A review by stlkatiek
Godspeed by Nickolas Butler

reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This book centers around a trio of friends who own small-town construction company and take on a one-of-a-kind project with a large bonus for meeting a seemingly-impossible deadline. 

Their relationships, and their own sanity, begin to fray under the stress of meeting the deadline to get the bonus. The story includes typical construction delays - unreliable subcontractors, weather, etc.  - but larger issues like drug abuse and later, a murder. The story really pushed the idea of the fruitlessness of work: the men got their bonuses for completing a house that no one actually wants, and the lawyer worked nonstop with a dream of this home, which she never actually got to see.
 

I enjoyed it - the story had a bit of suspense and good themes on friendship and what we do to ourselves for the sake of work. It was definitely a change of pace from what I typically read.

I read it because:
I basically write about construction for a living, so a thriller centered around construction deadlines was right up my alley. 
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