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A review by janeneal
She Rides Shotgun by Jordan Harper
I really, REALLY dug this!
It was sort of like True Grit (I have not read or watched it, my bad) meets Logan, without any mutants. The writing and characterization were phenomenal. There is a lot of violence and terrible things happening, but one aspect I really appreciate about Harper's writing was that nothing felt gratuitous or exaggerated. While Harper didn't write terrible moments of violence in a clinical, distant way, it was never pointless gory. Also, no sexual violence. Anyone who thinks that sexual violence needs to be depicted to make a story more realistic should read this. Because guess what? YOU DON'T NEED IT.
Nate was a fascinating character, an actual anti-hero that didn't feel like a boring, Hollywood stereotype. Polly was FANTASTIC. I loved her so much. She felt so damn real. She carries a stuffed bear around with her but the way Harper writes her relationship with the bear and how Polly interacts with him felt so right. If someone else had written it, it might have felt unbelievable or too corny, but here it was just perfect.
All of the secondary characters were just as well-rounded and fascinating to read. No one felt unnecessary or unbelievable. The pacing of the plot reminded me a bit of Mad Max: Fury Road in how it sort of just starts and steadily amps up with just a few moments of rest. The pacing felt right, allowing the story to hit all the right notes.
I'm not super articulate about it but I really loved this book. I'm super excited to see what Harper writes next, but in the meantime, I'm going to be trying to handsell the shit out of this at work.
It was sort of like True Grit (I have not read or watched it, my bad) meets Logan, without any mutants. The writing and characterization were phenomenal. There is a lot of violence and terrible things happening, but one aspect I really appreciate about Harper's writing was that nothing felt gratuitous or exaggerated. While Harper didn't write terrible moments of violence in a clinical, distant way, it was never pointless gory. Also, no sexual violence. Anyone who thinks that sexual violence needs to be depicted to make a story more realistic should read this. Because guess what? YOU DON'T NEED IT.
Nate was a fascinating character, an actual anti-hero that didn't feel like a boring, Hollywood stereotype. Polly was FANTASTIC. I loved her so much. She felt so damn real. She carries a stuffed bear around with her but the way Harper writes her relationship with the bear and how Polly interacts with him felt so right. If someone else had written it, it might have felt unbelievable or too corny, but here it was just perfect.
All of the secondary characters were just as well-rounded and fascinating to read. No one felt unnecessary or unbelievable. The pacing of the plot reminded me a bit of Mad Max: Fury Road in how it sort of just starts and steadily amps up with just a few moments of rest. The pacing felt right, allowing the story to hit all the right notes.
I'm not super articulate about it but I really loved this book. I'm super excited to see what Harper writes next, but in the meantime, I'm going to be trying to handsell the shit out of this at work.