in one sitting and was sad to get to the end. I WANT MORE FROM THIS AUTHOR!!!!
May 29, 2012
***Spoiler Alert***
I for some odd reason read this book and watched the movie “Sucker Punch” in the same week. Both are very “girl power”, and depict men as creepy, slimy, rapists.
That being said, the aforementioned rape is what I didn’t like about the book. I just have a hard time reading about rape. However, it is brief, undetailed, and gracefully done. So I didn’t deduct any stars. I felt it necessary to comment on as so often it is inserted into a story unnecessarily, and for shock value. This is not the case here.
Other then that, LOVED the book! Very well written, the world it’s set in is very original and creative as with most bizarro books. But most of all the main character is very loveable, and much like the girls of “Sucker Punch” displays random acts of girl-power that makes you go, “Ya Bish! Kick his ass!” inside your head. A must read for girls and creepy-dudes alike.
I for some odd reason read this book and watched the movie “Sucker Punch” in the same week. Both are very “girl power”, and depict men as creepy, slimy, rapists.
That being said, the aforementioned rape is what I didn’t like about the book. I just have a hard time reading about rape. However, it is brief, undetailed, and gracefully done. So I didn’t deduct any stars. I felt it necessary to comment on as so often it is inserted into a story unnecessarily, and for shock value. This is not the case here.
Other then that, LOVED the book! Very well written, the world it’s set in is very original and creative as with most bizarro books. But most of all the main character is very loveable, and much like the girls of “Sucker Punch” displays random acts of girl-power that makes you go, “Ya Bish! Kick his ass!” inside your head. A must read for girls and creepy-dudes alike.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 16, 2012
Coco a female stripper steps on stage for her nightly performance. When she falls into trap of fellow co-worker. Vaseline on the strippers pole she slides off stage electrocuted.
Tossed into the dumpster in garbage bags. She awakes at the dump meets a fly.....
Just think Alice in Wonderland in the local landfill. Filled with poop covered walls, dresses and between your toes. You will definitely have some laughs cheering for Coco on her adventure through garbage land.
Tossed into the dumpster in garbage bags. She awakes at the dump meets a fly.....
Just think Alice in Wonderland in the local landfill. Filled with poop covered walls, dresses and between your toes. You will definitely have some laughs cheering for Coco on her adventure through garbage land.
December 28, 2015
3.5 stars.
January 1, 2015
What the flying fuck did I just read?
Sheer fucking awesomeness, that's what.
Sheer fucking awesomeness, that's what.
November 15, 2019
When a book starts with a stripper suffering a fatal pole-related accident at the hands of an envious co-worker and her electrocuted body ends up in a dumpster, there are only two possible outcomes: the story either sinks horribly or soars brilliantly. In the case of Trashland A Go-Go, Constance Ann Fitzgerald's contribution to the 2011 New Bizarro Author Series, the narrative rockets up and away unlike anything else in current literature.
You can read Gabino's full review at Horror DNA by clicking here.
You can read Gabino's full review at Horror DNA by clicking here.
May 5, 2020
Good, quick, read
It was an interesting and fun story, with an ending that felt anticlimactic. The romance/love aspect implied in the story, although not entirely ignored, was left wanting.
That being said, I would definitely recommend reading this book.
It was an interesting and fun story, with an ending that felt anticlimactic. The romance/love aspect implied in the story, although not entirely ignored, was left wanting.
That being said, I would definitely recommend reading this book.
October 5, 2017
This wasn't a bad read. Quick, easy to read...creative. I read it on my kindle and I enjoyed it.
June 22, 2021
Not bad and well written enough for me to want to read more of her stuff.
June 15, 2012
REVIEW ALSO ON: http://bibliomantics.com/2012/01/21/b......
Beloved stripper Coco Darling works at the Snatch Hausen, a German themed strip-club where they will do unsavory things to you with sausages. After a booby-trapped pole results in her landing in the DJ booth and being electrocuted to death, Coco’s unsavory co-workers wrap her up in garbage bags and throw her in the dumpster. It is here that she finds herself in Trashland, a world built on a giant, possibly never ending garbage dump. After going through the rabbit hole, or in this case the sanitation system, Coca must fend for herself, against the denizens of Trashland.
While reading this novella, I couldn’t help but wonder about the inner workings of Trashland. It seems to be the embodiment of everything that is no longer wanted or appreciated, and the citizens are forced to rely on what they can find to survive. Children play on discarded swing sets, Coco constructs a dress out of garbage bags and later one from a hideously unloved Bridesmaid’s dress. They dine on stray cats, and the only other living creatures seem to be scavengers like flies and rats. Lakes are made of garbage goo, beer bottles are transformed into stained glass, and the Queen of Trashland’s crown is constructed from barbed wire. All this DIY thinking outside the box is nice, but I couldn’t help but wonder what separates Trashland from a regular run of the mill garbage heap. Do you have to be extremely under appreciated to wind up there, or are only certain dumpsters portals to this other world?
In her journey through Trashland, Coco meets several intriguing characters. Talking flies with a bucket list aside, there is the Oracle, a psychic who lives in a hut made entirely of meat, from the floors to the curtains to the bed. She even tells fortune with meat products, placing a variety of organs in a bag and the way they land on the table revealing the future. Think tea leaves but less delicious. As she warns Coco, “You must prepare for a great loss, dear girl. Larger than you have ever known.” A real barrel of fun that one is.
Slightly less depressing is Adrian, the big muscle-y type who works as a knight/maintenance man for the Queen. He wears rubber armor made out of tires which seems to be the traditional dress for knights in Trashland. It is through Adrian that we are introduced to the merciless Queen, who seems to be part human, part machine, and part mold. Not to mention deathly afraid of rats and mice. In an effort to take over the people in her kingdom, she drops spores, which attach to the back of men’s necks and make them fall madly in love with her. These spores also help her to reproduce. This method is pretty disturbing, but at least she’s not a giant bug or anything.
The one scene I could have done without is the torture scene that occurs in the Chamber. Yes, it allows Coco to tap into her true power after yet again falling under male subjugation- through no fault of her own- but it also plays into the idea that bizarro needs to contain some sort of gross out element. As I said in my last Bizarro Blursday post, bodily fluids and bizarro often seem to equate to each other, but I don’t think this is particularly required. Plot elements can be weird and wacky without bringing in feces. Especially when it puts me in the nauseous mind set of Chuck Palahniuk’s short story “Guts”.
As the main character, Coco is the type of strong female figure that’s easy to admire. Strong, capable, able to easily adapt to any situation. She’s the tough as nails female figure that goes against the damsel in distress that novels are often populated with. Despite her pre-death career choice, she really is a strong and determined role model for getting what you want without sacrificing one’s values.
Ultimately, this is a story about female empowerment. Much as stripping is a type of empowerment for Coco in the beginning of the novel, so too is finding a place for herself in the world where she is not required to use her body to gain power. Rather, she gains power by being a strong independent woman, while still staying true to herself. Not what you would expect from a story centered around an endless world of garbage, but I’m sure most people wouldn’t expect to find such a strong tale of feminism hidden in the pages of a bizarro fiction novella.
Beloved stripper Coco Darling works at the Snatch Hausen, a German themed strip-club where they will do unsavory things to you with sausages. After a booby-trapped pole results in her landing in the DJ booth and being electrocuted to death, Coco’s unsavory co-workers wrap her up in garbage bags and throw her in the dumpster. It is here that she finds herself in Trashland, a world built on a giant, possibly never ending garbage dump. After going through the rabbit hole, or in this case the sanitation system, Coca must fend for herself, against the denizens of Trashland.
While reading this novella, I couldn’t help but wonder about the inner workings of Trashland. It seems to be the embodiment of everything that is no longer wanted or appreciated, and the citizens are forced to rely on what they can find to survive. Children play on discarded swing sets, Coco constructs a dress out of garbage bags and later one from a hideously unloved Bridesmaid’s dress. They dine on stray cats, and the only other living creatures seem to be scavengers like flies and rats. Lakes are made of garbage goo, beer bottles are transformed into stained glass, and the Queen of Trashland’s crown is constructed from barbed wire. All this DIY thinking outside the box is nice, but I couldn’t help but wonder what separates Trashland from a regular run of the mill garbage heap. Do you have to be extremely under appreciated to wind up there, or are only certain dumpsters portals to this other world?
In her journey through Trashland, Coco meets several intriguing characters. Talking flies with a bucket list aside, there is the Oracle, a psychic who lives in a hut made entirely of meat, from the floors to the curtains to the bed. She even tells fortune with meat products, placing a variety of organs in a bag and the way they land on the table revealing the future. Think tea leaves but less delicious. As she warns Coco, “You must prepare for a great loss, dear girl. Larger than you have ever known.” A real barrel of fun that one is.
Slightly less depressing is Adrian, the big muscle-y type who works as a knight/maintenance man for the Queen. He wears rubber armor made out of tires which seems to be the traditional dress for knights in Trashland. It is through Adrian that we are introduced to the merciless Queen, who seems to be part human, part machine, and part mold. Not to mention deathly afraid of rats and mice. In an effort to take over the people in her kingdom, she drops spores, which attach to the back of men’s necks and make them fall madly in love with her. These spores also help her to reproduce. This method is pretty disturbing, but at least she’s not a giant bug or anything.
The one scene I could have done without is the torture scene that occurs in the Chamber. Yes, it allows Coco to tap into her true power after yet again falling under male subjugation- through no fault of her own- but it also plays into the idea that bizarro needs to contain some sort of gross out element. As I said in my last Bizarro Blursday post, bodily fluids and bizarro often seem to equate to each other, but I don’t think this is particularly required. Plot elements can be weird and wacky without bringing in feces. Especially when it puts me in the nauseous mind set of Chuck Palahniuk’s short story “Guts”.
As the main character, Coco is the type of strong female figure that’s easy to admire. Strong, capable, able to easily adapt to any situation. She’s the tough as nails female figure that goes against the damsel in distress that novels are often populated with. Despite her pre-death career choice, she really is a strong and determined role model for getting what you want without sacrificing one’s values.
Ultimately, this is a story about female empowerment. Much as stripping is a type of empowerment for Coco in the beginning of the novel, so too is finding a place for herself in the world where she is not required to use her body to gain power. Rather, she gains power by being a strong independent woman, while still staying true to herself. Not what you would expect from a story centered around an endless world of garbage, but I’m sure most people wouldn’t expect to find such a strong tale of feminism hidden in the pages of a bizarro fiction novella.
October 22, 2012
Id Says:
WHEEEE!!!! Stripper flies from the pole and goes smashing into the DJ booth. Oh, the electricity! Quick, let's throw her body in the dumpster out back says the boss man. No one will miss her, except maybe the DJ who's got a sex fantasy obsession with her.
Oh no, Coco! You're not dead. Or are you? You don't remember talking flies before your electrocution, and this city dump you woke up in is a lot bigger than you imagined. Better start walking if you want to get out of here. Try not to inhale through your nose if you can help it, this place smells worse than shit.
Maybe the old woman Oracle can help, but you probably won't enjoy her divination techniques. And besides, there's a handsome knight in tire tread armor who can help you navigate the trashscape. Oh, but if he's a knight, that means he serves a monarch. The current ruler is one crazy-horny bitch, Coco, watch out. Whatever you do, don't let her find out you brought that talking fly into her queendom.
Ego Says:
Coco Darling is a survivor. I think. No matter how bad it gets, she pushes forward in her attempt to escape the city dump. Not many would take one step into the filth and muck she enters. I wonder, though, why she wants so badly to escape back to her normal life. It wasn't exactly the most glamorous, working for a scumbag at a strip club where happy hour consists of the employees doing extremely degrading things with bratwurst. She should look into a new line of work.
Helping out Coco on her heroine's journey is Rudy, the dying fly. Rudy isn't sure what he's dying of, only that he has a week a live according to the Oracle. Coco accidentally destroys Rudy's home, but he still offers to take her toward civilization. I don't believe it's exactly the same kind of civilization Coco's thinking of.
Also ready to help out is Adrian, a knight of the land. He also acts as the maintenance man, repairing the robot Gatekeepers and occasionally taking them out when they begin to malfunction.
Adrian serves the Queen, a mostly human monarch with a taste for anything masculine. When she's in heat, she attracts mates by dropping purple spores. If the spores happen to attach to nearby men, said men may have a hard time concentrating on anything other than their deep adoration and appreciation of the Queen. Worse still, when she grows bored of her playthings, she tosses them in the Chamber, never to be heard from again.
Super-Ego Says:
If this book has taught me anything, it is that strippers are apparently a dime a dozen. How else can you explain Coco's boss throwing her away like unwanted kittens. Would it have hurt him to post a sign stating "FREE DEAD STRIPPER TO GOOD HOME"?
Ms. Fitzgerald brings the world of landfills to life in ways most vulgar. The colors, the smells, the liquids, they all swirl together in descriptions that will leave you terrified of what could be growing in your own garbage can.
From her first squishy step, it seemed to me that the protagonist was doomed to wander the trashlands eternally. Is she really dead? Is this some sort of stripper hell she has found herself in? Or is it something else? Perhaps it is a dream the fates are using to try getting through to her about the life she led, pointing out the trash she was already living in. Or perhaps her life was the dream, and maybe this is Coco's chance to discover a better life to wake up in.
WHEEEE!!!! Stripper flies from the pole and goes smashing into the DJ booth. Oh, the electricity! Quick, let's throw her body in the dumpster out back says the boss man. No one will miss her, except maybe the DJ who's got a sex fantasy obsession with her.
Oh no, Coco! You're not dead. Or are you? You don't remember talking flies before your electrocution, and this city dump you woke up in is a lot bigger than you imagined. Better start walking if you want to get out of here. Try not to inhale through your nose if you can help it, this place smells worse than shit.
Maybe the old woman Oracle can help, but you probably won't enjoy her divination techniques. And besides, there's a handsome knight in tire tread armor who can help you navigate the trashscape. Oh, but if he's a knight, that means he serves a monarch. The current ruler is one crazy-horny bitch, Coco, watch out. Whatever you do, don't let her find out you brought that talking fly into her queendom.
Ego Says:
Coco Darling is a survivor. I think. No matter how bad it gets, she pushes forward in her attempt to escape the city dump. Not many would take one step into the filth and muck she enters. I wonder, though, why she wants so badly to escape back to her normal life. It wasn't exactly the most glamorous, working for a scumbag at a strip club where happy hour consists of the employees doing extremely degrading things with bratwurst. She should look into a new line of work.
Helping out Coco on her heroine's journey is Rudy, the dying fly. Rudy isn't sure what he's dying of, only that he has a week a live according to the Oracle. Coco accidentally destroys Rudy's home, but he still offers to take her toward civilization. I don't believe it's exactly the same kind of civilization Coco's thinking of.
Also ready to help out is Adrian, a knight of the land. He also acts as the maintenance man, repairing the robot Gatekeepers and occasionally taking them out when they begin to malfunction.
Adrian serves the Queen, a mostly human monarch with a taste for anything masculine. When she's in heat, she attracts mates by dropping purple spores. If the spores happen to attach to nearby men, said men may have a hard time concentrating on anything other than their deep adoration and appreciation of the Queen. Worse still, when she grows bored of her playthings, she tosses them in the Chamber, never to be heard from again.
Super-Ego Says:
If this book has taught me anything, it is that strippers are apparently a dime a dozen. How else can you explain Coco's boss throwing her away like unwanted kittens. Would it have hurt him to post a sign stating "FREE DEAD STRIPPER TO GOOD HOME"?
Ms. Fitzgerald brings the world of landfills to life in ways most vulgar. The colors, the smells, the liquids, they all swirl together in descriptions that will leave you terrified of what could be growing in your own garbage can.
From her first squishy step, it seemed to me that the protagonist was doomed to wander the trashlands eternally. Is she really dead? Is this some sort of stripper hell she has found herself in? Or is it something else? Perhaps it is a dream the fates are using to try getting through to her about the life she led, pointing out the trash she was already living in. Or perhaps her life was the dream, and maybe this is Coco's chance to discover a better life to wake up in.
October 27, 2012
When an “accident” takes out Coco the stripper in the club where she works, the club manager and the DJ dump her body in the dumpster. This is no ordinary dumpster, but rather a doorway to the magical land of Narn...oh, wait, not quite.
Instead, Coco wakes up in Trashland, a land made entirely of rubbish. She is joined by a talking fly, Rudy, on her journey to find a way home. She meets the Oracle, who reads her fortune using a bag of discarded body parts, and then travels to the palace to meet the Queen, who seems to be a walking mold who gives off spores to dominate her subjects. Confused yet? Don't be. Believe it or not, this is surprisingly normal compared to some of the bizarro fiction out there.
Trashland A Go-Go is part of the 2011 line of the New Bizarro Authors Series, meaning that this is Constance Ann Fitzgerald's first published novel. And it's a very respectable effort for a first time genre novelist. In fact, it's quite good. There are just a couple of things that need to be nitpicked.
First, I felt like I was missing a large chunk of the story. Literally, it felt like this started out as a larger story and got cut down, but that some of the sections cut may have been significant to the story. In fact, this makes it feel skeletal with chunks of meat hanging from the bones, rather than a complete, fully-formed story.
This ties into the second problem, which is that some of the secondary characters seem superfluous. They really don't serve much of a purpose. The case that stood out to me was how the club's DJ also ends up in Trashland. But this doesn't seem to serve a purpose other than to show that Trashland is real and not some kind of weird afterlife for Coco. But then the DJ serves no other purpose other than as cannon fodder later on. A common complaint I tend to have with bizarro books is that they feel like there should be more, but in the case of “Trashland A Go-Go,” this is a glaring problem and I wish the book were longer and more fleshed out.
However, the prose is very smooth, and the editing is actually quite sublime. This book does not suffer from another common complaint, which is that it needs more editing or careful prose. Fitzgerald is quite good and clearly practiced at writing, and this book definitely peaked my curiosity. I hope she continues to write and publish, because I am genuinely curious about what she will be capable of, especially if she gets the chance and chooses to write a longer story. I really want to give this novella a higher score because, don't get me wrong, the writing is very, very good (and I don't give that kind of praise lightly), but the chopped up story and superfluous characters were just too big of a problem for me and left too many questions.
Trashland A Go-Go by Constance Ann Fitzgerald earns three and a half mold spores out of five. However, since there are no half-star reviews, it gets the benefit of the doubt and gets four spores/stars.
Instead, Coco wakes up in Trashland, a land made entirely of rubbish. She is joined by a talking fly, Rudy, on her journey to find a way home. She meets the Oracle, who reads her fortune using a bag of discarded body parts, and then travels to the palace to meet the Queen, who seems to be a walking mold who gives off spores to dominate her subjects. Confused yet? Don't be. Believe it or not, this is surprisingly normal compared to some of the bizarro fiction out there.
Trashland A Go-Go is part of the 2011 line of the New Bizarro Authors Series, meaning that this is Constance Ann Fitzgerald's first published novel. And it's a very respectable effort for a first time genre novelist. In fact, it's quite good. There are just a couple of things that need to be nitpicked.
First, I felt like I was missing a large chunk of the story. Literally, it felt like this started out as a larger story and got cut down, but that some of the sections cut may have been significant to the story. In fact, this makes it feel skeletal with chunks of meat hanging from the bones, rather than a complete, fully-formed story.
This ties into the second problem, which is that some of the secondary characters seem superfluous. They really don't serve much of a purpose. The case that stood out to me was how the club's DJ also ends up in Trashland. But this doesn't seem to serve a purpose other than to show that Trashland is real and not some kind of weird afterlife for Coco. But then the DJ serves no other purpose other than as cannon fodder later on. A common complaint I tend to have with bizarro books is that they feel like there should be more, but in the case of “Trashland A Go-Go,” this is a glaring problem and I wish the book were longer and more fleshed out.
However, the prose is very smooth, and the editing is actually quite sublime. This book does not suffer from another common complaint, which is that it needs more editing or careful prose. Fitzgerald is quite good and clearly practiced at writing, and this book definitely peaked my curiosity. I hope she continues to write and publish, because I am genuinely curious about what she will be capable of, especially if she gets the chance and chooses to write a longer story. I really want to give this novella a higher score because, don't get me wrong, the writing is very, very good (and I don't give that kind of praise lightly), but the chopped up story and superfluous characters were just too big of a problem for me and left too many questions.
Trashland A Go-Go by Constance Ann Fitzgerald earns three and a half mold spores out of five. However, since there are no half-star reviews, it gets the benefit of the doubt and gets four spores/stars.
April 1, 2015
Trashland A Go-Go: The first thing that strikes me about this novel is its synopsis - a stripper (Coco) is murdered only to find herself in an afterlife that revolves around a garbage dump.
Intentional or not I think it may touch upon how we subconsciously associate certain sectors of human life with garbage. Only in Coco’s afterlife, which was in a landfill, could she begin a real adventure and find meaning and purpose. Coco was ejected from this realm, which had devalued her to the point that her final resting area was a dumpster. Perhaps her afterlife, which revolved around garbage, was a reflection of how Coco herself regarded her worth from a lifetime of untold neglect. Perhaps this vision of an afterlife was the ultimate rejection of what we consider beauty and value, especially in regards to heaven.
I found it interesting the composition of her posse which included among other things a talking fly. Again the theme is consistent with Coco and the place from which she came. Often times in fiction a band of rejects or losers on a quest is an easy instant hit simply because it’s natural to root for the underdog. But given the imagry and simple ways in which Coco tries again and again to maintain some semblance of normalcy that the traditional rooting becomes a tribal drum beat from way back before our modern world constructed such flimsy props to separate the “good” from “bad” in life. Page after page I did more than root for Coco, I became a disciple.
I suggest everyone read this novel. Because of that I want to say so much more but I won’t be a dick and spoil it.
Intentional or not I think it may touch upon how we subconsciously associate certain sectors of human life with garbage. Only in Coco’s afterlife, which was in a landfill, could she begin a real adventure and find meaning and purpose. Coco was ejected from this realm, which had devalued her to the point that her final resting area was a dumpster. Perhaps her afterlife, which revolved around garbage, was a reflection of how Coco herself regarded her worth from a lifetime of untold neglect. Perhaps this vision of an afterlife was the ultimate rejection of what we consider beauty and value, especially in regards to heaven.
I found it interesting the composition of her posse which included among other things a talking fly. Again the theme is consistent with Coco and the place from which she came. Often times in fiction a band of rejects or losers on a quest is an easy instant hit simply because it’s natural to root for the underdog. But given the imagry and simple ways in which Coco tries again and again to maintain some semblance of normalcy that the traditional rooting becomes a tribal drum beat from way back before our modern world constructed such flimsy props to separate the “good” from “bad” in life. Page after page I did more than root for Coco, I became a disciple.
I suggest everyone read this novel. Because of that I want to say so much more but I won’t be a dick and spoil it.
July 8, 2012
I do so love an adventure, especially one that mixes Thomas the Unbeliever with "Malice in La La Land" and Labyrinth. I do feel that the length restriction of the NBAS books did limit just how good this book could be. After reading About Writing: Seven Essays Four Letters and Five Interviews, I did start looking at how structure affects a novel/novella/short story. The issue with Trashland (and, to a lesser degree, Party Wolves In My Skull) is the shifting perspectives that are not quite given equal time. A structure is set up (one chapter with one character, one chapter with a second character) and then dismantled (by the time of Chapter 6, the structure has been twisted so much that the importance of certain scenes earlier were questioned).
Still, it's a weird world full of flies, garbage, stink, adventure, robots, fungus queens and love. Once involved in the story, the pages flow by like a rush of diarrhea after two weeks of constipation: refreshing, disorienting and disgusting but so welcome. For those of you thinking of venturing into the Bizarro genre, this is a decent one to look at first - disgusting only in the scatological sense - given how story oriented it is. I would love to see Constance Ann Fitzgerald given more room (i.e. pages) to fully explore the world she creates with the characters that she thinks up. With a little extra structure, this could have risen to the top of the NBAS 2011/2012 pile.
Still, it's a weird world full of flies, garbage, stink, adventure, robots, fungus queens and love. Once involved in the story, the pages flow by like a rush of diarrhea after two weeks of constipation: refreshing, disorienting and disgusting but so welcome. For those of you thinking of venturing into the Bizarro genre, this is a decent one to look at first - disgusting only in the scatological sense - given how story oriented it is. I would love to see Constance Ann Fitzgerald given more room (i.e. pages) to fully explore the world she creates with the characters that she thinks up. With a little extra structure, this could have risen to the top of the NBAS 2011/2012 pile.
November 18, 2014
Constance Ann Fitzgerald’s Trashland A Go-Go is part Alice in Wonderland, part Wizard of Oz, and all attitude.
Coco is an erotic dancer at the Snatch Hausen, a seedy venue that sells sausages and sexy girls to its grungy clientele.
One night, Coco’s nemesis greases the Snatch Hausen’s dancing pole, resulting in Coco flying from the stage into a jumble of Aquanetted curls and smoking flesh.
Coco’s boss thinks Coco’s dead. He tosses into a garbage dump, sending Coco’s body on her way.
Unfortunately, Coco is alive and wakes in Trashland, a smelly, yet wonderful, mixture of Wonderland and Oz. Accompanied by Rudy, the porn-loving fly, and Adrien, Coco’s “… knight in garbage armor,” and with the help of the Oracle, the meat-reading fortune teller, Coco fights her way through garbage, dirt and piles of shit (literally) in an attempt to find her way home. However, in the process, Coco finds something even better.
Constance Ann Fitzgerald is a rocking writer who honed her mad writing skills writing vignettes about the creeps who frequented her place of employment (a sex shop). Her experience writing about such dodgy characters shines through in Trashland A Go-Go. The characters are vibrant, the narrative is sharp and funny, and the awesome that is Constance shines through.
My only problem with Trashland is that I want a follow-up. Like, stat.
Coco is an erotic dancer at the Snatch Hausen, a seedy venue that sells sausages and sexy girls to its grungy clientele.
One night, Coco’s nemesis greases the Snatch Hausen’s dancing pole, resulting in Coco flying from the stage into a jumble of Aquanetted curls and smoking flesh.
Coco’s boss thinks Coco’s dead. He tosses into a garbage dump, sending Coco’s body on her way.
Unfortunately, Coco is alive and wakes in Trashland, a smelly, yet wonderful, mixture of Wonderland and Oz. Accompanied by Rudy, the porn-loving fly, and Adrien, Coco’s “… knight in garbage armor,” and with the help of the Oracle, the meat-reading fortune teller, Coco fights her way through garbage, dirt and piles of shit (literally) in an attempt to find her way home. However, in the process, Coco finds something even better.
Constance Ann Fitzgerald is a rocking writer who honed her mad writing skills writing vignettes about the creeps who frequented her place of employment (a sex shop). Her experience writing about such dodgy characters shines through in Trashland A Go-Go. The characters are vibrant, the narrative is sharp and funny, and the awesome that is Constance shines through.
My only problem with Trashland is that I want a follow-up. Like, stat.
October 21, 2012
As one of the NBAS books I had high expectations coming into this title. The others in the series I had read were all superb, and this one kept that percept up.
Constance writes a simple tale of a heroine going from rags to... well, worse rags, to riches (sort of). Coco is a go-go girl, a dancer if you will, and she dies. She dies and is sent to the dump. Only, she wasn't quite dead, and she sets off to get out of the dump.
Her journey has her meeting some bizarre characters, like a fly, and a strange woman who lives in a meat hut, where she learns of a nasty trash queen whom she must defeat in order to restore justice to the dump. The main points of Coco's arc are set up from here.
Constance's writing is always fluid, clear and dynamic. Her characters are strong, positive and active. It's a feel good story that happens to be set in a dump, but it's no rubbish, it's got some life in it.
If you have read other NBAS stories then you may find that this story is that much clearer and easier to follow, not slower paced, but more... linear in its structure. I didn't find it as "weird" as others in the series, but then, I like diversity, and I like clear, strong writing, which the book has in copious amounts. I recommend you get a copy, it's a great way to spend a few hours, and once you've read it, you can always read it again ;)
Constance writes a simple tale of a heroine going from rags to... well, worse rags, to riches (sort of). Coco is a go-go girl, a dancer if you will, and she dies. She dies and is sent to the dump. Only, she wasn't quite dead, and she sets off to get out of the dump.
Her journey has her meeting some bizarre characters, like a fly, and a strange woman who lives in a meat hut, where she learns of a nasty trash queen whom she must defeat in order to restore justice to the dump. The main points of Coco's arc are set up from here.
Constance's writing is always fluid, clear and dynamic. Her characters are strong, positive and active. It's a feel good story that happens to be set in a dump, but it's no rubbish, it's got some life in it.
If you have read other NBAS stories then you may find that this story is that much clearer and easier to follow, not slower paced, but more... linear in its structure. I didn't find it as "weird" as others in the series, but then, I like diversity, and I like clear, strong writing, which the book has in copious amounts. I recommend you get a copy, it's a great way to spend a few hours, and once you've read it, you can always read it again ;)
February 2, 2012
A brilliant surreal fantasy for all ages!
Well, maybe not "all ages", but certainly teens and up. Trashland A Go-Go is one of those stories that looks like it's so fun to read. And it really is. A stripper dies in a freak accident and is thrown out with the trash, only to find she's not quite dead. That part there makes for an interesting story in itself, but then the story goes on some sort of Alice in Wonderland type transformation and Coco the Go-Go dancer finds herself wandering through the desolate wastelands of and endless trash-world where there are talking flies, meat-oracles, and entire trash-kingdoms populated by all sorts of filthy creatures.
And we sympathise with the stripper. Poor Coco, thrown out with the trash. Her life had little value in our world, but in the world of Trashland, she is a hero, she reinvents herself and earns our respect. Constance Ann Fitzgerald has written a poignant novella about realising your own self-worth, your own potential, in amongst the steaming piles of garbage of the Trashland. Coco is a princess unlike the Disney princesses, not willing to wait around for some prince to swoon her, not afraid to get her hands a little dirty.
This is a simple fairy story, well told, and in a spectacular bizarro fashion.
Well, maybe not "all ages", but certainly teens and up. Trashland A Go-Go is one of those stories that looks like it's so fun to read. And it really is. A stripper dies in a freak accident and is thrown out with the trash, only to find she's not quite dead. That part there makes for an interesting story in itself, but then the story goes on some sort of Alice in Wonderland type transformation and Coco the Go-Go dancer finds herself wandering through the desolate wastelands of and endless trash-world where there are talking flies, meat-oracles, and entire trash-kingdoms populated by all sorts of filthy creatures.
And we sympathise with the stripper. Poor Coco, thrown out with the trash. Her life had little value in our world, but in the world of Trashland, she is a hero, she reinvents herself and earns our respect. Constance Ann Fitzgerald has written a poignant novella about realising your own self-worth, your own potential, in amongst the steaming piles of garbage of the Trashland. Coco is a princess unlike the Disney princesses, not willing to wait around for some prince to swoon her, not afraid to get her hands a little dirty.
This is a simple fairy story, well told, and in a spectacular bizarro fashion.
December 8, 2011
This novella starts out with a stripper named Coco being killed and discarded in a dumpster by a sleazy strip club owner. She awakes in what appears to be a landfill but quickly discovers that there is no end and thus begins her journey through TRASHLAND. Aided by a talking fly she travels through TRASHLAND seeking a way out or just some meaning behind it all. Coco comes across many fascinating characters including a knight dressed in a rubber tire suit, an evil Queen and if you're lucky there may even be a robot.
Now what is really important about this book is that although the plot is kind of "out there" and probably not for everyone the writing style is very crisp, clean and conveys a lot in such a short read. The use of language is exceptionally vivid and descriptive. I must warn you that things can get pretty "meaty."
Exactly as many have stated this is a grimy noir version of ALICE IN WONDERLAND.
I thoroughly enjoyed this read and cannot believe this is Constance Ann Fitzgerald's first book. I anxiously await any forthcoming works from Constance in the future.
Now what is really important about this book is that although the plot is kind of "out there" and probably not for everyone the writing style is very crisp, clean and conveys a lot in such a short read. The use of language is exceptionally vivid and descriptive. I must warn you that things can get pretty "meaty."
Exactly as many have stated this is a grimy noir version of ALICE IN WONDERLAND.
I thoroughly enjoyed this read and cannot believe this is Constance Ann Fitzgerald's first book. I anxiously await any forthcoming works from Constance in the future.
December 29, 2011
This is only the second NBAS(new bizarro author series) book that I've read, and so far I am impressed!
This particular one is by newcomer Constance Ann Fitzgerald, who spares no time in showing us know how well she fits in, through the telling of this fantastic little story.
You can read elsewhere for the plot, I'd just like to add that I really enjoyed the story. It had a lot of atmosphere, and the characters were very well brought to life (I LOVED the Oracle).
The book, like all the NBAS books, is short, but it holds a lot of fun inside, and I absolutely cannot wait to read more by this new talent!
This particular one is by newcomer Constance Ann Fitzgerald, who spares no time in showing us know how well she fits in, through the telling of this fantastic little story.
You can read elsewhere for the plot, I'd just like to add that I really enjoyed the story. It had a lot of atmosphere, and the characters were very well brought to life (I LOVED the Oracle).
The book, like all the NBAS books, is short, but it holds a lot of fun inside, and I absolutely cannot wait to read more by this new talent!
March 4, 2012
Trashland a Go-Go is the bizarro debut from Constance Ann Fitzgerald. Coco, a stripper, dies and gets thrown in a dumpster by her boss. Coco climbs out of the dumpster, finding herself in the afterlife and it doesn’t smell good. From this point on, Coco tries to find her way home in a twisted fairytale landscape reminiscent of Oz and Alice in Wonderland.
It’s a sweet book about the quest for love and purpose in a trash-filled afterlife. Fitzgerald weaves such a fine yarn that I wish there was more. All in all, Trashland is sweet bizarro goodness in fairytale form and something that needs to be held close instead of being thrown in the trash like Coco.
It’s a sweet book about the quest for love and purpose in a trash-filled afterlife. Fitzgerald weaves such a fine yarn that I wish there was more. All in all, Trashland is sweet bizarro goodness in fairytale form and something that needs to be held close instead of being thrown in the trash like Coco.
August 2, 2015
I had a lot of fun with this book. Constance has created a gross take on 'Alice in Wonderland' involving a dead dancer, a fly, and many other strange characters(including the 'Queen of Trash' and her fabulous hair). It's filled with all sorts of disgusting and bizarre visions... I'd recommend it to anyone who likes trashy, edgy, dark, and fantastical adventures.
June 21, 2012
Young madame Fitzgerald has a bright future in the bizarro scene. Her storytelling has a flavor of sweet revolting creepiness that is uniquely hers, and Trashland A Go-Go is a fairy tale worthy of John Waters.
November 9, 2013
Stripper Bizarro Action
Fast-paced bizarro action. A tough stripper is tossed into a world of garbage and forced to find her way home with nobody to help her but a weird talking fly. This is Constance Ann Fitzgerald's first book. Hopefully not her last.
Fast-paced bizarro action. A tough stripper is tossed into a world of garbage and forced to find her way home with nobody to help her but a weird talking fly. This is Constance Ann Fitzgerald's first book. Hopefully not her last.
December 7, 2011
3.5, loved the Queen of the Trash! Of course,proper review forthcoming.
November 29, 2011
There's a lot of good shit in this novel.
March 19, 2014
I finished this one a few days ago. Review coming soon?
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