REVIEW | Couch by Benjamin Parzybok (Small Beer)

Magical, memorable, whimsical.  These are just a few of the adjectives that come to mind, but hardly do Couch justice.

Couch is quite a mundane title for such an outlandish book.  Three guys move a couch, save the world.  That is the tag line and it is quite apt. It drew me in immediately and from the moment I started I knew this would be a truly special read.  Couch is quite unlike any book I've read before.  Its aim is to tell a modern day quest  through very unconventional and seemingly meandering means yet it never falls off track.

Couch is the kind of book where the less you know about the story before you start the better it will be.  It is very intimate with its telling.   A low-level con man, a hacker, and a prophetic dreamer share an apartment and a comfortable couch and it goes from there.  I identified with hacker more than I have with any character in a very long time.  The dialogue is perfect for who the characters are as lazy, but intelligent twenty-something's with little to no prospects in life.  But each has their role to play in the quest and fulfills it to the utmost.  Giving all that they have to something they don't understand all the while trusting destiny and serendipity.

Couch is a truly magical read in more ways than I can say.  It was just the right book at the right time for me and hit every mark nearly perfectly.  Couch did have its dark and sardonic moments, but they were handled deftly through humor or well-done characterization which shows the growth of the main players.  Is it Fantasy?  Well, yes, but not really at the same time.  Couch is about the magic that could and should exist in the real world.  About what could be.

I did have a little issue with the ending, but hey this is a quest book.  It is about the journey to get there more than anything.  Also, there is a mysterious group that kind of got dropped halfway through and was never given what I feel is a sufficient explanation.  But even these quibbles aren't enough to downgrade.  I give Couch 10 out of 10 Hats.  This is the first time I've given anything that high a rating.  Do yourself a favor and go pick up a copy.  You won't regret it.  I would buy anything Parzybok writes in the future.

Book Link: US | Canada | Europe 


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