Reviewed by Ankita Shukla for Readers’ Favorite
Adventures in Avalon – An Offbeat & Quirky Adult Bedtime Story by Ginger Marin is a fast, humorous read. A journalist accidentally lands in a part of Middle America, known as Avalon, where the residents are cartoons. Well, for those cartoons, this journalist is an abnormal (and possibly evil) figure. In the hope of finding some sort of clue to return to his kind of people (i.e. normal human beings), he finds The Avalon Defense Department. However, instead of getting any help, he gets a clear idea that he is not welcome in this place. Fortunately, he comes across the editor of Avalon Press, who allows him to stay in the newspaper office. This is where he reads about various — and quite strange, to say the least — cases that occurred in Avalon, for instance, Avalon Defense Department Solves Penis and Nut Case, and The Case of the Missing Haunted Mobile Home.
The cases and their investigations are hilarious. Once I picked up the book, I could not put it down before getting a sufficient dose of humor. The author has not introduced a bunch of unnecessary characters, which has been a breath of relief for a forgetful reader like me. General Schnitzkof and Officer WingWing have been the leading detectives on all the cases. Probably, they are the only ones who are competent enough — who knows? The clumsy WingWing made me laugh more than any other character. His innocent questions and General Schnitzkof’s responses to his queries are extremely cute and funny. The author has included a few illustrations of various characters and those have been refreshing.
To me, as a reader, this book has delivered everything that it claimed. Very rarely do I find a book in the humor genre that actually makes me laugh; however, I am glad that I took a chance with this book because it made me laugh out loud and had not a dull moment. I would recommend this book to readers who enjoy a good laugh and are ready to explore the weird imagination of the author.
