Larry "Animal" Garner

If the thought of anyone dropping the F-bomb makes you die a little inside, then you are well advised to give this book a very wide berth. If it doesn’t bother you all that much then put on body armour and jump right in, as this book has F-bombs exploding liberally throughout its pages. The reason for this is quite clear, the book in set in the world of outlawed motorcycle clubs, think Sons of Anarchy but 100 times worse and depraved. There is sex, drugs, strip clubs and violence; lots of violence and not pretty either, There are scenes of gang rape and drug production; so you can see this novel is not for the faint of heart or people with a sensitive stomach.

There really isn’t a great deal of back-story to any of the characters in this book but then again they are all, for the most part, criminals and the reader probably know as much about them as the other members of their respective MCs know, as they progress through the novel. I didn’t think this lack of character development detracted from this book at all, rather it added to its rough and gritty feel and to have ‘fluffed’ them out would have pulled some of the reality from the topic. The main lead again is not very deep all we find out about him are bits and pieces, mainly that is ex-military. The one thing I did find a little unbelievable was, after being involved with his club for so long, he suddenly gained a conscience and decides to act on morals that, up until this point he really had not shown. I was hoping that because the book was written in the first person, present tense point of view I may have been able to pick up hints as to what the main lead was really like, but this was not to be the case.

The scene setting was excellently written but, I felt, that it did not make up for the length of the book which is 600 pages; and this is the major downfall of the book. There are only so many diner meals we can read through without wanting to never visit any diner again; and does the reader really need a blow by blow account of the interstate route our main character is going to take travelling? I feel a really good editor would have told the Author to lose at least half of the pages, and it would still have been a very good read. As it stands it is fast paced and urgent in parts and almost comatose in others. On the plus side though, the Author is one of a dying breed out there today, who actually writes in proper sentences bringing them to a conclusion not just chopping them off willy nilly. This helps project a raw and reckless quality to the way the characters are living. The Authors experience of this world, although not with an outlawed club, shines through in his writing and brings an extra touch of realism to the pages.

If not for the editing issues, and the sheer yawn factor of its length, I would have rated this higher; but I would still recommend it as a good adult read, but definitely not for the overly sensitive or the politically correct crowd.

Originally reviewed on: http://catesbooknuthut.wordpress.com/2013/08/03/review-ded-dead-larry-animal-gar...



This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
… (meer)

If the thought of anyone dropping the F-bomb makes you die a little inside, then you are well advised to give this book a very wide berth. If it doesn’t bother you all that much then put on body armour and jump right in, as this book has F-bombs exploding liberally throughout its pages. The reason for this is quite clear, the book in set in the world of outlawed motorcycle clubs, think Sons of Anarchy but 100 times worse and depraved. There is sex, drugs, strip clubs and violence; lots of violence and not pretty either, There are scenes of gang rape and drug production; so you can see this novel is not for the faint of heart or people with a sensitive stomach.

There really isn’t a great deal of back-story to any of the characters in this book but then again they are all, for the most part, criminals and the reader probably know as much about them as the other members of their respective MCs know, as they progress through the novel. I didn’t think this lack of character development detracted from this book at all, rather it added to its rough and gritty feel and to have ‘fluffed’ them out would have pulled some of the reality from the topic. The main lead again is not very deep all we find out about him are bits and pieces, mainly that is ex-military. The one thing I did find a little unbelievable was, after being involved with his club for so long, he suddenly gained a conscience and decides to act on morals that, up until this point he really had not shown. I was hoping that because the book was written in the first person, present tense point of view I may have been able to pick up hints as to what the main lead was really like, but this was not to be the case.

The scene setting was excellently written but, I felt, that it did not make up for the length of the book which is 600 pages; and this is the major downfall of the book. There are only so many diner meals we can read through without wanting to never visit any diner again; and does the reader really need a blow by blow account of the interstate route our main character is going to take travelling? I feel a really good editor would have told the Author to lose at least half of the pages, and it would still have been a very good read. As it stands it is fast paced and urgent in parts and almost comatose in others. On the plus side though, the Author is one of a dying breed out there today, who actually writes in proper sentences bringing them to a conclusion not just chopping them off willy nilly. This helps project a raw and reckless quality to the way the characters are living. The Authors experience of this world, although not with an outlawed club, shines through in his writing and brings an extra touch of realism to the pages.

If not for the editing issues, and the sheer yawn factor of its length, I would have rated this higher; but I would still recommend it as a good adult read, but definitely not for the overly sensitive or the politically correct crowd.

Originally reviewed on: http://catesbooknuthut.wordpress.com/2013/08/03/review-ded-dead-larry-animal-gar...



This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
… (meer)