Brand New Cherry Flavor

By: Todd Grimson

Narrated by: Marguerite Gavin

Length: 15 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's summary

Losing out on a much-needed directing job, Lisa Nova sets out to wreak a special vengeance on the high-living denizens of Hollywood, an erotic, nightmarish quest that awakens an age-old, implacable curse and leads to an encounter with the ultimate evil, the Soul Eater.

©1996, 2011 Todd Grimson (P)2021 Recorded Books

much better than t Netflix adaptation

Great listen. I sought this out after seeing the Netflix adaptation. The book explores much more of the characters and ambitions they hold. I'm very happy to have found this title

So much more details then the show!

The only thing I dislike is there not being a part 2. Well a second book

Confusing but intriguing

It was a little hard for me to understand fully sometimes what was happening or who was who, but I was able to catch up for the most part. I watched the Netflix show along with listening, although it was quite different it helped a little.

Surreal and Interesting, But Still Disappointing

Brand New Cherry Flavor is a book packed with originality and uniqueness. There's a potential within this story, a barely suppressed tension and horror seething just below the surface, that sadly never quite reaches fruition. My comment on wasted potential is not to suggest I didn't enjoy the story because it was surprisingly enjoyable. I feel almost as though the lack of gratification or fulfillment was an intentional stroke by the author. Consider it a page from the Bret Easton Ellis playbook, metafictional and intentionally subverting the expectation of the readers.
Lisa Nova is, for the most part, not a likable character. Throughout the narrative, she fluctuates between appearing vapid and slyly witty while perpetually coming across as shallow. Being unlikeable does not, however, make her unsympathetic. Witnessing as her life spins out of control with an increasing cost in collateral damage, it would be challenging to dismiss her plight.
We join the tale just as Lisa's passed over for a promised role as the Assistant Director on a major film project. This position had been promised to her by Lou Burke, the man she'd been having an affair with up until that point. As a concession, her now-former lover sends her to meet with people who will capitalize on her looks by paying her to star in a pornography adjacent film. Lou Burke, or as Lisa repeatedly refers to him, "Lou Greenwood, Lou Adolph, Lou Burke," is a class act. He deserves to have a fork stabbed into his leg.
Incensed, and seeking revenge, Lisa goes to her ex-boyfriend, Code, to inquire about a hitman she'd heard about through him. This leads her to Boro, and the rest of the story evolves in its phantasmagoric way from that interaction.
Traveling from Hollywood to Brazil, from Brazil to New York, and from New York back to Hollywood, Lisa discovers that Boro has not only taken the job of destroying Lou Burke--and his family--but is also providing Lisa with the power to shape the world around her in ways many people could only dream of.
Psychic tattoos, a mythological white jaguar, zombies (of the voodoo variety), drugs of all flavors and varieties, magical filmmaking, mirrors that show the past, and a garden of human limbs are only some of the more bizarre elements of this story.
Though I enjoyed this book a good deal less than I would have liked, I can certainly understand the appeal it has for other readers/listeners.
The audiobook narration supplied by Marguerite Gavin made the story more enjoyable than it might have been without such a competent narrator. She certainly managed to fully convey the character of Lisa Nova better than I think many narrators could.

Far too long

Could have been much shorter with fewer characters;. Overall interesting, but was often tedious. Very well narrated.

awesome book

There's some oddly placed prose throughout the book that interrupt the action, and I don't think the sex scenes are exploitative or overly gratuitous at all. it's more of vulnerability and realistic conversations about things that two people would say if they were alone together experiencing the unpredictable and bizarre but meaningful events that a powerful "entity" of origins that the book brilliantly tells you about in bits of satisfying amounts throughout the book, leaving you enticed by what you just learned and excited to find out more, and this is just one tiny aspect of many that make this book very easy to read over and over cause you'll put new things together each time
I loved the contrast by Lisa talking about how Code used to always say he did his best thinking while she would perform a bj on him, and, and some of her manipulations that include seduction, Lisa is a machiavellian ambitious Brazilian film prodigy that uses any and all means necessary to make it in Hollywood, but the book often mentions the words"brand new" and "cherry" and "flavor" a lot but never "brand new cherry flavor and there's a reason. it's almost like a puzzle to understand the title.
The show is great and it's a limited mini series and there's no way you could tell this book in 8 hour long episodes, so there's a whole strange world in the book

Very entertaining and clever!

Excellent performance of an outstanding story. I wish the author was more prolific in writing the same style.

A fabulously weird Hollywood Neo noir magical realist adventure.

I love this book. I have heard it twice, each time, it is full of wonderful surprises and unexpected turns. Lisa Novo is a new heroine of mine, and I plan to put the book on the rotation of things I read or hear repeatedly, as soon as each hearing has been long enough since the last that I have forgotten many of the details. The reader is excellent and the production is superb. Five stars.

weird and great

so freaking weird and thought provoking. i knew it was going to be a strange ride. lots of characters.

This book is great

I hesitated to listen to this book for a long time after watching the Netflix series. Dont get me wrong, I enjoyed the series, but I wasn’t inclined to hear a story that I already knew… let’s just say that Netflix went in a completely different direction from the source material. There were some of the same characters, but this was a completely different story with the same weird feel to it (and no one threw up kittens in the book). It took a little bit for me to get into the story, but once i did it captured my interest to the end.