Product Description
During the eternal quest for pleasure, Ryan finds himself digging up the corpse of another teenager, Jeffrey Neil. He soon befriends the carcass, and through the online journal Jeffrey left behind, Ryan is mentored toward a new perspective on life.

But has his unnatural friendship cursed him? Will he be strong enough to escape the black hole that is his hometown? And who is this tattooed freak that hunts him like some bloodthirsty ghoul? Ryan better be careful; there are cops everywhere...

Inside an empire of mediocrity, the spirit of rebellion is reborn.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 5.0 based on 4 reviews)

A different sort of story.

"Inside an Empire of Mediocrity, the spirit of rebellion is reborn" - "Corpse of Freedom" is initially a story of friendship, following a teenager named Ryan and his befriending of Jeffery Neil. The only problem is that Jeffery Neil is dead and Ryan only knows about him through the online blog that Jeffery left behind. "Corpse of Freedom" follows Ryan and his adventures spiraling out of that, partially believing that the corpse has cursed him while he tries to escape the black hole of his hometown, as he's hunted by a strange tough guy and the area is swarmed with cops. "Corpse of Freedom" is an offbeat, entertaining, will make the reader think, making it highly recommended to fiction shelves everywhere and anyone looking for a different sort of story.
May 07, 2008

The Perfect Modern Teen Satire

Great book. A fun, fast, and entertaining story about teen angst without any apology. It expresses a growing undercurrent in our society. Nothing contrived. The symbolism and metaphor don't bog you down with too much purpose and meaning. Just an entertaining coming of age book. And Funny, too. I haven't laughed so hard at characters and dialogue in a long time. I really recommend it as a change for any reader looking to read something with a fresh voice, instead of the same old stale prose.
March 14, 2008

IF INSTA-CULT WERE A TERM

This book without a doubt takes readers along an unconventional narrative-joy-ride at breakneck speed. By overlapping multiple narratives, clues and peripheral characters' stories, Corpse's pace moves a lot like a screenplay, dropping readers in and out of simultaneous scenes and unexpected dream sequences, bouncing back and forth through what feels like a ping-pong game of fun house mirrors complete with car chases, house parties and sex scenes. Maybe it was intended to be a teen-read, but the underlying message ups the ante from intelligent young-adult level to adult-level.

On one hand we have a story about teenaged existential conflict. On the other hand, (if the first isn't full enough for you) we have the exhumation of a corpse. But, instead of reburying him, Ryan chooses (against his friends' pleas) to keep his new "friend" Jeffrey, taking him home, to the park, or along for nights out on the town. Ryan finds Jeffrey's online journal entries written just before his mysterious death and finds himself drawn to their wisdom in a way that has heretofore escaped him in empathizing with the living. Ryan has grown up in this suburban American town whose atmosphere is literally browned by the mundane and confined lifestyles of its dwellers, where colorless corporations are fast taking over. Escape from "Everdale, USA" has been Ryan's only hope in amounting to someone distinctive but before "meeting" Jeffrey, all these hopes and ideas had been buried and unarticulated.

But how long can Ryan hang onto this corpse when a tattooed mystery-man in a devilish souped-up Buick Riviera is after him to claim it? Ryan's life and everyone else's around him is quickly spiraling out of control. Is this corpse cursed?

This book reads like a verbal rock 'n roll video, fast paced and hilariously strange but has a much deeper statement to make that shines through. While wholly unreasonable in reality, in the world Dax and Lloyd Garner create, this story totally works. Of course, we need to forgo our qualms with carrying decayed bodies around, talking to them, partying with them, for the length of two hundred seven pages. Normality doesn't apply here. Irony does. Which is exactly the stuff that keeps you thinking after the book's been set down. It is bold and intense, rooted in what one can only describe as a seriously original way of tackling the subject of existentialism and teenage-angst. It will leave you pondering its pieces for days.

March 12, 2008

"Corpse of Freedom"; A Thought-Provoking Young Adult Novel.

Every once in a while, a great novel for young adults comes along. These are the true standouts among the genre; "A Catcher in the Rye" by Salinger, "The Outsiders" by Hinton, and most currently "Corpse of Freedom" by brothers Dax and Lloyd Garner.

This fast-moving read is the story of Ryan, a typical suburban teenager living in Everdale, a typical American suburb. One night Ryan and his friends try to shake off the ennui of their suburban existance by digging up the corpse of a teenager named Jeffery Neil.

After partying with the corpse, Ryans so-called friends ditch him, leaving him to keep the corpse in his filthy bedroom. Not knowing what to do about his dilemma, Ryan just keeps the corpse in his room while he tries to live out his life as normal as possible.

Ryan soon decides to Google Jeffery's name to find out more about him, and comes accross an online journal the teen kept right before he died. Through this journal, Ryan develops a quite unnatural friendship with the corpse, learning as much about himself as he does about Jeffery.

Jeffery's philosophy about freedom, individuality, and personal pursuit of excelence makes Ryan come to terms with the fact that his life is going nowhere fast. When he ditches his old friends and meets an independent young man named Manuelo, the two embark on an adventure of freedom outside the fishbowl of suburban conformity.

Add to this plot Ryan's infatuation with the snotty, spoiled little high-school princess, numerous confrontations with her boyfriend (the wealthy school stud), and a ghoulish stalker who hunts him down like wounded prey, and you have a great novel that even seasoned fiction afficianados will enjoy!

Like "I Am the Cheese", "Anthem", and "The Giver", "Corpse of Freedom"'s Libertarian message of personal liberty and individuality make it a must-read for every American adolescent. Who knows? It just may even counteract the socialist, conformist mentality being fostered in todays American youth (if we're lucky!)
November 26, 2007

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