Piecemeal June

by Jordan Krall

Kevin lives in a small apartment above a porn shop with his tarot-reading cat, Mithra. He has gotten used to Mithra bringing him things from outside: dead mice, Twinkie wrappers, donut scraps, houseplants, and the occasional rabbit head. But one day, Mithra brings him an ankle... a sweaty piece of rubber-latex shaped like a human ankle. Later, he is brought an eyeball, then a foot. After more latex body parts are brought upstairs, Kevin decides to glue them together to form a piecemeal sex doll. But once the last piece is glued into place, the sex doll comes to life. She says her name is June. She comes from another world and is on the run from an evil pornographer and three crab-human hybrid assassins. Piecemeal June is a reality-bending journey into love, sex, death, and a bizarre parallel world of butchered flesh.

Genres: Bizarro Fiction, Horror, Fiction, Fantasy, Ebooks, Science Fiction, Erotica

72 pages, Paperback

First published January 23, 2008

About the author

Books include:

TENTACLE DEATH TRIP
FISTFUL OF FEET
MOTEL MAN
KING SCRATCH
BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE APOCALYPSE DONKEYS
PIECEMEAL JUNE
SQUID PULP BLUES
NEWLY SHAVEN SAINT
UNFRUITFUL WORKS
PRELUDE TO SPACE RAPE!
SQUID KILLS
THE PISTOL BURPS
ALL POEMS MUST DIE
FALSE MAGIC KINGDOM
BAD ALCHEMY
THE GOG AND MAGOG BUSINESS
YOUR CITIES, YOUR TOMBS

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

When Kevin's cat starts bringing parts of a sex doll into his apartment above the porno store, things start getting strange. Kevin assembled the parts and the doll comes to life. But who did the doll belong to before she came into Kevin's possession?

After reading and enjoying Jordan Krall's Squid Pulp Blues and Fistful of Feet, I decided to give his debut novel a try. Piecemeal June is an odd little book that's chock full of fetishes, bizarre sex acts, and lots of fecal matter. It wasn't quite what I expected after reading two other Jordan Krall books but it was still enjoyable.

The characters were pretty memorable. Kevin and his foot fetish, Mushy and his concussion-induced delirium, the crab men assassins, Max the porn shop owner. I don't think I'll forget Latrina the oracle for a very long time. I thought the connection between Piecemeal June and June St. Eclair could have been explored a little more but Krall had already crammed so much into 72 pages it's understandable that it wasn't.

For a book about a sex doll that has suddenly come to life, Piecemeal June is surprisingly deep. The nature of reality is explored. I liked how Simon, God of Whores, and his hellish dimension overlapped with ours.

So, Piecemeal June is fun in a disgusting way but not quite as good as the other two Krall books I've read. If you decide to give it a try, make sure you have a high tolerance for weird sex and feces.

Click here to read my interview with Jordan Krall.

[Steve Lowe · Rating 4 out of 5]

OK, first thing's first, I mostly enjoyed this book. It is atmospheric and the writing clear and crisp, and chock full of enough weird to make fans of the weird stand up and cheer. But I'm giving it 3.5 out of 5 stars, because...

I don't get the fascination with shit. That is, stories with graphic scenes or themes revolving around feces. Like snakes to Indiana Jones, when I read about defecation, I think to myself, "Why'd it have to be... shit?" This story has a lot of good, weird, whacked out, and interesting images and ideas, it's got depth of character, originality, a grimy, sleazy mood, and some grimy, sleazy sex and fetishes to match... but then there's the shit. A character with an opening in her back, like a portal to another reality, but it's a swirling whirlpool of shit. There's expolding toilets that release torrents of fecal water, a scene seemingly interrupted by two characters' bouts with diarrhea, flying turds explained in graphic, splattering detail. Mind you, this is a relatively small part of Jordan Krall's first book, but still, it's a bit much for me. Call me a wuss, or prudish, or whatever the hell fits, but there it is.

A quick plot summation - Kevin's cat Mithra brings home sweaty pieces of what turns out to be a sex doll, which comes to life when finally assembled. Kevin and June fall for each other, but there are some bad dudes out there who have lost her and want her back. There's a subplot about Simon, God of Whores who lives in an alternate reality world that drips with pus and sex organs and such, a very intriguing world that I found mysterious and palpable, though by the end, Simon turns out to be a bit if a softy, which you wouldn't have guessed from the prologue.

Since Piecemeal June, Krall has published two other books, Squid Pulp Blues and Fistful of Feet, the latter of which I have on my to-read pile and looks really good. As long as the turds are kept to a minimum, I can stomach just about anything.

[Garrett Cook · Rating 5 out of 5]

Piecemeal June is a fun ride through the world of human sexuality, journeying from the deviant and the pornographic to the tender and human, along the way interweaving a plot involving crabpeople assassins and pornographers from the place pornography basically comes from. The characters are likable, real and full of nuance and the prose is crisp and enjoyable. A must read and a future Bizarro crossover classic. Fans of the Damnation Game, Imajica and Great and Secret Show will find Krall' s worlds intriguing and rife with potential. An excellent read.Not for the square and the squeamish.

[Andersen Prunty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jordan Krall's debut novella, PIECEMEAL JUNE, is an extremely entertaining, suspenseful read. Think Edward Lee crossed with Elmore Leonard and a healthy dash of, I don't know, maybe the movie MANNEQUIN, and you'll know what to expect. But Krall goes beyond those expectations, adding his unique plot twists and a wild sense of imagination, injecting a whole fantasy world rife with odd conditions (like a woman with some kind of swirling sewer on her back) and sexually frenzied denizens. This is the ideal book for those looking for a quickly paced read full of bizarro writing that makes it far more interesting than most genre offerings. My only criticism of it would be an ending that seemed a little abrupt, but that may be because I wanted to keep reading.

[Anita Dalton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh dear Lord. How do I even begin? Because I am a closet pervert, I ordered this book thinking it was going to be a bizarro pornographic romp. It isn’t, not really, even though the June of the title character is a sex doll come to life, created in the image of a porn actress, and the main character, Kevin, has sex with her. Despite that, this is high bizarro that leaves me conflicted. Too many descriptions of sweat and feet and more feet. But there is a cat. An awesome cat. So you can see my dilemma. Read the rest of the review here.

[Jordan · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Krall's writing flows nicely. (Krall) is an exciting new voice to arrive on the horror scene. He combines gross-out with occultism but never forgets that characters are what makes a story." - Dark Scribe Magazine

"This is as weird as you'd expect from an Eraserhead Press release, but certain scenes are so funny--and our obscure couple so cool--you'll really get lost in the situations and characters to the point all the background strangeness becomes an afterthought." - The Horror Fiction Review

"Fans of the early works of Clive Barker and the paintings of Salvador Dali will have a lot to appreciate in Piecemeal June's world...This chaotic, well wrought and brilliantly paced caper features something the reader wouldn't expect from either a Bizarro novel or a book that explores the nature of kink and pornography: warmth and tenderness, components that end up making Piecemeal June a sublime balance of sacred profane, grimy, beautiful and sickening that could only be found in a world of gutsy surrealism." - Withersin Magazine

"Jordan Krall is a bit like Jonathan Lethem meets the Coen Brothers with an H.P. Lovecraft fetish. His tales will quickly grow on you. Read two books and you'll be addicted." - Carlton Mellick III, author of SATAN BURGER

"The plot is well-paced, the characters lovingly fleshed out, all of which add up to a read that's out-and-out fun." -Whitney Lakin, winner of the World Horror Convention's GROSS OUT CONTEST of 2008

"PIECEMEAL JUNE is a Crowleyan retelling of Ovid's wholesome tale [of Pygmalion].....If Aleister Crowley was indeed the incarnation of Satanist Pope Alexander VI or the magus Eliphas Levi, then Jordan Krall must be You-Know-Who Redivivus." - Tom Bradley, author of LEMUR

"Bodily fluids drip from the pages of PIECEMEAL JUNE like octopus ink and leave you holding your nose with sticky fingers and wishing you were even half as demented as Jordan Krall." -Gina Ranalli, author of WALL OF KISS

“Embedding this ultra-violent comedy with a heart as hardboiled as Hell in pink lace, Jordan Krall is a splatter-pop sensation. With the advent of Krall on the Bizarro scene, grindhouse glory has not only returned, it was retransmogrified.” - Cameron Pierce, author of SHARK HUNTING IN PARADISE GARDEN

[S.T. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Have you ever wanted to visit a place where human flesh is converted into a series of sweaty tinker toys existing for the sole purpose of soaking up disease and satisfying the perverse desires of strangers? Are you curious about the masturbatory habits of inter-dimensional crab mutants? Are you interested in building yourself a lover, but don’t know what to expect? If the answers to any of these questions are yes, Piecemeal June is the answer to all your prayers.
In this deranged and darkly comic adventure, Jordan Krall will wriggle deep inside your brain like a horny slug and have his way with your subconscious. If that sounds pleasant to you, I highly recommend jumping into the next swirling poop vortex that you come across and ride the wave of masticated flesh, feces and bodily fluids all the way to Om-Am. Krall paints pictures in viscera and sputum as he tells this story of unrequited love, fortune tellers, sleazy pornographers, mutants, piecemeal sex slaves, and foot fetishism. Amidst the swirling torrents of debauchery stands a sad, profoundly average yet thoughtful foot fetishist named Kevin who works at a pet store, lives above a porn shop, and loves his tarot reading feline. Piecemeal June is kind of a cross between "The Pearl" (John Steinbeck) and the end of "Society" (Brian Yuzna).
Fans of Carlton Mellick III and the Bizarro genre in general will not be disappointed in this lovingly crafted and deeply personal first novel. Eraserhead Press has found another budding visionary to forward their plans to warp the minds of the world. I understand that there will be several additional works taking place in the world of Om-Am. I can't wait to see what Mr. Krall has in store.

[James Stone · Rating 5 out of 5]

At the end of this book, Mr. Krall explains that it was his first story published, his first story written, in fact. He says it is his least favorite. That's his business. I just want to say that I flew through it and the only thing that slowed me down was that I had to keep re-attaching my ass, because it fell off from laughing so hard so many times.
This book is, as JK says, an example of Bizarro Fiction, a sub-genre of horror which is definitely NOT for everyone. But if you like grotesque humor I recommend this book strongly. The story is okay, shows some creativity in plot, but is essentially a story of Frankenstein's Monster as the most realistic sex doll in existence. I wonder if JK has read Charles Stross' "Saturn's Children? It certainly came to mind as I read this work. One thing I can say, in general, about all three of the many JK novels and stories which I have read is that if you have read Samuel R. Delaney's "Hogg", and appreciated it, then you will likely love Jordan Krall.
I want to say more but I will just start giving spoilers. One thing I can say is that I can now consider myself a fan of Jordan Krall's work and will be reading more of it. He is, to me, something of a genius at what and how he writes. The caveat stands: very gross and grotesque and NOT FOR Everyone!

[Robert Beveridge · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jordan Krall, Piecemeal June (Eraserhead, 2008)

If you're unfamiliar with the relatively new subgenre of literature known as bizarro...well, you're probably not reading this review. But just in case, bizarro is a kind of bastard child of splatterpunk and the subgenre of psychedelic rock known as blanga, wherein weird mysticism combines with hard-rock guitar to create a kind of commercial version of outsider art (think of Hawkwind or Blue Oyster Cult here). Bizarro revels in the grotesque, the mystic, and the mystical grotesque, oftentimes to the point of sacrificing such traditional artistic values as plot, character, and theme. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it does make bizarro pretty hard to get right. I've read some bizarro work that would make your hair stand on end (not because it's gruesome, but because it's just awful). Piecemeal June, from premier bizarro imprint Eraserhead Press, is thankfully not one of those books. It's not going to go down in history as timeless, granted, but for a seventy-two page book, it delivers the goods quite nicely.

The book concerns Kevin, a loser who lives above his small town's sole porn shop. One day his cat, Mithra, comes home with a piece of a love doll in its mouth. This become a regular occurrence, and pretty soon Kevin can assemble his very own lifelike pal. However, once the last piece falls into place, the doll comes to life, introduces herself as June, and tells Kevin she's on the run from a psychotic pornographer who's equipped with otherworldly enforcers. But really, how much do Kevin and June have to fear from what may be the most inept criminal enterprise ever committed to paper?

Above all, Piecemeal June is a fun book. It's the kind of thing that will have you alternately laughing and retching (and doing both simultaneously on occasion). As with all the bizarro work I've read, Krall not only never shies away from an opportunity to gross the reader out, but instead goes for the gusto. If it's offensive, he's found a way to work it in here somehow. Because of this, it does require a certain sensibility to really enjoy this (if a quick trip through the collected book titles of bizarro godfather Carlton Mellick III doesn't faze you, then you should be able to stomach anything found in these pages). But hey, if that sort of thing is up your alley, then get yourself acquainted with Jordan Krall right quick. ***

[Emory · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Such interesting uses of orifices."

This is what I told Jordan Krall in an email to him after finishing Piecemeal June. In this Bizarro novella, Krall introduces us to a manifold universe where there is something perverse that lays just beneath the surface of perception.

He populates his story with believable and surprising characters. Where you expect something sinister, you get a likable being at peace with its nature. When you do find a character that is bad on the surface, you also find the pitiable creature beneath the facade. There is also room for an average joe.

At the core of all the front line personalities is a desire to possess the most fascinating creature of them all: June, a sex-doll given life. Only one will keep her in the end, of course, but given the implied pornographic nature of the tale, the reader will be pleasantly surprised that sex is not the dominant force that drives the tale. It's almost an afterthought, just there because that is the way of this multiverse.

No, Piecemeal June is a study of human interaction, even among beings that are not quite human. The search for that hard to find feeling of true love is planted firmly in the center of this narrative.

The only real annoyance with this tale is its brevity. Now this does say more about the reader than the author. Jordan Krall did an amazing job of carefully wrapping all that he did into such a small package. There is also the fact that the Bizarro genre is marked by its many novella-length works.

In short, get this book in your collection immediately. It will only disappoint you with its final punctuation mark. Piecemeal June, though brief, is an excellent first offering from a very talented author.

[Anthony Chavez · Rating 3 out of 5]

My first introduction to the writing of of Jordan Krall and wow I was impressed, the concept and story were great and his writing flowed very well.

Like a couple other reviews I have read I really enjoyed the characters, they were very memorable, and I could stomach a lot of the weird going on but the use of feces... yeah that was a little much. It has something going for it as it is probably one of the more disgusting books I have read but hey I couldn't put it down, I wanted to know what happened to Kevin and June.

Quick Synopsis: Kevin lives in a flat over a porn shop and his cat Mithra keeps bringing up sweaty body parts, mind you they are just parts to a doll, not flesh. Once the doll is completed it comes to life and her and Kevin fall in love; however, there are some other bad dudes out to find June for whoring and various other grossness. Once found the question is will she stay with and choose Kevin or the other people from her past life/self?

I can't wait to read Squid Pulp and Fistfull of Feet though and seeing how Krall's work progresses and his writing grows.

[Sheldon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been reading Jordan Krall's books out of order. I'm not sure why. I seem to have started with the longer ones of late and have worked my way down to the shorter books. After reading Beyond the Valley of the Apocalypse Donkeys , Fistful of Feet , Squid Pulp Blues , and King Scratch , in that order, I've finally gotten around to reading Piecemeal June.

This book was Krall's rookie effort for Eraserhead Press, and you can definitely see why people have paid attention to his work from the beginning. If there's one word that comes to mind when trying to describe this book, it would be “solid.” The plot is solid, the world is solid, and the characters are solid, even if we don't see all of it.

Piecemeal June is the story of Kevin, a loner in a dead-end job who lives above a porn shop with a tarot-card obsessed cat named Mithra. Mithra begins bringing home what appears to be trash at first, until Kevin realizes that they are parts of a realistic sex doll who, when assembled, comes to life and identifies herself as June. In the meantime, they're pursued by a pornographer who believes the doll belongs to him and a god of the Second World (we are in the First World) who loves her.

For a book about a sex doll, a pornographer, and beings cobbled together from various body parts, I'm surprised that there weren't more graphic adult situations in this story, but the amount worked just right. It's actually not gratuitous, but is really what is necessary to drive the story. Again, however, Krall seems to have an affinity for writing characters who have trouble controlling their bowels.

While the story is short and there's not a whole lot of space to develop the characters, it felt as though there was a lot going on under the surface that we don't see, giving them some depth. And the story, as I said, is quite solid and ties together quite well...sort of.

Let me explain this by saying that there are two main problems with this novel. The first and most obvious is that there are editing problems. Usually, I can overlook a few errors, but the errors here are numerous enough to be distracting, and I have to take a half-star off the final score in this case.

The second problem is the aforementioned issue with the plot. It's really good and absorbing all the way through...and then ends suddenly. I mean very suddenly. It's like the plot slammed into a brick wall at 70 MPH. I almost wonder if Krall either wrote himself into a corner or simply got bored with it and just decided to end it then and there. This is really disappointing because it was such a great story and I was ready to give the book a higher rating up until that point.

Piecemeal June is definitely worth your time, especially for it being a rookie effort from a talented bizarro author. Just keep in mind that it will end very abruptly and not in the most satisfying manner.

Piecemeal June by Jordan Krall earns four sex doll parts out of five.

[S.T. Cartledge · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok, what I'm going to do here is try to be as honest as possible while trying to view this book from other perspectives than my own.

For the most part of the book, I was feeling disgusted by all the gross graphic fetishes going on. This is a very detailed, graphic story about low level porno scum who get off on some really sick junk. It's like those viral videos that everyone talks about as being so disgustingly foul that you should avoid them at all costs. But people check it out anyway because, you know, it's in their nature, they're curious as to how messed up things can get. Some people enjoy that sort of stuff, they get off on it, and that, I think, is primarily the target audience of this book. At the times when the filthy porn fetishes were at their worst I was tempted to give this book a two star rating. I'm not one of those people who enjoys this sort of stuff.

So then you must be thinking, why would I read a book such as this? Well, I've got a couple of reasons. I've read three other books by Krall, and two of them, while still containing plot elements of nauseating fetishes, were severely toned down and other plot elements were bolstered up around genre aesthetics. That other book was filthy like this one. Also, I don't think it's right to go around saying "oh no this book is so wrong no one should read it, it should be banned!" This book is most certainly not for everyone. And I only read it because I like things that mess around with cultural taboos. As soon as people start getting worked up over content like this, the idea of censorship comes up, and I just can't go for that.

I understand why some people may love this book, and I understand why some people hate the book. I think, ultimately, nothing will come of the people who rant and rave about how disgusting it is, but rather, the book will thrive under negative criticism. I guess that's why I don't mind being so open about my distaste for the majority of the book.

However, one thing I can't go past, is that Jordan Krall can actually write. He is a good writer. He's disgusting, and he makes me sick, but he's not just throwing a bunch of gross out porno scenes and random fetishes into a book and going "hey look everyone, look at how gross out this is because I want to see how offended you get!" This book is not like that. And as I got further into the book, the plot became stronger and I actually gave a damn about the main characters. A poor nobody-schmuck and his piecemeal sex-doll girlfriend are not characters without their sins, but by contrast to just about everyone else in the story, they're saints. You don't want them to suffer if it means the all-out nasty guys will get their way. For what the content is worth, the story is remarkably well handled, and I think that is the real defining factor for the book. I hope Jordan never writes a book as gross as this again, and while I won't be surprised if he does, I'll just be looking out for his more genre-styled work, less offensive on the imagination.

[Su-ling · Rating 4 out of 5]

The scariest part about this book was I found it both erotic and disgusting, loads of sex but who knows what hole they are going to use and I don't mean picking between the "regular" three either.

Piecemeal June a raunchy romp through two dimensions of sorts and an orgy of all the over sexed creatures of both worlds.

We are following the life of a regular Joe, he has a mundane job, a mediocre life and zero love life. That is until his cat Mithra starts to being home very special treats, treats that look like flesh but feel like rubber, treats that seem to all fit together and form something kinky and amazing. But when he gets all the pieces together, his life is turned from mundane and mediocre to weird, horny and disturbing.
Read as creatures with crab like features dissect humans and send them as spare parts to another dimension, a world filled with lust filled gods that will penetrate any orifice and fortune tellers that let you see the future through the bubbling, boiling pool of mystical poop on their backs and a struggle between our average joe and the men who want to steal his brand new life like girlfriend for their own sick pleasures.

I really had a good time reading Piecemeal June, it was easy and quite pleasant to read, well apart from the stuff that included poop. I'm not a fan of anything that involves poop but thats just a personal thing. The characters were funny and the scenes strange and intriguing and each sentence kept me wanting to know what was going to happen.

Really good read, I definitely recommend it because who doesn't love a good armpit fucking!

[Eerie Daffodil · Rating 5 out of 5]

While Kevin seems to be just another single guy with a cat, in Piecemeal June, Bizarro author Jordan Krall has a lot in store for his unwitting and rather sweet protagonist.

In a regular world, Kevin modestly lives above a porn shop, works at a pet store and has a friend who has yet to get a handle on being an adult. It's from an alternative world of mutilated human body parts and three crab-monsters who enjoy nothing more than chomping on puppy legs like humans do pork rinds where June, the sex-doll is created. When Kevin's cat, Mithra randomly brings her disjointed parts home, Kevin glues the pieces together and his mundane life is transformed.

What moves the book along is Krall's ability to both disgust and fascinate his readers with imagery that is perverse and downright dirty in one paragraph, and vaguely romantic the next. The reader gets a sense from the beginning what is happening in Kevin's town, while it takes him the entire book to see it, let alone even try to grasp some understanding of it. That being said, Krall still manages to have a bit of a stun-factor in the end, leaving one to go back and flip through the pages to find the hidden pieces that were there the entire time.

Short, yet not as simple as you'd think, Jordan Krall's Piecemeal June is as provocative as it is sentimental, leaving love to grace the pages just as much as the bodily fluids. Don't be surprised if you feel the need to rub one out right along with Macchu, Bacchu, and Frank.

[Steven Rage · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyone wants June. Every single piece of her...
Jordan Krall's Piecemeal June is a short and intense rollercoaster ride, with a good dosing of breathless dizzy nausea, compelling one to the back of the line, to wait for yet another turn.
The story flows nicely through the atmosphere of the accepted bizarre and deranged like a steamboat on a lollypop lake. The decadent and the profane jostle for the same sticky-sweet deck space. Who knows who June wants to curl up to when it has all been said and bludgeoned. Can June give herself, bodies and souls to her lovers?
Highly original and masterfully executed. Piecemeal June does what a great story should do: entertains, amazes, stretches your imagination and forces you to ponder what you had just ingested.
Jordan Krall does a fantastic job in keeping this wonderfully insane story fast-paced, but still focused, contained, not letting the popping visuals run hell-bent for high water. Jordan keeps it all neatly together and precisely connected with his nicely controlled writing style.
Jordan Krall is one sick puppy just screaming his way to the top of my favorite writers list, as is the whole genre, if truth be told (and why not?)
What the hell, folks, maybe print isn't completely dead. Not with writers and stories like these.
I await with bated breath for his next one: Squid Pulp Blues.

[camilla · Rating 5 out of 5]

I never know what to say about stuff I read, especially when I think the story is as awesome as this one. when i was up to page 10 i told myself: "this book is awesome, i love it already." extremely entertaining and extremely funny. A book that you wont stop reading until you finish. i would like to see it turned into a movie someday. I wish I had started my adventurez in the bizarro books world with this masterpiece. I'll definitely look into this guy's other books. I read a pdf version of this book but i'd totally buy the physical book if i had the chance. I'll recommend this book to my friends who'd gave the courage to get a taste of the awesomeness that this is.

[Randy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easily ranks among the top three most vile, nauseating, and ingenious books I have ever read (and that's saying a lot.) The gross-out factor in this one is HIGH and yet it is very well thought out and at times extremely intimate. Ever wonder what goes on inside a jaded fetish porn producers head? Do crab-people who pro...duce narcotic bodily fluids tickle your fancy? Are you into tarot readings from kittens and abundantly disturbing references to the 60's Batman show? Then, my friend, look no further!

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bizarro and more bizarro. You can't be warned forcefully enough about what to expect in this novella. There's the born loser whose lives above a porn store and whose cat retrieves piece by piece of a living sex doll from another dimension. There are the three crablike creatures. There is the boxer past his prime, the retired porn star who doesn't want to be pimped back into the business. There's another dimension where sexual organs are found just about anywhere and everywhere. There's an obsession with pantyhose and sweaty feet. And there's a story in here somewhere.

[Dustin Reade · Rating 5 out of 5]

A cat helps her owner build a woman out of bits and pieces of a discarded sex doll. He falls in love with the sex doll, who comes to life after the vagina is added. But they must fight vicious crab things and an evil pornographer from another world.
Now, I ask you: "What about that description makes this book NOT worth five stars?"

[P.D. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very twisted bit of fantasy. This is about as perverted as a story can be. You're sure to find something here to disturb you. Yet it is sickly entertaining and extremely imaginative.

Jordan Krall is one warped cookie.

[Konnie Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

First book I read of Jordan Krall's and I loved it! I will definitely seek out more. This story was different than what I thought it would it be, so that made it all the more enjoyable. Can't wait to see what else he can come up with!

[Grant Wamack · Rating 4 out of 5]

Piecemeal June is a fast paced read with intriguing characters,blood,sex,and violence.Once your finished,bloody and beaten on all fours,be ready to Krall back for more.

[Cindi Kelley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely worthy of the Bizarro genre. I was laughing out loud when Pop get attacked by crap. Now that was messed up.

[Shawn · Rating 1 out of 5]

Slacker rom-com meets grindcore cover art, I really can't think of anything redeeming about this because it seems bloated and scattershot as if trying to fill its bizarro quota.

[Aleksandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

An intriguing weird bizarro story. Imagine a Pygmalion retelling with bizarro trappings, crabs and a lot of crap, literał.

[KD250 · Rating 3 out of 5]

"As King Dallas once said 'Ask not what your body can do for you, ask what I can do with your body. '"

Unexpected heart, I enjoyed it.

[Treeee · Rating 1 out of 5]

There are not many books that I thoroughly don't enjoy, but I have to say that this was one of them. I was disappointed because I generally enjoy absurdist art, but I felt that it was mostly an exercise in coming up with the weirdest and most disgusting situations that the author could think of, without any actual substance. The reader can barely go five pages without being barraged with scenes that involve gratuitous amounts of feces or someone screwing an orifice filled with oozing sores. This would have been okay if there was a point behind it other than just showing how many ways the author could come up with to have someone covered in excrement. Since there seemed to be none I felt that it was just silly(and not the good kind).

As I read this book I kept expecting something to happen, but it never did. Just as it seemed that it was about to get interesting, it ended. It almost seemed as if the author decided that he didn't want to finish the book, so he came up with the quickest and easiest way to end the story.

I can kind of see where the author might have been trying to go with this (saying that even sucking and screwing diseased filled orifices all day, every day would be more enlightened than what our society is doing on a day to day basis) but I just don't think he pulled it off. Even saying that I think he was going for that is a stretch.

I liked some of the characters, specifically the kitty and Mushy. I thought the book would have had potential if the plot had been stronger and there had been more of a climax. Some of the scenes did well at making me cringe with disgust, and although I did not feel it was in a good way I guess that is good if you like that sort of thing.

To sum up I found the plot to be minimal and boring, the characters two dimensional, and the descriptive qualities to be lacking for the most part. The editing of the book definitely needed improvement, which combined with other problems caused it not to flow well. The author seemed to be trying to prove how weird he is, which caused it to seem forced. The whole thing seemed to me like something written by a twelve year old inspired by the discovery of the word sharted. However, if you enjoy reading descriptions of women covered with diseased sores, feces filled rooms, and children choking themselves with fish then this book is for you.

[Edmund Colell · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of those books which makes me feel a bit iffy about quantifiable rating systems, as I feel this book really gets something more like a 3.7. While Jordan Krall's Piecemeal June is marred by a few problems, it is still an enjoyable read.

This is definitely a story that is built on characters, and the first character to gain reader sympathy is Mithra, Kevin's cat. In a way, it feels like the story should have had more focus on Mithra for the way that he is a very active character and in many cases more of an active character than Kevin, considering how he was the one who brought the pieces of the titular June doll in addition to the tarot cards peppered throughout the story. Kevin himself is, however, a largely-relatable person. His mental freudian slips which happen every so often have brought some smiles to my face while reading, and his relationship with June did feel pretty damn genuine even when considering the change in dynamic from being a project to being a walking, talking entity without the whole situation coming off as astoundingly creepy. The other characters involved help mold the atmosphere through the ways they are involved in the porn business or in sickly divine affairs, and how the most prominent characters among each group want to take June away.

As said before, however, there are some issues. The prologue seemed a bit out of place, apparently being about Simon, God of Whores making a quick harvest from some guy that stumbled out of a bar. The reason why this seems out of place is that Simon is built up at this early point to be an unforgiving badass, which doesn’t seem to be quite consistent with his “Oh, okay,” attitude at the very end (for what, I’m not at liberty to say). The tarot cards were also felt a little unnecessary as there didn’t seem to be any kind of payoff for them at the end. They can be interpreted as Mithra giving small bursts of foreshadowing, but at the same time it felt like they should have gotten some kind of finish by the story’s end. The last thing I’m going to complain about is the editorial slip-ups, if only because they really felt at odds with the otherwise smoothly-flowing prose.

All in all, a great concept with some slips in execution. It is by no means a bad book, however, so when looking for a book that manages to do human/sex-doll romance well, look towards Krall’s Piecemeal June.

[Rhonda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jordan Krall's first bizarro release through Eraserhead Press, Piecemeal June, is a strong first novel. It is the story of a guy named Kevin who lives above the town's one and only porn shop with his cat, Mithra. Said cat has a habit of bringing various things to Kevin, typically tarot cards, but one day he brings Kevin an ankle... and it's sweating! In the following days Mithra brings Kevin more body parts, and eventually Kevin has the complete makings of a full female. When he puts the female together, to his surprise, she comes to life and tells him her name is June. However, little does Kevin know, but Max Alexander, evil pornographer, and his three crab-human assassins are looking for June and will stop at nothing to get her back. Based on the blurb of the back of this book, I went into Piecemeal June thinking it might be heavy in regards to sex, but after reading it realized there honestly wasn't much to do with sex in the book at all. The book is actually more focused on a deeper love story between the characters in the book as you will see as you read it. Despite this being a "love story", however, Piecemeal June also is quite grotesque in parts. There is one character called Simon, the God of Whores, who is pretty darn foul! The scenes describing him and the things he does may make some readers retch a bit. For those accustomed to reading gross-out kinds of scenes, these parts shouldn't phase them one bit, but to others... I'm just giving fair warning that you might not want to eat right before reading this. All in all, this is a great first novel and I'm looking forward to reading the other works by Krall. Highly Recommended!

Contains: Adult Language, Adult Situations

Review also posted at MonsterLibrarian.com