Paint the Toon Red

Animætropolis, Book 1

De: A.J. Mayall

Narrado por: Nicholas Patrella

Tyler Fairfax can't seem to catch a break.

A human living in the toon district of Animætropolis, the only affordable neighborhood in San Jose, he's been surviving on the kindness of strangers, his badger neighbors, and his boyfriend while he looks for a job. An unexpected encounter with a toon from the black-and-white days gets him exactly what he needs and then some.

But Tyler's problems aren't over yet; a stranger informs him people have been going missing around this toon and his live-in talent agent, and to keep an eye out for anything suspicious. Tyler’s curiosity gets the better of him; he learns what happened to at least one of those people... and now it's happened to him.

He is turned into Fairfax Fawkes, a toon fox with a human mind and perception; everything a toon would be able to shrug off, he feels as if he were still human. Worse still, indulging his toon instincts erases a human trait or, potentially, a memory.

As he traces a web of lies, drugs, human trafficking, and murder for hire, he has to work around his foil’s compulsion to impede his progress. Trapped between human sensibilities and toon guidelines, Fairfax has to break a lot of rules if he has any hope of surviving this.

It’s get wacky or get whacked.

©2019 Adric Mayall (P)2020 Adric Mayall

Fascinating & Entertaining!

Paint the Toon Red, the first book in the Animætropoli series, is a cleverly composed urban fantasy. The premise is unique and fascinating; it reminded me of Roger Rabbit and Cool World. The storyline is well-written, entertaining, and grittier than I expected, containing violence, suspense, and dark elements. This was my first A.J. Mayall book, and have to say he is an exceptional storyteller with an incredible imagination. He has done a brilliant job with the world-building and character development.

Nicholas Petrella did an outstanding job with the narration; he was well-paced and precise. His inflections entirely suited the situations and characters — especially given the characters in this story. Paint the Toon Red was highly enjoyable, one I recommend.
I was given a free copy of this audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Strange But Fun

I received this title for free in exchange for an honest review.

Something Inthought was fabulous about the beginning of this audiobook is A.J. Mayall’s opening in which he addressed having contacted the writer of Who Framed Roger Rabbit for permission to delve into a similar world. It was a wise, classy move that garnered him an endorsement from said writer.

This story definitely works in a different world than RR. In this one, toons cannot hurt humans. There is a code they adhere to that prevents it. There is also an incorporation of toon contracts, toon religion (very hush-hush), and other unique elements.

The main plot point is that a human is forcibly turned into a toon in a horrific and secret process. From there it becomes a mission to return to humanity and seek revenge. Overall the story is rather dark. It explores societal ethics, the plight of the misunderstood individual, and the struggle to maintain one’s humanity while knowingly losing bits of it.

Nicholas Patrella’s narration is fantastic! He utilized numerous distinct character voices and does an outstanding job of the first person narrative. His performance brought the story to life. As this is only the first title of his I have heard I am not ready to make comparisons to some of the industry greats I love listening to, but I a fan. I will definitely be searching out more of his work.

If you like Roger Rabbit this is for you

A very adult take on the Roger Rabbit toon/human world (with RR’s creator’s blessing), is a fun and thought provoking adventure in a similar world.
Although it says book 1, and there definitely feels like there’s more story to tell, there is no cliffhanger and the story still works as a stand alone story. I hope another book in the series does come out because this is a fun, fascinating world I want to spend more time in.
The narrator does a great job of bringing to life all the quirky toons and regular people that populate the story.
Highly recommended.

Very entertaining

“This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.”

I really enjoyed this story and look forward to listening to the next. It ends with HFN and I want to see the results of their new endeavors.

It’s very Roger Rabbity, I liked that movie so knew I would enjoy this! The narrator did a wonderful job with all the voices and really acted out the story and not just read it.

Totally worth the credit if you like this kind of story with animated characters. NOT for kids, but no over the top sex scenes either.

Unexpected story twists make it a fun ride!

Whenever you start to get a feeling about how to story will proceed, it will just go bonkers in the unexpected way, so the author does an excellent job with bringing this unique story to life and narrator Nicholas Patrella does a great job with giving voices to all those different toon characters.
There is one thing that should be mentioned - Tyler is a guy and he has a boyfriend, so if reading about such things is a complete turn off then this book should be avoided, however, I am glad I did not pay attention to it because it was a fun ride regardless of the main character's escapades.
“This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.”