BOO! by Simon Plaster, featuring a cast of some of the most idiosyncratic and humorously twisted characters this side of Oklahoma City, along with his memorable female protagonist, small town reporter turned big, Henrietta, just might be one of the author’s most entertaining and LOL novels yet. In BOO!, Plaster’s latest novel, the author takes satirical jabs at a variety of subjects, including sexual mores and the “Me Too” movement. It’s a book that will delight fans of Plaster’s and anybody who enjoys reading satirical novels that point out the lighter side of controversial topics. No matter if you’re a supporter of the “Me Too” movement or a critic of it, you’ll find something to laugh and think about in the pages of BOO!
As BOO!opens, Henrietta is working in OKC writing for the OKC SCENE, and she has a new boss, Mr. Nigel Fleetwood, a man who wants to take the publication in a new direction. Affecting an English accent, Fleetwood wants the OKC SCENE to incorporate touches that have long been staples of certain UK newspapers, like including more scandalous stories about celebrities and political figures, along with photographs of naked or semi-clothed ladies.
Henrietta’s boss requests that she writes a story for the OKC SCENE about haunted houses in Oklahoma. During her research online, she reads about a haunted castle known as LeRoy’s Castle that is open to the public and features “‘almost live’ entertainment.” The Haunted Castle is beset with all sorts of rumors associated with it. When Henrietta learns that the famous Hollywood producer/director Deano DeBoffo, a character who Plaster has incorporated in past novels in the series, plans to be there soon, she senses the makings of a good news story.
DeBoffo’s impending visit spurs many of the recurrent female characters in Plaster’s Henrietta series of satirical novels to think about their past encounters with him, in a new light. With the spate of recent news stories about males in politics, or associated with TV and Hollywood, like CBS’s Les Moonves and Fox’s Bob O’Reilly, accused of sexual harassment, as a backdrop to the ongoing hijinx and subplots in BOO!, female characters like Henrietta’s mother, Wynona Sue, and the hostess/housekeeper, Maddie McGill, at The Haunted Castle recall that they were “sexually harassed” by DeBoffo.
BOO! is especially pertinent to news events of today, with the controversy that surrounded Judge Kavanaugh’s confirmation as a Supreme Court Justice as one of the latest news stories about the claims that women have come forward with regarding their having been sexually harassed. There is no doubt that the topic of sexual harassment is a very serious one, and it is a tragedy that many women have experiences with having been sexually harassed. It can be a tricky thing to pull off satirizing serious matters like sexual harassment, but Simon Plaster is more than up to the task in the pages of BOO! If you’re a fan of reading entertaining satirical novels including touches of spooky Halloween fun, just in time for the upcoming holiday, then you will want to check out BOO! and add it to your reading lists today!
