A review by _bookish_lauren
Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

First of all, this needs to be made into a movie, for sure. It's giving part Equalizer, part late 90s/early 2000s crime thriller movie. You've got 2 ex-cons that you would think are past their prime, easily proving that they're not, on a quest to avenge the death of their sons who were brutally murdered in a hate crime. Their sons were in an interracial gay marriage, hence part of the motivation for their murders. 

The fathers didn't exactly agree with their sons' relationship, but ultimately loved them and in avenging their deaths, found a way to accept and come to terms with who their sons loved and realized that they were living their own lives wrongly in how dismissive they were.

It showed some pretty significant character development for both Ike and Buddy Lee. They were also a truly unlikely team. 

The story was fast-paced and compelling, while also diving into many difficult topics. Please be careful when reading and check your triggers for the content, because there are a lot. Racism, homophobia, transphobia, slurs, on page gore/violence, discussion of the prison industrial complex (specifically the fathers' experiences while incarcerated in Virginia prisons), kidnapping, and others. 

The only thing was that the identity of the big bad, the person truly behind everything, seemed a little predictable, at least to me.
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