If you ever wanted a story about the Underworld, filled with trolls and other monsters, Double-Crossing the Bridge is for you. Sarah J. Sover’s debut successfully blends an Ocean’s Eleven-type heist with sheer fantasy with high Monty-Python-quality wildly-hysterical humor. The book works on so many levels. The humor ranges from gross-out moments a teenaged boy would find funny (such as Anal Gland Cologne) to droll word-play to Wiley-Coyote-esque stunts. The world building is sublime (despite the grodiness of the characters) down to details such as troll bar food (fried fairy wings, unicorn testes aphrodisiac, and infant spines) and personal hygiene (Anal Gland Cologne). The plot is that of the typical heist, but the twists and turns that follow are unique. In the midst of the hilarity, Sover manages to comment with satirical accuracy on such topics as unemployment and discrimination prevalent in modern society, while lacing in twists on pop culture references like “Make the Bridge Great Again.” I can totally envision this as a not-Disney feature-length animation.
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