Lunatic Laundry : my review

Lunatic Laundry: Todd Langley

Welcome to the world of the insane. Enter the rehab rooms and meet the inmates as each one greets the reader with his/her own views of the world, outlook on life and decided hopes for their future. Sara, a young girl gets agitated easily and as she meets with her counselor you hear her voice but not her inner most thoughts as they discuss her actions and dole out the restraints or medication in this case. Questioning the wisdom of just prescribing drugs you wonder just what they are really trying to do and whether they will ever receive the help they need. Sara has a mission in life and that is to become God’s most powerful representative on Earth in order to teach others his will. Meet Crazy John the janitor who loves cats, drinks milk out a carton, is on tons of meds and lives in a trailer so dirty and filled with old food, dirty dishes and filth you wonder how he can find his way out. One woman lives within the confines of a home where life has set her on a downward course as she spends her days drinking, watching television and hoping to care for her young child. With her husband acting weird and hiding out in the garage, what will she do when she learns his master plan, finds out just what he is doing with her curling iron and the end result of his mission. One janitor struck by lightning and one man who wants to make his family pay for his mistakes. Lunatic Laundry: Don’t bring the detergent, fabric softener of bleach because the stains and marks you will see are not on clothing they are within the minds of each of the lunatics you are about to meet. This laundry needs to be cleansed and only Author Todd Langley has the right cleanser.

Sara is the main character of this journey into the world of the insane. However, although the doctors, the counselors and the psychiatrist think she is unstable she is definitely sane. But, she has a mission to change the thinking of the world, teach everyone to understand the wishes or will of God and can read the thoughts of others and see into their minds. Shay, Kylee and Sara are inmates and try their best to escape. But, Sara intuitiveness, her spark for reality allows readers to know that she will not be silenced, drugged and realizes that her mother is the one that put her there because she assumed she was smoking joints because she found one in her purse. Talking to God! Can she really communicate with him? Locked in her room, silenced and yet hearing a voice within her allows her some sane moments. Her parents thinking they did the right thing for her yet selfishly if you look closely and listen to their voices and what they relate you will know that they did not really have her best interest at heart. Nice way to spend her summer vacation.

Meet Chuck, Martha’s husband who decided to plug her with one shot to start his killing spree. Enter Crazy John whose truck crashed into something and winds up at the mercy of Chuck. When things get out of control for both of them wait until you see where they both land. Working for a chemical company that causes more than just pollution in the air, Chuck thinks the answer to the problem and to the voice that he hears, a coyote, is to kill more people.

The Center for Christ’s Healing Touch: a place where young girls are supposed to receive the help they need in order to rejoin society. But, take a closer look at the doctor in charge, his orderly and those around him and you might wonder just who really belongs in this place.

Bill and Mel are misfits and live their lives you might say on the edge but not the way you think. Chuck is out there and is bent of killing those that have added to the his empty life, years of working for Chemcon and creating serious side effect for the public most of which infiltrate the foods we eat and the food industry. Pesticides sprayed, GMO food unsafe for people to eat and his job was to lift the black cloud that would hand over Chemcom and fee them of the responsibility for these wrongs. The vivid pictures that come into his mind of the innocent victims spur him on to complete what he has been sent to do. But, just who is controlling him and why will not be revealed?

Sara is determined to free herself from the confines of this rehab center and she finally does. Each chapter of the book is handled like a series of cycles of a washing machine, some cycles, the more violent spins and the end hopefully the final spin will bring the results those in charge want. But, all of the cycles, the lunatics will be placed into one huge machine and eventually meld into one with an ending that will not only enlighten readers as to the truth behind a 2000 year old event, but will help readers understand if the world will ever be war free, hate free and wisdom returned.

John and Chuck is both crazy and within this novel they both hear the voice of something that controls their actions. Chuck told he has to deal with those in his company and John was sent to correct a wrong. But, first we learn more about Sara’s inner sight to be able to read the thoughts of others and understand things about people, their relationships and more that will cause them to tread water carefully around her or try to destroy her. When confronted by the head of the rehab center she reads his thoughts and reveals something to him that sends more than just the shockwaves he would like to invoke on her down his spine. Truths revealed but Sara is ready to complete her task. Sitting in front of the window in the rec room she is constantly saying something over and over again: “The glass is water and I’m going through it.” The scene that follows is quite graphic, explicit and the end result will leave the reader asking three questions: Real? Imaginary? Miracle? You decide. Sara stuns those within the rec room and stupefies both Heather and Dorothy the two in charge of the inmates whose attitudes are miles apart, methods for handling them quite opposite and reactions will surprise you. Just what is the purpose of this exclusive rehab center if not to help those placed there?

One man on a quest to kill the employees of his company while someone is hot on his trail to stop him. John and Chuck meet and the scenes will make you wonder just how these two can endure getting hit by vehicles, struck by lightning, hail balls, a violent storm and beating each other to a pulp. Within the story the author interjects another character that readers will come to know more about later on. The voice of an old man, whose destiny is controlled by something else and whose fate in the hands of someone else comes through but why?  You just won’t believe!

However, before anything as grandiose as this divine blessing can take place she must deal with a host of lunatics whose lives are suddenly interwoven with her own. She will encounter a disturbed orderly, a repressed psychiatrist, a crazed janitor who has been struck by lightening, and a psychotic killer bent on spiritual remuneration. But, everything and everyone intersects when Sara escapes, meets Grandma and then the fun starts. Billy and Mel are drunk after playing Russian roulette with Grandma, shooting and then going out driving drunk. Grandma has morals when it comes to language, she is crazy just like the rest but her heart is good and her goals for her grandson realistic if only apparent to her. Meeting Sara while on her way to Yoga class, taking her along to the next town sets up several scenes that add to the humor, irony and intrigue in this plot. Sara and Grandma wind up dealing with John, Chuck, Mel and Billy as each one has their own idea of how to take control of the scene, trying to get rid of the others and the finally result is too crazy to reveal to readers. You have to picture this and read it for yourself to appreciate what happens. Sara seems to be of interest to Billy and Mel and when Grandma drops them off to go to her class the scene in the bar is priceless.

Sara is fighting for her life and those of the other inmates. Just what will they do now? Will they try and escape the same way? Is the window really water? Can they all go through it and find their own salvation and freedom? As the story unravels and the characters meet their individual fates, we meet the Old Man and find out just why he was placed within this story and hidden for over 2000 years in a cave. Just who created the many miracles that we thought were created by someone else? Who received the power that someone else was supposed to get? Who was going to right the wrong so that the power can be re-released and given to someone that will use it wisely? Doctors who are crazy. Inmates that you might think are sane and one girl who has their fate in her hands as the dramatic ending comes into place and John handles his wrong, Chuck silences many and Sara proves that miracles are not impossible. How? Go through the window and find out for yourself what happens to the rehab center. What others see and only Sara, the inmate and readers of this interesting novel will learn as Lunatic Laundry spins its final cycle, the buzzer sounds, the laundry is done and hopefully what comes out is pristine and clean!

Lunatic Laundry: You decide who is crazy and who is not! Just what is the final cycle, spin and what happens when the buzzer sounds, find out when you read this intriguing, humorous, thought provoking and definitely unique novel by author Todd Langley.

Fran Lewis: Reviewer