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A review by sarah1984
Donnybrook by Frank Bill
4.0
13/1 - This is some seriously sick writing! I don't know why the police even bother trying to catch the criminals, just let them kill each other (and themselves) and don't get in their way. Frank Bill has one of the most twisted imaginations (well, I hope it's his imagination) that I've ever read. He's possibly only bested by Edward Lorn, due to the horror factor that's an added bonus in Lorn's books. Bill's writing doesn't really have horror, as it feels too close to the truth of life in Southern Indiana (or anywhere else where corrugated iron shacks and rundown caravans are the best you can expect when it comes to accommodation). This is my second Bill book and now thanks to his horrifying imagery I now get the same feeling regarding visiting Southern Indiana as I do when contemplating the likelihood of my entering a dank and dark basement whose lights don't work - it is NOT happening. To be continued...
14/1 - There's just dead people (and their blood, brains, and guts) and meth everywhere. We're following a number of different characters on their individual journeys to Donnybrook (some kind of giant, famous, bare-knuckle fight with a $100,000 prize). Everywhere the characters turn there's dead people, or people that need to be made dead, getting in their way. Meth and death, makes for an interesting combination. There's only one possibly sympathetic character - Jarhead, a husband and father who committed armed robbery in order to acquire the money necessary for the buy-in at Donnybrook. He's the only one who hasn't killed anyone or cooked some meth, quite an achievement for this area of Southern Indiana. To be continued...
15/1 - God, what a mess! Not the writing, that was perfect for the type of book it was - broken, jumpy sentences with some of the best 'fight' writing I've ever read. The mess was the climactic Donnybrook scenes at the end - hundreds of drunk and drugged spectators turning into hundreds of drunk and drugged attackers. Everyone attacking everyone else, using anything that came to hand as a weapon, even (I can imagine, it wasn't actually said) other attacker's body parts when necessary. The end of the book talks about something bad coming, and it feels like there's going to be a sequel or some kind of follow up book. 3.5 stars, but I'm feeling generous.
PopSugar 2015 Reading Challenge: A Book with a One-Word Title
14/1 - There's just dead people (and their blood, brains, and guts) and meth everywhere. We're following a number of different characters on their individual journeys to Donnybrook (some kind of giant, famous, bare-knuckle fight with a $100,000 prize). Everywhere the characters turn there's dead people, or people that need to be made dead, getting in their way. Meth and death, makes for an interesting combination. There's only one possibly sympathetic character - Jarhead, a husband and father who committed armed robbery in order to acquire the money necessary for the buy-in at Donnybrook. He's the only one who hasn't killed anyone or cooked some meth, quite an achievement for this area of Southern Indiana. To be continued...
15/1 - God, what a mess! Not the writing, that was perfect for the type of book it was - broken, jumpy sentences with some of the best 'fight' writing I've ever read. The mess was the climactic Donnybrook scenes at the end - hundreds of drunk and drugged spectators turning into hundreds of drunk and drugged attackers. Everyone attacking everyone else, using anything that came to hand as a weapon, even (I can imagine, it wasn't actually said) other attacker's body parts when necessary. The end of the book talks about something bad coming, and it feels like there's going to be a sequel or some kind of follow up book. 3.5 stars, but I'm feeling generous.
PopSugar 2015 Reading Challenge: A Book with a One-Word Title