Karabakal

I've got some mixed feelings about this book. I loved - LOVED - the first third or so but then things crept up that made me love it less. By the end, I liked the book alright but don't feel any desire to go forward with the series.

Some of the things I loved: Wendig's voice and writing style. Love much of the language and imagery and the pacing. Very gory and graphic but in a way that drew me even more into the story.

Some of the things I didn't like: The only time anyone's race was specifically stated was two Black peripheral characters. I'll keep pointing this out whenever I see it because only mentioning the race of people of color continues to perpetuate the idea that white is the norm and everyone one else is "other." White authors need to stop doing this. Thank you.

I also didn't like the small bit about the woman with super short hair either being a lesbian or someone who doesn't give a shit about her appearance anymore. Could be I'm sensitive to perpetuating that shitty stereotype but, yeah, that made me like Miriam less.

There were also some moments toward the very end that relate to Harriet and Miriam that seemed completely unbelievable to me but I won't go those here due to spoilers. Let's just say I would expect Harriet to be smarter and more cautious than she was.

I still did mostly enjoy the story. The premise was great even if I thought the resolution was pretty much what I expected the end of the journey to be. No matter what, I'm glad I finally read a book by the author. He's one of my favorite Twitter people.

A blood-drenched and profane book that follows a bunch of twisted people (all except for one character) down some dark byways. It's more of a thriller than an urban fantasy story, given that it only has that one key characterization relating to the paranormal. The flashback scenes in between the main action chapters were not much of a relief, either, and not just because of the way they end up badly. There is a raw kind of energy that gets expressed in grotesquery which readers just a little more squeamish than me might have a hard time getting through. Most readers should be able to tell whether this is the book for them in the first dozen pages.

I've been to Barnegat Light and I'm not really buying the idea that someone could fall from the top to the bottom of the staircase and survive. But that's not a major point.