A review by athirah_idrus
DEVIL'S PLACE by Brian Gómez
5.0
The Devil’s Place is about “terrorism, prostitution, politics and other funny stuff”.
So it said on the blurb, which is fine, except that none of the elements happened to be the things I look for in a book. Or so I thought. When I heard of #cucukbersamafixi, where I could claim a book for free after my vaccination, I went through all the titles online and dug deeper into each to decide which would be the one I’d be bringing home. Despite the description on the blurb, the book got an almost resounding ‘YES!’, judging based on the comments and ratings on Goodreads. This time, I let the majority decide for me and boy, I had no regrets!
Devil’s Place is about Terry, a failing musician who was about to quit his music to marry his girlfriend, the daughter of a very prominent Malaysian politician, no less. His closest friends decided to celebrate his coming marriage with a night of entertainment which involved Ning, a Thai prostitute. The night took a different turn when Terry and Ning got tangled up in a wild chase involving an Arab businessman, Chinese pimps, the cops and the CIA. Terry made a desperate attempt to figure out the predicament he was in, all the while running to save his life.
In my opinion, the story was constructed as if it was written for a movie. Short paragraphs flitted from a scene to another, back and forth between the many characters involved as Terry tried to outrun his pursuers. Even so, the plot was fast-paced that it was easy to get into, and I felt like I could imagine this turned into a movie so well. What I loved most about the book was how ‘so Malaysian’ it was, the characters were colourful and brilliantly portrayed Malaysians without trying too hard. The characters were so relatable that I could just imagine them in real life.
The lines too were funny, almost as if written in a satirical fashion to poke fun at the questionable things in Malaysia, but those we know too well to exist in real life. Corrupt politician, anyone?
Sure, the story was not perfect, especially the scenes at the police station and the rookie CIA agent. They were too convenient and would only happen in the movies or in this case, this book. But without them, the plot wouldn’t work and I still enjoyed reading it. This was a surprisingly pleasant find for me!
So it said on the blurb, which is fine, except that none of the elements happened to be the things I look for in a book. Or so I thought. When I heard of #cucukbersamafixi, where I could claim a book for free after my vaccination, I went through all the titles online and dug deeper into each to decide which would be the one I’d be bringing home. Despite the description on the blurb, the book got an almost resounding ‘YES!’, judging based on the comments and ratings on Goodreads. This time, I let the majority decide for me and boy, I had no regrets!
Devil’s Place is about Terry, a failing musician who was about to quit his music to marry his girlfriend, the daughter of a very prominent Malaysian politician, no less. His closest friends decided to celebrate his coming marriage with a night of entertainment which involved Ning, a Thai prostitute. The night took a different turn when Terry and Ning got tangled up in a wild chase involving an Arab businessman, Chinese pimps, the cops and the CIA. Terry made a desperate attempt to figure out the predicament he was in, all the while running to save his life.
In my opinion, the story was constructed as if it was written for a movie. Short paragraphs flitted from a scene to another, back and forth between the many characters involved as Terry tried to outrun his pursuers. Even so, the plot was fast-paced that it was easy to get into, and I felt like I could imagine this turned into a movie so well. What I loved most about the book was how ‘so Malaysian’ it was, the characters were colourful and brilliantly portrayed Malaysians without trying too hard. The characters were so relatable that I could just imagine them in real life.
The lines too were funny, almost as if written in a satirical fashion to poke fun at the questionable things in Malaysia, but those we know too well to exist in real life. Corrupt politician, anyone?
Sure, the story was not perfect, especially the scenes at the police station and the rookie CIA agent. They were too convenient and would only happen in the movies or in this case, this book. But without them, the plot wouldn’t work and I still enjoyed reading it. This was a surprisingly pleasant find for me!