Beat the Reaper: A Novel
Registered by 
GoryDetails
of Nashua, New Hampshire USA on 9/13/2014
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
GoryDetails of Nashua, New Hampshire USA on 9/13/2014 This Book is Currently in the Wild!
1 journaler for this copy...
I'd read and enjoyed this book some time back via a bookring, and when I saw this hardcover copy at an Amherst NH library book-sale, I picked it up for another release copy.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, from the laugh-out-loud bits to the stealth humor to the cringe-inducing violence. Rapid pacing, snarky asides, a protagonist who manages to be sympathetic and scary at the same time ("I look like an Easter Island sculpture of a longshoreman") - very entertaining!
Despite the this-is-fiction disclaimer at the end, I suspect that there's more truth in the medical info (not to mention the bits about the legal system) than is entirely comfortable - but it's also very funny. And the footnotes - oh, the footnotes! There's one that segues from the shape of Dexedrine tablets to that of pubic hair, not something I've encountered in a footnote before {wry grin}. And then there's the one about the name-withheld Ivy-league-school-for-mobsters, aka Sandhurst (footnote: "Oops, I said it."). [I was also tickled at the visual humor regarding the section-divider dingbats - they start out as a hooded-skeleton-with-scythe, the traditional Reaper of the title, but at some point the author muses about how out of date the symbol is, and after that the dingbats are - well, a teensy bit more modern!]
Since the story's told in a mix of current narrative and flashbacks it does jump around a bit, but I didn't mind that - in fact I rather like non-linear narratives. And as our hero fills in his own back story, it becomes surprisingly easy to see how someone might find himself (to borrow a phrase from Good Omens) "sauntering vaguely downward" - getting into some pretty nasty places without making a conscious decision to become a Bad Guy. Though he certainly does embrace his inner thug relatively easily (and with good reason)...
Even though I should have been prepared for twists and turns (not to mention lies and deceit), the story surprised me plenty of times, and kept on doing so up to the end. In a good way, I should add.
The climax of the story gets a bit... um, extreme, I suppose one could call it. There's some almost-literal shark-jumping at one point (no, I won't explain that, just read the book), and what might be considered figurative shark-jumping as well; it might be physically possible but oh, is it ever unlikely. Still, I winced and cringed and omygod-ed quite a bit during that scene (you'll know which one), all the while gasping in admiration at the author's sheer, unmitigated gall!
[There's an Unshelved Book Club strip about this book; see it here!]
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, from the laugh-out-loud bits to the stealth humor to the cringe-inducing violence. Rapid pacing, snarky asides, a protagonist who manages to be sympathetic and scary at the same time ("I look like an Easter Island sculpture of a longshoreman") - very entertaining!
Despite the this-is-fiction disclaimer at the end, I suspect that there's more truth in the medical info (not to mention the bits about the legal system) than is entirely comfortable - but it's also very funny. And the footnotes - oh, the footnotes! There's one that segues from the shape of Dexedrine tablets to that of pubic hair, not something I've encountered in a footnote before {wry grin}. And then there's the one about the name-withheld Ivy-league-school-for-mobsters, aka Sandhurst (footnote: "Oops, I said it."). [I was also tickled at the visual humor regarding the section-divider dingbats - they start out as a hooded-skeleton-with-scythe, the traditional Reaper of the title, but at some point the author muses about how out of date the symbol is, and after that the dingbats are - well, a teensy bit more modern!]
Since the story's told in a mix of current narrative and flashbacks it does jump around a bit, but I didn't mind that - in fact I rather like non-linear narratives. And as our hero fills in his own back story, it becomes surprisingly easy to see how someone might find himself (to borrow a phrase from Good Omens) "sauntering vaguely downward" - getting into some pretty nasty places without making a conscious decision to become a Bad Guy. Though he certainly does embrace his inner thug relatively easily (and with good reason)...
Even though I should have been prepared for twists and turns (not to mention lies and deceit), the story surprised me plenty of times, and kept on doing so up to the end. In a good way, I should add.
The climax of the story gets a bit... um, extreme, I suppose one could call it. There's some almost-literal shark-jumping at one point (no, I won't explain that, just read the book), and what might be considered figurative shark-jumping as well; it might be physically possible but oh, is it ever unlikely. Still, I winced and cringed and omygod-ed quite a bit during that scene (you'll know which one), all the while gasping in admiration at the author's sheer, unmitigated gall!
[There's an Unshelved Book Club strip about this book; see it here!]
Journal Entry 2 by GoryDetails at Book Swap Hut @ Transfer Station Amherst in Amherst, New Hampshire USA on Saturday, September 13, 2014
GoryDetails at Book Swap Hut @ Transfer Station Amherst in Amherst, New Hampshire USA on Saturday, September 13, 2014
Released 9 yrs ago (9/13/2014 UTC) at Book Swap Hut @ Transfer Station Amherst in Amherst, New Hampshire USA
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
I left this book in the book-swap hut at the transfer station at around 12:30 or so; hope the finder enjoys it!*** Released for the 2014 You're Such an Animal release challenge, for the embedded "ape" in the title. ***
*** Released for the 2014 September Sapphire release challenge, for the blue cover. ***
