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michael_benavidez's review
5.0
I'm familiar with both Oak and Joseph, and walking into this collaboration I was eager to see how well their work blended into one. And safe to say from the 5 stars I'm giving it, it works. It works fantastically.
It's a grim story, completely engaging, with twists and turns at the ready to give you whiplash. It's smart, it's current, and it's a gut punch. Not something I find in many of today's work, so do yourself a favor and buy this book.
It's a grim story, completely engaging, with twists and turns at the ready to give you whiplash. It's smart, it's current, and it's a gut punch. Not something I find in many of today's work, so do yourself a favor and buy this book.
jugglingpup's review
4.0
To see more reviews check out MI Book Reviews.
I got an ARC of this book from one of the authors.
I am not a fan of police drama, thrillers, or murder mysteries. So this is not my typical read by far. The reason I don’t like those genres comes through loud and clear in this book.
Characters: I just can’t bring myself to like the grizzled cop that is a loose cannon or the cop that should have retired long ago because of his emotional issues. Enter Brant. He is macho and a great cop, that left due to emotional issues from a relationship that went terribly due to him being toxically masculine. So not the typical cop anti-hero that I can’t stand. There was a kitten scene that really brought home how different Brant was near the beginning of the book. Brant actually seemed to be working on his issues and dealing with what is wrong in his life. Though that is only surface since he doesn’t actually admit what is wrong with him, but blames the city for his issues for most of the book. His real issues come down to a toxic masculinity that doesn’t allow the woman he loves to be more successful than he is. His view of love is also pretty warped, which brings me to the next issue:
Representation of women: woo boy. That is a tough one. Kendra is a kick-ass woman and I really enjoyed her character. That is, I mostly did. The reasons that Brant is in love with Kendra is that she is sexually voracious. Cool. You can love your partner for whatever reasons you want, but it just made me think even less of Brant. He didn’t really seem to have anything in common with Kendra and the relationship felt super shallow. It felt even more shallow when they magically got back together without talking about it, while Kendra was clearly unable to consent to anything (there was not rape, there was a kiss, but it went no further so I have to give kudos for no main female characters being raped in the book). Brant has issues with women, the bad guys have issues with women. The women are few and far between outside of victims and Kendra. Kendra seems to only exist as a plot device by the end though. The ending made me hate her character and really recognize that she wasn’t fleshed out enough to really even be a main character. One redeeming female character was Brant’s mother, but she was also not super fleshed out. That 2D character design seemed intentional though. She had some memory issues and a strong streak of stubborn going, so it actually made her feel more real to me than most of the other characters in the book. I think part of the issue is this was a book that was setting up for a series instead of a stand alone. I can give some leeway for character development, because it is clear there is more to come. The ending did give Brant some major room to change.
Toxic masculinity: This book is just full of it. Brant shows a lot of it. There is a lot of casual homophobia out of nowhere just snuck in for flavor, I guess. The actually gay scenes weren’t bad at all and were pretty interesting writing. There was a gay character with TONS of internalized homophobia and that was a wonderful section to read. There were so many mental disconnects and a religious tint that I hadn’t read before. It was still rooted in toxic masculinity, but it was clear that it was wrong. A lot of toxic masculinity isn’t ever addressed, most in this book aren’t even addressed. This one character had it addressed and I liked it.
Race issues: so this book pretty much plays on the American fear of people from the Middle East and immigrants. It was horrifying how far this book went. There were multiple occasions where the main characters would argue that if the world were less “politically correct” then mass terror could be prevented. There was even a joke that TSA was racist and profiled, which duh, but it made me laugh. There were so many race issues in this book that don’t even stem from my desire to respect people as people, but this book just played on so many unfounded fears for the sake of an easy enemy target. though there was a time where this bit the main characters in the butt, sadly it was not race that got them, but gender.
In every respect I should hate this book, yet I don’t. I feel almost gross admitting this, but I am hooked. I want to see how far this goes. I want to see what happens. This is clearly a first book in a series and it is all set-up. The world is being built, the enemy is slowly being revealed. The heroes are being built up still. There is no conclusion in this book. Normally this annoys me to no end, but in this book it worked. It didn’t rush the action. It allowed for more to happen. I loved the writing itself. It was easy to read and easy to follow. The fact that I could get through a book that had so many issues for me is a real testament to the authors for their ability to keep the book grounded.
I am surprised at some of the issues I had in the book because I have had personal conversations with one of the authors. He is, from what I can tell, a wonderful person. Just the way he is able to describe his feelings and discuss difficult topics was amazing. So I am curious to see how this all plays out. I have a feeling that my issues are not what they seem, but will require a book or two more to really play out to their full potential instead of being stunted the way I am seeing them now. I have hope for this series. I fear that I am right, but the hope is outweighing it right now.
Some thoughts that won’t make sense unless you read the book:
Joan Jett is not considered heavy metal in any world. She is wonderful and a brilliant musician, but far from metal.
Moaning a date during an orgasm is really weird. Just saying.
Never considered oranges to be good for splatter, but I have to admit that the way they are used really does show, in a strange way, a strength of that character.
If I was basing this book solely on my issues, then it would be a one star book. The authors were able to get me through all of my issues with their writing. The book jumps between the cops and the extremists, which at times can be really jarring. There were scenes where the extremists did separate themselves from “moderate” Muslims. There was an effort to make sure that it wasn’t “all Muslims are bad” situation, but it felt like with the author’s apparent skill there could have been more to everything instead of playing off racist fears. The writing and the way the story was actually set up raised this book up. I am torn between giving the book three stars (letting my issues win) and four stars (letting the captivation I felt win). I am going to go with four stars, because it felt like there is so much more to the story that will get me out of my issues. There were so many side characters and build-up that were wonderful to see. The world is so vivid. The writing was enough to get me through a book that I should hate and isn’t a book I would have picked up on my own. So The fact that the writing is so damn near perfect for me, I have to give a rating that fits that. If a book inside a genre that I can’t even pretend to like has me hooked, there is something there. I just hope the authors can really address the issues I have with the book in the next one. There is just so much more than my issues happening. I can ignore “cocksucker” being used as a generic insult, despite it annoying me for the go to casual homophobia and toxic masculinity it is, if it really serves a purpose in the story and doesn’t become a huge focus of the book. It was said maybe twice and during intense scenes where it would be normal for weird stuff to be said that isn’t characteristic. So be warned that there are issues in this book, but I think that the authors will be able to go above and beyond these issues. They are using an easy manipulated fear to start a story, but it will be so much bigger by the end. Something will happen.
I got an ARC of this book from one of the authors.
I am not a fan of police drama, thrillers, or murder mysteries. So this is not my typical read by far. The reason I don’t like those genres comes through loud and clear in this book.
Characters: I just can’t bring myself to like the grizzled cop that is a loose cannon or the cop that should have retired long ago because of his emotional issues. Enter Brant. He is macho and a great cop, that left due to emotional issues from a relationship that went terribly due to him being toxically masculine. So not the typical cop anti-hero that I can’t stand. There was a kitten scene that really brought home how different Brant was near the beginning of the book. Brant actually seemed to be working on his issues and dealing with what is wrong in his life. Though that is only surface since he doesn’t actually admit what is wrong with him, but blames the city for his issues for most of the book. His real issues come down to a toxic masculinity that doesn’t allow the woman he loves to be more successful than he is. His view of love is also pretty warped, which brings me to the next issue:
Representation of women: woo boy. That is a tough one. Kendra is a kick-ass woman and I really enjoyed her character. That is, I mostly did. The reasons that Brant is in love with Kendra is that she is sexually voracious. Cool. You can love your partner for whatever reasons you want, but it just made me think even less of Brant. He didn’t really seem to have anything in common with Kendra and the relationship felt super shallow. It felt even more shallow when they magically got back together without talking about it, while Kendra was clearly unable to consent to anything (there was not rape, there was a kiss, but it went no further so I have to give kudos for no main female characters being raped in the book). Brant has issues with women, the bad guys have issues with women. The women are few and far between outside of victims and Kendra. Kendra seems to only exist as a plot device by the end though. The ending made me hate her character and really recognize that she wasn’t fleshed out enough to really even be a main character. One redeeming female character was Brant’s mother, but she was also not super fleshed out. That 2D character design seemed intentional though. She had some memory issues and a strong streak of stubborn going, so it actually made her feel more real to me than most of the other characters in the book. I think part of the issue is this was a book that was setting up for a series instead of a stand alone. I can give some leeway for character development, because it is clear there is more to come. The ending did give Brant some major room to change.
Toxic masculinity: This book is just full of it. Brant shows a lot of it. There is a lot of casual homophobia out of nowhere just snuck in for flavor, I guess. The actually gay scenes weren’t bad at all and were pretty interesting writing. There was a gay character with TONS of internalized homophobia and that was a wonderful section to read. There were so many mental disconnects and a religious tint that I hadn’t read before. It was still rooted in toxic masculinity, but it was clear that it was wrong. A lot of toxic masculinity isn’t ever addressed, most in this book aren’t even addressed. This one character had it addressed and I liked it.
Race issues: so this book pretty much plays on the American fear of people from the Middle East and immigrants. It was horrifying how far this book went. There were multiple occasions where the main characters would argue that if the world were less “politically correct” then mass terror could be prevented. There was even a joke that TSA was racist and profiled, which duh, but it made me laugh. There were so many race issues in this book that don’t even stem from my desire to respect people as people, but this book just played on so many unfounded fears for the sake of an easy enemy target. though there was a time where this bit the main characters in the butt, sadly it was not race that got them, but gender.
In every respect I should hate this book, yet I don’t. I feel almost gross admitting this, but I am hooked. I want to see how far this goes. I want to see what happens. This is clearly a first book in a series and it is all set-up. The world is being built, the enemy is slowly being revealed. The heroes are being built up still. There is no conclusion in this book. Normally this annoys me to no end, but in this book it worked. It didn’t rush the action. It allowed for more to happen. I loved the writing itself. It was easy to read and easy to follow. The fact that I could get through a book that had so many issues for me is a real testament to the authors for their ability to keep the book grounded.
I am surprised at some of the issues I had in the book because I have had personal conversations with one of the authors. He is, from what I can tell, a wonderful person. Just the way he is able to describe his feelings and discuss difficult topics was amazing. So I am curious to see how this all plays out. I have a feeling that my issues are not what they seem, but will require a book or two more to really play out to their full potential instead of being stunted the way I am seeing them now. I have hope for this series. I fear that I am right, but the hope is outweighing it right now.
Some thoughts that won’t make sense unless you read the book:
Joan Jett is not considered heavy metal in any world. She is wonderful and a brilliant musician, but far from metal.
Moaning a date during an orgasm is really weird. Just saying.
Never considered oranges to be good for splatter, but I have to admit that the way they are used really does show, in a strange way, a strength of that character.
If I was basing this book solely on my issues, then it would be a one star book. The authors were able to get me through all of my issues with their writing. The book jumps between the cops and the extremists, which at times can be really jarring. There were scenes where the extremists did separate themselves from “moderate” Muslims. There was an effort to make sure that it wasn’t “all Muslims are bad” situation, but it felt like with the author’s apparent skill there could have been more to everything instead of playing off racist fears. The writing and the way the story was actually set up raised this book up. I am torn between giving the book three stars (letting my issues win) and four stars (letting the captivation I felt win). I am going to go with four stars, because it felt like there is so much more to the story that will get me out of my issues. There were so many side characters and build-up that were wonderful to see. The world is so vivid. The writing was enough to get me through a book that I should hate and isn’t a book I would have picked up on my own. So The fact that the writing is so damn near perfect for me, I have to give a rating that fits that. If a book inside a genre that I can’t even pretend to like has me hooked, there is something there. I just hope the authors can really address the issues I have with the book in the next one. There is just so much more than my issues happening. I can ignore “cocksucker” being used as a generic insult, despite it annoying me for the go to casual homophobia and toxic masculinity it is, if it really serves a purpose in the story and doesn’t become a huge focus of the book. It was said maybe twice and during intense scenes where it would be normal for weird stuff to be said that isn’t characteristic. So be warned that there are issues in this book, but I think that the authors will be able to go above and beyond these issues. They are using an easy manipulated fear to start a story, but it will be so much bigger by the end. Something will happen.
rainnbooks's review
4.0
Thanks to Oak and Joseph for giving me a chance to read this book. After 9/11, the Islamic community has come under heavy scrutiny. In between all the good that's being done, there are of course the extreme jihadists who are so hell bent twisting the religion to something else. On This Day is an awesome work, half the time, it felt like watching an action thriller on the telly coz each and every image described could be pictured in our mind. That is quite an achievement I think. I loved how the authors have managed to make us feel sorry for the misguided souls being made to do this dirty work.
The ending was quite unexpected but true to the story.
The ending was quite unexpected but true to the story.
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