Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

Blacktop Wasteland by S.A. Cosby

15 reviews

condls27's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective 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

5.0

I love S.A. Cosby’s storytelling so much. This was another perfect book for me. Miniseries/movie when?!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Car accident, Murder, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

mplsmysteryreader's review against another edition

challenging dark sad 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? No

4.0

A gritty authentically southern crime novel.
 
Beauregard “Bug” Montage is a family man that is living on the straight and narrow after extricating himself from a life of crime. When bad luck starts piling against him Bug gambles with his future and takes on one last heist in order to save his business and secure his family’s future.
 
What I love about S.A. Cosby:
-His protagonists are always smooth and deliberate.    He features male protagonists that are underestimated but end up proving they have brains and brawn.
-In an interview Cosby stated that he writes thrillers as a way to tackle heavy themes of poverty and racism in a more palatable manor which reaches a wider range of audience compared to if he were to right straight literary fiction.
-He blocks out each scene, so the reader is able to visualize the action; car chases, bank robberies, shoot outs, fight scenes
 
If you are a fan of Hell or High Water or Sons of Anarchy Blacktop Wasteland book is a good segue into literary hardboiled crime fiction

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Gun violence, and Abandonment

rwgabbard's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Car accident, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Racism, Terminal illness, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Classism

Minor: Fire/Fire injury

jhbandcats's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

SA Cosby is an extraordinary writer. I can be sitting in my living room reading a book with my body but my mind is completely in the story with the characters, feeling the adrenaline and the tension and the terror. Nothing in my life is remotely like the plots of his books but he makes me feel like I’m there. 

The first couple of chapters ease the reader in slowly. You learn about the main character, his problems, his love for family, his violent history. By a third of the way in, you’re trapped - there’s no way you’re getting out of this book without reading it to the end. The first action sequence is mind-bogglingly good and it just gets better and better. 

Cosby writes action that doesn’t let up. Everything is clear not just in terms of plot but in logistics. I fear I’m not articulating how bowled over I was by this book. 

If you strip away the action and mystery, what’s left is an aching diatribe on the state of the Black man in white America. It’s a scathing rebuke. 

Truly fabulous book. I hope Cosby keeps writing and writing and writing. He’s a literary treasure. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

bootsmom3's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Ableism, Cancer, and Alcohol

faerietale_princess's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense 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

4.5

Intense and gripping. I really felt for Bug and was rooting for him the entire time. That’s what I really like about Cosby’s writing and characters. These are people who commit intense crimes and are flawed, but they’re complex and Cosby deals with them in all these intricate and interesting ways.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Gun violence, Torture, Violence, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Drug use, Racism, Car accident, and Classism

Minor: Fatphobia, Vomit, Death of parent, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, and Abandonment

raenbow's review against another edition

dark 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Cursing, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Blood, Police brutality, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

cc_shelflove's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This was pretty good. Some parts were anticlimactic but at other times, I felt like I was in Grand Theft Auto racing for my life. It was definitely a crime novel unlike any I’ve read before. Can a criminal ever really change his ways? One thing’s for sure: he will always drive it like he fucking stole it. I think I would have liked this book even better if I were a boy—a lot of the car stuff went over my head. 🤣

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Racial slurs, Violence, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Racism, Car accident, and Abandonment

Minor: Drug use, Death of parent, and Alcohol

narbine's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and Alcohol

vikreads's review against another edition

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I had very high expectations because I absolutely loved the authors other book Razorblade Tears. However this did not live up to that one. 

It starts off incredibly slow and was really hard for me to get into. I feel like by the time I felt even a little bit invested, then the author was rushing the storyline and plots were left not entirely fleshed out.

Overall - it wasn’t bad, but it certainly isn’t something I’d pick up again or would even tell people to add to their TBR. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Murder, and Abandonment