Kanye West—Reanimator: The Re-Reanimated Edition

What a unique Journey this was. The book is very thin, so thin they couldn't include info on the spine, but it's just long enough to tell you everything you need to know. The mix of modern Hip-hop Icons and H.P. Lovecraft's classic story works so well it almost feels like Lovecraft stole his idea from this book. At the very least even if you don't read the book it's a great conversation started and has great cover art worth being displayed.

Despite my disinterest in hip-hop and the popular music scene as a whole, this mash-up spoof works really well. Switching mad scientist for med musician/ producer gives a delightfully absurd tinge to the macabre original that it heavily borrows from.

Kanye West-Reanimator is the debut novella by Joshua Chaplinksy who is known as the managing editor of Litreactor.This slim book centers on Kanye West’s come up in the music industry and juxtaposes the story of the Reanimator with West’s widely successful music career. We follow West as he struggles to be recognized for both his production skills as well as his rapping. Somewhere along the way, he becomes obsessed with reanimating the dead via his potent music.The story is told by a Lovecraftian narrator who poses as West’s friend throughout the book and co-conspirator in West’s efforts to re-animate the dead. The prose may be off-putting to those unfamiliar with Lovecraft’s work, but the rhythm should be easy to get used to.Kanye stans with an open mind should enjoy the hell out of this book. I can see a few people getting a little mad because a few jabs are taken at Kanye. However, it’s done in good taste and it’s obvious the author knows Kanye’s musical path pretty well.Kanye West Reanimator is quirky yet entertaining biography of Kanye filtered through a Lovecraftian lens. It’s a testament to Chaplinsky’s skills as a writer that he could take two different worlds (hip-hop and Lovecraft) and seamlessly stitch them together into a helluva entertaining book.

Imagine the rapturous joy which spread throughout my chest, into my beating heart--which truth be told, nearly stopped at the wondrous sight I beheld!--when I spied this book upon the electronic pages of Amazon. O! What a book! What an indescribable novel, filled with phantasmagorical phantasms retold in a modern setting which may be familiar with the youth of today. The book, narrated in true Lovecraftian style which may be obtuse to some purviewers of prose, held a ghastly array of delights and horrors both, too much for the mind to handle in one single sitting, lest it break and let loose the tides of insanity which always lurk upon the gloomy horizon. Reanimator, truly one of my most beloved of Lovecraft's prose and one of my most watched movies as well, retold with a new star... instead of Herbert West, our talented and clever author gives us Kanye West instead! Our protagonist--ever determined in his gruesome goals--seeks to reanimate the hip-hop music scene... and woe to our hero indeed. Through his trials and tribulations, this I can truly say for this splendorous story: I have never learned so much about Kanye West in my life, and this knowledge shall truly haunt my nightmares for ever.

Really interesting and fun book! I'm a really big Kanye fan, and it's so amazing to see how the author changed a few key events in his life to craft such a masterpiece of a book! It's a pretty short read and I'd highly recommend it if you're a fan of Kanye or hip hop in general.

It shouldn't work...It couldn't work...It DOES work!!!This book is so much more than a mere swapping out of Herbert West's name for Kanye's. There is a surprising amount of character development. I never would have thought it, but Re-Animator serves as the perfect framework for telling a story of Kanye West's obsession, narcisissim and self doubts. But don't get me wrong, the book still has plenty of absurd hijinks to go around. With some truly laugh-out-loud bits, this book is a must read for both Lovercraft and Kanye fans with senses of humor. Dark senses of humor.

Admit it: You wanna buy this book off of the title alone.Don't worry. It's so worth it.A hilarious and at times graphic tribute to both The Greatest Artist of All Time and H.P. Lovecraft, Kanye West: Reanimator is clever and poignant satire with a darkly comedic tone throughout that will leave you laughing and shaking our head at Yeezus' misfortunes with reanimating the dead with the power of his music. A comedy that isn't afraid to pull its punches and knows damn well what it's talking about, Chaplinsky has crafted a lovely ridiculous tale that wouldn't really surprise me if this turned out to be true.All I can hope is that Biggie will come back another time in peace and not covered with sewage.

Entertaining and kept me interested the whole way through. Its nice to see another view of Kanye and his genius.

This had been on my TBR list for a while, thanks mainly to the intrigue of the synopsis and the amazing cover (illustrated by Dyer Wilk and designed by Matthew Revert, two of the very best in the business). But, having recently read Chaplinsky's debut short story collection, I knew I had to read it ASAP.I'm as familiar with the writing of Lovecraft as I am with the music of Kanye West which, is to say, vague at best. I know many of the contemporary authors in the horror genre count Lovecraft as an influence but, given his style of writing and the language of the time, I could never get past the first few pages. However, with the aid of Chaplinsky's wonderful tone and tremendous ability, this was a much easier read than if I had simply read the original text.Also, the use of Kanye West as the protagonist, while initially mind-boggling, makes perfect sense the longer I read. Thanks to rumour and his desire for privacy, he seems to have built a mystique around his life that only adds to his suitability as a character in such a bizarre story. Naturally (hopefully), the more extreme elements of the story are pure fiction (his smuggling of the dead and matricide), but much of the way he behaves throughout seems in keeping with his outrageous antics. But this melding of fact and fiction is not achieved by simply replacing Lovecraft's original protagonist's name with Kanye. Chaplinsky incorporates details of the contemporary hip hop scene with the original narrative to create something wholly new and wholly entertaining.The bonus content is also a great addition to an already wonderful story. The foreword offers great insight into its creation, and the review of the musical adds more depth to the history of the Re-Animator story. But the original short story "Beyond The Wall of Sleep in Redhook, Brooklyn" is a real stand-out. I already knew Chaplinsky was a gifted short-story writer. This simply added further proof to the argument. If you enjoyed this book, go grab "Whispers in the Ear of a Dreaming Ape". It is full of marvellous stories in this vein.

This novel is clever and funny but ultimately fails as a good read because of the source material. The story sticks slavishly to the original Lovecraft text and as such repeats its (many) flaws. It kept my attention though. And the cover is a delightful parody. And it gets a bonus star for it's very on-the-nose bio-blurb for Lovercaft himself. Worth a read if you can get it cheap.

Sehr schräge Interpretation zu H.P. Lovecraft's Geschichte.In einem Zug durchgelesen, stark gewöhnungsbedürftig!Und sehr amerikanisches Englisch . 3 Sterne

Very good. Good quality. 10/10

Kanye West, is to say the least, a character, large of ego, large of self confidence and lover of even larger bottomed girls than Freddy Mercury could ever envisioned, he is nothing if not entertaining. However, if you scrape away the veneer of poor language skills, internet bust ups and a hatred for Taylor Swift that will see him get a swift kick in the peanuts from me, and you will find a much darker soul indeed! A soul so dark that he will stop at nothing to see his plans to not only reanimate the dying corpse of rap music, but the actual corpses of certain long dead rappers come to fruition. Kayne West - Re Animator is a terrifying insight into the mind of music's most deluded practitioner.I used to love rap music, but as every old fogey will say "this modern stuff is not as good as it was back in my day" I liked rap music when Ice Cube wasn't goofing it up in terrible films, Onyx wasn't just a misspelling of Lynx bodyspray, and Naughty By Nature wasn't a phrase to describe my wayward and psychotic daughter Cthella. But times change and the old rappers die, fade away or sell their souls to the gods of the quick buck. So when it comes to confirming the details of what occurs in this book I am sorry to say that I can't testify to any of the facts about Kayne West revealed within its pages. Such as the existence of his "Yoghurt retreat", his obsession with owls, "four barn records" and his endless supply of lust tears and nocturnal emissions. So we will have to take these "facts" as presented by the unnamed narrator of this dark and disturbing story.Horror is a fantastic genre, it is so wide and encompassing that you can go from one extreme to the other. from the brutal gritty novels of Gary McMahon, to the crazy humour of Joshua Chaplinsky's Kanye West - Reanimator without ever risking breaking the bubble. It is a genre that defies characterisation, and a genre that screams out for a great comedy pastiche. Which is where we come in with this book.​Kanye West - Reanimator, is a full on love letter to H.P. Lovecraft, hell it even manages to use the N word in a non cringeworthy and acceptable way, trust me on this folks. Chaplinsky has produced a novella that captures the voice of a Lovecraftain narrator perfectly, while infusing him with a rich vein of dark humour. In fact if you haven't read Lovecraft, or if it has been a long time since you did, you might find Kanye West - Reanimator a bit of a difficult read at first, as Chaplinsky has captured the style of Lovecraft perfectly. But stick with it as once you get into the narrative flow, you are in for a treat, with a compelling story peppered with wonderful gags, and guest appearances from those who have crossed paths with the man himself. The cameo from one aging rock star is particularly hilarious, with the mental image of him swinging a broadsword a stroke of comic genius.This is a side splitting comic novel, that had this reviewer laughing out loud on the bus as he read it. If you thought Kayne West was a bit of a pathetic loser before by the time you finish reading this novella you will see him as an even bigger pathetic loser. I'm not quite sure what he has done to Chaplinsky to deserve such a cutting attack, but rest assured Chaplinsky goes in for the kill.This is an acerbic, intelligent and witty deconstruction of one of media's most deluded personalities, and the futility and fleetingness of fame. A perfect example of horror comedy that resists the all too often urge for bargain basement humour for a series of adroit and shrewd jokes that will have you smiling from ear to ear.