John Belushi Is Dead - Review and Giveaway

By:  Kathy Charles

Goodreads Summary:  Pink-haired Hilda and oddball loner Benji are not your typical teenagers. Instead of going to parties or hanging out at the mall, they comb the city streets and suburban culs-de-sac of Los Angeles for sites of celebrity murder and suicide. Bound by their interest in the macabre, Hilda and Benji neglect their schoolwork and their social lives in favor of prowling the most notorious crime scenes in Hollywood history and collecting odd mementos of celebrity death.

Hilda and Benji’s morbid pastime takes an unexpected turn when they meet Hank, the elderly, reclusive tenant of a dilapidated Echo Park apartment where a silent movie star once stabbed himself to death with a pair of scissors. Hilda feels a strange connection with Hank and comes to care deeply for her paranoid new friend as they watch old movies together and chat the sweltering afternoons away. But when Hank’s downstairs neighbor Jake, a handsome screenwriter, inserts himself into the equation and begins to hint at Hank’s terrible secrets, Hilda must decide what it is she’s come to Echo Park searching for . . . and whether her fascination with death is worth missing out on life.

I adored this book!  I adored Hilda.  Maybe it's because I've always been a little weird about dead people and killers and I could relate to Hilda and Benji with that morbid fascination a little bit.  The book as a whole is dark and kind of twisted, but I think it has to be.  Like the alcoholic, any addict has to hit rock bottom before they can be helped whatever that bottom is and the characters reach their bottoms with their unhealthy addictions to celebrities and their deaths.

Benji was the character you were supposed to love to hate I think.  The real star of the show, I think was Hank.  Hank is a crotchety old man that Hilda becomes friends with.  I love their relationship.  It made me want to go out and find a Hank to be friends with so I could hear some stories. 

I was quite impressed with the writer.  This is her debut novel and I couldn't find fault with it at all.  In fact, along with an good story, assuming they're true and due to her Acknowledgements I'd believe they were, all the Hollywood tidbits were really quite interesting.

I'm going to giveaway my review copy of this book.  It's very gently read.  Just leave a comment below with a valid comment and I'll draw a name next Friday.

 
**I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher in exchange for an honest review which I have provided.  I was in no other way compensated.**