4 out of 4 stars
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Apparently, "trump" is slang for "pass gas" in England. Since I totally agree with this sentiment, it was with pleasure that I decided to review King Donald Khrump: A Khrump to Trump and Dump Them All by Phil O. Reilly (real name: Brian David Hill). This satirical tome describes King Khrump's first 100 days in office, as penned by one of his best friends, Phil O. Reilly of Fix News. Before reading about the "wondrous" things that Khrump accomplishes after taking office, we get a brief glimpse into his younger years, as he grows from a human-gorilla hybrid into a creature who can pass as human, gaining fame along the way.
According to the blurb I read when selecting the book, the author "takes the ridiculousness of the current White House administration and pushes it right over the edge" in an alternate universe-type deal. I was a little skeptical because it seems to me that that this administration is as ridiculous as one can get, but true to his word, the author threw in some really off-the-wall stuff. I loved how he took true occurrences and wildly exaggerated them. The same goes for the administration's philosophies. One of my favorite explanations of the RNC's thought processes is from a passage found on page 8:
I also really liked O. Reilly's description of Fix News: "It ain't news 'til we Fix it!" Even though these words - and many others - are fictional, they have a giant ring of truth to me! I liked the pseudonyms the author gave the characters and entities that are based on real life as well. For instance, the Republicans were renamed the "Repugnicans", whereas the Democrats were referred to as the "Dreamocrats". Arnold Schwarzenegger became "Arnold Shifenbakker", and Sean Hannity was "Hannah Seanity". In addition, the Dreamocrats' network of choice was AVNN, "Actual Verified News Network". The book is FULL is such references, but you'll have to read it to know them all."You see, there's light beer and there's light-calorie snack chips, so why not light God?...The new RNC would make God light a part of their policy platform! They would use God as a kind of flavoring to be sprinkled on the policies of the new RNC. A little God here, a little God there, a little God everywhere!"
Not being a President Trump fan and therefore not following all of his moves, I wasn't able to fully compare real world events with fictional ones, but I do know that some of the things occurring during King Khrump's first 100 days are based on real life. For instance, the accusation that Russia helped Trump to win the election was included, as was the attempt to discard "Obamacare", referred to as "Dandycare" - named for the former King, "Chezvic Dandyfoyl" - in this tome. Even though actual events often move me to tears, I was crying from tears of laughter as I made my way from page 1 to page 143. The author pulled zero punches when lambasting the current administration, and I fully enjoyed it. Since it's written from Phil O. Reilly's viewpoint, the tome is full of glowing, sappy adoration, and I could almost hear the author - who is staunchly NOT Republican - chuckling as he wrote this. I'll also say that the ending is a slam-dunk that I'll be sure to revisit time and again; merely calling it a "twist" doesn't even do it justice!
Since this tome is a satire, I can't say that the characterizations were 100% accurate, but I will say that I could "hear" things in the appropriate voices. So, for instance, when King Khrump spoke, it was President Trump's voice that I heard. I could also "see" the people moving in the ways they really do; in this book, all of the characters' mannerisms were fully intact. Caricatures are not easy to write, and I think the author did an extraordinary job in his endeavor.
As much as I loved this sarcastic and witty re-imagining of events, I do have to mention that there were a few grammatical missteps. Most the mistakes were missing apostrophes, but there was also one instance of a capitalization mishap, one time that the wrong word was used, and one time that "Seanity" was misspelled. Additionally, many of the sentences had double spaces between them. Still, I was so enjoying the book that I actually had to force myself to note them.
Since this was one of the best satires I've read in a long while, I can't help but give King Donald Khrump 4 out of 4 stars. It probably goes without saying, but I doubt this book would be amusing for strong Republicans. Democrats who are fed-up with the status-quo, however, are sure to love it. I also recommend this book to fans of political satire. Due to mature situations, I would not recommend it for younger readers.
If you haven't had your "fix" of President Trump news in a while, follow along with King Khrump and his wife, Ninatina, Lewis Dobson, and others for a wild re-visitation of the President...er, the King's first 100 days.
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King Donald Khrump
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