Book Review: Mother puncher: Yep you read that title right.

One of my favorite writers, ahhh heck I ain’t gonna lie one of my favorite human beings is Gina Ranalli. A Seattle based vegan feminist Bizarro horror writer is a new rising star in the horror fiction market place. That didn’t happen over night Gina’s work is often too strange to find home with traditional publishers so she was one of the early flag bearers of the growing Bizarro fiction movement.

Most of Gina’s work can be found from Afterbirth Books (the publisher of my two upcoming books) but she is starting to publish with some other presses as well. Including her latest Swarm of Flying Eye balls which is being released by novello’s.

Mother Puncher is a novella, short 100 page tale of Ed Means a government licensed official who works punching mothers(and fathers if they are not hiding) to punish them for being so selfish to breed in the dystopic future of the novel. Ed had been a champ when he was a boxer and now down on his luck he has turned his fists towards the overpopulation issue.

MP is like The Wrestler meets Soylent Green. Ed doesn’t like his life, and he generally doesn’t like his job punching women. The characters are rich and Gina is able to establish them quickly and thoroughly. This novella doesn’t suffer from the too many pages problems a lot of novels have these days. Infact if there is any major problem with this book and that it could have had another hundred pages to breathe.

I had expected this book with it’s middle finger in the air provocative subject matter to be absurdist. It is not at times it is dark, brooding and effectively tense. I mean Gina is an excellent absurdist as best displayed in her novella Wall of Kiss. Mother Puncher despite the admittedly outlandish concept starts off much bleaker than I had expected. Sure it’s funny and has it’s laugh out loud moments.

To me this is an important subject for people to be considering. The world is too overpopulated, it’s not just people breeding, but living longer, and taking more resources with the life they have. Gina has produced a fun little book that helps us to remember what is at stake. Great book for starting thoughtful discussions.