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jdbuffington's reviews
94 reviews
Blood Standard by Laird Barron
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I feel bad when it takes me a long time to read a book, that is a failing of mismanaged time on my part and nothing to say of the book, or any book I take a while to read. Blood Standard feels like a modern take on the Dutch angled and fast talking noirs of the 1940's. It's a big adventure of a bad guy, Isiah Coleridge, who always ends up doing the less bad thing for a more common good, and how he transforms himself from Hitman to fixer. And like a lot of real crimes, the truth isn't always where the circumstances seem to point. The twist does not feel like a yanking of the rug, everything that happens contributes and is relevant to the end, it's just not exactly where you think it is. It's an organic origin and despite this one's setting in a realistic world, Laird's able to drop a few scenes of cosmic weirdness that influence the plot, but not its world. I enjoyed it. I will be delving into Isiah's world(s) again.