Breakfast with the Ones You Love
Eliot Fintushel
Bantam, Mar 2007, $12.00
ISBN: 0553903535

Anyone who knows emaciated Lea Tillim knows to stay away from her; those with no sense of self preservation will take one look at this crew cut Cadaver Dimples but better quickly look away praying she did not notice their glance. Lea can use her thoughts to send a healthy person to hospitals or morgues; that is why she is a whispered legend as the Star of Morgues and Emergency Rooms. She has no human friends nor wants any such companions from those who fear she will blink them into a stroke or heart attack that is if they catch her in a good mood. Her only bud is Tule the cat as human relationships mean horrific endings.

Jack Konar is secretly building something strange in an abandoned part of a Sears and Roebuck building when Lea meets him. He explains to Lea that he is trying to rescue the Chosen stuck on godforsaken planet earth, but their enemies the Evil Ones want to prevent him from achieving his objective; he further says that the adversaries shrewdly camouflage themselves as sly everyday people or housecats. He pleads with her that to complete his mission he needs her help. Lea thinks she might be dealing with a lunatic yet Cadaver rule number one never get entangled with humans is falling apart as she is falling in love with this insane save the world wannabe.

Eliot Fintushel provides an insane science fiction tale of saving the world before breakfast but finding time to fall in love over breakfast. The story line is filled with action, but in a weird ironic way it is a character study of two outsiders finding love, the most dangerous concept in the universe. The zany thriller grips readers from the opening moment the macabre Lea explains why she killed her face at twelve years old and never liberates the fascinated audience until the final wacky confrontation.

Harriet Klausner