Scan barcode
A review by octavia_cade
The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart by Jesse Bullington
2.0
This gets two stars instead of one because I appreciate the amount of research that went into it, but how is it possible to have 400+ pages, positively stuffed with characters, and I don't give a damn about a single one of them? Seriously, I don't.
This wouldn't be such a problem if there was a plot that got me really involved with the story, but there isn't. The Brothers Grossbart, deeply unpleasant, meet up with a) people as unpleasant as themselves, or b) thinly drawn redshirts. They kill the lot, and it's rinse and repeat.
I mean, I understand that they're not meant to be heroes, and the deaths are consistently gory and repulsive, but... it put me in mind of de Sade. Some years back I read all his stuff, and for the first half hour you're shocked and disgusted and then you just get bored, like you're stuck in a Halloween joke that's gone on too long. The desire to shock is not enough to sustain a narrative.
Nearly did not finish. Had to force myself.
This wouldn't be such a problem if there was a plot that got me really involved with the story, but there isn't. The Brothers Grossbart, deeply unpleasant, meet up with a) people as unpleasant as themselves, or b) thinly drawn redshirts. They kill the lot, and it's rinse and repeat.
I mean, I understand that they're not meant to be heroes, and the deaths are consistently gory and repulsive, but... it put me in mind of de Sade. Some years back I read all his stuff, and for the first half hour you're shocked and disgusted and then you just get bored, like you're stuck in a Halloween joke that's gone on too long. The desire to shock is not enough to sustain a narrative.
Nearly did not finish. Had to force myself.