A review by mygeekblasphemy
All the Beautiful Sinners by Stephen Graham Jones

2.0

I wanted to like this more than I ultimately did. It has a great opening, and I was drawn in to the story, even when I didn't know exactly what was going on -- the writing is almost deceptively simple, but God help you if you aren't paying attention to every word -- but I felt the backstory and the plot moved from complicated to convoluted. Sometimes, it felt all over the map -- literally as well as figuratively, I suppose. I liked the main protagonist, Jim Doe, but I was often frustrated by a lot of the good guys' decisions -- they seemed to unnecessarily and stupidly be putting themselves in dangerous situations. And the conclusion just didn't work for me, which is why the rating ultimately dipped down to two stars. I do really like a lot of the lines, though -- Stephen Graham Jones constructs sentences in such an interesting way. They're very sharp and darkly funny. I just wish the story worked better for me.