The Jim-Jams
Michael Green
Pocket Books, 1994
ISBN: 0-671-88148-5
Okay, so this is a review of what is inside of a book, right? We all know that covers captivate people so much that for a lot of collectors it’s solely what’s on the cover that matters to them and not what’s on the page. I’m somewhere in the middle, if I can get a copy of a book with a nice cover, sure, but I’m not too worried about it. Books are the written words to me. Like, people, it's what's on the inside that counts. Right. Right? RIGHT?!?!
Then you see a cover like the one that’s plastered onto The Jim-Jams by Michael Green. Boy-Howdy, folks. That’s a cover that inspires you. It’s a cover to make you pick that book up, it’s a cover to love and marry. To cause wonder and to marvel at. Because what the hell is this book? What the hell is that thing on the cover with its goofy face and stretchy worm-body and why is it judging my lifestyle choices?
Oh, it’s a Jim-Jam. Duh.
Michael Green is an author with an air of mystery around him, partially because there’s a few other authors by that name to confuse inquisitive minds like mine. So, the narrative is that he simply popped up in 1994 and wrote this tale of slimy body horror and one more with another wild looking book, Dry Skull Dreams in 1995. The author tagged on Goodreads tells us that he is a successful computer consultant and speaker, but I don’t think it’s the same Michael Green, as it claims a 2006 novel as his “debut”. Will the real Michael Green please stand up?
But what a first book. The set-up is simple, Blue Turtle Island is a resort community for the elderly that is besieged by something that fell from the sky and its making every yucky. Real yucky. It messes with the DNA of everything and switches bugs around like faces on Mr. Potato Head. People get it a little worse. It’s a little like David Croneberg letting his hair down and writing an EC Comic. Bodies swell, tumors pop up, parts open up. Not to mention that BUGS ARE IN EVERYTHING. If you have any anxiety about little creepy-crawlies, avoid The Jim-Jams. It’s a buggy book.
With a cast of the old people and the few resort staff being stranded on an island with alien bug-monsters, Green doesn’t hesitate to get the ball rolling. This book starts with a bang and keeps building and building. By building and building, I mean it keeps getting gross and GROSSER. It’s a KY-Jelly filled 80’s monster movie, reminding me in parts to Brian Yunza’s Society. It’s a wonderful cocktail of hanging out with old people golfing and shuffleboarding (and having sex, fair warning) while all these little Critters run around and turn them into blistering piles of goo.
Green is clearing having a ball writing this novel, it’s full of joy as he eviscerates the elderly. He writes it all clean and clear with some sort of internal logic. The book opens with a H.P. Lovecraft quote and you can see a direct line from ‘ol Howard to Green. It's just that Green is poking gentle fun at the notion of “unfeeling space gods,” by having them land in resort country. He takes it and spins Lovecraft not unlike Stuart Gordon with The Re-Animator or From Beyond. There’s certainly the same amount of slimy goodness to all of them.
This is a horror paperback unlike most, it’s unabashedly horror with no pretense of a class or taste. Green isn’t out to elevate the genre with lofty notions. He wants to gross you out and make you have a good time with him.
And he succeeds.
Roy Nugen is an award-winning writer, producer, property master, plus actor. He comes from a family of musicians, engineers, wildcatters, cops, lion tamers, and carpet salesmen. Evil Dead II changed his life and he once partied with Lloyd Kaufman.
He has written 15 short films including Bag Full of Trouble, Potboiler, Handle With Care, Death in Lavender, Hole in the Ground, and the feature film Arrive Alive, many of which have played across the country. He has been the property master on 17 short films and 2 feature films.
Roy is also a prolific book reviewer and collector of vintage pulp paperback books. You can read his reviews on his blog Bloody, Spicy Books and multiple magazines including Paperback Fanatic, Hot Lead and Sleazy Reader. He has also written afterwards for novels and for various websites. He lives in the only city that once arrested L. Ron Hubbard with his wife and cats.