The Grateful Damned
"An unforgettable read..."
"Maybe the best new book in 2024"
"The author may offend you, but he'll make you think."
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"Blunk’s modern-day Orpheus story is bursting with clever ideas and quirky characters that jump off the page in rapid succession, calling to mind the numerous idiosyncratic figures populating the works of Kurt Vonnegut, or David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest. In the same vein, Woody’s journey is epic in both scale and absurdity. Here, hell is an exaggerated American mega-city with an endless sprawl of traffic, dizzying skyscrapers, and distressing urban decay that gets summed up by Exie as “nothing more than a pigsty with crosstown subway service.” The book’s satirical barbs seem to be aimed at pretentious city dwellers who barter in delusions of grandeur. (Hell’s bogus economic system is probably Blunk’s most ingenious idea, as it sets up plenty of wonderful jokes and bigger, philosophical notions about value.)" --Kirkus Reviews
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Warning: This book is considered by many as offensive and divisive. Those of a left-leaning persuasion will despise this book and are discouraged from purchasing it by the author who says, "I don't want your hate mail."
Synopsis
Forget about red devils with pitchforks and imagine a netherworld where the damned busily conjure their own infernal Utopia without rules, regulations, and restrictions—an infernal paradise where everyone does exactly as they please with no one raising a hand to say “no!” In this shadowland Shangri-La with no fetish deemed too kinky, no desire considered off-limits, and money simply for the taking, could it be that Hades is the place where the party never ends?
Of course, there are whispered rumors of trouble in the offing—talk of an approaching, unavoidable Second Death, but are rumors to be believed?
The Grateful Damned may be the strangest, most bizarre book of 2024—an unforgettable sojourn into the land of perpetual night. The Grateful Damned is intelligently written, gripping, powerful—a book that challenges its readers to set aside their preconceived notions of life, death, and the afterlife.
The Grateful Damned is a dystopian novel, a love story, and a dark, comedic fantasy all in one.
As the story goes, the day following their wedding, Sherwood and Abbie McCormick’s young lives are irreversibly interrupted after their light aircraft loses power and crash lands in a field. Although Sherwood walks away from the accident with only superficial injuries, his bride Abbie is killed the moment their airplane slams into the ground.
After a year of unanswered questions and unresolved grieving, Sherwood is granted permission to enter Hades to search for his late wife. Rather than prancing devils with cloven hooves, Sherwood discovers a vast underworld teeming with people who seem to have it all—perpetual youth, good looks, invincibility, wealth, and no restraints. In this shadowy world of bliss and plenty, everyone is gratefully dead.
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And yet, behind the facade of paradise, a second death threatens to transform this diabolical utopia into a never-ending nightmare. I dare not tell you more, but if your curiosity has been piqued, please read the book. ​​
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