Never Count Out the Dead

Rating:
Summary: Never Count Out that prose!
Review: I love, just love, the style he writes in. I don't agree with the critcism that this novel, nor his first, got for the style of the prose. It's simply marvellous. it's unusual, quirky, eccentric, casts wonderful images into the mind, and is just plain genius. I cant get enough of it. You have to read every word to get the full brilliant picture that his writing is trying to paint, otherwise you can get lost.

The characters are great, although there are many of them, and if you dont read concentratingly, you may get them confused in your own mind. Also, they don't jump off the page with realism as much as those in God is A Bullet did. (In particular Dee Storey, the murderous mother, who is not as scary and terrifying as she is made out. Most of the time, she seems just to be empty threats.) But Shay Storey is a brilliant character (somewhat similar to Case Hardin in GIAB) as is John Victor Sully, whose story of revenge and resurrection is the main theme of this book.

The plotting is taut, the atmosphere of the book is a cloud covered night, and the tone is as black as black.

Boston Teran's books are simply marvellous (All two of them!) i cannot wait to see where this young author takes himself to within a few years time.

Rating:
Summary: Sophomore effort doesn't live up
Review: I loved God is a Bullet. It was dark, gritty, noir-ish story. A little graphic and violent, but essential to the story.

I wanted to like Never Count Out the Dead. Rarely will I give up on a book, even if I don't like it. I will muddle through just to see what happens. Not so here. The other night, after having read into the second section of the book, I put it down and decided "I don't care". That's pretty bad, for me. Teran's language and descriptions seem a ittle flamboyant just for the sake of being so. I didn't feel that way about the first book.

Rating:
Summary: Wish I liked it more--Characters never really come to life.
Review: This is the sort of book that's usually right up my alley. I love the darker, grimmer side of crime writing. James Ellroy's one of my favorites. But I just couldn't get into Boston Teran's latest. His characters are tragic and haunted by life. They make grand speeches about how pointless everything is. Dee Storey, the hellish monster/mother at the center of the story, should be much more frightening/horrifying than she is. For whatever reason, the characters just lie there, flat on the page, never truly coming to life. This could have been a great, great book, but just doesn't quite make it.