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lizaroo71's review
4.0
A post-apocalyptic setting in a big city. There is a virus that is killing people and everyone is told to shelter in place.
Our narrator, The Redeemer, is growing antsy in his apartment, but soon is given a task. His task is complicated by two warring families that he finds himself trying to navigate in order to complete said task.
I don't want to give away elements of the story, because I think you need to gain understanding organically as the plot unfolds.
I like Herrera's use of language. Even though this is a translated work, you can tell that language is malleable for Herrera and he doesn't stick to standard forms of speaking to get his point across.
Our narrator, The Redeemer, is growing antsy in his apartment, but soon is given a task. His task is complicated by two warring families that he finds himself trying to navigate in order to complete said task.
I don't want to give away elements of the story, because I think you need to gain understanding organically as the plot unfolds.
I like Herrera's use of language. Even though this is a translated work, you can tell that language is malleable for Herrera and he doesn't stick to standard forms of speaking to get his point across.
jamesdanielhorn's review
4.0
So, this is the third novella in the Three Novels collection. It seemed like everyone says Signs Preceding the End of the World is the best one, so I read this 2nd because I wanted to save the best for last. That said this is excellent so I am really looking forward to the third novella. This was really well written, but slightly mired in the underdevelopment issue I felt about Kingdom Cons. This one suffered a bit more from that but the character development was better. The sex scenes didn’t bother me as much as other reviewers, but they did feel like filler a bit. Either way, this was a fine way to while away an evening.
pearloz's review
3.0
Fine book book set just as...what? a superflu?...is taking over, peoples' deaths are hinted at, symptoms and maladies are discussed obliquely (bled to death? dark stuff coming out of the mouth of a corpse?), maybe spread by mosquito? Paper masks abound but seem sort of superfluous and ineffective. But really, that's just the backdrop to the real plot--a grimy crime book about a fixer named the Redeemer and filled with 50s hardboiled-style caricature characters like the Three Times Blonde, the Unruly, Baby Girl, the Mennonite, the Neeyanderthal, la ñora. It's about rival crime families, murder, revenge, and a fixer caught in the middle. Fun, quick read.
whatthefawkes's review
1.0
1 star, if that!
A romeo and juliet retelling set during a pandemic coupled with a number of unnecessary sex scenes and characters you could care less about.
Let's just say that a man that describes his female characters as "glistening like a wet street" is probably not a man worth reading.
A romeo and juliet retelling set during a pandemic coupled with a number of unnecessary sex scenes and characters you could care less about.
Let's just say that a man that describes his female characters as "glistening like a wet street" is probably not a man worth reading.
desterman's review
4.0
A plague rages through a Mexican city, whose two opposing crime families are on the precipice of all out war. Both have lost a child and each family has possession of the other child's body. The Redeemer is called into broker some kind of deal to prevent this chaos riddled world from tipping even further over the edge. As many critics have already mentioned, Herrera pays tribute to both post-apocalyptic and the hardboiled/noir detective genres in a masterful way. He also pays homage to Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet' and anything by Raymond Chandler. The novella is short (101 pages) and feels filmic most of the time with glances into people and places rather than excessive description. However, the use of metaphor is effective in fleshing out the characters as well as the city itself. Most of the characters are given metaphoric names (The Redeemer, Neeyanderthal, The Mennonite, Three Times Blonde) and the non-graphic or even specific violence reflecting the dangerous drug culture of Mexico seems to permeate every page. Overall it seems to have the power to both offer something borrowed and turn it into something new.
synoptic_view's review
Short and rather interesting, but I read it by mistake. I thought I was reading *Signs Preceding the End of the World*. This book had some cool writing. The nicknames used for the characters were evocative. It felt a little dated with its "tough guy with a heart of gold".