Matt McAvoy Book Review

Very dark stuff from Neal Cassidy, both brutal and cerebral.  Schroeder is a young man on a murderous mission – and it very quickly becomes clear this is much more clinical than random, his targets carefully picked and despatched with increasing savagery; the fun part is trying to work out who is who at the end.  In all seriousness, though, there is little actual fun to be had with this vivid and graphic revenge tale.  Simple and straightforward, it is no more or less than an almost real-time trip out to go about his business – and I read the whole book in a single sitting, too, as it didn’t seem quite right not to accompany Schroeder on his journey.

We spend the whole book inside the damaged character’s head, reading from his first-person viewpoint.  This is fascinating, as we share in a detached and clearly numb mindset.  However, while Neal is a good writer who is more than capable of crafting a hugely gripping narrative, the style did raise quite a few problems in me.  I assume that this is intentional, to portray Schroeder’s damaged cognitive function and hyperactive thought process, but the very long sentences are absolutely absurd, and sometimes incredibly challenging to stay with; indeed, I feel this may be part of the reason I was able to read so quickly, for I actually wonder just how much of the book I speed-read.  I don’t think that detracted from my enjoyment of the book in any way, but it is fair to say that the punctuation – or massive lack thereof (especially full stops) – was mind-numbing, certainly from a critical point of view.  At times the sentences were so long, in fact, that there might genuinely have been entire pages pass on a single one; I even wondered at times if Neal was going for the single-shot approach you see in movies like Rope or 1917.  As I say, I am sure this is intentional; if it is not, then I think Neal really needs to take a look at this and ask why he is opposed to using periods.  Whether intentional or not, though, I’m afraid to say it is a significant factor in the reader experience.

If you like first-person psychopath books, you’ll enjoy this.  I wouldn’t call it a classic up there with American Psycho and The Wasp Factory – its narrative is a little too mainstream revenge tale for that – but it is certainly a very worthy entry in the horror-thriller genre, and well worth a look.