I received an advance copy to beta read and as it's been mentioned before, it was very difficult to put down once I started. Typical of TW Brown, this book comes out swinging, gripping the reader immediately and pulling them in. One of the reasons that I'm a huge fan of TW Brown is that he doesn't pull too many punches. He deals with subject matters that aren't always PC or 'acceptable', yet for all that, these situations exist, anyway. It's reality and while sometimes we read to escape the world around us, at times, when you write the kind of stuff he does, escaping reality would make the story so unbelievable that it becomes less, rather than more.
This book is believable. Look around us. We deal with this subject matter, everyday. Or more importantly, we *don't* deal with it. We push it aside. We're scared to talk about it. The truth stares us in the face every single day and we can't meet its eye. And this book is one possible scenario of what kind of outcome we might expect if we, as a society, continue in the direction that we're in. I can't imagine that, as an author, it's very easy to write about things that even you, yourself, find offensive. To use words that make you cringe, and yet you must to get the message across and to remain true to the type of character that you're writing. Even so, this is what Mr. Brown does. He leads us on a journey into the lives of many characters, some of who do unspeakable things in their passion for wanting a change. He shows us the ugliness in racism and 'reverse racism'. He touches us with the genuineness and care in others, who want to help, who want to do right by others. We see a glimpse into politics and the egomania of some. It's not a completely happy story, if you want the truth, but it is an honest one, as much as a fictional novel can be. Which, in turns, makes it a scary one. It left me with a pit in my stomach, but I don't regret for one second having read it. If you've never read a TW Brown novel, you need to buy this now. If you have and are hesitant because this book isn't zombie related, don't be. Buy it. I love,love,love his Dead series and I didn't miss the fact that there weren't zombies in this book.
Is it violent? Yes. Is there a strong use of language? Yes. But unless you live in another world that I do, these things are often unavoidable, even if we try to do that. Those things don't make this any less of a good read, and honestly, I don't even feel that they're in this book for 'shock value'. I think it's just simply writing about things that *do* happen, even if we don't want to think about them happening. The only thing that disappoints me about this book, truly, is that I'd love for it to become a series, like his Dead books. There are so many places this book could lead and the characters develop quickly and I'd love to see more happen with them. Speaking of characters, are there a lot of them? Yes. I've read reviews of Mr. Brown's books before where some get confused with so many characters and plots happening within one book. Maybe it's my ADHD talking, but I've found myself really loving this type of writing and finding myself involved with so many different story lines and characters. It leaves for no dull moments and unnecessary filler fluff that I find in so many other novels, as they're leading the plot from one point to another. But that's just my take on it. If you find it hard to follow so many plots within a book, it's just something to consider before buying this. Anyway. To end my rambling, I'm hooked. I want more. This was excellent.