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sleazeland
From two-time Wonderland Book Award-winning author, Cody Goodfellow, described as “one of the best writers of our generation” by grandmaster of horror Brian Keene, and “the Ellroy of speculative fiction ” by acclaimed cult author Jeremey Robert Johnson, comes a novel of desperation and degradation in the city of mutilated dreams. Loathe him or hate him, nothing can stop Charlie Parsons from living the Hollywood dream––not homelessness, not a shady agent who sends him on daily suicide missions, not even the combined might of the LAPD and the infamous Blood Eagle Security. With only a tattered tell-all bio of the most problematic child star in TV history for guidance, Parsons is going to get famous if he has to blow every studio mogul in town to make his dream come true. But Charlie slides into a nightmare when he touches the bulging belly of a runaway pregnant woman with the unborn son of a cult-leader so powerful, thinking his name could give you cancer. From the empty LA River to an eternal, interdimensional A-list party, Charlie is running for his life, crashing through twisted alternate Hollywoods where the religious right rules all and bloodthirsty studio execs hunt the homeless for sport. On a quest to save the proverbial damsel in distress, he’ll have to pitch a dozen shit-hot movie ideas, slay the dragons of his problematic past and somehow overcome the temptation of the most dangerous addiction in the dirty business of dreams––true, unselfish love. Sleazeland is one of Cody Goodfellow’s absolute best works of bizarro fiction. A parable for the harsh realities of surviving in one of the filthiest industries on Earth.
174 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2018
4 people are currently reading
56 people want to read
About the author
Cody Goodfellow
162 books384 followersCODY GOODFELLOW has written nine novels and five collections, and has won three Wonderland Book Awards for Bizarro Fiction. He wrote, co-produced and scored the short Lovecraftian hygiene films Stay At Home Dad and Baby Got Bass, which have become viral sensations on YouTube. He has appeared in numerous short films, TV shows, music videos and commercials as research for his previous novel, Sleazeland. He also edits the hyperpulp zine Forbidden Futures. He “lives” in San Diego. Find out more at codygoodfellow.com.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
May 26, 2021
The sharpest prose I've read this year. The latest skewering of tinseltown that Goodfellow (and Skipp) began in The Last Goddam Hollywood Movie continues here, but grounding this more in "reality" (for the first half at least, the second half is a whole 'nother story, with FX by Screaming Mad George) actually ratchets up the craziness, if that makes any sense. The introduction of the protagonist is hilarious and alarming and one for the ages. And since it's an Eraserhead book, it has the requisite fetus subplot (those Bizarro books sure are equally obsessed with birth and death!), and as a bonus you get a handful of surprisingly compelling but no less insane movie pitches that are light years better than the garbage in the theaters these days. Other highlights include The Real Reason For Dogs revealed and the most accurate description of writers I've ever read: "They each have their own particular methods of being unbearable, whether they're given too much or too little praise..." So in that spirit, I'll give Goodfellow the praise porridge that's just right, but also try to make him unbearable, by saying he's way better than the rest of the shit out there. "Stars aren't born, they're bent." Question though, how do we get the unredacted version of the 23rd chapter?
October 26, 2018
Full Review
Sleazeland is a hilarious, entertaining, and disturbing satire of modern Hollywood written with excellent prose. Cody Goodfellow meshes genres masterfully into an imaginative and insightful story of spiritual and emotional emptiness. I highly recommend this novel.
Sleazeland is a hilarious, entertaining, and disturbing satire of modern Hollywood written with excellent prose. Cody Goodfellow meshes genres masterfully into an imaginative and insightful story of spiritual and emotional emptiness. I highly recommend this novel.
January 27, 2019
I listened to every song listed in the beginning of each chapter's musical cues while reading this book and it was totally fucking awesome. And what a story! This is my first Cody Goodfellow book and he's the coolest. There couldn't be a cooler book, ever.
October 3, 2018
A scathing fricassee of LA & Hollywood in the Goodfellow style
March 16, 2019
Harlan Ellison once said that, "LA is a gauche baby with a shotgun in its mouth, it will do anything..."
And Cody Goodfellow has captured the essence of this statement in Sleazeland.
Sleazeland is like a Captain Beefheart album produced by Frank Zappa with a Slayer album laid on top. If this were to be an audio book, the narrator would have to read the explosive, hilariously cynical prose at a record rate of knots to justify the rapid fire cadence of the words.
The book is relentless in its machine gun surrealism, its disjointed Utopian/Apocalyptic premise and its recurring theme of shit.
Charlie (Shinobi Honeycutt) Parsons lives the Hollywood dream at a million miles a minute. Yet he is a failure, a River Gig contestant, a Feco-American, the inventor of El Techico, who might have had a star on Hollywood Boulevard had he not met himself and witnessed the perversion and horror of the Hollywood whore of Sleazeland, the multicolored sewer dwellers of Glendale and the sellers of edible shit and shinola with a killer soundtrack.
And Cody Goodfellow has captured the essence of this statement in Sleazeland.
Sleazeland is like a Captain Beefheart album produced by Frank Zappa with a Slayer album laid on top. If this were to be an audio book, the narrator would have to read the explosive, hilariously cynical prose at a record rate of knots to justify the rapid fire cadence of the words.
The book is relentless in its machine gun surrealism, its disjointed Utopian/Apocalyptic premise and its recurring theme of shit.
Charlie (Shinobi Honeycutt) Parsons lives the Hollywood dream at a million miles a minute. Yet he is a failure, a River Gig contestant, a Feco-American, the inventor of El Techico, who might have had a star on Hollywood Boulevard had he not met himself and witnessed the perversion and horror of the Hollywood whore of Sleazeland, the multicolored sewer dwellers of Glendale and the sellers of edible shit and shinola with a killer soundtrack.
November 22, 2019
Like ripping open a hole in spacetime and holding on for dear life, cheeks-wobbling, legs kicking at the air, eyelids folding over, screaming with glee. Christ. I think my brain slipped out. Am I even a person anymore?
Yeah I liked it.
Yeah I liked it.
May 23, 2019
This one was great. Kind of a bit all over the place in parts, but it pulled together nicely. A lot of pop culture references and the song cues were pretty cool. It's definitely worth the read. It had me laughing in many parts.
November 26, 2018
A book that is somewhat difficult to describe. A deep dive into the filthy business that is entertainment. A Zelazny-like hellride through a multiverse of different realities. A pile of Vonnegut and Pornhub put into a dirty blender.
It remains intriguing enough to read from front to back with a protagonist who seems like they are also along for the ride.
There are elements of "what has Cody been doing for the last year" mixed with "dear gods! I hope that Cody did not have to go through that!".
The feel of the book is of a world where the characters that populate the pages are self conscious about how they are perceived by their adoring public. Walking that high wire and trying not to make a misstep to fall from "grace" to become a normal human.
I am pretty sure that if a church lady from the midwest got her hands on this book it would be waved around as validation of how sinful Hollywood actually is.
It remains intriguing enough to read from front to back with a protagonist who seems like they are also along for the ride.
There are elements of "what has Cody been doing for the last year" mixed with "dear gods! I hope that Cody did not have to go through that!".
The feel of the book is of a world where the characters that populate the pages are self conscious about how they are perceived by their adoring public. Walking that high wire and trying not to make a misstep to fall from "grace" to become a normal human.
I am pretty sure that if a church lady from the midwest got her hands on this book it would be waved around as validation of how sinful Hollywood actually is.
July 7, 2021
This is probably one of the strangest books I have read and I don’t really know what to make of it 🤨. I felt like I was all over the place, possibly on a bad acid trip while trying to fight my way out of a wet paper bag. Not a bad thing, I love a book that puzzles and challenges you and makes you think. Goodfellow really nailed the sleazy Hollywood scene, the desperation and the dreams in this utopian bizarro fiction, is that even a genre? For all of my confusion, everything did come together in the end although I’m sure that lots still went over my head. Overall a unique experience, plenty of laughs and a book I will probably never forget. I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone easily offended. 3.5⭐️
August 10, 2022
Very sharp, and sometimes utterly bizarre writing. A quintessential slam on Hollywood and its almost subhuman nature. The movie pitches were both hilarious and in their own right, amazing. Weird, concise, poignant, humorous, and profound. Packaged in words so tight and razor-sharp, that you have to be careful turning each page. Excellent quick read.
December 11, 2019
Goodfellow is something else. I've never seen such lunacy written this well. This is a short, hilarious, breathlessly paced book that revels in its own absurdities.
In other words, it's great stuff.
In other words, it's great stuff.
Read
May 22, 2021I need to revisit this another time. I've heard nothing but good things about Goodfellow from writers I admire, so maybe I just wasn't in the right headspace for this one.
September 11, 2024
4.5 stars?
Def recommend
Def recommend
February 15, 2021
This book is great if you think books are boring because this one is not!!!! It is crazy like a baby play-station you know the thing with plush vinyl sea creature forms hangin' Offa white plastic ropes and curved rubberised wires with wooden beads and probably some jingle bells and it smells like gummed Nila wafers and baby slime wait this isn't a good review let me try again
You can put the book in your mouth but people at the airport will give you looks
It's a good book especially if you have ADHD or whatever they call it now. Don't take the pills. Just read crazy books instead.
I got this book in exchange for an honest review and also I paid $20 I didn't listen to the music yet and I never want to go to LA or Hollywood
Also the cover art made all the other fancy moms scowl at me as I sat in the children's cafe in San Rafael.
You can put the book in your mouth but people at the airport will give you looks
It's a good book especially if you have ADHD or whatever they call it now. Don't take the pills. Just read crazy books instead.
I got this book in exchange for an honest review and also I paid $20 I didn't listen to the music yet and I never want to go to LA or Hollywood
Also the cover art made all the other fancy moms scowl at me as I sat in the children's cafe in San Rafael.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews