Reviews

I picked this up because I saw several people compare it to Stoner (which, in my opinion, is a terrible comparison), but a decent novel nonetheless. Gritty, sad, and reflective. Touches on the issues within the American justice system, sexuality, and the search for a meaningful life, all set to the backdrop of the Portland crime scene.

elisabethbutton's review against another edition

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reflective slow-paced

3.5

ciaran_vallely's review against another edition

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reflective sad medium-paced

3.75

luckyyou's review against another edition

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2.75

The parts I liked the most were the philosophical musings on the true state of the world and power, and how power manifests and what people do with it, why they want it, what they would devolve into without it. This kinda does end up feeling like a book that is so much about how the protagonist contends with the different forms of power in his life. He starts completely powerless and ends completely powerless and in the middle he swings back and forth between trying to strive for power and fighting against conventional forms of power. Ultimately the whole narrative is fairly nihilistic and bleak, reminded me a bit of how I felt while reading No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai and Candy by Mian Mian. No matter what you do you're pushing someone else down to get it. The protag's development feels equally nihilistic, he has one moment of trying to better himself then slips back once he's no longer on the hook to go back to prison. He remains a completely aimless person who runs from discomfort but can't figure out how to run towards anything. Form-wise I felt it was a little too meandering for my taste, and the internal philosophical dialog parts, the parts I was most engaged with, don't happen enough to buoy the rest of the story for me. There are some parts that are so detailed but don't feel purposeful, and I felt like switching the POV didn't add much for me. Sometimes was a little bit of a slog to get through. I liked the expressions of nihilism and the meaning of power, but overall did not hit for me as a whole cohesive story.

genre_fiction_is_literature's review against another edition

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1.0

This is such dreck. The publisher should be forced to replant the trees used to print such an empty story.

Even through its weak writing, disjointed pacing and tissue-paper thin plotting, the racism, sexism, and homophobia (not used for the sake of creating a character) shines brightly. There are no character arcs, no one grows or changes at all. It contains drastically unbelievable portrayals of every female character. They are all liars or whores, it’s like the author never encountered a woman in real life. This book is devoid of cohesion and contain no discernible plot. It's like five bad stories smashed together into one horrendous book. Why do teenagers act and talk like middle-aged gangsters?

As we hate read and come to the end the simplest, most elementary ideas are presented as deep insights.

If someone calls this Dostoyevskian or compares it to Crime and Punishment throw your drink in their face.

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