A review by jace524
And the Ass Saw the Angel by Nick Cave

3.0

This is a pretty good, disturbing book for sure. The scene of Euchrid's mother dying certainly sticks out to me as especially disturbing, but effective. I liked the character of Beth and did really pity her throughout the book. This book really lost me at the end. With the overly-description and well written gore earlier in the book, I was expecting a graphic fight to the death or at least a significant death to take place. It seemed like there was a lot of build up to "The Day" Euchrid was talking about, only for it to be him sneaking into town, stabbing Beth (which was literally written as a single line), and running away. I was expecting the animals to go wreck havoc on the townspeople, him getting revenge on the people that he was treated poorly by, etc. but instead we got none of that. Also, even Euchrid seemingly succumbing to his injuries and poor living conditions in the end instead of the townspeople being able to get their revenge was disappointing. I did like the implication that Euchrid had a child with Beth in the epilogue, however.