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bookdrag0n's review
dark
medium-paced
4.0
See this and other reviews at https://thebookdragondotblog.wordpress.com
Trigger Warning: 18+. Adult content. Sexual content, adult language, graphic violence.
Joe Pawlowski invites his readers on a journey to experience the darkness in a variety of people and cultures. Different genders, political stances, economic statuses, each character and their small slice of the world is unique. The only unifying factor between these diverse stories is their horrifying factor. Something always ends up terribly wrong.
I’ll admit that I went into this book not expecting a collection of short stories. Based off the blurb on the back and the Amazon/Goodreads pages, I thought this would be a “regular” novel, just with a large set of characters. I kept waiting for the tangential stories to intersect and force our characters and their lives together. Of course, that never happened. Perhaps that misconception is on me, and it may have colored my rating.
However, once I realized that these stories are self-encompassed, it was nice and easy to fall into each one. Pawlowski does an amazing job building his characters and ensuring that every MC is his/her own person. They have their own backstory, personality, and way of speaking that he brings to life on the page.
Some of the stories were a bit anti-climactic, and some of the characters were difficult to relate to, perhaps taking me out of their story. Luckily, there are several other stories within this collection that it can keep just about anyone’s attention!
Recommended for those who want a quick and easy read–of individual stories, or the whole collection–and are prepared for some dark and sometimes unsettlingly graphic scenes.
Trigger Warning: 18+. Adult content. Sexual content, adult language, graphic violence.
Joe Pawlowski invites his readers on a journey to experience the darkness in a variety of people and cultures. Different genders, political stances, economic statuses, each character and their small slice of the world is unique. The only unifying factor between these diverse stories is their horrifying factor. Something always ends up terribly wrong.
I’ll admit that I went into this book not expecting a collection of short stories. Based off the blurb on the back and the Amazon/Goodreads pages, I thought this would be a “regular” novel, just with a large set of characters. I kept waiting for the tangential stories to intersect and force our characters and their lives together. Of course, that never happened. Perhaps that misconception is on me, and it may have colored my rating.
However, once I realized that these stories are self-encompassed, it was nice and easy to fall into each one. Pawlowski does an amazing job building his characters and ensuring that every MC is his/her own person. They have their own backstory, personality, and way of speaking that he brings to life on the page.
Some of the stories were a bit anti-climactic, and some of the characters were difficult to relate to, perhaps taking me out of their story. Luckily, there are several other stories within this collection that it can keep just about anyone’s attention!
Recommended for those who want a quick and easy read–of individual stories, or the whole collection–and are prepared for some dark and sometimes unsettlingly graphic scenes.
megaden's review
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
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