Access Androgynous Murder House Party: Send Your Regrets Now, Or Regret It Later Curated By Steven Rigolosi Shown In Version

slow. Kept my interest by humor, Loved the analogies, ie, "whose own teeth were dingier than the underwear of a navyman six months at sea, " OK, to be fair, I didn't finish this book, Only managed to get through the part where the group of characters is at the estate at, And I hate books that use in place of real place names, I abandoned the book at Page, never finding out who was killed, and the sex or orientation of any of the characters or caring,

The narrator, Robin, is a rich, selfobsessed twit, Yes, he or she is purposefully written that way, but even spendingpages in his or her company was more than I wanted to endure, The writing is clever and I laughed out loud a few times, but it wasn't enough to make me relish picking the book up again, This was a great plot involving a lot of unlikable people,

The twist that you are dealing with characters with no stated sex or sexual preference was a nice hook,

The writing was acceptable, but the book seemed padded and repetitious,

Not a compelling read,

Luckily I bought a used copy, Androgynous Murder House Party
Tales From the Back Page
Steven Rigolosi
Ransom Note Press,,Pages
ISBN No,


Steven Rigolosi is a brilliant author that can take a small advertisement from a community newspaper published on Manhattans Upper West Side and turn it into a novel that catches the interest of anyone who decides to read past page one.
Who Gets The Apartment, Book No,, combined some very unlikely roommates into a fascinating story, Circle of Assassins, Book No,, took characters from every day walks of life and turned them into killers, Now Book No.deals with a snob and his money hungry friends,

Robin Anders is rich and a snob, Just reading his thoughts makes you want to slap him, He has a number of money hungry friends who tend to use Robin for whatever they can get out of him, His friends suggest a house party at Robins house on Long Island, Robin decides to oblige but he must make many preparations, which include renting flamingoes and other party supplies from an ad in The Clairon,

The party guests are three men and three women, three straight and three gay, It is up to the reader to figure out the sex of each person and whether that person is gay or straight, Robin manages to survive the party with the help of many multiflavored pills provided by Dr, Rosenthal who seems to have no problem dishing out prescription drugs,

Robin escapes death several times during the house party although he does not seem to realize exactly what is going on until much later when he returns to New York.
When he finally realizes that a murderer is targeting ones close to him he takes on the cloak of investigator and proceeds to solve the mystery,

According to Robin, he is perfect and has escaped the character flaws of other people including being selfcentered, It turns out that Robin is considerably smarter than he appears and this comes as a big and not welcome surprise to all of his friends, at least the ones left alive.


There is a hint at the end of the book as to who is the male and who is the female and who is gay and who is straight.
The book is hilarious and a lot of fun to read,
It was driving me crazy all the way until the end,.maybe. some mildly funny parts and an overthetop quirky narrator, The "mystery" of what gender all the charachers were did not really grab me, DL An interesting twist on a murder mystery when the sex identities of all the characters are unknown throughout the story, This story had a good plot but the main character was often times a bit too wordy which makes the reader get lost in the story or character descriptions.
At times it was so lengthy and verbose it bored me with detailed explanations, Again this story has an interesting premise of the androgyny of the characters but it often times was overshadowed by unnecessary text and confusing characters, I must admit this novel is cleverly and wittily writtenbut it's also a mess, The firstperson narrator Robin has, as do all the other main characters, a genderless name, and a propensity to blather on and on in long, flowery, sarcasmlaced sentences expressing a severe superiority complex everyone else is always found wanting.
Including a character such as is this could be entertaining, but having to read an entire novel narrated in this annoying voice is akin to torture, There are many pale stabs at humor and wit the continual references to fruitflavored drugs wears thin quickly and I never could figure out the purpose of not revealing the gender of any of the main characters.
And don't get me started on the 'mystery' itself, It is so convoluted that even the eleventhhour explanation by Robin doesn't help much, There's real talent behind this but the concept failed completely, Six friends gather for a holiday weekend at the Long Island estate of independently wealthy snob Robin Anders, As nearfatal accidents and mishaps mount, Robin is faced with the possibility that one of the six is plotting murder most foul, But no death occurs until the group returns home to Manhattan, Robin decides to investigate, while the reader is faced with a larger mystery: Are Robin, Lee, Alex, J, Chris, and Law male or female This one was a little too cute and overridden with drug references to really amuse me.
The major premise seems a good one, though. A group of friend get together for a party, There are six in all but their names are common to both males and females and the author pointedly avoids pronouns to give you clues, There are supposed to be three males and three females, not necessarily paired with a member of the opposite sex, Part of the fun is to try and guess which sex each character is, An entertaining mystery with an outrageous cast of characters and decidedly unique style of writing, this is a story readers will either love or hate, Personally, I fell on both sides of the spectrum at different times in the book but without a doubt appreciate the wit and clever writing of the author.
While the ending offers a resolution to the murder mystery, numerous questions are left unanswered not the least of which are the gender and sexual orientation of the main cast.
These questions might drive the detailorientated reader crazy and distract from the actual story, but the unexpected charm of the narrator helps to distract with the unique flair.


The story begins with an impromptu gathering at the vacation house of one, Robin Anders, Robin is the narrator and main character of the story, Also invited to the weekend getaway are Lee, Alex, Law, J, and Chris, These six close friends have a history of arguments, relationships, hookups, and close bonds that only form when the best and worst of a person are known.
Among these six friends are three men and three women of which three are gay and three are straight, Who fits which descriptions is never explained and the story lacks any identifying markers as to gender and sexuality for these characters beyond what the reader can guess from the plethora of misleading clues.
After the weekend trip, two unexpected deaths occur and Robin is left in a tailspin over a missing bequeathed item and furthermore, answers to the sudden rude demise.


Robin narrates in first person first tense point of view, Their exaggerated personality takes a bit to charm, but eventually the pill popping, outrageously snobby, ridiculously egotistical socialite of ambiguous gender and sexuality does endear to the reader.
Robin has definite ideas about etiquette and proper social behavior and depends on a hilarious mixture of rainbow colored pills to get through any ordeal, Its very draining for the wealthy older scion to have to deal with each and every person fawning over them in sexual longing, Robin masterfully pulls through and focuses on the real items of importance, the missing hairbrush and well the dead bodies, Robin is by turns incredibly insightful and completely obtuse, In part one, Robin survives eight murder attempts, justifying each without a thought to any deeper motive to those present for the weekend,

The mystery of the murders was actually quite interesting and crafty, The intricate set of details and information exacted create a good pace that makes the story engaging and inventive, The final resolution is nearly impossible to guess due to the random nature of clues and complexity of the various roles, The reader is treated to explanations as the narrator discovers more answers, but very few additional clues are offered before the narrator has pieced together the facts.
Overall its a bit convoluted and ridiculous, but then again so is the story and characters,

The writing, which is really Robins personality, can be extremely wordy with an over use of politically incorrect and sometimes insulting analogies, This does become a pattern to the prose, giving a flow that is easy to follow as the story progresses, An example is the following:

"Though I have always been quite adventurous some might even say intrepid I will admit to being somewhat cowed at the prospect of going so far North on the island, into that nomans land of crack houses, brothels, and middleclass housing.
For a person of my obvious breeding and means would likely stand out like a sore thumb amidst the pregnant teenagers and nascent terrorists from Middle Eastern nations, which would make me a likely target of aggression based on sheer envy and malice.
"

There are no pronouns in the entire book to discern the genders of those present, There are numerous references given meant to hint and identify, yet also meant to confuse at the same time, The answers to their genders are never given, not even at the resolution of

the murder mystery, At one point I attempted to have a spreadsheet with all the various details and clues given attempting to discover these answers, until I realized that the narrator like most people is inconsistent and untrustworthy.
Everything offered is through Robins unreliable and altered perception and thus is likely to contradict and confuse, Accepting these details will never be revealed helps to focus on the mystery and not on what is purposefully withheld,

Overall, the story is exactly like the character of the narrator Robin ambiguous, overblown, wordy, verbose, exaggerated, snobbish, and blind to the obvious while indulging in the latest in designer pharmacology.
If you can immerse yourself into the mystery while not concerning about any of the innumerable details left purposefully confusing, then this mystery will entice and entertain.
The undeniable talent and humor of the writing and prose delights the reader as does the unique characters and view of society from the wealthy high rise seats.
This story is a unique and fresh tale meant to entertain and confuse and succeeds admirably, .