May 2026 Indie Book Reviews

Bonkpocalypse by L.A. Guettler

Unadulterated Fun
An Indie Book Review by Joseph Poopinski
5 Stars

This was a hilarious romp mingling Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy with cyberpunk vibes. Our wry self-deprecating, bedraggled heroine struggles to make ends meet, evades explosions, kidnaps a scientist, wrestles with psychotherapy, joins a fabulous cult & whatnot. Some books bog down readers with incredulously bad ideas such as when their characters just can’t stay cooped up any longer sheltering in a basement & go out to a rowdy bar despite being the targets of an interplanetary manhunt, but not Bonkpocalypse: Well aware of the surveillance risk, our brave protagonists sneak into a low-profile strip club specifically to muscle some answers out of a shady technological guru who’d faked his own death a while back. All the ogling was purely incidental.

Assorted highlights: Ribald innuendo, clever acronyms & honorifics, and plenty of bathroom humor. Maybe the most endearing feature of Bonkpocalypse was its over-the-top, absurdist style (Exhibit A: “elaborately beribboned Bilixic Fundamentalist liturgical hat” Exhibit B: “something suspiciously like intestines festooned the shrubberies”). A wonderful assortment of gizmos, beverages, foods & locals suited to outer space. Fritzi’s bullseye inspirational & motivational speeches. Each chapter starts with an awesome title & ends with a zinger (“She had a lot of drinking to do.”). BONK the robocat!

School of Breaking by Alesya Grigorovitch

Hogwarts for Cheats
An Indie Book Review by Joseph Poopinski
4 Stars

School of Breaking answers “What’s wrong with people?” with a variety of antisocial classes including drinking, lying, cheating & stealing. Accidentally discovering this castle of corruption in a roundabout way, Emile resists bamboozling others as much as she can, however her grades depend on deceit. When her escape back to an honest & normal life proved inconclusive, she returns to unearth that missing secret behind the selfish faculty & their unsavory curriculum. Warped & inconsiderate players justify their misdeeds: “Why is it so ludicrous? The whole curse of life is that by the time we become wise we’ve already made our mistakes!” Can she save her morality?