Amberville

Mollisan Town Quartet #1

by Tim Davys

Eric Orso ha tutto quello che si può desiderare: successo, una casa di lusso, una moglie bellissima. Sa di essere molto fortunato, perché non molto tempo addietro la sua vita era una corsa forsennata tra malefatte di ogni tipo, droga e locali malfamati; e la sua compagnia abituale era una gang agli ordini di un noto boss della malavita di Mollisan Town, Nicolas Colombo. Ma il passato non è del tutto sepolto come Eric Orso pensava. Nicolas Colombo torna, una mattina, con la sua banda di scagnozzi piumati, a fargli visita e a mettere a soqquadro la sua vita, oltre che la sua bella casa. Colombo è molto chiaro: sa di essere finito sulla Lista della morte ed Eric deve toglierlo da lì. Altrimenti, a farne le spese, sarà la sua bella, Emma Coniglio, zampa per zampa. Eric Orso è allora costretto a rintracciare i suoi vecchi compagni di crimine, tutti un po' imbolsiti ma sempre pronti al rischio, per sventare il pericolo più serio in cui poteva cacciarsi: Tom Tom Corvo; Sam Gazzella; Serpente Marek. Li attende una impresa quasi impossibile: trovare la Lista che nessuno ha mai trovato, di cui si dubita pure che esista; e depennare il nome di Nicolas Colombo. Ma, soprattutto, Eric deve trovare un Orso che lo sostituisca in tutto e per tutto con Emma Coniglio affinchè nulla si sappia del suo oscuro passato. Chi meglio del gemello buono di Eric? Un noir insolito, politicamente scorretto, sensuale e divertente.

Genres: Mystery, Fantasy, Fiction, Thriller, Crime, Ebooks, Noir

305 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Tim Davys is the pseudonym for a well-known Swedish public figure, and Amberville is his or her first novel.

A dark and stormy night…I was born in a country far, far away. Before the age of 20, I never read a book. Comic books, magazines, and movies taught me how to tell a story. I studied literature, got a job, found a wife, and bought a dog. I studied psychology, got another job, held on to the wife, and wrote a book.
Today I'm much older than I used to be. The dog is much older too. I would never comment on the age of my wife. The idea going forward is to stay alive, write a lot more, and adapt to a life in New York City. But if I've learnt on thing in this life (and I know I have), it's this: It's never going to turn out the way you intended.

Reviews

[Olethros · Rating 4 out of 5]

-Existencialismo noir protagonizado por peluches animados. Sí, en serio.-

Género. Narrativa fantástica (por decirles algo, aunque tal vez sería mejor decir “Novela con una gigantesca licencia de partida”).

Lo que nos cuenta. En el barrio de Amberville, en Mollisan Town, Eric Oso es un maduro profesional de la publicidad y un amante esposo que ha dejado muy atrás un pasado ilegal. Pero uno de los jefes del crimen organizado para quien trabajó, Nicholas Paloma, le obliga a realizar un trabajo: localizar una lista que muchos consideran que no es más que un mito y quitar su nombre de ella. Si no lo consigue, Eric verá asesinada a su amada Emma Coneja, por lo que recurre a sus antiguos compañeros de correrías, Tom-Tom Corneja, Sam Gacela y Serpiente Marek. Escrita bajo seudónimo por un autor (o autora) de origen sueco, de identidad aparentemente relevante en la sociedad de su país y con mucho celo sobre su intimidad. Primer libro de la serie Mollisan Town.

¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:

http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...

[Olethros · Rating 4 out of 5]

-Existencialismo noir protagonizado por peluches animados. Sí, en serio.-

Género. Narrativa fantástica (por decirles algo, aunque tal vez sería mejor decir “Novela con una gigantesca licencia de partida”).

Lo que nos cuenta. En el barrio de Amberville, en Mollisan Town, Eric Oso es un maduro profesional de la publicidad y un amante esposo que ha dejado muy atrás un pasado ilegal. Pero uno de los jefes del crimen organizado para quien trabajó, Nicholas Paloma, le obliga a realizar un trabajo: localizar una lista que muchos consideran que no es más que un mito y quitar su nombre de ella. Si no lo consigue, Eric verá asesinada a su amada Emma Coneja, por lo que recurre a sus antiguos compañeros de correrías, Tom-Tom Corneja, Sam Gacela y Serpiente Marek. Escrita bajo seudónimo por un autor (o autora) de origen sueco, de identidad aparentemente relevante en la sociedad de su país y con mucho celo sobre su intimidad. Primer libro de la serie Mollisan Town.

¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:

http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...

[Ron · Rating 1 out of 5]

This novel reminded of the tale of the emperor's clothes. Not because of a similar story, but because some people will see wondrous things while others will see nothing. I'm in the latter category.

A Raymond Chandler-style pot boiler with stuffed animal characters? Well. it's different.

Don't waste your money. In fact, if it's free, don't waste your time.

[Eric Mesa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of the top five weirdest books I have ever read. It takes place in a world of stuffed animals, but that has both almost no bearing on the story and is key to the main plot. What I mean is that it's never revealed that actually they're toys in a toystore or a messed up version of the 100 Acre Woods. The fact that they are stuffed animals is not part of some plot twist. (The thought that it might be a twist kept distracting me the entire time trying to find out the clue) But at the same time, the entire plot of the book, which in a way I don't wish to spoil, revolves around life and death depends entirely upon the fact that, as stuffed animals, they can't be killed in the ways that we can.

Contributing to the strangeness of the book is the fact that it shifts from omniscient 3rd person to first person POVs in various chapters. Two main characters are always in first person and a few auxiliary characters are in first person. But the bulk of the main protagonists have 3rd person omniscient POVs. Part of the trick there is that it's generally assumed that 3rd person narratives are reliable narrators. But it eventually becomes clear that some of the first person chapters are unreliable narrators. And the reasons for the unreliability are quite varied.

Speaking of which, the narrative winds back and forth between the present and past, filling in little details here in there and eventually revealing an almost Fight Club level twist partway through the book.

It's a meditation on the lies we tell others and the lies we tell ourselves. It considers whether there is redemption or whether people are just evil or good. Church and state and power are examined. Hero worship. It's a dense book for so strange a premise that I thought would be mined for humor.

If you want something different; perhaps something Weird (as in the genre) - you should give this a shot. And push through the seemingly cookie cutter-ish first few chapters until it flips you around and makes you start questioning everything.

[Olethros · Rating 4 out of 5]

-Existencialismo noir protagonizado por peluches animados. Sí, en serio.-

Género. Narrativa fantástica (por decirles algo, aunque tal vez sería mejor decir “Novela con una gigantesca licencia de partida”).

Lo que nos cuenta. En el barrio de Amberville, en Mollisan Town, Eric Oso es un maduro profesional de la publicidad y un amante esposo que ha dejado muy atrás un pasado ilegal. Pero uno de los jefes del crimen organizado para quien trabajó, Nicholas Paloma, le obliga a realizar un trabajo: localizar una lista que muchos consideran que no es más que un mito y quitar su nombre de ella. Si no lo consigue, Eric verá asesinada a su amada Emma Coneja, por lo que recurre a sus antiguos compañeros de correrías, Tom-Tom Corneja, Sam Gacela y Serpiente Marek. Escrita bajo seudónimo por un autor (o autora) de origen sueco, de identidad aparentemente relevante en la sociedad de su país y con mucho celo sobre su intimidad. Primer libro de la serie Mollisan Town.

¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:

http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...

[David Hebblethwaite · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, this is quite an oddity – a noir thriller with a cast of stuffed animals. The story goes like this: Eric Bear has a happy life, married to the beautiful Emma Rabbit and with a good job in advertising. But, in his past, Eric was involved with some shady characters, one of whom now comes calling – Nicholas Dove, who has heard that his name is on the Death List, which means (if the tales are to be believed) that the Chauffeurs will shortly come to escort him on the ultimate one-way journey. Dove demands that Eric find the Death List and get his name removed from it, or Emma will be the one who pays the price. The job should be straightforward enough, because the Death List is just a fable; but Eric gets his old gang back together all the same – and, of course, the truth proves more complicated than anyone thought.

So, this Scandinavian crime novel (the author is Swedish; ‘Tim Davys’ is a pseudonym) is far from the norm, and could have been ridiculous – but it’s not. What is perhaps most striking about Amberville is that Davys tells his tale with a completely straight face; one might laugh briefly at the thought of, say, a stuffed dove walking around with two stuffed gorillas for heavies, but not for very long, because it’s not funny at all in the context of the story – it’s deadly serious. Davys creates his world with such integrity that one can’t help but take it seriously. His control of voice is also superb, switching between different characters whose voices are all distinctive, no matter how brief their turn at narration (and here, I must also acknowledge Paul Norlen’s excellent work as translator).

Driving the plot of Amberville is a mystery – is there a Death List, and, if so, who’s behind it? – which is deeper for reader s than it is for the characters, because we have more questions to ask: what is this place, Mollisan Town, inhabited by walking, talking, living stuffed animals? What goes on behind the scenes to make it all work (the inhabitants of Mollisan Town know that the young animals are manufactured somewhere and delivered to the city in vans, but no one thinks to question any further)?

Well, Amberville is the first novel in a series (though that’s not clear from the edition I was reading), so the answers aren’t all forthcoming here. That’s not a problem in itself, but I do think it has a knock-on effect – it seems to me that the major revelations for this volume are made some time before the end, leaving the rest of the book to be mostly i-dotting and t-crossing, which feels somewhat anti-climactic. This is unfortunate, because most of the rest of Amberville is pacy and engaging (with an added helping of speculation about the nature of good and evil, courtesy of Eric’s brother Teddy).

My misgivings about the conclusion of Amberville make me feel a little less inclined to find out where Davys takes his series; but the momentum of the earlier parts of the book is considerable. It’s worth a look, I think.

[S. Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eric, now an adult and a successful advertising executive, has been successful in putting his reckless and somewhat criminal youthful indiscretions behind him. At least, that's what he thought. But then the local kingpin he once worked for shows up with a non-negotiable proposition. Find the hit list that his name is rumored to be on, and remove it from the list. Otherwise, he will kill Eric's girlfriend. Now, Eric must get the old gang back together and track down the "Death List" at any cost.

A compelling and straight-forward plot. The big twist? Eric, the crime boss, and all of the other characters in the book are stuffed animals. They live in a world completely populated by stuffed animals, in which the young and old are delivered and taken away by pick-up trucks. It is definitely an interesting plot twist. But is it necessary?

The idea isn't completely original (The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, The Big Over Easy: A Nursery Crime, Meet the Feebles), but that doesn't mean it isn't good. It just means that the author might want to approach the concept from an original angle.

Tim Davys does, but he unfortunately decides to play it straight. The idea of stuffed animals in a detective mystery novel begs for plenty of sarcastic tongue-in-cheek humor, but Amberville avoids silly humor and instead relies on the subtle absurdities (a small stuffed dove as a crime kingpin, for example) to deliver the humor on their own, which they never really manage to do. Even the author's approach to the way characters are named in Amberville (simply a first name followed by the type of stuffed animal they are), shows a lack of desire to truly have fun with the concept. In short, things that should be comical or farcical are just as boring as they would be in the real world.

The result is a story that could easily be translated into a realistic, non-fantasy setting and written as a straight hardboiled noir novel. Amberville doesn't necessarily fail at making the concept work, it just doesn't fully convince the reader that fantastical setting was crucial to the story.

Amberville is supposed to reveal truths about human nature, morality, religion, and the concepts of good and evil, by having stuffed animals act out the scenarios in which these philosophical debates occur. This is where the book does fail, much in the same way that White Man's Burden failed. Changing reality in some ironic or absurd way might seem deep and meaningful at first. But unless there are other connections on multiple levels, all that you are left with is an overused gimmick.

Amberville is a good book. It has a compelling story, interesting characters, and enough twists and turns to keep a mystery lover interested until the end. It just doesn't quite manage to be what it wanted to be, and that's what keeps it from being a great book.

[Alan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was... a little disappointed in this one.

It has a great concept, a really neat conceit, to use the phrase I like to use. A sordid city full of stuffies come to life, a noir vision of love and betrayal where Eric, a tough-talking teddy bear and Emma, the bunny who is his sometimes disturbingly aloof lady love, can make a life together in Amberville, one of the four color-coded quadrants of Mollisan Town, at least until the even tougher-talking gangster Nicholas Dove comes with his two gorillas (one of them bright red) to advance a proposition that Eric dare not refuse. But...

But it didn't really grab me. The prose just seemed stolid, its short sentences choppy and rigid instead of laconic and punchy like a good two-fisted detective novel. This might be an issue with the translation—I discovered after finishing that this book was translated from Swedish. But also... while the initial idea was great and there were occasional flashes of brilliance in how it was executed (I'm thinking in particular of a scene involving an effective, if gruesome, method of intimidating a bunch of cotton-stuffed toughs), the parts never seemed to hang together very well—I never really got a sense of scale, of the size of the stuffed animals in relation to their city, nor did I get that feeling of "yes, I would never have thought of it, but this is how it must be" which comes from a well-constructed fantasy world with its own strong internal consistency.

Take the very name "Amberville," for example... it doesn't seem to have any significance beyond being a way to separate Mollisan Town's neighborhoods. And if there is any intentional connection between Mollisan's four color-coded quadrants and the four colors of the Land of Oz, it is never made at all clear. There are parts here that are brilliant, parts that are fascinating... but they just don't add up to a coherent whole.

I won't say this is a bad book, and I'm sure it'll find its niche among people who are hungry for this sort of experiment. I just didn't get what I wanted out of it.

[Shotgun · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amberville je město, které pod na první pohled obyčejným a pokojným zevnějškem skrývá spoustu špíny, násilí a temných tajemství. A narušit váš spokojený a do poslední doby bezstarostný život může cokoliv. Třeba návštěva největšího mafiánského bosse, který vám dá zdánlivě neřešitelný úkol, který musíte splnit, jinak se vám pomstí na vaší milované ženě.
-- A vám nezbývá nic jiného než se zkontaktovat s dávnými přáteli z dob, kdy jste se ještě neměli tak dobře a proto jste se pohybovali na temné straně města. Čí více se hlavní hrdina dostává k splnění náročného úkolu a odhalení největšího a nejtemnějšího tajemství města Amberville, tím víc na povrch vyplouvá antagonismus v partě bývalých kumpánů a také různá tajemství a hříšky z dětství a mládí nejen hlavního hrdiny.
-- Kniha výborně navazuje na klasiky žánru noir a v knize se dynamicky střídá obyčejné fyzické násilí s rafinovaným psychickým terorem. Autor, který překvapivě do doby, kdy se rozhodl napsal knihu, žádnou sám nepřečetl. tedy pokud nepočítáte komiksy a grafické romány. Skvěle si hraje s hlavními postavami, kdy je čtenář po některých kapitolách nucen zcela přehodnotit svůj pohled nejen na hlavního hrdinu ale i na charakter a chování jiných postav. A ty nejsou většinou moc sympatické. Spíše naopak. Boj o moc, intriky a manipulace prostupují celým městem jako pojivo, které drží vše pohromadě.
-- Ani si nevzpomenu, zda v příběhu najdeme nějakého kladného hrdinu. Možná tak v začátku příběhu a v další části vám autor ukáže, že všechno je jinak a daná postava není zas tak fajn, jak jste si ještě před pár stránkami mysleli. Některé scény knihy jsou hodně mrazivé a i když někteří hrdinové knihy se hodně snaží být hodní a slušní plyšáci tak se často dočkáme velice nepříjemných překvapení. A kurwa! Já se úplně zapomněl zmínit, že v celé knize vystupují pouze humanoidní plyšáci, což celý příběh posouvá trošku jinam a navozuje atmosféru ztráty dětství a ideí.

[Marvin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Amberville tries to be a lot of things. It is a gritty gangster drama, a fantasy world of stuffed animals living human-like lives, and a allegory about good and evil. For the most part it is entertaining in a dark Animal Farm way. Yet the author is simply doing too much in one tale. It is even questionable whether this particular story benefits at all from placing it in a fantasy setting. I liked it but eventually became annoyed with it. Essentially it is a clever gimmick that simply didn't pan out. two and a half stars.

[Laura · Rating 1 out of 5]

Someone claimed that this book maybe a mixture of The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler and Animal Farm by George Orwell. I really doubt!!!

[Kovaxka · Rating 3 out of 5]

„Vigyél el innen kicsi eső. Vigyél messze innen el.
A mögöttem ácsorgó idő maradványain táncol egy Teddy bear.”
Quimby: Tébolyda

Odáig voltam érte, hogy ez mekkora ötlet. Amíg tartott a regényt benépesítő, cuki nevű plüssállatok (Medve Erik és Ede, szüleik Rinocérosz Edda és Boxer Endre, a végzett asszonya Nyúl Emma, a gengszter Galamb Miklós) megismerése, nem is volt semmi baj. Gazella Lalit, az örökké betépett, meleg, laza fazont még bírtam is. Mollisanvárosban – jelesül ebben a regényben főleg Amberville-ben, ahogy az eredeti címből is kiderül – egyébként minden plüssállat egyforma méretű, de sajnos elég egysíkúak is. Véresen komolyan veszik magukat, ahogy a szerző is őket, mégis hiteltelenek. Merthogy ugye filozofálnak, moralizálnak agyba-főbe, holott itt nekem egy krimi noir lett beígérve. Szóval igazából ez egy emberi társadalom, és innen már nem is annyira érdekes. Pedig a világépítés jól sikerült, szívesen olvastam volna még Mollisanváros színes utcáiról, a négy összenőtt városrész (Amberville, Tourquai, Lanceheim és Yok) működtetéséről, a reggeli és délutáni esőről. Érdekes lehetne a jó és a rossz mibenlétéről, az egyházi és a világi hatalomról, az életről és halálról gondolkodni egy plüssuniverzumban – ha nem ilyen végtelenül unalmasan lenne megírva. Így aztán én már sosem fogom megtudni, hogy mi lett Tourquai-ban a lefejezett keselyűvel.

[Booklover · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fictional book about fur animals that have a life of their own, they live in a big city divided into four quarters, animals are married workers and do all kinds of things that we humans do. The story intertwined with tension and mostly told from a pair of bears twins. It's strange (when it comes from me writing this) but, this book highly recommended.

[Maria João Fernandes · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Se fechasse os olhos, podia visualizar quatro milhões de fios finíssimos a saírem do seu cérebro, cada um ligado a um.dos peluches da sua cidade."

O conceito por trás do livro de Tim Davys prende a nossa atenção no mesmo segundo em que o confrontamos. Mollisan Town é um cidade habitada por animais de peluche, que dormem, comem, trabalham, divertem-se e deixam-se envolver pela amizade, amor e religião como as pessoas normais.

"Mas o amor é um mundo em si."

Eric Urso vive uma vida tranquila, ao lado da sua mulher Emma Coelho. Porém, circunstâncias para nós misteriosas, arrastam o peluche para as teias do seu passado, onde se esconde o mundo obscuro da máfia. Nicolau Pombo é como o Padrinho e exige a contribuição do seu antigo empregado numa tarefa urgente. Este, assustado por ser obrigado a aceitar, reúne os antigos colegas e, com eles, inicia uma aventura, por vezes divertida, mas acima de tudo perigosa.

Esta é uma história que envolves duas listas: a lista dos nascidos e a lista dos mortos, que envolvem todos os animais de peluche. Tal como nós, eles nascem e morrem, ainda que de formas diferentes. Os cidadãos de Amberville são criados e entregues aos pais pelos fornecedores. No final da sua vida, em que a aparência se mantém, mas o intelecto evolui, os motoristas vêm buscá-los.

"O género de coisas que te fazem doer o coração, dentro de ti, são o mal."

"Amberville" é um livro muito difícil de classificar. Entre o mistério e o drama estão expostos vários pensamentos, principalmente sobre o mal, o bem e o que distingue uma má de uma boa pessoa. A par da história principal, dominada por Eric Urso e o seu grupo, Davys insere histórias secundárias sobre obsessões, dificuldades e tristezas de personagens que, de uma forma ou de outra, estão ligadas ao fio condutor do livro.

Inicialmente, a originalidade por detrás da exposição de temas pertinentes e intemporais como a relação entre o passado e o presente, o bem e o mal, o amor, a amizade, a religião e o existencialismo são suficientemente fortes para nos manter cativados. Porém, a certa altura, os discursos tornam-se repetidos, ainda que as palavras e os interlocutores mudem, as ideias mantém-se. E assim, apenas o mistério persistiu, mas por si só, a busca por uma lista de nomes não é nada que nos faça perder a cabeça.

"Que a morte seja obra do acaso é de alguma maneira...indigno!"

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

I came to this book in a unusual way. My first novel, The Terror and the Tortoiseshell (about a world which has been taken over by mutated animals) was reviewed by Publishers Weekly and in its summation mentioned that my book bore superficial similarities to Amberville, a book about stuffed toy animals. The review also said my book was the better of the two. To say I was intrigued is putting it mildly.

So what kind of book is Amberville? A damn hard one to classify. If you go by some of the quotes, then it's a crime novel. Only I'd say this isn't true. It starts like that (kind of) but in the end becomes a book about good and evil and making the right choices, with quite a strong religious slant to it. And stuffed toy animals.

The thing is, the way the book has been written, I think it could as easily have been told without them - a lot more could have been done with these characters, and I wonder whether some of the power of the story has been lost in the translation, with some of the phrasing being below par. Another problem is the general pace of the book, which is pretty much the same the whole way through. Having said that, I enjoyed the book, but felt that there was a better one in there trying to get out.

But negatives aside, I'd recommend this book to anyone who wants something more than a bit different, as the central ideas are intriguing (it would make a cracking animated film if somebody like the Quay brothers could get hold of it) and the book takes you into places you really wouldn't expect or even think possible - somehow, despite its failings, it works. It also contains perhaps the best line I've ever read in my life - "He challenged the baboons to a duel"!

I've just found out that Amberville is only the first book in a series of four. I shall certainly be hunting out the other books in the series.

Three and a half stars.

[Franklyn Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amberville, part 3 of Tim Davys' Mollisan Town Quartet, is a slightly offbeat, mildly disturbing, thought-provoking, entertaining read. It touches on the nature of life and death, mistaken identity, law and order, and good and evil, all viewed through the perspective of stuffed animals.

Yes, you read that right. Stuffed animals. Mollisan Town is populated with stuffed animals of varying moral alignments, from the holy penguin Archdeacon Odenkirk to the malicious gangster Nicholas Dove.

Eric Bear, former mob enforcer, now a successful ad exec and devoted husband, is asked to do a favor for his former employer, the aforementioned Nicholas Dove: locate the Death List -- a roster of all the stuffed animals slated to die on a particular day -- and remove his name from it, or suffer the death of his beloved Emma Rabbit. The problem is no one knows if the Death List actualy even exists, much less where it is or how to remove a name. Eric assembles his old crew from the old days -- the hulking yet sweet Tom-Tom Crow, the effete Sam Gazelle, and the dispassionate Snake Marek -- and the foursome search Mollisan Town high and low for leads on this Death List. Along the way, we see interludes about the characters' seedy past, especially one concerning a case of mistaken identity.

Amberville is shockingly adult, in stark contrast to the idea of the characters being stuffed toys. There's drinking, smoking, drug use, and sex all over this book, and on several occasions you forget you're reading a book about stuffed animals. It is imaginative and wildly fun, and I honestly can't help but to recommend it.

8 out of 10.

[Melissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I got Amberville as a free-Friday selection on my nook. The description alone had my attention, stuffed animals in a gritty story of crime, conspiracy, corruption and redemption. Sounds good. The story is told from multiple points of view, so the reader is constantly changing voices. . In truth, the entire book reads as a series of character studies, or at best a set of interconnected short stories that have been crammed together into a single volume. Nothing ever quite gels, as threads in the story peter out and lead to nowhere, characters are introduced and then forgotten, or dark hints are made that never really resolve into anything juicy enough to sustain our interest. There are a good deal of characters, some that are introduced then never seen from again. There were many pages in the middle that felt less like pleasure reading, more like work. Plus the ending is a huge let down, or at least it was for me and I just wanted to throw the book at the end. While I was happy I finally finished I just wished I had gotten an ending. The idea of stuffed animals in a detective mystery novel begs for plenty of sarcastic tongue-in-cheek humor, but Amberville avoids silly humor and instead relies on the subtle absurdities, to deliver the humor on their own, which they never really manage to do. I was interested by this book, but not entertained.

[Dale · Rating 5 out of 5]

The hardest thing about this book is describing it to other people.

I was telling my wife about Amberville . I told her I was reading a book about stuffed animals (her face softened) and I said but it's not a "nice" book. One of the animals used to be a gofer for the mafia, one's a thug enforcer, one's a backstabber and one is a pill-popping male prostitute that specializes in S&M sex-for-hire.

She got a confused look on her face and asked why the author used stuffed animals? Well, he had to because these stuffed animals are all delivered by way of truck and when they die they are all hauled out of the city by truck as well and the big bad mobster dove has found out he's on a fabled list of stuffed animals that are to be hauled away and he wants four stuffed animals to reunite to find the list and save his life - or else.

At that point she waved me off and changed the subject...

Read more at: http://dwdsreviews.blogspot.com/2010/...

[Stephanie Griffin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This highly imaginative story may be the most unusual book I've ever read. I'm not sure I even understand the whole thing. Set in an imaginary town where the streets are painted candy colors, living stuffed animals go about their lives. But this isn't a playful story. Eric Bear has been asked by gangster Nicholas Dove to find the "Death List" and take his name off of it. Eric enlists the help of his old cronies Tom-Tom Crow, Sam Gazelle, and Snake Marek. As Eric searches for the list, the story analyzes the dichotomies of reality vs. insanity, good vs. evil, church vs. state, with gangsters, drug users, and thieves as the doers of the deeds. The story weaves in and out of the players' lives, seemingly on-the-level, but surprises await. Not everyone is as they seem. This book will have you guessing until the very end, giving you some serious ponderings along the way.
~Stephanie

[Corey · Rating 4 out of 5]

"By placing his gritty mystery into the framework of a breathing toy city, Davys is able to explore questions of mortality that a mere human sleuth could never hope to answer. Who are we? Who is our creator? Why do we die? A stuffed animal could hypothetically live forever, but the existence of a Death List calls into question tricky issues on morality and religion that could otherwise never be answered. And Amberville asks some questions that could make certain elements of society cringe with outrage. When Eric's brother Teddy muses, "Religion [was:] a two-edged weapon. It was all a matter of daring to believe in the unbelieveable which in all other contexts was described as stupidity," it's hard not to wonder how some people might take such questions."

Read the full review here.

[Jojo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Die Geschichte hat mich jetzt nicht wirklich umgehauen, obwohl ich eigentlich die Idee mit den Kuscheltieren als Akteure ziemlich genial fand.
Ich muss auch gestehen, dass ich zwischendurch ziemliche Probleme hatte der Story zu folgen. Vielleicht habe ich unaufmerksam zugehört, das will ich nicht hundertprozentig ausschließen. Aber es passierte generell sehr viel und es gab am Ende so einige Dinge, die sich gewendet haben, wo ich dann als Zuhörer dachte: Was zum?! Da gab es ja so gar keinen Hinweis innerhalb der Geschichte.

Aber wie gesagt: Die Idee war super und zwischendurch hatte das Buch auch ziemlich spannende Stellen, bei denen ich nicht aufhören konnte mit dem Hören. Aber es kann leider nie mein Lieblingskrimi werden.
(Das Hörbuch gab's auch mal wieder auf Spotify, deshalb hab ich's gehört.)

[Suzanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good philosophical read about the big question. The author employs stuffed animals to explore the human condition. Questions like, "Would you sacrifice a friend to save a loved one?" are explored in this gritty noir. After the first chapter, you forget that they are stuffed animals.

[Teresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this book because it seemed quite funny to me and well it was like 5 euros. I ended up liking the book quite a lot! I recomend it to people who like ironic books.

[Filipa Batista · Rating 5 out of 5]

Opinião no blog!

[Jordan · Rating 2 out of 5]

The premise of this book is absolutely fabulous. A mystery noir starring a cast of increasingly unreliable narrators set in a fantasy world populated by stuffed animals. A persistent interrogation about the gray morality between good and evil, with specific focus on religion and politics.

Unfortunately, Davys is unable to deliver on this premise. The world feels unfinished, the characters lacking in cohesive narrative arcs, and the plot threads either confusing or altogether too simple. The world of stuffed animals seems like a concept teeming with possibility - but Davys leaves so much up to the imagination that it becomes nearly nonsensical. To a certain extent less is more in writing, but I found myself distracted every time a character ate or drank anything because it's canonical that they're filled with stuffing rather than traditional innards. That distracted confusion continued as the story unfolded, and I often had to put the book down out of frustration for the lack of order within the narrative.

It is ultimately an entertaining read, but a deeply unfulfilling one. I wouldn't recommend it.

[Mia•Loves•Words · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't really want to write this one down in the first place because I already listened to the audiobook before but I don't know when it was. Well, it still counts as a read book though. So I am writing something about it.
Already when I read it the first time, I didn't like the setting and the "stuffed-animals-thing". That really confused me and even with the second time now, I don't like it. The context and connections of the story feels complicated and confusing to me. There is no world building. You are thrown into a city that's built like a rainbow (at least I picture it like that) and has streets in different colors. The characters as I said are stuffed animals. And nothing of that is really explained in any way.
Well, this audiobook can leave my house now.

[Tránsito Blum · Rating 1 out of 5]

Amberville es una novela para adolescentes primerizos. Intenta ser madura pero no consigue introducirnos en dualismos que ejerciten los estados más abstractos de nuestra conciencia. Se queda en un singular thriller psicológico de peluches norteamericanos, sin pistolas, sin disparos, sin atracos y sin humo. No suscita mucha tensión. Estoy seguro que en la Feria de Frankfurt 2008 se pujaron por obras superiores que no traten evidencias que tenemos ya tan masticadas. Veremos como evolucionan sus próximas novelas.

Fuente: https://huracanesenpapel.blogspot.com...

[Anastasiaadamov · Rating 2 out of 5]

I will blame my lack of understanding of this novel on the lack of drugs I consume.
Seriously, I was bothered by the fable like properties of the characters.
Why bother with stuffed animals at all when the story and the freakiness around it would have a much stronger impact if the characters were human.
All the stuffed animals , differences and moving, stuffing and stitching just took the attention away from the story which was already hard to follow.
Last few chapters turnaround introduced my least favorite thing in novels - untrustworthy narrator.
This book just isn't for me...

[Juan Sebastian Santacruz · Rating 5 out of 5]

La historia es fascinante pero es Mollisan Town lo que hace de la historia algo fantástico. La historia tiene tintes noir pero no es tan decadente y extravagante como la descripción de la editorial Anagrama pareciera mostrar, sin embargo ver a peluches hacer todo lo que hacen en la historia es lo que hace del libro algo verdaderamente llamativo.

[Ábel Farkas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Grotesque adventure to the depths of a city filled with stuffed animals. The plot is weird to follow, the fact that the residents of the city are plushies has nothing to do with the story besides that they can't die like actual humans. The whole thing is weirdly written and feels kinda forced in some way, but I can recommend it if you want something absurd to read.