Beezer by Brandon T. Snider
My rating: 3 of 5 stars Amusing, if a Little Damaged by Sitcom English The conceit of Brandon T. Snider’s Beezer (2019) is that Beezlebub, prince of demons and of hell (the Red Realm), so disappoints his father for lying around playing pranks or games instead of studying dark arts, cultivating supernatural powers, or desiring to destroy souls, that Lucifer banishes him to earth, where he wakes up as a newly adopted thirteen-year-old boy (called Beezer) in a quirky loving family comprised of mother Jessica Lewis and fellow adoptees eleven-year old Lucy and nine-year-old Dash, each of the three children being a different skin color. How will he fit into this multiracial “lovey dovey” family into group hugs and supporting and communicating with each other no matter what? Especially when Jessica is out of work, scrambling to get by, and receiving charity food. What will happen when Beezer goes to the mall or public library or meets kids from Lucy and Dash’s school? Will he ever be able to access his innate dark powers or open a portal leading back to the Red Realm? Will he ever get used to his human body, with its unfortunate needs and weaknesses? The best lines express Beezer’s perceptions of new experiences in his human earthbound body. He says things like, “Exiled to this backwater heaven-hole without powers,” “This human skin suit is so heavy,” and “Being human is so weird.” When hearing chirping birds, he says, “Quiet, you earth harpies.” When told about the mall, he says, “A meeting place where sad people buy things and eat slop in a court.” When trying to influence a worker to give him a red suit, he calls her, “Human saleswoman.” Such moments are one of the pleasures of the book. That said, it is geared too obviously for kids, with body humor aplenty--belches, farts, boogers, peeing, etc. As well as too much too speedy and righteous and definitive comeuppance for too obviously awful bullies. And the characters talk too much American sitcom English. Even before he is exiled to Earth, Beezer talks for some reason like a boy raised on American TV shows, saying things like, “What I’m telling you is that this place sucks” and “Get real,” and “Oh no no no no!” and “You’re the prince of fricking demons” etc. (This problem obtains with Disney movies like Moanna, Frozen, and Tangled, where the protagonist in a fantasy story with no narrative connection to America talks like they’ve been weaned on American sit com dialogue.) Furthermore, all the “We're here for you no matter what” and group hugs and deep breaths and express your feelings and be yourself can almost get cloying. Interestingly, some audible reviewers say the book is not for kids, and I have no idea what they mean. There’s no sex or graphic violence or swearing, so… Does the supposed problem for kids derive from the protagonist being the demon prince of hell and from the story featuring witchcraft, imps, goblins, demons, and hags, not to mention Lucifer himself? Why would those necessarily be bad things for kids to read about (or to listen to)? It must be a Christian thing? The story itself is all about finding one's own life-road in the context of a loving (multiracial) family (“Families come in all shapes and sizes”), about treating people with kindness and respect, and about getting outside your comfort zone to try new things. The only non-salubrious thing in it for kids I noticed was the sitcom American English! The concept is fun and there are funny moments and surprising developments (like Beezer’s “coming out” to the Lewises), and the voice acting by Fred Berman as Beezlebub, Janiece Abbott-Pratt as Lucy, and Margaret Ying Drake as Dash, is lively and smooth (once you get used to Berman’s overly dramatic flourishes as Beezer). The radio drama-like audiobook is entertaining and doesn’t overstay its welcome. I even want to listen to the sequel. View all my reviews
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Jefferson Peters
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