Summary: A sea mutant named Grue desires to join the world above after he finds the woman who cast to the sea bottles containing snippets of Shakespeare's works, but he must suppress his hunger for human flesh if he is to have a normal life. - (Baker & Taylor)
Publishers Weekly Reviews
This exuberantly weird comic novel succeeds in fusing '50s monster movies and the works of William Shakespeare. Grue, the atomic-mutant protagonist, has the body of the Creature from the Black Lagoon and the face of a Smiley button. He and his little crab buddies live by the beach, where they feed on hormone-saturated teenagers until the discovery of pages from the Bard's work, sealed in floating cola bottles, awakens Grue's dreams of poetic romance along with a knack for speaking in iambic pentameter. The woman willing to play Juliet to his Romeo is a middle-aged agoraphobe whose nephew is accused of murdering the missing teenagers. Case's b&w art sometimes stretches reality for humorous effect, but keeps even the strangest scenes from feeling merely grotesque. The script also generates a surprising amount of pathos for the lovers' doomed passion. Startlingly assured for a debut effort, the book is like Grue himself—unclassifiable but oddly charming. (Oct.)
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