The Oblivion Society is Darker Than a Nuclear Winter

I like my comedy like my women: dark and ground up in the freezer. I like to think my sense of humor is warped enough as to find even the blackest jokes funny (What was the last thing that went through the Challenger Spacecraft's captain's mind? - Shrapnel. I'll be here all week), but not as twisted to think dead baby jokes are the zenith of word play. The Oblivion Society by Marcus Alexander Hart dredges that line between funny and disturbing while throwing geeky pop culture references in with the bleak reality that if a nuclear war did occur, most of us wouldn't even realize we'd been reduced to radioactive dust

I find it mildly disturbing with how much I can identify with the book's heroine, Vivian Gray. Smart, socially awkward and unmotivated (is it still tooting your own horn if two of those are character flaws?), Vivian works at a grocery store to support her unemployed brother who had a dot-com go under and now hangs out at her apartment and watches TV with his best friend Eric. Vivian just so happens to get a date with an energy drink spokesman on the eve of Nuclear Armageddon, giving me solace in the fact that somebody has even worse timing than I do.

Speaking of which, there is something unsettling about an American General quoting "99 Red Balloons" by Nena (or Goldfinger, take your pick) before unleashing a barrage of atomic hell on various other countries. This is one thing Hart does exceedingly well: portraying the grim aftermath of a nuclear holocaust. The survivors deal with heat burns (one survivor having her retinas deep-fried by the blast), mutations, lack of any kind of food and even radiation poisoning is brought up, though it is forgotten about just as quickly then semi-explained near the end. To paraphrase Mystery Science Theater 3000: If you're wondering why none of the characters are bald or bleeding from their ears or other science facts (la la la), just repeat to yourself that it's just a book and you really should relax.

The Oblivion Society is funny, don't get me wrong, but it isn't a comedy with a charred landscape as the backdrop. If you go into it thinking you'll be giggling yourself to sleep over mutated bugs, you'll be sorely disappointed. The Oblivion Society is a tale of survival after one of the most unimaginable thing humans are capable of…that just happens to be funny

The Oblivion Society is a little hard to get into. It switches gears so drastically in some places it may be off putting to some readers. This is a shame because the overall story is pretty good, the characters are well developed and (for the most part) likeable and the book does an excellent job drilling into your head that you won't go gallivanting across a desolate nuclear wasteland in Mad Max vehicles, you'll just be grateful for some stale Cheetos.