Swirlies by Roman Dirge

     This week, for the seventh time, I read Swirlies by Roman Dirge. Swirlies is the fourth book in the Lenore series. In the books, Lenore Lynchfast, who died in the late 1800s, "lives" (she accidentally was over-embalmed and came back to life) with her best friend Ragamuffin, who is a vampire trapped in a doll's body, and her other friend Pooty, who is a demon from Hell who has a bucket for a head.
     This all sounds very childish.
      Oh God, no. Lenore is a foulmouthed, slightly-stupid mass-murderer, she is stalked by her kind suitor Mr. Gosh, a dead guy (killed by her) who covers his gory face with a sack and two buttons for eyes, she crashes a poor girl's birthday party and accidentally scars her for life by killing all of her friends and leaving, and has many more strange (mis)adventures.

     Ragamuffin can be called the "voice of reason" in this series. He scolds her kindly when he needs to, stopping her more often than not. He definitely cares about Lenore a lot, putting up with her treating him like a baby, ("You're not calling me a baby, are you? I'm over 400 years old." "Shh, baby. Shhhhhhhhh.") her planting him in the ground in the middle of the night while he sleeps because she wanted to create 'baby Ragamuffins,' and dealing with her general weirdness. When a mortician kept alive on steampunk machinery and overdoses of embalming fluids wanted to finish embalming her, he stole a giant robot to kill him and save her. In the third book, the Dark Overlord of Hell wanted to bring Lenore back after she escaped, so Pooty turned Ragamuffin into his old self so he could kill the Nazi Soldiers sent to retrieve her. When Lenore found out that Mr. Gosh owned a castle and was quite rich, Ragamuffin supported her when she asked Mr. Gosh out, even though Ragamuffin was in love with her. (When Mr. Gosh blew up the castle, she left him.)
     Why does Ragamuffin care about her so much? She is cruel, stupid, abusive, mean, a murderer, and a terrible friend. It would be so easy for him to get Pooty to turn him into his vampire form, kill Lenore for good, and leave. But he doesn't, and he even likes her. I think that this may be because when she is nice to him, it shows. She often calls him adorable, eats breakfast with him, goes to the park with him, and plays horseshoes with him when he asks. She obviously enjoys his company, however teasing she may be. Also, she saved him. Her blood brought him to life, and he now owes her his protection.
     Lenore is my favorite book. It's hilarious, dark, and is REALLY fun to write fanfictions for. (I have the most popular Ragamuffin/Lenore, or Raganore, fanfic on the Internet. It's called Hardest Of Hearts.) I can't wait for the fifth book to come out, but unfortunately, this might not be for a year. This seems like a long time for a die-hard fan like me- Swirlies came out in August.