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Roger Rabbit #4
Jessica Rabbit: XERIOUS Business
Ever wonder where Toons come from? Curious about how Toontown came to be? Stay Tooned, folks. You’re about to find out.The gorgeous Toon superstar the whole world now knows as Jessica Rabbit started out in life as Jessica Krupnick, an ordinary young woman living in an all-too-human Toon-less world.Jessica trudges listlessly through day after day of drudgery, boredom, and disappointment. She knows in her heart that she’s better than this. She’s capable of doing so much more. She fantasizes being one of the secret agents in the books she reads every night to take her mind off her miseries. She imagines herself living a life of excitement, danger and action.Then one day she spots a mysterious want ad looking for “a woman seeking adventure.” Through a combination of skill, cunning, and crafty derring-do, Jessica beats out all the other applicants. She wins her dream job. After two years of intense training, she becomes a glamorous and deadly agent of XERIOUS, a super-secret organization dedicated to pursuing and apprehending Criminal Masterminds.Staid, the head of XERIOUS, pairs Jessica with Robbe, XERIOUS’s best operative.For their first assignment as a team, Jessica and Robbe get an extremely perilous mission. Apprehend The Klown, the menacing and murderous head of a nefarious organization called YUK.Looks like Jessica hit the jackpot. She’s finally going to get the excitement, challenges, and respect she’s long craved and deserved.Except….not so fast. Even in the secret agent business, Jessica still faces the typical problems of a woman doing a man’s job.Despite repeatedly demonstrating that she’s a better, smarter, more competent agent than Robbe, Jessica still gets routinely disregarded because she’s a woman.Until The Klown’s ultimate plan comes to fruition, threatening the end of the world as we know it. A horrible, unthinkable finale which Jessica and only Jessica can prevent.Wait a minute, you say. You thought this was a book about the origins of Toontown and where Toons came from. Hold on. Toontown’s coming. As is that goofy Toon rabbit that Jessica came to love - because he made her laugh.Jessica XERIOUS Business portrays Jessica Rabbit as much more than a sultry seductress songbird. The book fleshes out her character and depicts her as a true-life, multi-faceted, intelligent, capable woman who can easily hold her own in a world dominated by men.Jessica Rabbit - a real life role model for women everywhere.For Who Framed Roger Rabbit movie fans — maybe you expect this novel to be set in the 1940’s. Instead, Jessica’s story takes place today, in the current here and now. Toons live in a never-never land where yesterday, today, and tomorrow commingle and blend into a flowing time stream that sometimes turns a bend and runs sideways or even backwards. When you’re dealing with Toons, you never know what to expect. That’s what Toontown’s all about. That’s what makes Toons and Toontown funny.Celebrated author Gary K. Wolf’s cult classic and highly praised first Toontown novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit? was the basis for the blockbuster Walt Disney/Steven Spielberg Academy Award winning film Who Framed Roger Rabbit. In that one, and in his two sequel novels, Wolf parodied the traditional hard-boiled private eye novel.In Jessica XERIOUS Business, author Wolf gives his unique comic twist to a different genre, the secret agent spy novel. Wolf creates a wonderfully skewed – and totally believable – world compounded of equal parts James Bond and Alice In Wonderland.
258 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 3, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
May 12, 2022
A Marvelous Addition.
So, suffice it to say, I’m a Roger Rabbit fanatic. Far beyond enjoying the 1988 movie, I’ve consumed all that exists in the world. Podcasts, YouTube videos, and yes, all 4 (now) of Gary K. Wolf’s Roger Rabbit books.
This new one, easily, is a must read if you're a fan of any caliber. A page-turner if ever I held one. At its heart, it's a great, off-beat crime drama with tons of bonkers humor. But more than that, it's a love letter to one of the most alluring and enduring characters ever created, Jessica Rabbit. What we had in the movie, a sultry lounge singer who just happened to be drawn a certain way, we now have a fully-fledged female hero. You don't get the Jessica you see in the movie, you get to understand why she is and see her growth into that character.
To say I loved it, is an understatement. The only reason, I've stopped to write this review is so I can download the other three books and read all four, all over again.
If you see this, thank you Gary. Thank you so much.
So, suffice it to say, I’m a Roger Rabbit fanatic. Far beyond enjoying the 1988 movie, I’ve consumed all that exists in the world. Podcasts, YouTube videos, and yes, all 4 (now) of Gary K. Wolf’s Roger Rabbit books.
This new one, easily, is a must read if you're a fan of any caliber. A page-turner if ever I held one. At its heart, it's a great, off-beat crime drama with tons of bonkers humor. But more than that, it's a love letter to one of the most alluring and enduring characters ever created, Jessica Rabbit. What we had in the movie, a sultry lounge singer who just happened to be drawn a certain way, we now have a fully-fledged female hero. You don't get the Jessica you see in the movie, you get to understand why she is and see her growth into that character.
To say I loved it, is an understatement. The only reason, I've stopped to write this review is so I can download the other three books and read all four, all over again.
If you see this, thank you Gary. Thank you so much.
August 25, 2022
Jessica Rabbit: XERIOUS Business is anything but! It's a wonderful addition to the Looney Tooney world created by Gary Wolf. All of his books are worth reading. Each story stands independently as its own adventure. This is no exception.
His writing style is so detailed, every page paints a picture so you can imagine yourself in any situation. Whether it's how Jessica lived when she was younger to how she dressed for her employer or what heinous scheme our insidious villain has in mind. Everything is there.
How did Jessica meet Roger? Was she always such a strong woman? How does she look in a variety of outfits? What's up with that bad guy? What's wrong with the air? Why is a superman balloon involved intimately with the hind end of a cat balloon? How well can she deal with a sexist partner?
These questions and many more are answered in this book. If you're like me, you'll make it to the end, and replay a lot of the events you read in your head, and go, "Huh. So that's how that all started!" Some of the best stories and authors are those that simply have fun and don't take themselves xeriously. Gary is one of those writers, and for that I am grateful. There is no one else writing the way he does!
His writing style is so detailed, every page paints a picture so you can imagine yourself in any situation. Whether it's how Jessica lived when she was younger to how she dressed for her employer or what heinous scheme our insidious villain has in mind. Everything is there.
How did Jessica meet Roger? Was she always such a strong woman? How does she look in a variety of outfits? What's up with that bad guy? What's wrong with the air? Why is a superman balloon involved intimately with the hind end of a cat balloon? How well can she deal with a sexist partner?
These questions and many more are answered in this book. If you're like me, you'll make it to the end, and replay a lot of the events you read in your head, and go, "Huh. So that's how that all started!" Some of the best stories and authors are those that simply have fun and don't take themselves xeriously. Gary is one of those writers, and for that I am grateful. There is no one else writing the way he does!
May 23, 2022
4.5/5 stars for pure enjoyment factor. This read a lot like fan fiction: both in a good way and a bad way! In some ways it made the writing feel kind of meh. But overall, it was just a good time and a really fun look into the world of Toontown and Roger and Jessica. I especially liked It was both perfectly led up to and totally surprised me but it was so fun to watch it happen. And of course, I also loved getting a story from Jessica's perspective + being a badass.
If you like the zany world of Toontown and Roger Rabbit, I'd highly recommend! A super fun, quick read :)
If you like the zany world of Toontown and Roger Rabbit, I'd highly recommend! A super fun, quick read :)
June 13, 2023
The fourth novel of the series and perhaps the best. This shows the human side of Jessica before she became a toon. I thoroughly enjoyed this, the first and fourth book possibly being my favourites. Don’t expect these books to follow on, one after the other. They each have their own stories and don’t pick up where the other left off. Take them for they are, as the author has written them, and they’re fun, though not as zany as the film. Don’t expect Disney here.
August 13, 2023
Wolf again disregards the happenings in the previous novels when it comes to plot. This is supposed to be Jessica's origin story, but it's set in modern times. Instead of a potion, humans are turned into toons with a gas. At the start, Jessica is a human woman with a low paying job and a bad home life. She's drab and mousy and only dates men who take advantage of her. Then she gets a job at a spy agency where she takes off her glasses, shakes out her hair, and becomes stunningly beautiful. Ugh. Wolf kept going into detail about the designers the characters were wearing which seemed very odd.
Her partner at the spy agency is a sexist jerk. Here is where I started hate reading the rest of the book.
Her partner at the spy agency is a sexist jerk. Here is where I started hate reading the rest of the book.
July 25, 2023
I loved that this was Jessica's story but I don't like that it was more modern day than the other books. It just messes with the timeline and makes me not like it. I do love how we see what Roger was like before he became this wacky toon. And I love the idea of how toon town came to be but I just can't get over how this book is supposed to be before the others and it was completely different.
August 31, 2023
Shift to modern day spy comedy. Jessica Rabbit’s solo adventure where there are no Toons. There’s a couple of “Hey fellow young people” moments, but not too bad. The humor is still strong and in line with the preceding4 books.
May 28, 2022
An amusing read. Jessica’s origin is revealed. She started out as a human!
July 6, 2022
A funtastic origin story.
August 11, 2023
I had a lot of fun writing this!!! I hope you enjoy this little journey into Jessica Rabbit's past.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews