A review by arcuysnn
The Gutter Prayer by Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan

3.0

An enjoyable but uneven book, bouncing from a one beautifully-written scene of horror or wonder to another scene clunky with awkward prose and terse description. The characters are awfully original...except when they're not, existing in a strange limbo where they're both great and forgettable at once. The plot strives to keep you guessing, and it does, but nothing feels grounded enough.

Hanrahan's imagination is nothing to sneeze at, though, and the city of Guerdon is worth reading about on its own. This is an author worth looking out for, even if his debut novel didn't quite hit the mark for me.