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cgcang's review against another edition
2.0
Winslow should have waited a few years before writing this book. Giving a Don Winslow book 3 stars feels absolutely awful.
The Power of the Dog and The Cartel are both masterpieces. I was under the impression that The Border would live up to them. I was also very worried that Winslow's political sensitivities would turn this book into a 800-page-sermon. Turns out, I was right. The Border is yet another example to prove that when political prose overshadows fiction writing, the end product is almost never good literature.
Winslow seemingly felt he had to write this book because he had to get ahead of whatever stupid shit the Trump administration was about to do. He had more than enough political motivation. He had very little literary motivation. And this shows in the book.
The plot is all over the place. The characters are all over the place. The book feels forced and dragged out at almost every turn. And the ending is absolutely terrible. Endings are very very important to me and this is hands down the worst ending in any Winslow book that I read.
Is it all bad? No. Up until the last 100 pages the plot was actually promising. It was a hard sell but the book had me interested throughout. Some character arcs and plot threads were good. Bobby Cirello was a very good character. Sinaloans and the cartel people were more or less interesting. Belinda was a good character. But that's about it and the ending didn't even do these characters justice.
Sean Callan was in the book but was totally unnecessary as a character. Nora Hayden was back, but in the end it felt like she was brought back only for a scene in which she confronts the president and threatens him with releasing information about his sexual kinks and perversions. Different cartel factions and characters had different story arcs that in the end either did not go anywhere at all or were wrapped up unsatisfactorily. Nico's and Jacqui's character arcs connected in the end but it was so rushed that it didn't really mean anything. And so on...
Winslow botched the ending. There's no other way of saying it. The story is laid out in 750 pages. And Winslow tried to wrap it all up in 30 pages. And failed. By the way, these 30 pages include the repetition of the whole prologue. The action in the end was weak. Many story threads were left incomplete. The ending was overall very unsatisfactory.
If my review feels messy, it's primarily because the book itself is.
Despite my disappointment, The Border is a big and mostly fun book. It would have easily deserved 5 stars with a good enough ending. But as it is, if you liked The Power of the Dog and The Cartel, you really don't need to read The Border. If you are curious about Winslow's take on the US-Mexico border or the war on drugs, just find any Youtube video in which he talks about The Border and he'll bring you up to speed. You won't find much else in the book anyway.
Edit: On second thought, The Border is a huge step down from The Cartel and it doesn't even deserve 3 stars.
The Power of the Dog and The Cartel are both masterpieces. I was under the impression that The Border would live up to them. I was also very worried that Winslow's political sensitivities would turn this book into a 800-page-sermon. Turns out, I was right. The Border is yet another example to prove that when political prose overshadows fiction writing, the end product is almost never good literature.
Winslow seemingly felt he had to write this book because he had to get ahead of whatever stupid shit the Trump administration was about to do. He had more than enough political motivation. He had very little literary motivation. And this shows in the book.
The plot is all over the place. The characters are all over the place. The book feels forced and dragged out at almost every turn. And the ending is absolutely terrible. Endings are very very important to me and this is hands down the worst ending in any Winslow book that I read.
Is it all bad? No. Up until the last 100 pages the plot was actually promising. It was a hard sell but the book had me interested throughout. Some character arcs and plot threads were good. Bobby Cirello was a very good character. Sinaloans and the cartel people were more or less interesting. Belinda was a good character. But that's about it and the ending didn't even do these characters justice.
Sean Callan was in the book but was totally unnecessary as a character. Nora Hayden was back, but in the end it felt like she was brought back only for a scene in which she confronts the president and threatens him with releasing information about his sexual kinks and perversions. Different cartel factions and characters had different story arcs that in the end either did not go anywhere at all or were wrapped up unsatisfactorily. Nico's and Jacqui's character arcs connected in the end but it was so rushed that it didn't really mean anything. And so on...
Winslow botched the ending. There's no other way of saying it. The story is laid out in 750 pages. And Winslow tried to wrap it all up in 30 pages. And failed. By the way, these 30 pages include the repetition of the whole prologue. The action in the end was weak. Many story threads were left incomplete. The ending was overall very unsatisfactory.
If my review feels messy, it's primarily because the book itself is.
Despite my disappointment, The Border is a big and mostly fun book. It would have easily deserved 5 stars with a good enough ending. But as it is, if you liked The Power of the Dog and The Cartel, you really don't need to read The Border. If you are curious about Winslow's take on the US-Mexico border or the war on drugs, just find any Youtube video in which he talks about The Border and he'll bring you up to speed. You won't find much else in the book anyway.
Edit: On second thought, The Border is a huge step down from The Cartel and it doesn't even deserve 3 stars.
nixieknox's review against another edition
3.0
Such a great ending. Marisol is so bad-ass -I wanted to be invited to her Christmas Eve party. As always there is a LOT to take in and remember, but less so than the previous book. I remain hopeful for the kid. Completely forgot about Sean and Nora but was so glad they made an appearance. This had the best parts of the first two books.
Heartbreaking portrayal of the drug war in that corner dealers get tossed in jail but major money players get nothing.
Heartbreaking portrayal of the drug war in that corner dealers get tossed in jail but major money players get nothing.
bryce_is_a_librarian's review against another edition
4.0
It doesn't have the focus of Power Of The Dog, or the relentless apocalyptic sprawl of The Cartel, but The Border is a fitting capstone to a trilogy that will go down as one of the great visions in pulp fiction Winslow's vision of the cartel as a self perpetuating structure that corrupts all it touches remains one of the most vivid in crime fiction.
jeff_clutterbuck's review against another edition
3.0
The second and third books in the trilogy didn’t quite reach the heights of of the first, but they were still satisfactory. By Border, I think a lot of the tricks Winslow had utilized previously become easier to identify. No character is safe, except for one glaring exception. And to be frank, the Dennison wish fulfillment storyline didn’t work for me.
asequeirosm's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
informative
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
adamclane99's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
slider9499's review against another edition
5.0
Simply one of the best books I have read in the past 20 years. No doubt about it. This is the best book in the trilogy. And that's saying something!
lil_legge's review against another edition
5.0
I expected to be disappointed by this book because I didn't think it would be possible for Winslow to finish this trilogy in a way that did the first two books justice. Even with that in mind, my expectations were high, I was not disappointed.
This could be the best series I've ever read.
This could be the best series I've ever read.
tomfairfax's review against another edition
4.0
Like the previous two books in the trilogy it is an adept intermingling of deeply researched real world events - generally shocking episodes from Mexico - with well-rounded believable fictional characters. The narrative style is fast moving achieved by significant use of short single-sentence paragraphs that at times become annoyingly noticeable. There is sufficient verbal recounting of key events from the previous books that a new reader would not feel adrift, but don't read the final chapters if you want to read the previous books. I felt the ending was less credible than those of the previous books but it did not lessen the overall experience. A lot of the less positive reviews here are because of people's perceptions that it has a political agenda, and it does which is that the situation in Mexico is ultimately the fault of the people of the USA. It points out that building a wall to keep poor people out won't stop the flow of drugs into the US or the laundering of drug money through the US Financial system. Is that a criticism of the guy promoting the Wall idea? Yes. Winslow shows many reasons why and how US citizens facilitate the drug trade whether as users or pushers and the consequences this creates for ordinary people in whatever country. It's polemical and well done. The geographical border is less a feature than the border between rich and poor and the personal / moral borders that the main characters create and cross. 4.5 stars.
amykclaflin's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0