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A review by frasersimons
The Border by Don Winslow
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Whereas the second book has a natural (almost inevitable) jumping off point from the first, it also had an epilogue that implies it was supposed to be a duology. Plot beats that only somewhat conform to the epilogue take place, and feel very strange, especially concerning a minor character who was in the epilogue, involved in plot beat relatively early on in the book, and promptly forgotten by the main characters completely. It feels antithetical to the MC in particular, who goes off like Jack Bauer for the slightest provocation in the earlier books.
Another reason it doesn’t work though, is the poor straddling of action thriller and legal thriller. There’s still somewhat more intricate plotting, with multiple characters colliding, but so much of the book is boring political machinations that it thinks is interesting. The pacing doesn’t nearly vacillate between the other characters, making large blocks of the books characters in a room trying to be coy with one another, where previously it was frenetic, epic, engaging plot beats. It doesn’t suit the character or tone of the books at all.
But more than that, it also doesn’t have anything new to say. It brings the narrative up to the “present”, when a Trump-a-like is sworn in. The novel aspect is allegations of that admin taking cartel money and ties, rather than the Russia collection, and I suppose reminds people that drugs are still a problem (as if we didn’t know it?). But that aspect brings in a new faction, led by a black man that was just not at all convincingly rendered, and the subsequent emphasis on heroin rather than the briefly touched upon fentanyl makes it feel completely out of step with the times, even as it’s trying to comment on them in a more relatable way via a Guatemalan immigrant trying to get to and in the U.S., also rather feeling like a cardboard cut out.
Winslow bit off a bit more than he could chew, making aspects of the book really difficult to suspend disbelief for, and steering away from his strengths as a writer.
Another reason it doesn’t work though, is the poor straddling of action thriller and legal thriller. There’s still somewhat more intricate plotting, with multiple characters colliding, but so much of the book is boring political machinations that it thinks is interesting. The pacing doesn’t nearly vacillate between the other characters, making large blocks of the books characters in a room trying to be coy with one another, where previously it was frenetic, epic, engaging plot beats. It doesn’t suit the character or tone of the books at all.
But more than that, it also doesn’t have anything new to say. It brings the narrative up to the “present”, when a Trump-a-like is sworn in. The novel aspect is allegations of that admin taking cartel money and ties, rather than the Russia collection, and I suppose reminds people that drugs are still a problem (as if we didn’t know it?). But that aspect brings in a new faction, led by a black man that was just not at all convincingly rendered, and the subsequent emphasis on heroin rather than the briefly touched upon fentanyl makes it feel completely out of step with the times, even as it’s trying to comment on them in a more relatable way via a Guatemalan immigrant trying to get to and in the U.S., also rather feeling like a cardboard cut out.
Winslow bit off a bit more than he could chew, making aspects of the book really difficult to suspend disbelief for, and steering away from his strengths as a writer.