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A review by heykellyjensen
Bloody Chester by Hilary Florido, J.T. Petty
1.0
To be fair, the book delivered exactly what it promised: a story about the lawless wild west with lots of violence and blood. And that's about all the book is.
The book starts abruptly, jarring the reader into Chester's world. He's at a bar, then he's beat up, then suddenly he's cleaned up after a night in prison and takes on the job of burning the town of Whale (which had been ravaged by "Indian plague") down. He gets out to Whale and low and behold, he finds a girl there who doesn't want to leave. Her whackadoodle father lives in the mountain and the priest and his son still live in town.
Naturally, Chester decides to hunt down the father (after befriending the son of the plague-ridden priest) and then it's basically a blood bath from there. Oh and of course, Chester falls in love with the girl. There's absolutely no character or relationship development between them. It makes no sense.
More frustrating, though, is that the plot meanders all over. It tries to infuse Native lore and fearfulness of the settlers of the wild west, but it does that by also throwing in strange Christian themes (with the priest and his fear and refusal to leave the church). Caroline's father's incoherent rambling frustrated me.
Other reviewers have commented on the blatant racism and derogatory language, but that didn't bother me because it fit the story and the time. What bothered me was the lack of story telling, the lack of character development, and the art which felt really childish in contrast of the narrative (the art is very much manga-style, particularly in character depiction, and it's in full color). This isn't a book for kids, though. It's violent and crude -- again, these work as part of the setting and time period. It's not a criticism in and of itself.
The book starts abruptly, jarring the reader into Chester's world. He's at a bar, then he's beat up, then suddenly he's cleaned up after a night in prison and takes on the job of burning the town of Whale (which had been ravaged by "Indian plague") down. He gets out to Whale and low and behold, he finds a girl there who doesn't want to leave. Her whackadoodle father lives in the mountain and the priest and his son still live in town.
Naturally, Chester decides to hunt down the father (after befriending the son of the plague-ridden priest) and then it's basically a blood bath from there. Oh and of course, Chester falls in love with the girl. There's absolutely no character or relationship development between them. It makes no sense.
More frustrating, though, is that the plot meanders all over. It tries to infuse Native lore and fearfulness of the settlers of the wild west, but it does that by also throwing in strange Christian themes (with the priest and his fear and refusal to leave the church). Caroline's father's incoherent rambling frustrated me.
Spoiler
Good thing Chester just kills him in the end -- that might have been the most redeeming aspect of the book.Other reviewers have commented on the blatant racism and derogatory language, but that didn't bother me because it fit the story and the time. What bothered me was the lack of story telling, the lack of character development, and the art which felt really childish in contrast of the narrative (the art is very much manga-style, particularly in character depiction, and it's in full color). This isn't a book for kids, though. It's violent and crude -- again, these work as part of the setting and time period. It's not a criticism in and of itself.