“Imagine My Surprise! is a novel that will make you laugh, wonder, and break your heart. It’s a kind of Look Who’s Talking meets Pulp Fiction written with the finely-tuned style of a virtuoso novelist.”
Wes Brown, author of Breaking Kayfabe: A Novel
“Imagine My Surprise! is hard to put down, and it entertainingly pushes the crime genre to new possibilities. Mr. Haddock has written an edgy morality tale, a surreal existential crime novel that fuses comedy and tragedy in a surprisingly delightful way.”
Jeffrey Weissman — Writer/Actor/Director
“I was totally in from page one of K.S. Haddock’s Imagine My Surprise. It’s a hilarious, fascinating thriller with a wild reincarnation revenge premise that I’ve never seen pulled off anywhere else. If you are looking for an incredibly unique and satisfying read, you need to check this book out.”
Kyler Bingham, Salt Lake Dirt
In Haddock’s novel, a reincarnated drug addict sets out to avenge his own murder.
In Campbell, California, in 2025, Kurt Sebastian Houston is surprised to find himself reincarnated as someone named Keenan Solomon Harris. The situation wouldn’t be so bad, except that he’s now in the body of a newborn baby boy. As he tries to reconcile his new reality with his previous life’s knowledge, experience, and leftover drug cravings, he realizes that he was murdered by one of his former associates when he was a drug kingpin. The vengeful Keenan does his best to speed up his physical development to prepare for a face-off with his former henchmen, Franks and Poindexter, and his ex-girlfriend, Dolly. Along the way, he makes the unlikely but seemingly fated acquaintance of an addict named Stoli behind a convenience store. The former military sniper and Afghan War veteran thinks his drug- and alcohol-infused mind is playing tricks on him when a foul-mouthed 1-year-old reveals his true identity in complete sentences—but he’s convinced after Keenan’s story checks out, and he cleans up his act to help him in his quest. The action is well paced and engaging, featuring smart prose and literary references that add wry humor to the ridiculous situation: “I’d been reborn in Hell, a Sartrean character stuck in a room ripe with the stench of provinciality, quotidian aspirations, and junior college degrees, unable to run away, unable to form words, unable to escape at all, straitjacket-swaddled in a baby blanket.” The main character’s villainous tendencies don’t detract from the story, instead effectively adding to the gritty atmosphere. Keenan eventually develops an understanding of Stoli and his own parents, whose unconditional support spurs him to reflect on his own actions, past and present.
An engaging and amusingly crude must-read.”
Kirkus Reviews
Imagine My Surprise! is the fictional memoir of Keenan Solomon Harris, a seven-year-old who claims to be the reincarnation of a murdered San Francisco drug kingpin, Kurt Houston. The story follows Kurt’s descent from failed writer to heroin-addicted criminal, betrayed and killed on his 50th birthday by one of his cronies. Reborn fully conscious 5 years later as a boy named Keenan, he hides his identity while navigating the challenges of childhood in a dysfunctional Bay Area family. He befriends a homeless army veteran, Stoli, who becomes his ally after Keenan tells him where to find Kurt’s stash of drug money. After making a fresh start with the financial windfall, Stoli helps Keenan confront his killer at a Giants stadium suite. Keenan finally reveals his true identity, sparking a violent showdown. Part coming-of-age story, part crime novel, Imagine My Surprise! is a darkly comic meditation on childhood in the 21st century and the dangers of substance abuse.
Haddock’s twisty novel pairs coming-of-age thrills with a reincarnation story, as aspiring writer turned San Francisco drug kingpin Kurt Houston dies and is reborn as Keenan Harris, the son of a regular-seeming millennial couple. Believing he has been killed by his lieutenant in a staged drug overdose, Keenan vows to find the man who murdered him—as soon as he’s able to walk on his own. As Kurt’s old life intertwines with Keenan’s new life in unexpected ways, Keenan considers what is really happening to him and the opportunity he’s been given. In his own words, early on, “it suddenly dawned on me that I’d been sent back to fix everything, to make amends for the bridges I’d burned and the resulting casualties.”
Imagine My Surprise is both wildly entertaining and, at times, difficult to parse. The story struggles to settle on an intended audience, bouncing between a heartfelt discussion of what it means to be human and the crude humor of what a 50-year-old drug kingpin can get up to in the body of a toddler. At one point, Keenan muses, “A new motto: reincarnation—better than AA.” Whether it’s threatening his new mother’s secret boyfriend to not break up his parents’ marriage or trying to explain finances to his fellow toddlers playing pretend at daycare, Keenan takes time to connect with the people in his reincarnated life in equally comical and sincere ways.
Haddock creates a truly unique premise and somehow pulls it off. The story balances hilarity with heart, ending in a satisfying showdown in a luxury suite at the San Francisco Giants stadium. As the concrete questions of a murder investigation are finally answered, issues of morality and personhood emerge, culminating in a story that readers will have trouble putting down.
Booklife by Publisher’s Weekly
