The Warm Glow of Happy Homes

by Andersen Prunty

Barton King is young, rich, out of control, and planning the most awesome party he’s ever thrown. The theme: Mexico Frat Funland. There are going to be khaki cargo shorts, red cups, even a piñata. Maybe sombreros. Team Klaus will be there to DJ the event. But it won’t be without its challenges. People are canceling left and right. No one seems to be acting the way they should and space birds are ripping the sky apart. What is intended to be the social event of the summer totters on the brink of becoming a violent nightmare.

Genres: Horror, Bizarro Fiction

62 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 19, 2012

About the author

Andersen Prunty lives in Yellow Springs, Ohio. He writes novels and short stories. Visit him at notandersenprunty.com, where he posts a free story every Friday.

Reviews

[Donald Armfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you like disturbing antics, candy and a warm glow of brightly colored liquids then this book is for you.
Join the party and take a whack at the piñata.

[Sara · Rating 2 out of 5]

🇵🇹 (🇬🇧 below) A minha primeira experiência com a escrita deste autor foi desastrosa .. mas pensei cá para os meus botões: se calhar tive azar no livro, o próximo deve ser melhor ... pensava eu ..
Que me perdoem os fãs do autor, mas não consigo ter uma opinião favorável. Ok concordo que o autor escreve muito bem, descreve todos os pormenores, mas não dá!! Mais uma vez temos a história de um sociopata que assassinou os pais, a empregada, o amigo e manteve os corpos em decomposição em casa. Tem pavor de ratos, porque acha que o vão comer durante a noite, ou morder as sua partes íntimas quando vai à casa de banho, vê pássaros alienígenas e ouve o barulho constante de papéis a serem rasgados ... Até aqui até poderia ser um thriller interessante .. Mas os malditos personagens dos livros deste autor têm todos o mesmo fetiche macabro em comum: necrofilia!!! A sério, não dá!! Adoro thrillers, até suporto algumas cenas mais "pesadas", mas estas saem completamente da minha zona de conforto!!
Dou 2 estrelas só porque está mesmo muito bem escrito.
.
🇬🇧 My first experience with this author's book was disastrous ... but I thought to myself: maybe I was unlucky in the book, the next one must be better ... I thought ... The author's fans please forgive me, but I can't have a favorable opinion. Ok I agree that the author's writing is very good, describes all the details, but it doesn't work for me!! Once again we have a sociopath who murdered his parents, his maid, his friend and kept the decomposing bodies at home. He is terrified of mice, because he thinks they will eat him at night, or bite his private parts when he goes to the bathroom ... and sees alien birds. So far it could be a good thriller, but all the damned characters in this author's books have the same macabre fetish: necrophilia !!! Seriously, I love thrillers, I can even handle some "heavier" scenes, but these completely leave my comfort zone!!

[Jennifer Rainey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wanna get lost in atrocious writing?!

Now's your chance! Vulgar and gory and drugged and disgusting all join together in this super short book. Had it been any longer and I would have given up 1/4 of the way thru. The story was mostly expected, after 10 pages you knew the guy was going to crash and burn and take everyone he didn't care about with him into death.

[Cat Voleur · Rating 4 out of 5]

Deeply upsetting.

Although I don't think it's as profound as some of his other books, and I doubt it will stick with me in the same way, it was very engaging.

Upsetting. Intense. Troubling.

I'm reviewing under the presumption that I'm supposed to be shaken up at the end, and as such, I think the book was very well executed.

[timj26 · Rating 5 out of 5]

The staff of a rich kid think they have a easy score only to walk into a drug fueled nightmare
Well narrated and has a corpse piñata what more do you need
I received a free review audiobook and voluntarily left this review

[Jeremy Fowler · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Warm Glow of Happy Homes is going to give me the most disturbing nightmares. I felt the most horrendous connections to a Clockwork Orange. But all in all this is such an entertaining read and what I've come to expect from master of splatterpunk Prunty!!

[Mommacat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bizarro

[Xian Xian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Halloween is coming soon, this week actually, and I read this. Not because it's a horror book, well maybe that's half of the reason. I've been looking at Andersen Prunty's books for quite awhile, for reasons that are quite obvious, they are bizarre with lots of blood and guts sprayed everywhere. I am the biggest chicken you will ever know, my shadow can scare me in the middle of the night while walking to the bathroom. This is novella length and the cover is sort of nice on the eyes, nice colors, and it fits the morbid nature of this little book.

It's all centered around this guy named Barton, a drug addict, a complete psycho, with parents that don't trust him and maybe they don't love him either. he lives in a mansion by himself and he's planning some crazy party called Mexico Frat Fun Land. During all of this party planning there's some space birds flying around, rousing fear in neighborhood or maybe just Barton himself, and there's this sound of ripping paper, and Barton is an asshole and two guys, Alex and Joe, and a girl, Ibbie, want to rob his mansion and leave their miserable jobs behind.

This novel, based on the reviewers on Goodreads, seems to be getting compared to Bret Easton Ellis and Chuck Palahniuk, which I will admit I've never read books by, but I know enough to see where these influences are coming from. But at the same time, I couldn't help but cringe at the icky stuff. Which was the point of this.

Barton is some spoiled rich White dude who obviously has some issues, really bad issues, and the drugs don't do any better. He has no empathy for others, but yet he wants someone to love him more than just his money. But this sympathy for him washes away oh so quickly when he does the sick things that he does. He definitely sounds like he might be a sociopath or something worse. Seriously, people are probably walking androids to people like him. He's a sad sack of flesh. Kick him.

Then there's all this weird stuff happening and honestly was it an illusion from Barton's point of view or was the world ending? Were these birds manifested from Barton's desperation to leave this world and his desire to commit all of these evil acts that he does? That was my question for this book. Were these birds and hallucinatory sounds signs of his downfall? Am I overthinking this? Some questions are better left unanswered. I missed something?

This novella sort of reminded me of the The Dark Half by Stephen King, but this novella is a lot better in my opinion and Barton wasn't possessed by a demon, he himself was a demon.

I will say that I actually really enjoyed this little book. It's so dang twisted, makes me cringe, and at the end of it all, humans will cry and run off to a salvation that doesn't exist. It's world that is all too bleak. Somebody like Barton will cry for help and yet get pleasure from the wicked deeds that they do. So, just so I won't sound like a broken record, The Warm Glow of Happy Homes is a novella of some dude with false happiness and the realization of this makes him destroy everything in his path, because he's a spoiled brat that wants everything, and can't get everything, and well, the Earth sends a giant F-you missile at him. I have to say I love the cover. Is that weird?

Rating: 4.5

Originally from my blog: http://wordsnotesandfiction.blogspot....

[Brian J · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pleasantly surprised with this near-masterpiece. I haven't read this author before but I surely will again, thanks to his slick writing that is so tight and clean it thrums like the G string on a bass guitar. I've tried bizarro authors before and almost always ended up feeling cheated and date-raped with secondhand embarrassment. I think a lot of "bizarro authors" simply want to be "part of the club," and unfortunately have no writing chops or style, and their books come out stinking like silent but rotten farts, yet still receive praise and award nominations from their contemporaries.

That's not the case here. This is a great work with slicing imagery and bitter, realistic dialogue, bringing to mind the sense and style of Bret Easton Ellis and Matthew Stokoe. That doesn't mean this is not an original work. It is, and it forces its own sense of ownership on the reader. There's a lot to think about here. After wading through some fluff with these last few reads, this was a gripping wake up call.

[Jessica T. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was seriously disturbing... I had to put it down for awhile.

[Rodney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although the ending was a bit abrupt, I did enjoy the book. I found it very easy to dislike the Barton King character. Anderson delivers again...disturbing, odd, and amusing. You will be full of "sunshine" after reading this one.

[Trevor Woodhouse · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short, sick and twisted. All the makings of a good book.

[Jennifer (wildling_manor) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely one of his more disturbing works

[Patrick · Rating 2 out of 5]

A depressing read. Indeed makes Palahniuk's perspective look rose-tinted.