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A review by justinkhchen
Slow Down by Lee Matthew Goldberg
4.0
4.5 stars
While reading, I kept imagining how this story would come to life through the lens of Nicolas Winding Refn. If you're a fan of movies such as The Neon Demon or American Psycho, where the delirious obsession with fame drives one to extreme actions—Slow Down will be right up your alley.
Essentially a story about a filmmaker being pressured to write his next 'big' movie, Lee Matthew Goldberg blends many familiar 'Rags to Riches' themes within a razor sharp narratives about filmmaking: life imitating art (or vice versa), never meet one's hero, and power struggle within relationship. The story is purposefully filled with unpleasant characters; if you're familiar with the aforementioned films and Chuck Palahniuk.'s Fight Club (which was referenced multiple times), you'll have a good grasp of the archetype populating this story: self-righteous, headstrong, and turbulent. Slow Down satisfies our macabre curiosity of just how far one would do, with extreme malevolence and beyond morality, to quench assumed life-depending desire or reputation.
It might be bizarre to call a book 'cinematic', but that is exactly how Slow Down reads; Lee Matthew Goldberg set up multiple recurring visual cues, which all come to satisfying revelation as the story wraps up. My only minor gripe with Slow Down is it's truncated ending, which abruptly brings everything to closure in a way that is too naive and dainty for the events prior. BUT, within its meta, cyclical storytelling structure, the choice is also completely intentional and justified; so the final verdict really depends on personal preference: would you prefer an all-out, emotionally gutted ending, or one that is less thrilling, but thematically appropriate?
To close, if you have been a fan of hypnotic Neo-noir narrative where characters self-destruct and being their absolutely worst to others for questionable victory, then you'll definitely find Slow Down a worthwhile read.
***This ARC was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Much appreciated!***
While reading, I kept imagining how this story would come to life through the lens of Nicolas Winding Refn. If you're a fan of movies such as The Neon Demon or American Psycho, where the delirious obsession with fame drives one to extreme actions—Slow Down will be right up your alley.
Essentially a story about a filmmaker being pressured to write his next 'big' movie, Lee Matthew Goldberg blends many familiar 'Rags to Riches' themes within a razor sharp narratives about filmmaking: life imitating art (or vice versa), never meet one's hero, and power struggle within relationship. The story is purposefully filled with unpleasant characters; if you're familiar with the aforementioned films and Chuck Palahniuk.'s Fight Club (which was referenced multiple times), you'll have a good grasp of the archetype populating this story: self-righteous, headstrong, and turbulent. Slow Down satisfies our macabre curiosity of just how far one would do, with extreme malevolence and beyond morality, to quench assumed life-depending desire or reputation.
It might be bizarre to call a book 'cinematic', but that is exactly how Slow Down reads; Lee Matthew Goldberg set up multiple recurring visual cues, which all come to satisfying revelation as the story wraps up. My only minor gripe with Slow Down is it's truncated ending, which abruptly brings everything to closure in a way that is too naive and dainty for the events prior. BUT, within its meta, cyclical storytelling structure, the choice is also completely intentional and justified; so the final verdict really depends on personal preference: would you prefer an all-out, emotionally gutted ending, or one that is less thrilling, but thematically appropriate?
To close, if you have been a fan of hypnotic Neo-noir narrative where characters self-destruct and being their absolutely worst to others for questionable victory, then you'll definitely find Slow Down a worthwhile read.
***This ARC was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Much appreciated!***