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cheesygiraffe's review against another edition
4.0
Another good book from Charlie Huston. I like his thriller writing style. I loved the characters in this book. They seem so real. You find out so much about the boys and their parents because of one ill fated day and then one shitty night.
jeffmauch's review against another edition
4.0
A gritty story about some somewhat delinquent teenagers involving drugs, violence, and their parents pasts in 80's lower income suburbia. I can relate a lot to parts of this story. I remember a bike being my main mode of transportation and how there's nothing quite like the friendships made with the kids in the neighborhood where you grew up. Granted, this is much more violent and dangerous and I can't say meth was really something I had to contend with in my younger years. I really enjoyed Huston's formatting and writing style, somewhat unconventional when it came to dialog. I'll definitely be looking into his other works.
rocketiza's review against another edition
5.0
Charlie Houston knows exactly how to write a novel that I can't put down once I start.
jefffrane's review against another edition
5.0
Should you stumble across this book at the library or used bookstore, do yourself a favor. Take the day off. Have a nice breakfast, find a comfy couch and assume you're not going anywhere or doing anything until the book is done. If you need cigarettes, coffee, beer or a bong, get all that set up in advance (or bring in a keeper to run errands). "Unputdownable" isn't a word, really, but it's the most appropriate cliché under the circumstances.
Oh, yeah, it's violent and tense and there's a lot of cussing and drug use, so if that is a turnoff, put it back on the shelf.
Oh, yeah, it's violent and tense and there's a lot of cussing and drug use, so if that is a turnoff, put it back on the shelf.
corkykat's review against another edition
2.0
2.5 stars.
Didn't really like this book. It was recommended to me, and I love to read, so I picked it up, despite the fact that it belongs to my least favorite genre. The content was intense. Violence, blood, extremely bad language... However, it was stylistically impressive and very unconventional. The characters (which is the most important aspect of a book for me) were very three dimensional and realistic. It was an okay book, just really not for me.
Didn't really like this book. It was recommended to me, and I love to read, so I picked it up, despite the fact that it belongs to my least favorite genre. The content was intense. Violence, blood, extremely bad language... However, it was stylistically impressive and very unconventional. The characters (which is the most important aspect of a book for me) were very three dimensional and realistic. It was an okay book, just really not for me.
jakewritesbooks's review against another edition
4.0
I love Charlie Huston's books. I might even give his vampire novels a try. This is his second standalone, in addition to the Hank Thompson series (all three classics) and it's just about as good as anything he's written. The last 75 pages or so are gripping, you simply won't be able to put it down. That's not a cliche, you will not be able to put it down.
verkisto's review against another edition
2.0
Reading this novel was a no-brainer, since I’ve been so impressed with nearly everything else Charlie Huston has written. This was the first book he wrote not as part of a series, so I figured this would be as gripping and compelling and gritty as the other books. And, well, I was a little disappointed.
I can’t quite finger why. The prose is about the same. The dialogue is sharp. The story is about as noir as modern literature can get, and it maintains the same level of brutality of his previous books, so I wasn’t shocked or put off by it all. It just lacked a lot of what the other books had. I think it had to do with the main characters and their methods for eliciting sympathy. In the other books, the main characters were hard-asses, but they at least did what they did for the right reasons. In The Shotgun Rule, I couldn’t quite feel as much for the characters.
Is it because the main characters are kids? I don’t think so. I’ve read other books with despicable characters being young, and it hasn’t fazed me. Is it because of the violence? Again, I doubt it. I’ve read other violent books, and even though they turn my stomach sometimes, if the character is doing what needs to be done, for the right reasons, then it holds true for me. I just couldn’t believe that these kids were doing anything more than being troublesome, for the sake of being troublesome. One of the characters was defending his brother, so that was an honorable motivation, but overall, for all that they do during the story, the motivation was weak. I mean, one character could have avoided all the trouble he encountered if he hadn’t stolen a bag of meth. So, yeah. Not too sympathetic.
I was hoping this would be a good recommendation for someone new to Huston, but I would recommend the Dirk Pitt series before this book. If you like the author’s style, though, and want something to calm your fix, then you probably won’t go wrong with reading this one, too. Just don’t expect something as novel and exciting as the Hank Thompson or Dirk Pitt series.
I can’t quite finger why. The prose is about the same. The dialogue is sharp. The story is about as noir as modern literature can get, and it maintains the same level of brutality of his previous books, so I wasn’t shocked or put off by it all. It just lacked a lot of what the other books had. I think it had to do with the main characters and their methods for eliciting sympathy. In the other books, the main characters were hard-asses, but they at least did what they did for the right reasons. In The Shotgun Rule, I couldn’t quite feel as much for the characters.
Is it because the main characters are kids? I don’t think so. I’ve read other books with despicable characters being young, and it hasn’t fazed me. Is it because of the violence? Again, I doubt it. I’ve read other violent books, and even though they turn my stomach sometimes, if the character is doing what needs to be done, for the right reasons, then it holds true for me. I just couldn’t believe that these kids were doing anything more than being troublesome, for the sake of being troublesome. One of the characters was defending his brother, so that was an honorable motivation, but overall, for all that they do during the story, the motivation was weak. I mean, one character could have avoided all the trouble he encountered if he hadn’t stolen a bag of meth. So, yeah. Not too sympathetic.
I was hoping this would be a good recommendation for someone new to Huston, but I would recommend the Dirk Pitt series before this book. If you like the author’s style, though, and want something to calm your fix, then you probably won’t go wrong with reading this one, too. Just don’t expect something as novel and exciting as the Hank Thompson or Dirk Pitt series.
dstuart's review against another edition
4.0
Better than I expected. Stand by Me meets No Country for Old Men. Really good.
iguana_mama's review against another edition
4.0
Posted at Shelf Inflicted
Four suburban teenagers manage to find big trouble when they come across a meth lab while trying to retrieve Andy’s stolen bike. I’ve wanted to read Charlie Huston for a while and thought this stand-alone thriller would be a good place to start. I wasn’t disappointed. This was a brutal, dark and compelling slice of suburban life. The characters were very well-developed, the dialogue sharp, and the pace relentless. The story was raw, painful and a believable portrayal of troubled youths, dysfunctional families, and drug use. This was a story about kids who made mistakes and had bad things happen to them; it was about parents who wanted to make a better life and found they couldn’t escape their past. Intense, disturbing, and not for everyone.
Four suburban teenagers manage to find big trouble when they come across a meth lab while trying to retrieve Andy’s stolen bike. I’ve wanted to read Charlie Huston for a while and thought this stand-alone thriller would be a good place to start. I wasn’t disappointed. This was a brutal, dark and compelling slice of suburban life. The characters were very well-developed, the dialogue sharp, and the pace relentless. The story was raw, painful and a believable portrayal of troubled youths, dysfunctional families, and drug use. This was a story about kids who made mistakes and had bad things happen to them; it was about parents who wanted to make a better life and found they couldn’t escape their past. Intense, disturbing, and not for everyone.