Product Description

THE HOLLOW CHOCOLATE BUNNIES OF THE APOCALYPSE is set in Toy City, once Toy Town, but now older, bigger and certainly not wiser. The Old Rich, who have made their millions from the royalties on their world-famous nursery rhymes, are being slaughtered. One by One. Horribly. A psychopath is on the loose. He must be stopped at all costs. It's a job for Toy City's only detective - but he's missing, leaving Eddie Bear to track down the mad killer, with the aid only of his bestest friend, Jack, and a wide cast of truly unforgettable characters. This is a wonderfully funny book from the irreverent, hilarious writer of WEB SITE STORY, THE SPROUTS OF WRATH and The Brentford Trilogy.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #25456 in Books
• Published on: 2003-08-01
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
In Robert Rankin's latest warped fantasy, a serial killer is murdering notable nursery-rhyme characters and leaving very special sweeties as calling cards at the scene of each crime: The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse.

Humpty Dumpty is the first of Toy City's upper crust to sleep with the fishes. Boiled alive in his own swimming pool. A nasty fate, but maybe not as nasty as Little Boy Blue's, with his own shepherd's crook thrust a long way into a place where the sun does not shine.

Bill Winkie the P.I. has gone missing, and his hard-drinking teddybear sidekick Eddie takes up the case. Down these mean streets a bear must go. He needs a hand, though--two hands, owing to a lack of opposable thumbs--and reluctantly teams up with "gormster" country boy Jack, who foolishly thinks he can make his fortune in Toy City.

Of course the police, jolly bouncy rubber policemen who are sadistic at heart, object to interfering freelances. So does the mystery assassin, who seems to be a curvaceous woman in a kinky rubber outfit--death on high heels. Even kindly old Mother Goose, madame of the Toy City brothel, gets her neck wrung before she can talk, and Eddie is in serious danger of losing his very stuffing.

Fast, demented, fairytale-noir action, filled with gruesomely silly deaths, self-referential thriller gags, and the true meanings of those nursery rhymes whose royalties made Humpty and the rest so rich.

Robert Rankin is fond of introducing peculiar, repeated figures of speech, and this book's is the Maddeningly Incomplete Simile. Like this: Hollow Chocolate Bunnies is as good as. It's as weird as. It's as deeply bonkers as. In short, it's as Rankin as.--David Langford

Synopsis
THE HOLLOW CHOCOLATE BUNNIES OF THE APOCALYPSE is set in Toy City, once Toy Town, but now older, bigger and certainly not wiser. The Old Rich, who have made their millions from the royalties on their world-famous nursery rhymes, are being slaughtered. One by One. Horribly. A psychopath is on the loose. He must be stopped at all costs. It's a job for Toy City's only detective - but he's missing, leaving Eddie Bear to track down the mad killer, with the aid only of his bestest friend, Jack, and a wide cast of truly unforgettable characters. This is a wonderfully funny book from the irreverent, hilarious writer of WEB SITE STORY, THE SPROUTS OF WRATH and The Brentford Trilogy.

About the Author
Robert Rankin is an unrepentant Luddite who writes his bestselling novels by hand in exercise books. He is the author of The Brentford Trilogy (5 books), The Armageddon Quartet (3 books) and many more.

Customer Reviews

This one got me hooked...
This was the first Rankin I brought and read, I never buy books without knowing I like the author or knowing something about the book before hand usually. This was the exception, I just brought it and I never regreted it.
Rankin has a unique style, however I found it easy to "adjust" and soon got right into the story. If you haven't yet read a Rankin book, just do it - but be warned you may become hooked and pulled into the weird and strange world of his books. Having read a few more of his books since, I think this one is a great way to start reading his work, although you can easily pick up any of his books and slide right into the story.
This is indeed a strange way to bring nursery rhyme characters back to life but that's what's so great about it all "expect the unexpected" and you'll do fine, really. A murder mystery in the most unlikely of places with coinciquences and causes you'd never imagine.

bringing nursery rhymes back to life!
I did like this book primarily for bringing nursery rhymes back to life. Ok so it's hardly a conventional way of doing it by making them all 'real' and killing several of them off but then I've already come to realise that Rankin is anything but conventional. If I had to sum up this book I'd say it was like the film toy story but definitely for older teens and adults.. it's not the funniest in terms of laugh out loud of his that I've read hence only 3 stars but then I can't give the most rounded opinion as this is only the 3rd of his I've completed. I would definitely say the Jack black poem and rhymey frog are the highlights and the parts surrounding Tommy Tucker are also funny in an albeit slightly warped way. I also liked the bit when Eddie and Jack go to the chocolate factory and they meet the talking head... and any similarities between it and charlie and the chocolate factory only go as far as: Whoever works there is pretty elusive. Still a must read though in my opinion...

Ahhh finally
Finally a book that has everything, drunkenness, violence, police brutality, sex, car chases, guns and soft toys.

This book is fantastic.
The four star rating is because it's not perfect. however for what it is, which is a funny weird mind expanding book it out does almost everything in terms or originality and kept me reading constantly.
Another reason for a four and not five star rating is because it made me get only three hours sleep on a Sunday night rendering me useless at work.

The story is fast moving and keeps you guessing; obviously there's no way you could know what's coming next in a book like this and that's why it's so much fun to read. This book is escapism at practically its greatest it takes the reader out of this sometimes overly serious world and gives the mind a chance to exorcise its imagination again.

This is the first fiction I have read for a few years and I don't know why I stopped. If you need a book to help get you through a little bit of life then this is it, conjuring up vivid images and hilarious conversations between the characters Robert Rankin has created a pearl of a book.

So in summary if you have a lot on your mind and need to forget, read this book it is funny and easy going. After a reading session you may (as I did) find yourself wondering how economic it must be for a teddy to go and get drunk.

READ IT!
What have you got to loose.