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ruby42's review against another edition
5.0
Fuck. For only 150 pages or so this packed a serious punch.
storyman's review against another edition
5.0
I feared at the start of this book that the protagonist, Elliott’s burgeoning relationship with the nurse who saved him from his suicide attempt would have me wading through a horde of cliches. Having read some of Hinkson’s non-fiction essays online I should have known better because this is noir as dark and surprising as it gets.
Elliott is an ex-preacher with a dark secret. He gets mixed up with his nurse, Felicia, who has a side business in heists, and who works for a man called Stan. It’s Stan’s entrance which really makes the novella sing. He’s tall, ginger, and I pictured him as a deadly Stephen Merchant - tall, gangly, with intense eyes, and a nihilistic view of religion. I’d say the key set-piece is the scene where Elliott and Stan discuss salvation, and Stan’s viewpoint is as terrifying as the incident which follows.
The heist involves stealing drugs from a hospital, but that’s secondary to the salvation the newly atheist Elliott seeks in his desire to protect Felicia the nurse, and later Arnold, the girl he helps towards the end.
It’s noir, it’s brutal, and the ending is devastating. A fantastic piece of work.
Elliott is an ex-preacher with a dark secret. He gets mixed up with his nurse, Felicia, who has a side business in heists, and who works for a man called Stan. It’s Stan’s entrance which really makes the novella sing. He’s tall, ginger, and I pictured him as a deadly Stephen Merchant - tall, gangly, with intense eyes, and a nihilistic view of religion. I’d say the key set-piece is the scene where Elliott and Stan discuss salvation, and Stan’s viewpoint is as terrifying as the incident which follows.
The heist involves stealing drugs from a hospital, but that’s secondary to the salvation the newly atheist Elliott seeks in his desire to protect Felicia the nurse, and later Arnold, the girl he helps towards the end.
It’s noir, it’s brutal, and the ending is devastating. A fantastic piece of work.
qu073179's review
5.0
Great, great story. Great ingredients: great characters, mood, appropriate language, plot, irony. Only medium plot twists, nothing uncanny to criminal activity. An ex-preacher is the main character, so it does get sacreligious (3 on a scale of 1-5). Lots of ease and flow. The reason why there weren't outrageous plot twists, was because the author was keeping the criminal activity credible, and realistic; which enhanced the story more. However, the plot twists were pretty good. A perfect example of a great job on a book, hallmarked by such ease and flow in the midst of such fullness of literary elements.
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