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A review by beate251
The Brothers by Kimberley Chambers
2.0
This is the sequel to The Family Man which was primarily about Kenny Bond.
Now the gangland saga continues with his grandsons, twins Beau and Brett, who is gay. They are both not great people but Beau is utterly evil, having killed half-brother Jamie just so his way was free to marry traveller girl Jolene Tampin. Mind, they are all just 16 at the beginning of this book that spans five years, from 1993 to 1998.
There are plenty of Romani words from the traveller community used that I had to Google. A glossary at the back might have been helpful.
I can't tell you how I hated almost everyone in this book, some women included. They are all horrible. They have no idea how to speak proper English, without swearing or slagging people off, how to live a non-criminal life, not cheat on their spouses or bring up their children to become normal adults. They are grandparents at 38 because they all start extra young.
The men are entitled arseholes who think women are possessions and who never understand what they have done wrong. But the women aren't much better. They all hate each other, there is no solidarity just misogyny towards their own gender.
I hated the writing style. People say sentences, followed by "lied", "gabbled" or "chuckled". I don't need to be told when someone in the book lies, it's all they do. People talk in slang and with bad grammar, use bad English like "reason being" and "mug him off". The language is unpleasant and full of swear words and casual racism and homophobia.
I've recently read Roberta Kray's new book "Traitor" and while this takes place in London's East End and contains unsavoury characters, people talk normally and many have redeemable features or are outright good people, just trying to survive. There is nothing of that here. All we get are two despicable criminal families, one white and one from the Traveller community. There are too many characters to mention as these people multiply like rabbits. There are secrets and lies but no real storyline.
The pacing is all over the place. The beginning is taken up with introducing characters and catching us up on the plot from the first book. Most of the action happens in the last third which spans the last year.
And the book is too long. Way too long, considering this is book two and there is at least one more coming. How can you write that much about utterly despicable people?
All. The. Content Warnings.
Now the gangland saga continues with his grandsons, twins Beau and Brett, who is gay. They are both not great people but Beau is utterly evil, having killed half-brother Jamie just so his way was free to marry traveller girl Jolene Tampin. Mind, they are all just 16 at the beginning of this book that spans five years, from 1993 to 1998.
There are plenty of Romani words from the traveller community used that I had to Google. A glossary at the back might have been helpful.
I can't tell you how I hated almost everyone in this book, some women included. They are all horrible. They have no idea how to speak proper English, without swearing or slagging people off, how to live a non-criminal life, not cheat on their spouses or bring up their children to become normal adults. They are grandparents at 38 because they all start extra young.
The men are entitled arseholes who think women are possessions and who never understand what they have done wrong. But the women aren't much better. They all hate each other, there is no solidarity just misogyny towards their own gender.
I hated the writing style. People say sentences, followed by "lied", "gabbled" or "chuckled". I don't need to be told when someone in the book lies, it's all they do. People talk in slang and with bad grammar, use bad English like "reason being" and "mug him off". The language is unpleasant and full of swear words and casual racism and homophobia.
I've recently read Roberta Kray's new book "Traitor" and while this takes place in London's East End and contains unsavoury characters, people talk normally and many have redeemable features or are outright good people, just trying to survive. There is nothing of that here. All we get are two despicable criminal families, one white and one from the Traveller community. There are too many characters to mention as these people multiply like rabbits. There are secrets and lies but no real storyline.
The pacing is all over the place. The beginning is taken up with introducing characters and catching us up on the plot from the first book. Most of the action happens in the last third which spans the last year.
And the book is too long. Way too long, considering this is book two and there is at least one more coming. How can you write that much about utterly despicable people?
All. The. Content Warnings.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Death, Gore, Homophobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Torture, Violence, and Murder
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Blood, Excrement, Medical content, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail