You’re a F***ing Skeleton, Jimmy!

Totally Random Stories about Apocalypses, #1

by

Devon Van De Zandt

This clever mix of magic and mechanisms makes this end-of-the-world action adventure a real winner.

You’re a F***ing Skeleton, Jimmy! is the first book in author Devon Van De Zandt’s new series, Totally Random Stories about Apocalypses, and is a clever mix of magic and mechanisms in a post-apocalyptic action adventure. With its serious murderbot-gone-rogue protagonist and his whimsical and magically reanimated skeletal sidekick named Jimmy, preventing the end of time has never been so delightful or satisfying. 

Jimmy, the bouncy, eternally optimistic character of the title, is irresistibly engaging, always pointing out the bright side of any situation, but ready to step up to help defend his companions or offer himself as a distraction to allow his fellows to escape or further their mission to stop the greedy Marc Obvious and his necromancer and infernal army from draining all the power from another dimension and causing the implosion of the universe they know. Jimmy sings, hums, and repurposes his phalanges as way markers, all the while providing witty banter and a running commentary on any and all topics that pop into his, literally, empty skull. But underlying his lightweighted personality is bottomless kindness and compassion for others. 

As Jimmy aimlessly wanders the devastated desert-life landscape, he meets and teams up with the murderbot, Unit Johnny Circuit, an older model mechanical warrior deemed obsolete and a thorn in the side of the AI overlord, CHAD (Command & Hierarchy Administrative Director), that controls the last surviving city, Gigacity One (and the target of Marc Obvious and his cult’s schemes to take over the world.) Johnny is a world-weary spirit who has experienced so much that he has developed emotions and sensibilities beyond his original design and purpose. The story unfolds from his clear-eyed, highly capable, and snarky perspective. His narrative and observations are clever and often laugh-out-loud hilarious. 

The novel is short and concise, yet it packs a lot of action into its compact length. Regrettably, very little backstory is provided to explain how this world came to its current situation or even how a walking, talking bag of bones, dressed in khakis and a blue button-down, exists (and without much comment from onlookers). I accepted it and moved on. He was fun, charming, and one of the good guys, but I still have questions. I loved that Jimmy and Johnny are later joined by the wonderfully deadly, half-human cyborg hybrid Sergeant Chen Marina, a former soldier in the service of the Obvious Cult. The story is punctuated with exciting scenes of pursuit and combat, and although the action unfolds quickly, it is so well choreographed by the author that all are easy to follow and visualize in an almost cinematic fashion. I can’t wait for more! 

I recommend YOU’RE A F***ING SKELETON, JIMMY! to readers of post-apocalyptic and dystopian fiction or military action-adventure. 

I voluntarily reviewed this after receiving an Advance Review Copy from Reedsy Discovery.