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A review by willrefuge
Hollywood Dead: A Sandman Slim Novel by Richard Kadrey
4.0
7 / 10 ✪
https://arefugefromlife.wordpress.com/2023/09/21/hollywood-dead-by-richard-kadrey-review/
James Stark is back uptown. In the land of the living. Or, at least some different form of hell—also known as LA.
After striking a deal to work for his sworn enemies, Wormwood has brought him back to life in order to do a very specific job, one he’s perfect for! Only… Stark has no idea what it is.
But so long as he’s been brought back to life, Stark doesn’t care. Only… he’s not exactly alive—not yet. Wormwood has a necromancer on retainer, ready to bring Stark fully back once he’s completed their job. And yet, their price may not be worth the reward. For Stark’s friends have moved on. LA has moved on. The world hasn’t stopped turning. And working for his enemies… leaves a sour taste in Stark’s mouth (actually, as a half-corpse, James can’t really taste much of anything at all—but you get it). He half-expects to snap and kill them all.
Odds are, Wormwood suspects the same thing.
—
That’s how you know someone really likes you. Anyone can give you chocolate and flowers, but when they’ll disembowel someone for you? That’s true love.
—
To be honest, I’m a little surprised I came back to Sandman Slim at all. Yeah, I have a copy of Book #11, but after the trainwreck that was the Kill Society (and feel free to disagree with me here)—I was pretty sure the series had hit an all-time low. But, like a cockroach to shit, back I am, and against my better judgment.
And, you know, Hollywood Dead ain’t bad.
It’s not the best installment in the series—that honor still goes to Killing Pretty—but compared to the two previous? Ehhh, it’s not bad. I think that’s because we aren’t in Hell anymore. This is my first review of Slim in a while, so you might not know, but I hate Kadrey’s depiction of Hell. I mean, it’s beyond hate. I LOATHE it. And both of the previous two (as well as several in the series preceding them) are set at least partly in the underworld. But as we’re now firmly topside… well, this isn’t an issue.
It’s a decent story, one with plenty of violence and swearing and the occasional obscure movie reference. The world needs saving and people need killing and Stark is… changing a bit, actually. He’s not as predetermined to kill everyone first, even though he still threatens to all the damn time. It’s almost as if Sandman Slim’s gone soft. Which might just be the twist the series needed, if I’m honest. Plus, now that he’s back there’s a lot of relationship tension to navigate, what with his ex and her new girlfriend of over a year. It’s all the cringe-y cringe that high school romance always has except with undead semi-immortals filling half the roles. So… imagine Twilight. It’s all the romantic tension of Twilight, but with the plot of a Sandman Slim novel. So yeah, it doesn’t sound amazing, but it does sound interesting, eh?
It was only after finishing this that I found out that the series ends after Book 12. So… ten down, two to go? It’s been a bumpy ride thus far, but I feel like I might as well see it out now. Next up we have Ballistic Kiss, Book #11 of the series. Fingers crossed we stay out of the underworld for this one.
https://arefugefromlife.wordpress.com/2023/09/21/hollywood-dead-by-richard-kadrey-review/
James Stark is back uptown. In the land of the living. Or, at least some different form of hell—also known as LA.
After striking a deal to work for his sworn enemies, Wormwood has brought him back to life in order to do a very specific job, one he’s perfect for! Only… Stark has no idea what it is.
But so long as he’s been brought back to life, Stark doesn’t care. Only… he’s not exactly alive—not yet. Wormwood has a necromancer on retainer, ready to bring Stark fully back once he’s completed their job. And yet, their price may not be worth the reward. For Stark’s friends have moved on. LA has moved on. The world hasn’t stopped turning. And working for his enemies… leaves a sour taste in Stark’s mouth (actually, as a half-corpse, James can’t really taste much of anything at all—but you get it). He half-expects to snap and kill them all.
Odds are, Wormwood suspects the same thing.
—
That’s how you know someone really likes you. Anyone can give you chocolate and flowers, but when they’ll disembowel someone for you? That’s true love.
—
To be honest, I’m a little surprised I came back to Sandman Slim at all. Yeah, I have a copy of Book #11, but after the trainwreck that was the Kill Society (and feel free to disagree with me here)—I was pretty sure the series had hit an all-time low. But, like a cockroach to shit, back I am, and against my better judgment.
And, you know, Hollywood Dead ain’t bad.
It’s not the best installment in the series—that honor still goes to Killing Pretty—but compared to the two previous? Ehhh, it’s not bad. I think that’s because we aren’t in Hell anymore. This is my first review of Slim in a while, so you might not know, but I hate Kadrey’s depiction of Hell. I mean, it’s beyond hate. I LOATHE it. And both of the previous two (as well as several in the series preceding them) are set at least partly in the underworld. But as we’re now firmly topside… well, this isn’t an issue.
It’s a decent story, one with plenty of violence and swearing and the occasional obscure movie reference. The world needs saving and people need killing and Stark is… changing a bit, actually. He’s not as predetermined to kill everyone first, even though he still threatens to all the damn time. It’s almost as if Sandman Slim’s gone soft. Which might just be the twist the series needed, if I’m honest. Plus, now that he’s back there’s a lot of relationship tension to navigate, what with his ex and her new girlfriend of over a year. It’s all the cringe-y cringe that high school romance always has except with undead semi-immortals filling half the roles. So… imagine Twilight. It’s all the romantic tension of Twilight, but with the plot of a Sandman Slim novel. So yeah, it doesn’t sound amazing, but it does sound interesting, eh?
It was only after finishing this that I found out that the series ends after Book 12. So… ten down, two to go? It’s been a bumpy ride thus far, but I feel like I might as well see it out now. Next up we have Ballistic Kiss, Book #11 of the series. Fingers crossed we stay out of the underworld for this one.