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A review by dangilman
Savages by Don Winslow
4.0
I enjoyed this book 80% of the way through, it had some really eccentric writing style, but after the first chapter it flowed, and made sense, in an Illiterate-to-English sort of way, but such is the way of the world.
Definitely gritty, it's definitely a crime novel, not so much because of the main characters being cannabis cultivators (they grow weed, really good weed) but because the Mexican drug cartels muscle in on them.
I think where it lost me was the last, say quarter of the book. The author starts throwing characters at you in the last part, filling in back stories for characters that you'll never hear from again, which is odd.
"Here's a guy, here's what he does, here's his favorite color and what he likes to eat, where he lost his virginity and oh yeah, I just spent more time talking about him, than his actual impact on the story line." type stuff. It throws you, or me anyway, because there at the end it feels like it was cut short, or edited out.
I enjoyed it, the main characters were alive, which I can definitely credit the author for, the story-line itself is interesting, at parts enthralling, but then it just starts to shake and wobble and breaks down. Leaving you kind of stranded.
So think of it as an Italian sports car you can't afford to fix, it's fun to joy ride in, but you'll probably end up disappointed when it breaks down on you on the side of the road there at the end.
Definitely gritty, it's definitely a crime novel, not so much because of the main characters being cannabis cultivators (they grow weed, really good weed) but because the Mexican drug cartels muscle in on them.
I think where it lost me was the last, say quarter of the book. The author starts throwing characters at you in the last part, filling in back stories for characters that you'll never hear from again, which is odd.
"Here's a guy, here's what he does, here's his favorite color and what he likes to eat, where he lost his virginity and oh yeah, I just spent more time talking about him, than his actual impact on the story line." type stuff. It throws you, or me anyway, because there at the end it feels like it was cut short, or edited out.
I enjoyed it, the main characters were alive, which I can definitely credit the author for, the story-line itself is interesting, at parts enthralling, but then it just starts to shake and wobble and breaks down. Leaving you kind of stranded.
So think of it as an Italian sports car you can't afford to fix, it's fun to joy ride in, but you'll probably end up disappointed when it breaks down on you on the side of the road there at the end.