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daaan 's review for:
Desperation Road
by Michael Farris Smith
This book does an awful lot right. Grimy imperfect characters, but without being unrelentingly grim. There are moments of peace, happiness, fear, regret, a full spectrum of human emotion, and yet all of it permeated with tension and suspense. There was never a point where it felt safe. There's just enough randomness to make it credible, but not incoherent, and just enough coincidence to make it memorable, but not unbelievable. Fate if you want it; chance if you don't. The writing is simple but stylish, though not the Spartan language of Cormac McCarthy, that goes too far. It's unpretentious and self assured, but still with plenty of panache. The authorial voice is credible, you can almost hear the accent, the cadence, it sounds exactly like the sort of person who would be telling this story.
If I had to level a criticism, I'd say the ending unravelled a little quick for me. I felt it was all going the way of Thelma and Louise or Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. It still delivers a fair old punch, but it was a little anticlimactic. Still, I enjoyed it throughout and thought the ending worked, and would recommend it to anyone. I know I'm picking up a few more books by the author as a priority.
If I had to level a criticism, I'd say the ending unravelled a little quick for me. I felt it was all going the way of Thelma and Louise or Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. It still delivers a fair old punch, but it was a little anticlimactic. Still, I enjoyed it throughout and thought the ending worked, and would recommend it to anyone. I know I'm picking up a few more books by the author as a priority.