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cadence99's review against another edition
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Cancer, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Deadnaming, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Terminal illness, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
hkveit's review
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Racism, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Racial slurs, Sexism, Terminal illness, Transphobia, and Kidnapping
Minor: Deadnaming, Excrement, Grief, and Death of parent
brandilovesbooks's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Razorblade Tears is the story of two polar opposites with two things in common- they are both ex-cons and they both lost their sons to a hate crime. The men set out to discover who killed their sons.
I almost quit about a third of the way into the book. I found the book to be very violent. I am not the targeted audience. I continued reading because it was a book club book. I am glad I did.
The characters are very well developed. Even if you didn't agree with their choices, you found yourself caring for Ike and Buddy Lee. I cried at the end.
S.A. Crosby has a beautiful way with words. He is able to create vivid images to go with his words. The name of the book comes from a description of Ike's tears after his son's funeral.
The genius of this book is that it has a very specific, very important, message that is probably uncomfortable for the targeted audience. There are many guys just like Buddy Lee and Ike who are going to pick up this book for the vigilante justice and the war with a biker gang. They are going to read it and they are going to hear that message over and over, starting out subtly but getting more direct by the end.
I wasn't a fan of the almost omnipotent point of view that happened during fight scenes. Although there were multiple points of view throughout the book, they were separated by scenes. During the fight scenes I was overwhelmed by knowing what too many characters were thinking and feeling. (Could be that I'm not the targeted audience.)
I recommend this book to people who like to read about vigilante justice and biker gangs. Sons of Anarchy fans should pick this up.
My content warnings-
Violence
Murder
Kidnapping
Torture
Racial slurs
LGBTQ slurs
Dead naming
I almost quit about a third of the way into the book. I found the book to be very violent. I am not the targeted audience. I continued reading because it was a book club book. I am glad I did.
The characters are very well developed. Even if you didn't agree with their choices, you found yourself caring for Ike and Buddy Lee. I cried at the end.
S.A. Crosby has a beautiful way with words. He is able to create vivid images to go with his words. The name of the book comes from a description of Ike's tears after his son's funeral.
The genius of this book is that it has a very specific, very important, message that is probably uncomfortable for the targeted audience. There are many guys just like Buddy Lee and Ike who are going to pick up this book for the vigilante justice and the war with a biker gang. They are going to read it and they are going to hear that message over and over, starting out subtly but getting more direct by the end.
I wasn't a fan of the almost omnipotent point of view that happened during fight scenes. Although there were multiple points of view throughout the book, they were separated by scenes. During the fight scenes I was overwhelmed by knowing what too many characters were thinking and feeling. (Could be that I'm not the targeted audience.)
I recommend this book to people who like to read about vigilante justice and biker gangs. Sons of Anarchy fans should pick this up.
My content warnings-
Violence
Murder
Kidnapping
Torture
Racial slurs
LGBTQ slurs
Dead naming
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
jkar7's review against another edition
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Loved this book. It felt like a movie. The audiobook was decent as well.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Child death, Hate crime, Transphobia, Violence, Death of parent, and Alcohol
Moderate: Cancer, Car accident, and War
Minor: Animal cruelty
nats2643's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, and Classism
Moderate: Alcoholism
ktdakotareads's review against another edition
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder
Moderate: Alcoholism, Cancer, Deadnaming, Infidelity, Transphobia, Medical content, Medical trauma, Stalking, Fire/Fire injury, and Classism
kccool12255's review
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
This is genuinely the worst book I've ever read. The writing is horrible, with some of the stupidest lines I've read in my entire life. There were several times I had to put this book down, sigh deeply, and convince myself to pick it up again and keep going. The characters are loveable, I SUPPOSE, because even THAT'S a stretch, but it WAS sad at the end when [REDACTED] died.
Some of my PERSONAL favorite lines from this book (*cue eye rolls and constant head banging*):
"His chest was tighter than a virgin's p***y."
"Wound up tighter than a godd***ed duck's a**."
"I'm gonna tear off your d**k and make you eat it."
That's not even HALF of the stupid analogies that this book is FILLED TO THE BRIM with. It was FULL of them in the beginning, and then there would be a lull for a few pages where you would be like, "Oh, okay, these analogies are decent. Maybe we're done with-" AND THEN IT WOULD SMACK YOU IN THE FACE. That was the process of reading this book, which by the way, took 11 DAYS, which is WAY too long to spend on a book that sucks as much as this one. Although one of my FAVORITE things from this book (*mocking voice*) is just how even though both of the main characters are grieving their sons' deaths, they show absolutely NO EMPATHY for anyone else.
"Mya wailed. He [Ike] flinched when she spoke. It was like hearing a rabbit scream in a trap."
"Buddy Lee had felt a firmer grip from his grandmother on her deathbed."
This book reads like an edgy 14-year-old's fanfiction on Wattpad. Maybe it's because of all the cursing, or just the writing in general, but it's horrible. I mean, there were SOME good lines, but the quality of the bad lines is just too horrendous for the book to be considered good.
"Just because I don't wanna talk about it doesn't mean I want to forget about it. It reminds me of why I don't ever wanna go back."
"You let an animal know you're afraid of it and it loses all respect for you. Men might walk on two legs but they were the most vicious animals of all."
"When the people you love are gone, it's the things they've touched that keep them alive in your mind. They become anchors that help you keep their memory from drifting away."
"He knew what a killer looked like. He saw one in the mirror every day."
"There was no turning back. There was no path that led anywhere down a long road as dark as your first night in hell and paved all along the way with bad intentions."
But the problem with this is that you have lines like that sprinkled every few pages, and you start to think, "Maybe this book will start to get better," and then NOPE, we get lines like these:
"You always felt like you were on the edge of some imaginary precipice...if you were an ex-con, it felt like the precipice was covered in bacon grease."
"The powerlifter had sweat stains spreading down from his armpits that vaguely resembled maps of England and Ireland respectively."
Both of those above quotes came from THE FIRST PAGE. THE TONE SETTER FOR THE ENTIRE BOOK. THIS BOOK ISN'T EVEN A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER, WHICH SHOULD'VE BEEN A RED FLAG FROM THE GET-GO.
I'm assuming that these FEW good lines, the moderately good character development, and the way this novel deals heavily with grief, outweighed all of the stupid things for people, because this is the only reason I can give for this book having an average FOUR STARS. FOUR. STARS. IT'S NOT OKAY. I saw a review that said "If you don't like metaphors or similes, this book isn't for you," but that's not true, either, because there was a SPRINKLING of good analogies throughout, it just was overshadowed by all of the STUPID ones ONE PAGE LATER. It's not that we don't like analogies, it's that the author uses STUPID ones.
In conclusion, because there's a life lesson to be learned here, never buy a book that you saw a girl reading on a plane, because she might be a freak (or not, I don't know her). To the girl who I saw reading this book on that plane, I'm so sorry you had to suffer through this. I could blame you for my suffering, but I won't because I did this to myself. You are not to blame.
0 stars. I need to be recompensed for this. I should get an award for getting through this book, because I literally wanted to pluck out my eyeballs the entire time.
Some of my PERSONAL favorite lines from this book (*cue eye rolls and constant head banging*):
"His chest was tighter than a virgin's p***y."
"Wound up tighter than a godd***ed duck's a**."
"I'm gonna tear off your d**k and make you eat it."
That's not even HALF of the stupid analogies that this book is FILLED TO THE BRIM with. It was FULL of them in the beginning, and then there would be a lull for a few pages where you would be like, "Oh, okay, these analogies are decent. Maybe we're done with-" AND THEN IT WOULD SMACK YOU IN THE FACE. That was the process of reading this book, which by the way, took 11 DAYS, which is WAY too long to spend on a book that sucks as much as this one. Although one of my FAVORITE things from this book (*mocking voice*) is just how even though both of the main characters are grieving their sons' deaths, they show absolutely NO EMPATHY for anyone else.
"Mya wailed. He [Ike] flinched when she spoke. It was like hearing a rabbit scream in a trap."
"Buddy Lee had felt a firmer grip from his grandmother on her deathbed."
This book reads like an edgy 14-year-old's fanfiction on Wattpad. Maybe it's because of all the cursing, or just the writing in general, but it's horrible. I mean, there were SOME good lines, but the quality of the bad lines is just too horrendous for the book to be considered good.
"Just because I don't wanna talk about it doesn't mean I want to forget about it. It reminds me of why I don't ever wanna go back."
"You let an animal know you're afraid of it and it loses all respect for you. Men might walk on two legs but they were the most vicious animals of all."
"When the people you love are gone, it's the things they've touched that keep them alive in your mind. They become anchors that help you keep their memory from drifting away."
"He knew what a killer looked like. He saw one in the mirror every day."
"There was no turning back. There was no path that led anywhere down a long road as dark as your first night in hell and paved all along the way with bad intentions."
But the problem with this is that you have lines like that sprinkled every few pages, and you start to think, "Maybe this book will start to get better," and then NOPE, we get lines like these:
"You always felt like you were on the edge of some imaginary precipice...if you were an ex-con, it felt like the precipice was covered in bacon grease."
"The powerlifter had sweat stains spreading down from his armpits that vaguely resembled maps of England and Ireland respectively."
Both of those above quotes came from THE FIRST PAGE. THE TONE SETTER FOR THE ENTIRE BOOK. THIS BOOK ISN'T EVEN A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER, WHICH SHOULD'VE BEEN A RED FLAG FROM THE GET-GO.
I'm assuming that these FEW good lines, the moderately good character development, and the way this novel deals heavily with grief, outweighed all of the stupid things for people, because this is the only reason I can give for this book having an average FOUR STARS. FOUR. STARS. IT'S NOT OKAY. I saw a review that said "If you don't like metaphors or similes, this book isn't for you," but that's not true, either, because there was a SPRINKLING of good analogies throughout, it just was overshadowed by all of the STUPID ones ONE PAGE LATER. It's not that we don't like analogies, it's that the author uses STUPID ones.
In conclusion, because there's a life lesson to be learned here, never buy a book that you saw a girl reading on a plane, because she might be a freak (or not, I don't know her). To the girl who I saw reading this book on that plane, I'm so sorry you had to suffer through this. I could blame you for my suffering, but I won't because I did this to myself. You are not to blame.
0 stars. I need to be recompensed for this. I should get an award for getting through this book, because I literally wanted to pluck out my eyeballs the entire time.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Death, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Violence, Grief, and Murder
Moderate: Alcoholism, Confinement, Gore, Hate crime, Infidelity, Racial slurs, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Blood, Death of parent, Cultural appropriation, Alcohol, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Cancer, Child abuse, Deadnaming, Domestic abuse, Sexual content, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Car accident, and Abandonment
tenten's review
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Razorblade Tears was a fun, fast-paced book about two Southern fathers, Ike and Buddy Lee, avenging the death of their sons, Isiah and Derek. The fathers, one Black and one white, are not only dealing with grief, but also regret for the strained relationships they had with their gay sons. this regret is the driving force in their quest for vengeance: they feel that they failed as fathers so they’re finally doing right by their sons by embarking on this mission.
this novel was really absurd! like, these two middle aged mentook out a biker gang and two powerful political figures? lol. okay. sure! i enjoyed this though–i didn’t pick up this book to be confronted with reality, and this provided exactly what i needed from it. the writing was good enough, though there were some sentences that i felt were really cliche. relatedly, Ike’s constant lecturing of Buddy Lee about racism sometimes felt out of place and a little, like…would anyone really say this in this situation? be forrea;. speaking of Ike, between the two protagonists, i think he experienced the most character growth especially in terms of being able to be more accepting of LGBTQ+ people, but i think part of that was because Buddy Lee was already more accepting to begin with. he obviously made his mistakes with his son, some huge ones, but on the whole seemed less….disgusted by queerness than Ike did. he’s ignorant in a way that is harmful at times, but generally is more easy-going and chill than Ike. and funnier. honestly, if you asked me before i started the book, i never would have guessed that i’d find the white dad more likable. he was just more fun!
everything really pops off in the last 100 or so pages. the identity of the person behind it all felt somewhat contrived to me, but the benefit of a more plot-oriented novel is that sometimes you can sacrifice realism for the sake of a good story. and this book certainly delivered on that front! there were parts when i got real life heated about the characters’ actions. that’s how you know a story is good, when it can get a real rise out of you.
this novel was really absurd! like, these two middle aged men
everything really pops off in the last 100 or so pages. the identity of the person behind it all felt somewhat contrived to me, but the benefit of a more plot-oriented novel is that sometimes you can sacrifice realism for the sake of a good story. and this book certainly delivered on that front! there were parts when i got real life heated about the characters’ actions. that’s how you know a story is good, when it can get a real rise out of you.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief
Moderate: Child death, Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Alcoholism, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Classism
middleagedbookworm's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Loved this book. Made me cry like a baby. So much beauty amongst such violence and hard truths. S.A. Cosby is a gifted writer, and his humor definitely shines through in this story. Overall, just a great book with lots of thought provoking & heart wrenching content! Also, I didn’t know there was so much (very descriptive) violence throughout, so just be prepared 😉
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
kaseymkelley's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Deadnaming, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Transphobia, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail