csdaley's review
4.0
Hap and Leonard have turned into one of my favorite series. The dialog in this book is what really does it for me. It is laugh out loud funny.
pbanditp's review against another edition
5.0
Always a good time with Hap and Leonard. Four stars plus one because of the Deerslayer/ Natty Bumppo references.
martyfried's review
4.0
I think this series might be better as an audiobook; they are well done, and the southern accent of the narrator really makes it funnier (although I haven't actually compared to print).
As usual, the story is not the best part to me, although it's usually interesting. But the characters and the dialog is what keeps me reading these books.
In this story, Hap's current romantic interest has a daughter who is a prostitute, but in over her head so her mother decides to bring her home. Unfortunately, even if her daughter agrees, the people holding on to her won't. So Hap decides to help. Shouldn't be too hard, right? Unless they get killed, which looks likely at times. Fortunately, Leonard offers to help, and he's a good person to have around if you need help in a situation like this and don't mind someone who likes to stir up trouble.
As usual, the story is not the best part to me, although it's usually interesting. But the characters and the dialog is what keeps me reading these books.
In this story, Hap's current romantic interest has a daughter who is a prostitute, but in over her head so her mother decides to bring her home. Unfortunately, even if her daughter agrees, the people holding on to her won't. So Hap decides to help. Shouldn't be too hard, right? Unless they get killed, which looks likely at times. Fortunately, Leonard offers to help, and he's a good person to have around if you need help in a situation like this and don't mind someone who likes to stir up trouble.
adelemoltedo's review
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
testpattern's review against another edition
3.0
Totally candy. An East Texas caper novel with sex, violence, jokes and heart, I suppose.
Hap and Leonard are a good ole boy odd couple. Hap, the narrator is a sometimes bouncer. He's the white guy. Leonard, a genial gay psychopath is the black guy. Over the course of ten or so novels, these two carve a swath of good-natured mayhem and destruction across the Southwest, usually more or less in the name of good.
[book: Rumble Tumble] is much of the same. Hap and Leonard head north from Leonard's spread outside of Houston to a town called Hootie Hoot, Oklahoma. Their quest: to rescue Hap's girlfriend's daughter from a life of prostitution under the thumbs of some rather nasty Okie criminals. The girlfriend, Brett, is a hard-as-railroad-spikes sex kitten. She's along too, armed to the teeth and full up with mean.
Along the way there are plenty of gunfights, dismemberment by shotgun, a comic midget murderer, and lots of wisecracks. This ain't a complex novel. The plot is basically "Some people go to a place where some other people have something. They shoot the people, and they take the something." What makes it work is Lansdale's prose. He's great at creating likable characters. His storytelling is suspenseful and economical, and his sense of humor is pleasantly dark and vulgar.
On the downside, some of his characters voices run together, especially the good guys--all tough, Texas, and with a heart of gold. And his brand of toughness can get a little annoying--enough with the I hate cats jokes already. We get it. Real men like dogs. And don't drink too much. Hate guns but can shoot the dick off a gnat from a mile. Okay.
But yeah, you got a day to kill, pick this up for a train ride.
Hap and Leonard are a good ole boy odd couple. Hap, the narrator is a sometimes bouncer. He's the white guy. Leonard, a genial gay psychopath is the black guy. Over the course of ten or so novels, these two carve a swath of good-natured mayhem and destruction across the Southwest, usually more or less in the name of good.
[book: Rumble Tumble] is much of the same. Hap and Leonard head north from Leonard's spread outside of Houston to a town called Hootie Hoot, Oklahoma. Their quest: to rescue Hap's girlfriend's daughter from a life of prostitution under the thumbs of some rather nasty Okie criminals. The girlfriend, Brett, is a hard-as-railroad-spikes sex kitten. She's along too, armed to the teeth and full up with mean.
Along the way there are plenty of gunfights, dismemberment by shotgun, a comic midget murderer, and lots of wisecracks. This ain't a complex novel. The plot is basically "Some people go to a place where some other people have something. They shoot the people, and they take the something." What makes it work is Lansdale's prose. He's great at creating likable characters. His storytelling is suspenseful and economical, and his sense of humor is pleasantly dark and vulgar.
On the downside, some of his characters voices run together, especially the good guys--all tough, Texas, and with a heart of gold. And his brand of toughness can get a little annoying--enough with the I hate cats jokes already. We get it. Real men like dogs. And don't drink too much. Hate guns but can shoot the dick off a gnat from a mile. Okay.
But yeah, you got a day to kill, pick this up for a train ride.
verkisto's review against another edition
3.0
I've said before that Lansdale's writing style is what makes him unique, and why I enjoy reading him. That East Texas Redneck Gothic fiction that he writes is in a class all its own, where the weirdness will hit you long before the mystery, and his dialogue will snap like a turtle dredged up from the bottom of a creek. Take, for example, the cast of characters in this title, nicely summed up with this one-sentence excerpt:
An East Texas bouncer, a black queer, an ex-sweet potato queen, a six-foot-four overweight retired hit man and former reverend, and a redheaded midget with an attitude.
With a cast like that, you know you're reading a Lansdale book.
This is the fifth novel in the Hap & Leonard series, which is less a series proper and more a connected series of novels using the same main characters from book to book. It's not necessary to read them all in order (though I imagine it helps to understand the dynamic between Hap and Leonard if you've been there since the start), since the plots in each book are standalone events. In this entry, we see Hap and Leonard accompany Brett, Hap's girlfriend, to Hootie Hoot, Oklahoma in an effort to rescue her daughter from a life of prostitution. As with any Hap & Leonard novel, though, it's never that easy, as their journey takes them all over the central Southern region of North America.
This book is classified as a mystery, namely because it's the closest genre to what this story really is, which is a mystery crossed with a road novel, mixed in with a little Flannery O'Connor and Quentin Tarantino for good measure. I tend to classify mysteries without a real mystery to them "thriller" or "suspense", but that's still not a good classification for this series, or for any of his books. They're just Lansdale books, and anyone familiar with him will know exactly what I mean.
To me, though, Lansdale has two distinct kinds of novels that he writes: he has these pseudo-mystery novels, like the Hap & Leonard books or Lost Echoes; and he has his deeper, historical books, like Sunset and Sawdust or A Fine Dark Line. I much prefer the latter books, but it's always a treat just to read anything he writes, even if it feels like fluff, and sticks in your brain more as a sensation than an actual memory. The Hap & Leonard books are fun to read, but they don't stay with you like those other works. Those I will seek out to read; the others I'm content to just stumble across and read them as I have the time.
If you like Joe Lansdale, there's no reason not to read this book. Just don't go expecting it to be as resonant as, say, Sunset and Sawdust.
An East Texas bouncer, a black queer, an ex-sweet potato queen, a six-foot-four overweight retired hit man and former reverend, and a redheaded midget with an attitude.
With a cast like that, you know you're reading a Lansdale book.
This is the fifth novel in the Hap & Leonard series, which is less a series proper and more a connected series of novels using the same main characters from book to book. It's not necessary to read them all in order (though I imagine it helps to understand the dynamic between Hap and Leonard if you've been there since the start), since the plots in each book are standalone events. In this entry, we see Hap and Leonard accompany Brett, Hap's girlfriend, to Hootie Hoot, Oklahoma in an effort to rescue her daughter from a life of prostitution. As with any Hap & Leonard novel, though, it's never that easy, as their journey takes them all over the central Southern region of North America.
This book is classified as a mystery, namely because it's the closest genre to what this story really is, which is a mystery crossed with a road novel, mixed in with a little Flannery O'Connor and Quentin Tarantino for good measure. I tend to classify mysteries without a real mystery to them "thriller" or "suspense", but that's still not a good classification for this series, or for any of his books. They're just Lansdale books, and anyone familiar with him will know exactly what I mean.
To me, though, Lansdale has two distinct kinds of novels that he writes: he has these pseudo-mystery novels, like the Hap & Leonard books or Lost Echoes; and he has his deeper, historical books, like Sunset and Sawdust or A Fine Dark Line. I much prefer the latter books, but it's always a treat just to read anything he writes, even if it feels like fluff, and sticks in your brain more as a sensation than an actual memory. The Hap & Leonard books are fun to read, but they don't stay with you like those other works. Those I will seek out to read; the others I'm content to just stumble across and read them as I have the time.
If you like Joe Lansdale, there's no reason not to read this book. Just don't go expecting it to be as resonant as, say, Sunset and Sawdust.
lauriereadslohf's review against another edition
4.0
Hap and Leonard, the two unlikeliest pair of best buds I’ve ever met in fiction, are back for another violent adventure filled with unexpected twists, lots of blood and gushy gore and enough offensive jokes to offend just about everyone. But that’s why we love ‘em.
Hap’s contemplating getting serious with his girl Brett but is living with Leonard and getting on his last nerve. But before the two can hurt each other, a midget named Red shows up and informs them he was the former pimp of Brett’s grown daughter Tillie who has fallen in with some shifty characters and wants out. Naturally, Hap and Leonard, always ready for violent mayhem, arm up and dive head first into their latest bloody adventure, meeting many new colorful characters, most with a long-winded hilarious story, along the way.
This is a Hap and Leonard novel and if you’ve ever read one you pretty much know you’re in for a lot of laughs and a plot that keeps spinning in directions you couldn’t predict if you tried. This one won’t disappoint. It made me laugh, despite (or because of) its moments of pure lunacy and potty humor, and kept me guessing.
Hap’s contemplating getting serious with his girl Brett but is living with Leonard and getting on his last nerve. But before the two can hurt each other, a midget named Red shows up and informs them he was the former pimp of Brett’s grown daughter Tillie who has fallen in with some shifty characters and wants out. Naturally, Hap and Leonard, always ready for violent mayhem, arm up and dive head first into their latest bloody adventure, meeting many new colorful characters, most with a long-winded hilarious story, along the way.
This is a Hap and Leonard novel and if you’ve ever read one you pretty much know you’re in for a lot of laughs and a plot that keeps spinning in directions you couldn’t predict if you tried. This one won’t disappoint. It made me laugh, despite (or because of) its moments of pure lunacy and potty humor, and kept me guessing.
guiltyfeat's review
4.0
Coarse and raucous and as rumble tumble as anything I've ever read. It's also bloody funny.
kleonard's review
4.0
Hap and Leonard have expanded my swearing vocabulary. Gritty and violent and highly entertaining.