Damned Highway: Fear and Loathing in Arkham

The Damned Highway by by Nick Mamatas and Brian Keene mixes together Hunter S. Thompson, H. P. Lovecraft's monsters and Watergate. Thompson, reeling from his unintended fame from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas gets caught up in a plot that involves the invasion of monsters that hinges on the re-election of Richard Nixon. The book is written in first person, with Thompson as the narrator. His first person observations are written in a voice that wobbles between something similar to Thompson's actual writing style and Lovecraft's Gothic horror. For me, Thompson's voice seemed forced. It didn't flow. There was too much emphasis on making it as wacky and moody as possible. There wasn't any room for Thompson to take a breadth — or the reader. Maybe a Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Call of Cthulu mashup would have worked. Tossing in Richard Nixon, though, was a distraction. It was one element too many.