A review by ewo2
Donnybrook by Frank Bill

3.0

I have mixed feelings about pretty much everything regarding this book. On the one hand, I really like how the writing style is evocative and avoids repetitiveness with its vivid descriptions of violence - on the other hand, it can get to be a bit heavy-handed at times. On one hand it's mostly grounded in gritty reality, but on the other hand it requires serious suspension of disbelief to get over how much abuse these characters are made to endure, and that fact that one character is imbued with magical foresight that doesn't seem to fit with the rest of the book. It sets up the Donnybrook as its nexus and leads the reader to believe that most of the action is going to take place there, but it actually only features that event towards its tail end, and even then only in flashes. At first that bothered me, but once I realized that these characters' entire lives were built out of the same kind of chaos on display at the Donnybrook, the title and focus of the book made a lot more sense - so just like everything else in the book, I appreciated it while also being a bit let down.

Ultimately I enjoyed it, despite cringing at some of the more violent parts, because it leads to a satisfying end. There aren't really any loose ends or wasted pages, so in terms of storytelling this book is solid. Aside from that it's a real crapshoot - the same things that work really well in some parts of the book work against it at other times.