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“When you’re tired of run-of-the-mill fiction, it’s time to read [Tim Davys].”
—Brad Meltzer, author of The Book of Lies “A world that's violent, tender, hilarious, and downright sickening. Really, what could be better?”
—Eric Garcia, author of Anonymous Rex Tim Davys is one of the most uniquely imaginative novelists writing today—the architect of Mollisan Town, a dark urban nightmare located in an alternate world populated by stuffed animals that lie, cheat, dream, despair, love, and kill. In the final installment in his acclaimed Mollisan Town Quartet, Davys leads us into Yok , a district of dashed hopes and broken dreams—the seediest neighborhood of “a unique place that is both strange and familiar” ( Boston Globe )—and employs an engaging cast of damaged animate plush toys to explore provocative questions of life, death, and morality. Yok is nourishment for readers hungry for off-beat, literary fiction, and fans of Christopher Moore, Neil Gaiman, Clifford Chase, and Jasper Fforde will be inexorably drawn into Davys’ ingeniously sculpted world.
—Brad Meltzer, author of The Book of Lies “A world that's violent, tender, hilarious, and downright sickening. Really, what could be better?”
—Eric Garcia, author of Anonymous Rex Tim Davys is one of the most uniquely imaginative novelists writing today—the architect of Mollisan Town, a dark urban nightmare located in an alternate world populated by stuffed animals that lie, cheat, dream, despair, love, and kill. In the final installment in his acclaimed Mollisan Town Quartet, Davys leads us into Yok , a district of dashed hopes and broken dreams—the seediest neighborhood of “a unique place that is both strange and familiar” ( Boston Globe )—and employs an engaging cast of damaged animate plush toys to explore provocative questions of life, death, and morality. Yok is nourishment for readers hungry for off-beat, literary fiction, and fans of Christopher Moore, Neil Gaiman, Clifford Chase, and Jasper Fforde will be inexorably drawn into Davys’ ingeniously sculpted world.
- GenresFiction
368 pages, Hardcover
First published July 31, 2012
2 people are currently reading
100 people want to read
About the author
Tim Davys
7 books23 followersTim Davys is the pseudonym for a well-known Swedish public figure, and Amberville is his or her first novel.
A dark and stormy night…I was born in a country far, far away. Before the age of 20, I never read a book. Comic books, magazines, and movies taught me how to tell a story. I studied literature, got a job, found a wife, and bought a dog. I studied psychology, got another job, held on to the wife, and wrote a book.
Today I'm much older than I used to be. The dog is much older too. I would never comment on the age of my wife. The idea going forward is to stay alive, write a lot more, and adapt to a life in New York City. But if I've learnt on thing in this life (and I know I have), it's this: It's never going to turn out the way you intended.
A dark and stormy night…I was born in a country far, far away. Before the age of 20, I never read a book. Comic books, magazines, and movies taught me how to tell a story. I studied literature, got a job, found a wife, and bought a dog. I studied psychology, got another job, held on to the wife, and wrote a book.
Today I'm much older than I used to be. The dog is much older too. I would never comment on the age of my wife. The idea going forward is to stay alive, write a lot more, and adapt to a life in New York City. But if I've learnt on thing in this life (and I know I have), it's this: It's never going to turn out the way you intended.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
September 15, 2012
A fox, a gecko, a monkey and a hare. All part of a town full of stuffed animals. Sounds great? You bet it is. It may sound ridiculous at first, like it did to me, but interesting at the same time. I could not believe after I finished this book that this would become of my favorites books. I used to have 2, but I gotta say, now I have 3 favorites. Love, desperation, loneliness, meaninglessness, success, fear and freedom. Isn't that what our existence is? Isn't it either running towards or away from all that? At first, I got very hung up on the fact that these were stuffed animals, talking, working, having issues, bills, and sometimes, in my opinion, having a serious need of AA meetings. After a few pages, when Davys starts describing the hardships, and their way of life, the struggles of each stuffed animal to reach his dream, I just completely stopped seeing them as just that. Davys created such a deep soul, charisma and passion to each stuffed animal, it was impossible to not feel for them. I believe the saddest story was the Gecko's, the most thrilling and hopeful was Fox's, the most confusing was the Monkey's, which was fabulous at the very, very end, and the most disconcerting was the Hare's story. They were all so amazing stories. If I were to look at these stuffed animals and their problems as if they were people, it would probably be hard to feel as sympathetic as I felt if I weren't thinking of them as cute colored stuffed animals. After that, that feeling was gone, because I started seeing them as actual personalities. I know what they looked like in my head, but I just could not help thinking that they really existed, somewhere else, in Yok, in Mollisan Town. It was sad to see it end the way it did for the Hare, (no spoilers, I swear) such a bright personality, who missed everything caught up in the meaninglessness of everything looking for a meaning (it will make sense when you read it lol). That is what made me love this book so much, there is just a feeling at the end, it is not possible to explain unless you read it. You soften because they are little cute stuffed animals, and you respect them because they have just as much hardships and heartbrakes as we all do as people. There is just no explanation for a favorite book, there is just this feeling of loneliness after you are done reading it, but at the same time you feel a little more complete because you read something so prescious, and that is now part of you.
Thank you Tim Davys.
Thank you Tim Davys.
March 15, 2014
Well there you go - the last part of this excellent series has arrived and I put off reading it for as long as possible. I discovered Amberville a few years back in an Oxfam bookshop in central London and was utterly compelled by the whole premise and execution. Lancheim notches up the theology a bit, then's it's a surreal detective trip in Tourquai before we get to this one. Four vignettes - life's great turbulence, struggles internal and external and the appearance of some old friends. And that final page...gosh; perfect and, yet, frustrating.
I want more.
I think I will always want more.
I want more.
I think I will always want more.
July 9, 2012
stuffed animals were never so interesting
March 2, 2019
I can stretch my credulity so far, but not as far as required for this book.
December 4, 2012
Originally posted at More Than Just Magic
I finished this book ages ago, but I’ve had a hard time writing the review so sorry for the delay. It’s just this book is so unique that it was hard to put my finger on all the things that make it so special.
When I first heard about Yok, I had no idea there were three other companion novels to go along with it. So don’t worry if you haven’t either. Yok stands on its own, as far as I can tell it’s characters are separate from those in the other three books. It has, however, made me extremely curious about books 1-3, so don’t be surprised if reading Yok, adds three more titles to your TBR.
Because Yok is told in four separate stories, I think this review would work best if I shared my thoughts on each story separately.
1) Sors or Fox Antonio Ortega: The story of Fox Antonio Ortega is the story about a man fox that yearns for true love. Unfortunately his true love, Beatrice Cockatoo, is the daughter of a major crime boss in Yok, and he’s not willing to let his daughter go lightly. Thankfully Fox is up for the challenge. Though at times this story could be a bit silly, I thought it did an excellent job of setting the overall tone of the novel. You knew there was going to be some serious blurring of lines between reality and fantasy and you knew that despite the fact that these were stuffed animals, they were going to get involved in some very real problems. I felt very moved by Fox’s plight and genuinely got caught up cheering him on.
2) Pertiny or Erik Gecko: By far my favourite of the stories. Erik lives with his two older brothers, Leopold Lepoard and Rasmus Panther. Now anyone with siblings will tell you that you’re not always going to get along, but Erik’s situation is much worse. He suffers full on abuse from his two (significantly larger) brothers. To the extent that they occasionally lock him under the floor boards when he’s displeased them. Erik’s story broke my heart, especially when he was faced with a crucial decision which could result in his freedom. This story also contained one of my favourite quotes from the novel:
“This excuse of a life that I live, this masochism that I expose myself to daily , cuts into my soul, it may seem I accept it without thinking, as if I enjoy being bullied and held down, but inside I am burning up…Life is mysterious and not a second goes by that I don’t despise myself for this self-imposed punishment, that no one else sees and no one promotes…I’m not just a wretch, I’m worse than that, I betray myself.”
I think Tim Davys did an excellent job capturing not only the helplessness as victim of abuse feels, but also the self-inflicted abuse that many also go through, the self loathing and disappointment that is sometimes just as hard to shake. The story of Erik Gecko is one I’ll not soon forget.
3) Corbod or Mike Chimpanzee: I personally think that this is the weakest story in the collection (although that’s not to say it’s a poorly written story). I just couldn’t connect with Mike like I could with Erik or Fox. His particular problem to overcome was simply his own mediocrity. His music wasn’t good enough, his finance’s family didn’t think he was good enough. And though that should be a feeling we all can relate too, it just didn’t seem like Mike cared enough. He was someone I wanted to like more than I did, and as a result I didn’t enjoy his section nearly as much.
4) Mindie or Vincent Hare: Vincent Hare is on a life long quest to seek out a meaningful life. This often leads him down so dubious paths and wrecks havoc on his sanity. I think Vincent’s story is a perfect mixture of what I loved about Erik’s story and Fox’s story. It is at once both humorous and serious, meaningful and entertaining. Definitely a strong way to end the collection.
The over arching theme to this collection seems to be hope. Hope that we can all overcome our situation, however big or small that situation would be. Even if you’re a stuffed animal, even if you live in a crime filled, poverty-stricken slum and even if the “Chauffeurs” could come at any time and end it all. There is always hope. And that idea brings beauty to four otherwise, rather tragic lives.
Recommendation: A heart warming book that would be great for those literary fiction lovers who are tired of the same old, same old. It’s a book with something to say and I would be hard pressed to find someone who couldn’t relate to at least one of the stories within.
I finished this book ages ago, but I’ve had a hard time writing the review so sorry for the delay. It’s just this book is so unique that it was hard to put my finger on all the things that make it so special.
When I first heard about Yok, I had no idea there were three other companion novels to go along with it. So don’t worry if you haven’t either. Yok stands on its own, as far as I can tell it’s characters are separate from those in the other three books. It has, however, made me extremely curious about books 1-3, so don’t be surprised if reading Yok, adds three more titles to your TBR.
Because Yok is told in four separate stories, I think this review would work best if I shared my thoughts on each story separately.
1) Sors or Fox Antonio Ortega: The story of Fox Antonio Ortega is the story about a man fox that yearns for true love. Unfortunately his true love, Beatrice Cockatoo, is the daughter of a major crime boss in Yok, and he’s not willing to let his daughter go lightly. Thankfully Fox is up for the challenge. Though at times this story could be a bit silly, I thought it did an excellent job of setting the overall tone of the novel. You knew there was going to be some serious blurring of lines between reality and fantasy and you knew that despite the fact that these were stuffed animals, they were going to get involved in some very real problems. I felt very moved by Fox’s plight and genuinely got caught up cheering him on.
2) Pertiny or Erik Gecko: By far my favourite of the stories. Erik lives with his two older brothers, Leopold Lepoard and Rasmus Panther. Now anyone with siblings will tell you that you’re not always going to get along, but Erik’s situation is much worse. He suffers full on abuse from his two (significantly larger) brothers. To the extent that they occasionally lock him under the floor boards when he’s displeased them. Erik’s story broke my heart, especially when he was faced with a crucial decision which could result in his freedom. This story also contained one of my favourite quotes from the novel:
“This excuse of a life that I live, this masochism that I expose myself to daily , cuts into my soul, it may seem I accept it without thinking, as if I enjoy being bullied and held down, but inside I am burning up…Life is mysterious and not a second goes by that I don’t despise myself for this self-imposed punishment, that no one else sees and no one promotes…I’m not just a wretch, I’m worse than that, I betray myself.”
I think Tim Davys did an excellent job capturing not only the helplessness as victim of abuse feels, but also the self-inflicted abuse that many also go through, the self loathing and disappointment that is sometimes just as hard to shake. The story of Erik Gecko is one I’ll not soon forget.
3) Corbod or Mike Chimpanzee: I personally think that this is the weakest story in the collection (although that’s not to say it’s a poorly written story). I just couldn’t connect with Mike like I could with Erik or Fox. His particular problem to overcome was simply his own mediocrity. His music wasn’t good enough, his finance’s family didn’t think he was good enough. And though that should be a feeling we all can relate too, it just didn’t seem like Mike cared enough. He was someone I wanted to like more than I did, and as a result I didn’t enjoy his section nearly as much.
4) Mindie or Vincent Hare: Vincent Hare is on a life long quest to seek out a meaningful life. This often leads him down so dubious paths and wrecks havoc on his sanity. I think Vincent’s story is a perfect mixture of what I loved about Erik’s story and Fox’s story. It is at once both humorous and serious, meaningful and entertaining. Definitely a strong way to end the collection.
The over arching theme to this collection seems to be hope. Hope that we can all overcome our situation, however big or small that situation would be. Even if you’re a stuffed animal, even if you live in a crime filled, poverty-stricken slum and even if the “Chauffeurs” could come at any time and end it all. There is always hope. And that idea brings beauty to four otherwise, rather tragic lives.
Recommendation: A heart warming book that would be great for those literary fiction lovers who are tired of the same old, same old. It’s a book with something to say and I would be hard pressed to find someone who couldn’t relate to at least one of the stories within.
March 10, 2021
The idea of Yok (and apparently the three books that came before it) was promising: a world of living, breathing, dreaming stuffed animals juxtaposed with the anxiety-ridden, terrifying, fulfilling mundanity of life. It put a lighter spin on some fairly harsh topics, and could have been amazing.
I did find each of the vignettes creative and inspiring, the characters well created and very human. But I felt the author had a difficult time drawing a line between too human and not human enough, which took away from the gravity of a lot of the situations. Half the time, if every name didn't have an animal in it, it would have been negligible for them to even have been stuffed animals; it was barely relevant in most of the stories. All the characters might as well just have been human. And with the fixation the author had on the character's clothes and articles and items, they may as well have been. I spent too many minutes wondering how a gecko would fit in a suit, and how a dress can cinch to accentuate the waist of a swallow. Am I stupid or do swallows not have waists? It was wasteful wordage. Too humanoid. And there was human food and leather and all these other items! Where did they come from? Are there real cows somewhere out there and Mollisan Town gets imports? How do they drink juice that doesn't wet their stuffing like rain might? So many things were introduced and I think the author should have been more careful and thorough with the world building since he chose this route.
I think the reality of the stuffed animals was most taken advantage of in Fox's story, and even then, it went a bit far. His revival just completely took away the gravity of stupid decisions and the fragility of life. So what was even the point? In the same way, the genie in Chimpanzee's vignette was such a curve ball. I thought this was a lighter retelling of human tragic tales. Where the heck was the fantasy tag on this book? (I probably missed it.)
It was ok. Vincent Hare's story was the best.
I did find each of the vignettes creative and inspiring, the characters well created and very human. But I felt the author had a difficult time drawing a line between too human and not human enough, which took away from the gravity of a lot of the situations. Half the time, if every name didn't have an animal in it, it would have been negligible for them to even have been stuffed animals; it was barely relevant in most of the stories. All the characters might as well just have been human. And with the fixation the author had on the character's clothes and articles and items, they may as well have been. I spent too many minutes wondering how a gecko would fit in a suit, and how a dress can cinch to accentuate the waist of a swallow. Am I stupid or do swallows not have waists? It was wasteful wordage. Too humanoid. And there was human food and leather and all these other items! Where did they come from? Are there real cows somewhere out there and Mollisan Town gets imports? How do they drink juice that doesn't wet their stuffing like rain might? So many things were introduced and I think the author should have been more careful and thorough with the world building since he chose this route.
I think the reality of the stuffed animals was most taken advantage of in Fox's story, and even then, it went a bit far. His revival just completely took away the gravity of stupid decisions and the fragility of life. So what was even the point? In the same way, the genie in Chimpanzee's vignette was such a curve ball. I thought this was a lighter retelling of human tragic tales. Where the heck was the fantasy tag on this book? (I probably missed it.)
It was ok. Vincent Hare's story was the best.
October 21, 2012
This is the fourth book in TD's series of books about Mollison Town. A modern day city filled vice, love, and life. Power, gangsters, drugs, money and its lack, talent wasted and found. The usual stuff... but populated by stuffed animals of all types, where each street is a different color and the weather follows the same sequence every day.
These have been among the most wildly creative and wise books I've ever run across. The animals have names like Vincent Hare, Cocker-Spaniel Rosenblatt, Beatrice Cockatoo, Mike Chimpanzee and so on. They're made in the Factory, delivered to their parents as cubs. And one day when it's all over, with no warning, they're picked up by the Chauffeurs and taken away.
Each book represents a section of Mollison Town. Lanceheim is the good neighborhood, the "top of the hill" (the book by this name was awesome). Amberville is sort of an in-city suburb. Torquai is the industrial section (I only just now realized this one existed. Haven't read it yet). Yok is the slum. The previous 2 that I've read were full-length stories. These were short stories of despair and poverty in the bad part of town. Yok is a bad place.. I didn't like it nearly as much as the others. My favorite so far is the first, Amberville. I still feel a little weird at how much I liked the main character in that one, Eric Bear- Just a guy with a raunchy past trying his best to be better!
These have been among the most wildly creative and wise books I've ever run across. The animals have names like Vincent Hare, Cocker-Spaniel Rosenblatt, Beatrice Cockatoo, Mike Chimpanzee and so on. They're made in the Factory, delivered to their parents as cubs. And one day when it's all over, with no warning, they're picked up by the Chauffeurs and taken away.
Each book represents a section of Mollison Town. Lanceheim is the good neighborhood, the "top of the hill" (the book by this name was awesome). Amberville is sort of an in-city suburb. Torquai is the industrial section (I only just now realized this one existed. Haven't read it yet). Yok is the slum. The previous 2 that I've read were full-length stories. These were short stories of despair and poverty in the bad part of town. Yok is a bad place.. I didn't like it nearly as much as the others. My favorite so far is the first, Amberville. I still feel a little weird at how much I liked the main character in that one, Eric Bear- Just a guy with a raunchy past trying his best to be better!
September 16, 2016
The last character, Vince Hare, was my least favorite. Really enjoyed the beginnings and the sardonic ploy of using stuffed animals (designed to be creatures of comfort) to tell dark stories worked for me.
June 2, 2013
The novelty of a town filled with stuffed animals was offset by the normalcy of their everyday lives. I appreciated the book but was really ready to love it. There were aspects that held my attention and captured my imagination and others that felt mundane and directionless.
July 2, 2013
My only complaint is that the marketing for this book is all "Free will??? Or destiny??? Existentialism?!?!?!?". The book, thankfully, is not a navel-gazer. It's damn good.
March 10, 2014
Could not get into this book at all. All the characters in the book are stuffed animals. I had to put this one down without finishing it.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews