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3.93 AVERAGE
3.93 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
funny
lighthearted
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Genius. The human condition by way of pulpy noir. Thompson is the king of writing protagonists as insightful as they are utterly psychotic, leaving you on unsteady ground. Whatever conclusion you come to about Sheriff Nick Corey’s “quest” by the end of this freakish tour through the South, he’ll surely be imprinted on you.
”So ain't we all relatively inanimate, George? Just how much free will does any of us exercise? We got controls all along the line, our physical make-up, our mental make-up, our back-grounds; they're all shapin' us a certain way, fixin' us up for a certain role in life, and George, we better play that role or fill that hole or any goddang way you want to put it or all hell is going to tumble out of the heavens and fall right down on top of us. We better do what we were made to do, or we'll find it being done to us."
”So ain't we all relatively inanimate, George? Just how much free will does any of us exercise? We got controls all along the line, our physical make-up, our mental make-up, our back-grounds; they're all shapin' us a certain way, fixin' us up for a certain role in life, and George, we better play that role or fill that hole or any goddang way you want to put it or all hell is going to tumble out of the heavens and fall right down on top of us. We better do what we were made to do, or we'll find it being done to us."
dark
funny
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
How can a novel switch between upsetting and hilarious so quickly and seamlessly? A masterpiece elevated by hard-truth critiques of American society.
dark
funny
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Dark tale of evil that flies under the radar. Well written and well paced.
I don't know if Thomson set out to create the absolute worst protagonist I've ever had the misfortune to experience, or if he stumbled into it accidentally like everything his high-school-fantasy hard-drinking lazy s***w-em-and-leave-em sherrif does. What's worse is that an unlikeable protagonist is okay if the story is good. It isn't. A bad story and a loathesome protagonist can be okay if the book stands for something. It doesn't. Take all the toxic masculinity and bull**** story from Fight Club, then distill it into something more convoluted and awful, and that's the bar Thompson jumped clear over and into a downright waste of paper. I'd give lower than one star of I could.
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book read like pulp fiction that realizes it's pulp fiction and decides that since it's pulp fiction it can make fun of the entire pulp-western-genre. Awful people, good story line, very quick read.