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jakewritesbooks's review
4.0
William Boyle has done it again.
I don’t know if he’ll ever write anything as delightfully manic as A Friend Is A Gift You Give Yourself. But as long as he keeps doing these Brooklyn-based character driven crime stories, I’m a happy reader.
This one is familiar if you’ve read his others but you don’t need to in order to dive in. They’re loosely connected so you can start anywhere.
Boyle uses the template of a crime novel to create a world of south Brooklyn that he knows all too well, where the people are always losers who desperately wish to escape their situation even though they know they probably can’t. It’s like he’s rewriting Mean Streets every time but his characters always feel fresh.
He even takes the risk here on expanding to more POV characters and it works. His writing style is such that all of these people feel unique, their circumstances lived in. They’re drawn to things that they want for reasons they don’t understand, mobilizing in this decaying community where everyone around them is waiting for their number to be called for a funeral mass at the local parish and a grave in Queens or Long Island.
This is probably my second favorite of his. Mostly everything worked. I don’t know how much I bought that young women were comfortable going to this old guy’s decrepit house for respite but Boyle’s so good, I could go the leap just to get to the point. Everything builds up to the heart breaking conclusion which is unpredictable and left me feeling maudlin but in a good way. I hope he keeps churning these books out.
I don’t know if he’ll ever write anything as delightfully manic as A Friend Is A Gift You Give Yourself. But as long as he keeps doing these Brooklyn-based character driven crime stories, I’m a happy reader.
This one is familiar if you’ve read his others but you don’t need to in order to dive in. They’re loosely connected so you can start anywhere.
Boyle uses the template of a crime novel to create a world of south Brooklyn that he knows all too well, where the people are always losers who desperately wish to escape their situation even though they know they probably can’t. It’s like he’s rewriting Mean Streets every time but his characters always feel fresh.
He even takes the risk here on expanding to more POV characters and it works. His writing style is such that all of these people feel unique, their circumstances lived in. They’re drawn to things that they want for reasons they don’t understand, mobilizing in this decaying community where everyone around them is waiting for their number to be called for a funeral mass at the local parish and a grave in Queens or Long Island.
This is probably my second favorite of his. Mostly everything worked. I don’t know how much I bought that young women were comfortable going to this old guy’s decrepit house for respite but Boyle’s so good, I could go the leap just to get to the point. Everything builds up to the heart breaking conclusion which is unpredictable and left me feeling maudlin but in a good way. I hope he keeps churning these books out.
nicole_bookmarked's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
inspiring
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Max runs a Ponzi scheme out of his dump of an office while drinking carton after carton of milk. Lily returns to Brooklyn after college and teaches a creative writing course out of the church basement. Charlie is a low-level mobster with a backpack full of money and drugs. Jack lost his daughter, wife, and parents and is now a neighborhood do-good vigilante. Francesca dreams of getting out of town of making movies in Los Angeles. Bobby is Max's assistant, tortured by a fatal mistake he made years ago as a teenager. These stories and characters converge and connect, crash and burn.
Boyne's novels are gritty and uncompromising. He shines a light on the middle to low-income Italian American community living in Brooklyn. There's lots of violence and death, but there's also lots of love and hope. He's fast becoming one of my favorite authors.
Thank you to Oldcastle Books, No Exit Press, and NetGalley for an advance review copy in exchange for an honest review. #ShootTheMoonlightOut #NetGalley
Boyne's novels are gritty and uncompromising. He shines a light on the middle to low-income Italian American community living in Brooklyn. There's lots of violence and death, but there's also lots of love and hope. He's fast becoming one of my favorite authors.
Thank you to Oldcastle Books, No Exit Press, and NetGalley for an advance review copy in exchange for an honest review. #ShootTheMoonlightOut #NetGalley
tdblaylock's review
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
4.5
What a book to start out 2022. I first discovered William Boyle last year, and read City of Margins. I loved that one so much, I made sure to get a signed copy of this new novel. While the set-up is similar in that City of Margins and Shoot the Moonlight Out both revolve around intertwining stories, they don’t feel like the same thing re-used.
Shoot the Moonlight Out is a beautiful work. While it is technically crime noir, the crime is just the glue that holds it together. The real story is the characters. I’m not sure I have read another author who can develop and show such distinction to characters like Boyle does. When some authors try to do this, all the characters start sounding alike, but Boyle gives each a unique voice that makes you care for even the worst of them.
This novel has it all- heart wrenching characters and uplifting scenes, bad guys and people just trying to make it through life, and also one hilarious family story (I read that scene in bed while my wife was asleep, and I struggled to keep it together).
I will definitely cherish this autographed first edition, and will be going back to read the rest of his earlier works.
Shoot the Moonlight Out is a beautiful work. While it is technically crime noir, the crime is just the glue that holds it together. The real story is the characters. I’m not sure I have read another author who can develop and show such distinction to characters like Boyle does. When some authors try to do this, all the characters start sounding alike, but Boyle gives each a unique voice that makes you care for even the worst of them.
This novel has it all- heart wrenching characters and uplifting scenes, bad guys and people just trying to make it through life, and also one hilarious family story (I read that scene in bed while my wife was asleep, and I struggled to keep it together).
I will definitely cherish this autographed first edition, and will be going back to read the rest of his earlier works.
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