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awwcripes's review against another edition
5.0
Favorited. Too many others have written better reviews than I could. If you enjoy the more bizarre and umm, visceral parts of Perdido Street Station then you will enjoy this.
dantastic's review against another edition
4.0
There are a million stories in The Grudge and John McNee commits ten of them to paper in Grudge Punk.
Not long ago, Arthur Graham, knowing my love of free stuff, detective fiction, and Bizarro fiction, tipped me off that this was free on Amazon. Hard to pass up free.
Grudgehaven is a city of automatons, acid rain, and deception. In Grudge Punk, John McNee takes ten fairly standard setups for noir stories and places them in his bizarre city. A detective is hired to find the only flesh and blood woman in the Grudge. A crime lord hires a woman to be his biographer. A mayoral candidate has a fondness for killing hookers. Two lovers conspire to murder the female of the pair's husband. Now imagine the detective being made of granite and you'll have an idea of what Grudge Punk is about.
The weirdness level is extremely high in Grudge Punk but all of it is fairly logical and doesn't stray into the realm of absurdity or being weird for the sake of being weird. The world has its own internal logical and all the short stories in this collection are linked and build upon one another until the final tale.
By far, my favorite part of the mythology McNee has established is the ongoing war between Grudgehaven's two crime lords, the King of Eyes and the King of Broken Glass. I'd read a whole novel detailing the decades-long conflict.
It's hard to review a book of short stories without giving too much away. Suffice to say, if you like weird detective fiction, you won't want to miss this.
Not long ago, Arthur Graham, knowing my love of free stuff, detective fiction, and Bizarro fiction, tipped me off that this was free on Amazon. Hard to pass up free.
Grudgehaven is a city of automatons, acid rain, and deception. In Grudge Punk, John McNee takes ten fairly standard setups for noir stories and places them in his bizarre city. A detective is hired to find the only flesh and blood woman in the Grudge. A crime lord hires a woman to be his biographer. A mayoral candidate has a fondness for killing hookers. Two lovers conspire to murder the female of the pair's husband. Now imagine the detective being made of granite and you'll have an idea of what Grudge Punk is about.
The weirdness level is extremely high in Grudge Punk but all of it is fairly logical and doesn't stray into the realm of absurdity or being weird for the sake of being weird. The world has its own internal logical and all the short stories in this collection are linked and build upon one another until the final tale.
By far, my favorite part of the mythology McNee has established is the ongoing war between Grudgehaven's two crime lords, the King of Eyes and the King of Broken Glass. I'd read a whole novel detailing the decades-long conflict.
It's hard to review a book of short stories without giving too much away. Suffice to say, if you like weird detective fiction, you won't want to miss this.
briandice's review against another edition
5.0
Not since Miéville's world of Bas-Lag in his New Crobuzon trilogy have I been completely drawn to an author's world of amazing creation. Like the descriptions of the denizens of Bas-Lag, reading McNee's tales of beings nefarious, broken and unpredictable are hair raising to the point of "anything goes". Remember the first time you saw "Resevoir Dogs" and the feeling you had when the camera panned away from the switchblade-to-cop violence? Yeah, like that. Over and over.
The first story in this brilliant collection sets the tone (my first exposure and anthologized in [b:Tall Tales With Short Cocks|13617189|Tall Tales With Short Cocks|Arthur Graham|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1335394976s/13617189.jpg|19219467]) for what is in store. But each story of Grudgehaven is unique, every character rich in their development, and the way McNee ties them all together by the last sentence of the final story is just fucking brilliant.
And yes, this collection deserves the 5 stars, the 100 stars, the Galaxy it deserves.
But selfishly, can I please have some more, sir?
The first story in this brilliant collection sets the tone (my first exposure and anthologized in [b:Tall Tales With Short Cocks|13617189|Tall Tales With Short Cocks|Arthur Graham|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1335394976s/13617189.jpg|19219467]) for what is in store. But each story of Grudgehaven is unique, every character rich in their development, and the way McNee ties them all together by the last sentence of the final story is just fucking brilliant.
And yes, this collection deserves the 5 stars, the 100 stars, the Galaxy it deserves.
But selfishly, can I please have some more, sir?
egumeny's review against another edition
5.0
Grudge Punk, by John McNee, is the perfect blend of noir and bizarro. It's Sin City with soul-devouring hallways, Blade Runner if the replicants were made of spare parts and trash.
The stories in Grudge Punk take place in Grudgehaven, a city collapsing under the weight of its own filth and corruption, and caught in a gang war that could never end well. Each story chronicles a different character with a different narrative -- some more tied into the overarching plot than others, other characters criss-crossing between stories -- but all very firmly rooted in the same world, the same city. It's a city populated by broken-down gangsters, corrupt cops, and lost girls. There's murder, there's monsters, there's mayhem, and there's more than enough to keep you hooked straight through to the final story.
If you're into crime stories, and you don't mind the occasional dismembered hand on a quest or serial-killing skeleton, you should pick up Grudge Punk. If you're into bizarro, but you feel like most stories don't have enough hard-boiled foreboding, you should pick up Grudge Punk. If you've never read either genre, but you've been thinking about it, you should pick up Grudge Punk.
The stories in Grudge Punk take place in Grudgehaven, a city collapsing under the weight of its own filth and corruption, and caught in a gang war that could never end well. Each story chronicles a different character with a different narrative -- some more tied into the overarching plot than others, other characters criss-crossing between stories -- but all very firmly rooted in the same world, the same city. It's a city populated by broken-down gangsters, corrupt cops, and lost girls. There's murder, there's monsters, there's mayhem, and there's more than enough to keep you hooked straight through to the final story.
If you're into crime stories, and you don't mind the occasional dismembered hand on a quest or serial-killing skeleton, you should pick up Grudge Punk. If you're into bizarro, but you feel like most stories don't have enough hard-boiled foreboding, you should pick up Grudge Punk. If you've never read either genre, but you've been thinking about it, you should pick up Grudge Punk.
thomaswjoyce's review against another edition
4.0
The central idea behind these stories all connected by the same city is brilliant. That all of the citizens' bodies are "enhanced" by technology is great, but it also has the added twist that some enhancements are better than others, some have degraded to the point of disrepair and some belong in a junkyard. This grimy take on it really lends itself to the author's noir style of storytelling. Underhanded politics and tensions between rival criminal gangs, dames in distress and past-their-prime hitmen, it all adds up to a very entertaining read. Wonderfully original and wildly entertaining.
5hadow_girl's review against another edition
5.0
This is another review that was lost in one of the blog moves. I’m kind of happy about the loss, though – I enjoyed it more the second time around.
Full review on BBB.
Full review on BBB.
prettyoddpages's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
rebeccagatzlaff's review against another edition
4.0
This is a book about a city called grudge haven. Inside this book there is short stories about the town. This book contains nine short stories. My favorite story was Down to the Bones which is about a couple that kills people with acid rain. But one day the victims' skeleton doesn't disintegrate and the turn from bad to worse. I loved that each story was dark and creepy. This book also takes place in the future. I highly recommend this book if you love horror and steampunk.
thomaswjoyce's review
4.0
The central idea behind these stories all connected by the same city is brilliant. That all of the citizens' bodies are "enhanced" by technology is great, but it also has the added twist that some enhancements are better than others, some have degraded to the point of disrepair and some belong in a junkyard. This grimy take on it really lends itself to the author's noir style of storytelling. Underhanded politics and tensions between rival criminal gangs, dames in distress and past-their-prime hitmen, it all adds up to a very entertaining read. Wonderfully original and wildly entertaining.
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