I loved it!

I loved it! I've listened to it at least 3 times since i bought it. Sci-fi/Comedy at it's best! Martinez is good at what he does. Earl and Duke are a ridiculous vamp/werewolf team. A ghost for a girlfriend and a raunchy teenaged witch for a villain. What's not to love?

26 people found this helpful

I want more of Earl and Duke!

One of the best decisions I have made in my “reading” life is when I started following another member in the listener page section. She never steers me wrong!

This book was no exception. Gil’s All Fright Diner was short but packed full of so much fun it was hard to get out of the car. Don’t let the name scare you off. I wouldn’t put this is the horror section; more of the comedy (see zombie cows). The “scary” characters are not the stereotypical vampires and such. The little world that Martinez paints, where Vampires, Werewolves, Ghost and Ghouls are just hanging out with the rest of us, is so intriguing that my only regret is that this is not a series. I would love to follow Earl and Duke around for a few more stories. I like the new supernatural rules the author puts in the stories, like ghost not being able to leave the cemetery, and ghouls. I would like more of this world.

The narrator brings the story alive with his character voices. I look forward to finding more of his narrations.

12 people found this helpful

mysogynistic and lazy

I heard more about the main characters obsession with sexualizing underage women, and or fat-shaming for no clear purpose or plot point. I've heard 3 paragraphs on zombies and 30 pages of what underage girls look like with out clothes. Disappointing because the narrator is great, but this work is just gross. The writing style and description is akin to twilight. Long lists of leering adjectives with no diversity or actual story structure.

10 people found this helpful

when is it supposed to get funny?

It seems like the only attempt at humor is continually going into vivid, unflattering descriptions of a fat woman's body. Plus, nothing original or interesting is happening. "Lol, fat chick" seems to be the gist of the "comedy" portion of this alleged horror-comedy.

8 people found this helpful

Southern Fried Zombies, Werewolves and Vampires!

This fun-filled, action packed, fantastical story is pure entertainment. The two main characters, Duke and Earl, are down-home boys who happen to also be a werewolf and a vampire. They complain about being stuck with each other, but it’s clear that they truly are best friends. Despite their seemingly simple and small minded attitudes, they are actually two good guys you just know will do the right thing. Duke and Earl would never allow Loretta’s diner to be taken over by zombies, leading to the end of the world itself. But are their efforts enough to battle the occult powers fighting against them? You’ll have to listen to find out.

I love the Southern twang used for this book. It is a huge part of what makes it so entertaining, and perfect as an audiobook. The narrator captures the personality of every character, and manages to keep it all funny, without it ever becoming just a caricature of the various Southern stereotypes the listener encounters. He keeps to the story, and adds to the fun of listening.

19 people found this helpful

All Night Diner is All Right Despite the Frights

A vampire and werewolf traveling together in a pick-up truck stop at a remote all-night diner next to a graveyard in the southwest desert and, with the help of a beautiful ghost, fend off a series of zombie and demon attacks orchestrated by a teen sorceress. All sorts of other supernatural and mythological creatures appear as the mystery of Gil's diner unfolds. Lots of laughs interject themselves between the bloody battle scenes.

If you've read A. Lee Martinez, you know what to expect. This is what he does. This book has the virtue of having been his first, so you can't accuse him of repeating himself. The real virtue, however, is watching ordinary characters out of rural modern America take the form of ghosts, demons, witches, vampires, etc. There is some level of metaphor there, but mostly it lays the groundwork for some good jokes.

Interestingly, this book is a solid 4 1/2 stars on Audible but only 3 1/2 stars on Goodreads -- the best evidence I've seen yet that a humorous book of this type is better in audio than in print, which I experienced directly on a couple of occasions with other Martinez titles, having read and listened to them.

I liked it well enough to go four stars overall, but I just couldn't bring myself to give the razor-thin, derivative story line more than three. There are too many books in this genre to single out any one as derivative, but many of us who have seen True Blood will find the idea of scary creatures concentrated around a rural eatery to be well trodden territory. Whether you want more of the same or have had enough, Gil's will at least add some laughs to the mix.

4 people found this helpful

Silly fun with likable mosters

What made the experience of listening to Gil's All Fright Diner the most enjoyable?

The main character Earl and Duke, a redneck vampire and a trucker

Who was your favorite character and why?

It's a tough choice but I would go with Duke

What about Fred Berman’s performance did you like?

Definitely captures the voice of the main characters.

Any additional comments?

This book will not change your life or open up new vistas of understand to you but it is a lot of fun. There is a bit of a buffy/supernatural flare to this that has monsters with a very human personalities. They bicker, joke, just hang out and wandering through a weird town with a very weird diner. I could best describe this book as that filler episode on an action adventure TV show that turn out much better that it had any right to be because the writer was given free reign to just have fun. If you are looking for a light read this you can do a lot worse than this book.

3 people found this helpful

Occult humor story - works great

I've summed up A. Lee Martinez by comparing him to the following canon authors in two other reviews...

If you like Neil Gaiman, Douglas Adams, Robert Asprin, Christopher Moore or Terry Pratchett, then this is a mug of ale or glass of wine from the same brewery my friend. Some good ol' light-hearted fun.

This book is his cover of the horror / macabre genre set in the southwest United States. Somehow, he makes it work. Incredibly readable - or listenable.

13 people found this helpful

Only enjoyable if you like misogynistic "humor"

I wish I hadn't listened to as much of this book as I did so I could have returned it. I originally bought the hard copy about a decade or so ago and weeded it from my collection when I needed space and hadn't gotten around to reading it. When I saw it on sale as an audiobook I decided to give it another try. Huge mistake.

The narrator gave a good performance. I liked his various southern accents for the different characters, the inflection, and the enthusiasm which he gave the story. It truly was a performance. I have to wonder if the narrator grimaced at repeatedly describing women's breasts as much as I did hearing him do so.

I had 3 hours left in the story when I gave up. I forgot what the story was even about. The characters spent so much time making innuendo-laden comments and were so focused on the female characters' breasts, the story didnt seem to progress at all. At first I thought the author was trying to build the characters. Okay, I thought, I can dislike the dialog and I might not like the characters, but I can still enjoy the story. Eventually I realized I had spent enough of my life hoping for that would never come.

Now that I'm writing a review I see others had similar thoughts. It's too bad I went and purchased this book based on previously owning it rather than reading the reviews.

2 people found this helpful

A new take on the supernatural

If you could sum up Gil's All Fright Diner in three words, what would they be?

Fun, exciting and different

What was one of the most memorable moments of Gil's All Fright Diner?

The first meeting of Earl and Duke was great!

Any additional comments?

I've read a lot of vampire and werewolf novels, this one was very different than the norm. It had a great sense of humor and managed to show different takes on standard tropes.
If Anne Rice writes about white collar vampires and Charlene Harris writes about blue collar ones, then A. Lee Martinez is writing about redneck ones. It sounds odd, but it works.

2 people found this helpful