Review of The Surreal Adventures of Anthony Zen

Post by **Eunice Geres** » 13 Oct 2022, 05:58

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The Surreal Adventures of Anthony Zen" by Cameron A. Straughan.]

4 out of 4 stars

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Anthony Zen dreamed about a costume party at a massage parlor where men could get their pants hand-washed without taking them off. Then, a man dressed up as Sigmund Freud suddenly showed up to take notes on Anthony's behavior. It was such a bizarre and vivid dream. Thankfully, the loud ringing of Anthony's alarm clock pulled him from his deep slumber. Wait a minute, Anthony doesn’t have an alarm clock!

Follow Cameron A. Straughan's The Surreal Adventures of Anthony Zen, where contemporary life is met with absurd versions of every regular aspect of life. In this story, where time is relative, we will be introduced to Anthony’s simple yet exciting life and his struggle to complete the tasks he needs to do. This book, full of humor and silliness, would show readers how a person can achieve inner peace and happiness from seemingly unusual events.

My first thought about the book is that Anthony is very relatable. The way his attention keeps drifting from one subject to another is like how my own brain functions. His easily distracted mind becomes even more hilarious as the scene twists into a weird and silly event. I’ve never seen or read a book as absurd as this one. This book is even more illogical than any episode of “The Amazing World of Gumball.”

The author’s writing prowess is immaculate. The author incorporated a lot of themes and literary devices, all the while keeping it light-hearted and fun to read. One writing style I liked was paragraph repetition. A phrase or event was smoothly repeated in the next scene but with different characters involved. It was hilariously genius.

The only thing I didn’t like was the violence described in this book. The violence fits the theme of accepting every absurd plotline as usual. However, it just feels weird to take extreme violence so lightly. It’s just a little scene, though. So, it didn’t affect my enjoyment by much.

In conclusion, I would rate this book 4 out of 4 stars. I only found a few grammatical mistakes. The author is a gifted writer. The writing style and humor are perfect. The hilarious jokes are executed very well. The whole book is truly a story I would only accept without batting an eye if it was from my dreams. Reading this gives me the impression of dreaming bizarre things while awake. It’s kind of funny to be so accepting of all the absurdity while consciously aware of the impossibility of it.

I would recommend this to people who love novels, cartoons, or movies that have a genre of absurdist fiction. I think this is the type of book that anyone would enjoy because it is just like the cartoons we’ve been exposed to as children.

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The Surreal Adventures of Anthony Zen
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Opara Jerry · Post by **Opara Jerry** » 17 Oct 2022, 14:55

Now I can’t help but wonder if Anthony is dreaming or not! This is the most interesting review I’ve read in a while! I commend the reviewer for the effort they put into this.