Reviews with content warning for Death of parent - Razorblade Tears

For me, a little bit of a slow start, but once it got into it, I was in it. There were a lot of sad moments, and the ending was pretty fulfilling for me. Would def be open to reading more from this author.

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stephhamp's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny informative tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

This was a great introduction to SA Crosby. I will be reading more of his books. This book has an addictive quality in all great mystery/thriller books. I flew through this in about 3 days which is quick for me while working. The story of revenge, and character development was realistic and very human. These two characters are admittedly bigots, and in a lot of ways are still bigots and homophobic at the end of the book. they still don't fully understand or accept the LGBTQ community, but they miss their sons, and wish they could have changed, or just learned to not care before their deaths.
My grievance with the book was the (my grievance only) this need for Ike to have to explain to Buddy, why being black in America is difficult. It's hard to read this tired trope of bigoted or racist white people, having to meet a "good" black person to begin to break down their racism. They have to have a common enemy with black people to even begin and explore the idea of working together or reaching out. Buddy needed a person to help him solve this mystery. If he didn't need Ike he wouldn't in a million years be in this partnership with a black man. But this is a reality for so many people, relationships, families, and circumstances. And Ike is not by any means perfect. They're both men who did horrible things and made horrible choices in life and parenting. They've both killed people

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horizonous's review

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dark fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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taniasbookdiary's review

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adventurous dark emotional sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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cadence99's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

3.5

I really wanted to like this more than I did as it came highly recommended, but unfortunately it wasn’t a runaway hit for me. A story of two fathers, brought together in their quest for vegance after the murder of their sons. Throughout, both grapple with how their homophobia towards their sons destroyed their relationship. I liked the fast paced, whodunnit aspects of this novel but did struggle a bit with the intense graphic nature of it. If you have a weak stomach, this book likely won’t go over super well. Our characters are as morally grey as you can get, stopping at nothing to attain their own version of justice. I think there is a conversation to be had here about how the only way these characters were able to accept their sons was at the cost of their lives.

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