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avacadosocks's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Car accident, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Fatphobia, Gore, Racism, Torture, Vomit, Death of parent, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol
Minor: Ableism, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Racial slurs
skye_era_books's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- 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
Graphic: Body horror and Violence
Moderate: Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Racial slurs, Racism, Torture, Blood, Kidnapping, Murder, and Alcohol
josie2k's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Alcoholism, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Car accident, and Murder
mplsmysteryreader's review against another edition
- 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
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
Graphic: Drug abuse, Gun violence, and Abandonment
jhbandcats's review against another edition
- 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
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.
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
narbine's review against another edition
- 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
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
healingtothemax's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Blood, Police brutality, Car accident, Murder, Alcohol, and Classism
graff_fuller's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
I love reading Thrillers...and this was outside my usual. This protagonist has done a LOT of shady sh*t, but deep down he's a man that just wants to do right for his family.
Beauregard "Bug" Montage is a hard working man that has been dealt a bad hand in life, but he doesn't make excuses. He just keeps doing his best. He also has a talent...he can build/race cars. This is both a blessing and a curse. The curse part, comes in the way of ... being "the driver" for any type of heist.
When we first meet him, he is presented with a stretch of bad luck in his business, but also his mother's being evicted from her Nursing Home...because of hidden income...which presents itself as a bill of a LOT of money...that Beauregard has to come up with...to keep his mother safe.
Then the bottom drops out. One mistake leads to another, and another, and another. Blood leaking through enemies, acquaintences, friends and even family. When will it stop?
Even his long lost/dead father is hanging around as a spector in his mind...taunting him down a specific path in life, while his wife is trying her hardest to keep her husband near...so that he can be BETTER than the representation of what fatherhood was for him...so their children will know better.
Loved this book. I look forward to reading whatever he comes up with next.
Moderate: Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Racism, Violence, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Car accident, Murder, and Alcohol
d0505's review
- 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
Graphic: Drug abuse, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Car accident, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
aharper's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Gore, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Torture, Blood, Murder, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Alcohol
Minor: Sexual content