The Chronicles of a Zombie-Chicken Slayer
Book Review: Cluck: Murder Most Fowl
I fretted about how to begin this review for hours. I was afraid that if I came right out with the basic premise—how a boy with a very special gift is whisked away to a chicken-obsessed secret society in France to learn the fine-points of poultry exorcism, and then gets tested years later in an extremely haunted farm house infested with ghost-chickens—you would probably laugh out loud, then go on your merry way without even considering the idea of reading the book, and that would be a shame.
But, readers of this blog know good quality entertainment when they see it (obviously) and I know they will give it a chance; besides, who could resist a novel featuring a zombie Rooster King and his army of phantom hens?
Cluck is extremely well-written and is story-telling at its best. Author Eric D. Knapp shows his skills by successfully blending the difficult combination of humor and horror without the whole thing unraveling into something stupid. This is not so easy to do as I’ve seen with other novelists attempting this type of thing; the humor tends to clash with the horror and the author tragically turns it into something really dumb. Not so with Knapp; he grabs you on page one and doesn’t let go until the last zombie-chicken is plucked.
However, be forewarned: sections of this novel get down-right spooky! I get the sense that Knapp, who studied English and writing at the University of New Hampshire and the University of London, could have easily written a successful main-stream horror novel without so much as breaking a sweat. The opening scene of Cluck so vividly describes the creepy mouth of hell that I literally had goose-bumps forming on my arms.
Luckily for me, Knapp also crafts several scenes throughout the book which are absolutely hilarious. In particular, I enjoyed the exchanges between the book’s hero, Armand, and “The Charge,” a friendly but wise-cracking supernatural entity inhabiting his body. I defy you to suppress the laughter when these two (sharing the same body) disagree.
In the book’s final battle, Armand must face a very powerful Dead Rooster (yes!), “The largest rooster, living or dead, ever known to walk the face of the planet.”
Cluck: Murder Most Fowl is independently published so there’s no telling how long it might still be available. It is not, to my knowledge, available in any brick-and-mortar bookstores, so you will have to order it from Amazon or some other online bookseller.
CLICK HERE TO GET IT FROM AMAZON
One thing is certain: Cluck is completely original. You will not find anything like it anywhere and probably never will.
Cluck: Murder Most Fowl
Author: Eric D. Knapp
Illustrator: Ian Richard Miller
Published by: Booksurge
340 pages
Available only in Paperback
Dead Rooster is the online home of 
Ah- sounds like Evil Dead meets the Animaniacs’ Chicken-boo .
Nice review, Rooster. And I can’t think of a more appropriate venue for it.
PS– I originally stopped by to thank you for Reddit-ing my post today. I was hit with this flood of Redditty0goodness and had to find out why! Cheers.
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William McCamment
reply on May 28th, 2008 9:11 pm:
Thanks!
He wears a disguise to look like human guys,
But, your not a man, your a Chicken Boo
(Didn’t think I knew that one, did you…)
I am glad you got some reddit traffic, I try to spread the love when I can. However, I am highly jinksed on there. Nearly everything I submit gets down-voted before anyone can possibly have time to visit. I think they must hate me there for some reason.
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“a boy with a very special gift is whisked away to a chicken-obsessed secret society in France to learn the fine-points of poultry exorcism, and then gets tested years later in an extremely haunted farm house infested with ghost-chickens”
I believe this story is about Quasimoto.
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William McCamment
reply on May 28th, 2008 9:16 pm:
Haha! The way I wrote that, it DOES sound like Quasimoto–but, you’d have to replace “ghost-chickens” with “bells.”
I can vouch for this book–it is NOTHING like The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
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Heh- William, I actually had a 75% guess you’d know who Chicken Boo is.
And I’m impressed. 
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William McCamment
reply on May 29th, 2008 8:32 am:
Great! Maybe later I could sing Yacko’s “Nations of the World” song to you.
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Oh yeah.. this sounds awesome. What a cool review! And I miss Animaniacs! That was the best 1/2 hour ever!
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William McCamment
reply on May 29th, 2008 8:41 am:
It is a great book. If you are a reader, maybe you should give it a shot. Besides, I’m curious as to what a non-rooster-obsessed person might think of it.
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William McCamment
reply on May 29th, 2008 11:59 am:
Oh…and yes, the Animaniacs were great!
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I hid a lot of vague pop- and literary references in there… But not the hunchback
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William McCamment
reply on May 29th, 2008 11:58 am:
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN…I present to you a genuine celebrity…THE AUTHOR OF THE BOOK!
Great book, Eric! I loved it (as you could probably tell from my gushing review).
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Eric Knapp
reply on May 29th, 2008 3:33 pm:
Hi there folks. I don’t know if I’d call myself a “celebrity,” but here I am. Feel free to fire any questions my way
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William McCamment
reply on May 30th, 2008 4:54 am:
Congratulations on your Odyssey book award!
Very impressive.
Nice book. I think i’ll ask my sis for it. Plus, you are in it lol
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Wow! I’m impressed. Eric Knapp. Wonder if I can get Jeff Tweedy or John Cusack to comment on my post. Not that I’m uninterested in chicken-obessed society plots.
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Wonderful review. I didn’t believe it was an actual book for the first half of your post.
WTC: Dead fowl reviewed by Dead Rooster.
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I’m not so sure my beloved Cluck Kent and his mistress Ruthter would appreciate this book, but I sure am curious now!
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@Meg – I’m not John Cusack, but I’ll check out your blog and leave a comment …
@Dr. Rob – Yup, it’s real. Well, the book is real. Zombie chickens are just a figment of my imagination … as far as you know.
@Debbie Lane – You can satisfy your curiosity (somewhat) with the first few chapters, which you can download from CluckTheBook.com …
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And i thought you were joking but really? The book is about phantom poultry? That would literally make me hungry!
But if you say that it is really well written and is not being reduced to something stupid, then I guess I’ll just have to give a try. Thanks for sharing!
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