Hank Rose has only two missions in life, find the best food the post apocalyptic world has to offer, and find out why the bombs fell.
After meeting Lewis, a radioactive mutant with a tentacle for an arm, Hank continues his journey to the city of New Dallas, where he encounters far worse things than radioactive food, including dancing zombies and a horrible dictator.
Hank must help his new friends and the people of New Dallas while trying to find out the biggest mystery of all.
After reading Alice Takes Back Wonderland I was eager to read more by David D Hammons so when I saw a review tour for another book by this author I was eager to participate! Don’t Eat The Glowing Bananas follows Henry Rosetta, a man living in a post apocalyptic world after the bombs fell, destroying the majority of the world. I enjoyed this book more than Alice Takes Back Wonderland simply because I found it to be more unique from the majority of books in this genre. Although dystopian books have been extremely popular since the success of The Hunger Games, this is the first time I have read one mixed with the comedy genre. It was extremely funny and I adored the quirky characters.
I particularly loved Lewis, a man who through high doses of radiation had become a mutant with radioactive blood, a tentacle for a hand and an ability to heal extremely quickly. Lewis was a unique and funny character who seemed confused about the world the majority of the time and didn’t seem to mind being mutilated multiple times in order to save his friends.
Henry was an interesting protagonist, and I loved that he was not a perfect hero as many protagonists tend to be. Although he does his best to save his friends, he also has a survival instinct which is shown by his willingness to leave Ivan behind when they are being chased down by zombies. However he does seem to redeem himself by refusing to abandon his friends and leave the planet, which I loved as it showed that although he was trying to save himself he was unwilling to leave those behind who he truly did care for.
The book was overall a very fun and light hearted read, and reminded me of one of my favourite books, ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’. I loved that everything that seemed relatively normal to these characters was completely ridiculous to the reader, and seeing them being sentenced to multiple executions and chased by dancing zombies was both ridiculous and funny. I also loved the idea of knowledge being forbidden, and that people would visit the library just to turn back again to make a statement of being ignorant. I felt that this showed an important point of the government brainwashing the people into thinking that knowledge was a bad thing.
Having attempted to write fiction myself, I have found that comedy is one of the most difficult genres to write. Not everyone will have the same sense of humour, and something you find funny will often be something that no one else is amused by. I thought that Hammons use of comedy was brilliantly done, and extremely well timed. Although there will always be someone who doesn’t find it funny, I feel as if the majority of people who read this book would appreciate the comedic values.
I overall enjoyed this book and would recommend it to fans of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Welcome to Nightvale.
Don't Eat the Glowing Bananas is now available to purchase!