Monster's Chef: A Novel

by Jervey Tervalon

Overview

From award-winning, Los Angeles Times bestselling author Jervey Tervalon comes a highly clever, twisting tale of suspense involving drugs, perverse sex, and poisonous celebrity worship, in which a man trying to rebuild his life becomes entangled in dangerous and deadly circumstances.

Once upon a time, Gibson was a successful chef with a popular restaurant and a beautiful loving wife. He was also a drug addict with a habit that nearly destroyed him.

Fresh out of rehab, he’s now using his skills to feed his fellow halfway house residents budget gourmet meals—a talent that attracts two shady women who offer him a job cooking for a music superstar named Monster. Though Gibson doesn’t have a good feeling about his seeming good fortune, he needs a job.

Arriving on Monster’s compound, Gibson senses that trouble is still on his tail. First, he’s asked to sign a confidentiality agreement. Then he meets the compound’s gardener, who warns him not to go outside at night—and tells him that to stay alive he must see nothing, hear nothing, say nothing.

It is advice that proves all too true when Gibson discovers a dead body near his bungalow a few nights later. Suddenly, all hell is breaking loose . . . and Gibson is at the center. Now he has to figure out how to escape this terrifying nightmare . . . and whether he can. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062316226
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	06/10/2014
Sold by:	HARPERCOLLINS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
File size:	248 KB

About the Author

Jervey Tervalon is the author of five books, including the bestselling Dead Above Ground and Understand This, for which he won the New Voices Award from the Quality Paperback Book Club. He edited the anthology The Cocaine Chronicles. He was a Remsen Bird writer in residence at Occidental College and a Disney screenwriting fellow. He is the director of the Literature for Life project, an online literary magazine and salon, and the literary director of LitFest Pasadena. Born in New Orleans, he now lives in California and teaches at the College of Creative Studies at UC Santa Barbara.

Editorial Reviews

04/14/2014
At the center of this moderately suspenseful novel from Tervalon (Dead Above Ground) is Monster, a Michael Jackson–like eccentric recluse who has surrounded himself with well-paid flunkies in a remote mountain retreat. Gibson, who is on parole and resides in a halfway house, is a former drug addict determined to stay on the straight and narrow and regain what he lost to his addiction: his wife and his successful New York City restaurant. He earns his keep by cooking for the other halfway house residents. The woman who runs the home, Asha, is impressed by his culinary skills, and she helps Gibson get a job as Monster’s chef—a cooking gig unlike any he’s had, and one that eventually involves dead bodies. Tervalon writes evocatively of eccentricity that borders on madness, but his characters, while believable, aren’t interesting enough to hold readers’ attention. Those who can focus on the psychological components of the story are more likely to be entertained. (June)

Publishers Weekly

Jervey Tervalon has a sick and original imagination—and I mean that in a good way.” — Tayari Jones, author of Leaving Atlanta

“Jervey Tervalon’s fast-moving tale is sure to strike a tantalizing chord for anyone who could not stop following the excesses of one certain bizarre postracial soft-voiced entertainer with a penchent for childhood amusements.” — Janet Fitch, author of White Oleander

“Tervalon’s latest is masterful. He takes the kind of chances every writer dreams of. Monster’s Chef is delicious reading.” — Grace Octavia, Essence bestselling author of Should Have Known Better

“Jervey Tervalon is a fantastic, brilliant and fearless writer, with a voice I would follow anywhere. . . . I straight-up loved this book.” — Jerry Stahl, author of Permanent Midnight

“Tervalon’s impressive and long-awaited new novel draws you in to a modern-day labyrinth of fame, wealth, power, and, gradually, a secret core of iniquity. . . . It’s a timely vision and a compulsively readable parable, at once both fantastic and true.” — Frederick Reiken, author of Day for Night

“Tervalon creates a tangy tale of suspense spiked with fantasy and wrapped around a peppery investigation into the twisted complexities of race, sex, power, and obsession. . . . Recipes are included in Tervalon’s clever, hair-raising gothic thriller, a novel readers will devour.” — Booklist

From the Publisher

Tervalon creates a tangy tale of suspense spiked with fantasy and wrapped around a peppery investigation into the twisted complexities of race, sex, power, and obsession. . . . Recipes are included in Tervalon’s clever, hair-raising gothic thriller, a novel readers will devour.

Booklist

Jervey Tervalon has a sick and original imagination—and I mean that in a good way.

Tayari Jones

Tervalon’s latest is masterful. He takes the kind of chances every writer dreams of. Monster’s Chef is delicious reading.

Grace Octavia

Jervey Tervalon is a fantastic, brilliant and fearless writer, with a voice I would follow anywhere. . . . I straight-up loved this book.

Jerry Stahl

Jervey Tervalon’s fast-moving tale is sure to strike a tantalizing chord for anyone who could not stop following the excesses of one certain bizarre postracial soft-voiced entertainer with a penchent for childhood amusements.

Janet Fitch

Tervalon’s impressive and long-awaited new novel draws you in to a modern-day labyrinth of fame, wealth, power, and, gradually, a secret core of iniquity. . . . It’s a timely vision and a compulsively readable parable, at once both fantastic and true.

Frederick Reiken

Tervalon creates a tangy tale of suspense spiked with fantasy and wrapped around a peppery investigation into the twisted complexities of race, sex, power, and obsession. . . . Recipes are included in Tervalon’s clever, hair-raising gothic thriller, a novel readers will devour.

Booklist

2014-05-07
A thriller with some characters that are memorably quirky, perhaps since we've seen them before.Each chapter of Tervalon's (Lita, 2003, etc.) new novel begins with a recipe because William Gibson, the narrator, is a chef—albeit one who's lost his chic Greenwich Village restaurant (and his wife) to his cocaine addiction. After serving time in prison, he lands a job as a personal chef for Lamont Stiles, a rock 'n' roll god better known as Monster. Getting to know the people maintaining Monster's lifestyle is the only treat here. The aptly named Thug is a giant of a bodyguard, a whacko tough guy who's strictly in it for the money. Rita is Monster's wife, playing mute because her man can't stand to hear her talk. Bridget is the stereotypical hip assistant who hates her job, fears her boss and caters to his quirks. They live in secret and spend lavishly. But then a young boy is found murdered on the grounds of Monster's Lair, and the novel begins to unravel. The plot doesn't hold together, and characters drop in and out on a whim. There's potential in the evil weirdness of Monster, the rock star who rules his own universe, but as we learn more about him—a singer who has a penchant for young boys, bleaches his black skin, pays his wife for their child and has a fantastical playground at the Lair—we realize we've been down this road before.Tervalon's novel is ill-fated from the beginning as he really can't improve on his real-life source material.

Kirkus Reviews