Parnucklians for Chocolate by B. H. James

Today I'm reviewing Parnucklian for Chocolate by B. H. James . This book is one of the most wonderful, yet strangest books I've read in a long time. I'd like to credit Forever Young Adult for this review. With out their review, I'd never have heard about it in the first place! While FYA is obviously written primarily for adults who enjoy YA books, I have found to be an invaluable resource for all YA book and movie related everything as a 15 year old.

Amazon.com Plot Summary

As a small child, Josiah believed that his father’s absence could be explained by the simple fact that he was a high ranking alien official on the planet Parnuckle. It explained so much else, too, like why Josiah should eat nothing but chocolate (Parnucklians eat nothing but chocolate), and why he should be proud of and idolize his father, the Keymaster of Gozer, even though they’d never met.

But as time goes on and the gaps in this mythology widen, Josiah is faced with two possibilities: either it’s all very real or it’s all very pretend. This betrayal comes into sharper focus when, three weeks before his sixteenth birthday, Josiah is released back into his mother’s care after two years in a group home. His mother is about to marry Johnson Davis, and when Josiah, his mother, Johnson Davis, and his daughter Bree Davis—a prematurely mature girl with her own history of parental betrayal—attempt to live together as an all-American nuclear family, the myths underpinning all of their lives come chaotically and absurdly unspooled.
My Review

The characters are fantastic, but very strange. Some characters, like Josiah, we know a lot about, while others, like his mother, we know very little about. We never even learn her name. What is so unique about the characters in this book is that you know about them only what Josiah knows. Our experience of any of them is entirely his. We have little to no extra knowledge.

The plot is good. I would say that of my triad (characters, plot, writing) this one will have to be my least favorite, though it is in no way bad. That's how good this book is! The book is less of a story, and more of a journey. Through out it, questions will continually come in to your mind, and they will very slowly start to be answered. Questions like: Is this scifi, or is Josiah just crazy. Is Josiah crazy, or his mother, or both? Later it will simply be: Is every character in this book TOTALLY INSANE?! Then it will calm down, and you will ask yourself: Why? Why did all of that happen?

The writing is by far the best part of this book. Some parts of it are arguablly incorrect grammatically, but I didn't care. This is a first for me. I get annoyed at the absence of the Oxford comma! A sentence (this is not actually from the book, it is just a sentence that could have been in the book), such as this one would normally drive me crazy: Johnson Davis and Josiah's mother took Johnson Davis' car to the store while Bree and Josiah stayed behind in Johnson Davis' house. But instead, it was a big part of what I loved about the book. It gave it a voice that was incredibly unique, and it made the characters different. Josiah's mother is only ever refered to as Josiah's mother, and Johnson Davis is always Johnson Davis.

Who Should Read It?

I'd recommend this book to teens or adults who enjoy a well written coming of age story. Or those who have a thing for really, really weird books. There is definitely swearing and sex, so if that's an issue for you, be warned. I'd give this book five stars!