⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
Adjectives slam around when we try to think about what to say about this book. The one that swims on to the top is -- raw. This book is raw. It has raw emotions, raw sexuality and sexual descriptions and a raw depth. It is also edgy, grimy, gritty and somewhat mind bending. Through it all runs a delicious vein of dry humour and uncompromising observations (good and bad; positive and negative) about everything from politics to environment and conservation.
PI / Bounty Hunter Jane is a Brit repartiate in North Vegas, a place of debauchary, deviance, dreams and deaths. Bold, brilliant, beautiful and badass, Jane has the sensibilities of a vigilante but manages to tread a very, very fine line between meting out justice in crude, painful ways and staying on the right side of law. An unapologetically sexual creature, she has no qualms about using all tools -- guns, martial arts or sex -- at her disposal to put away a bad 'un -- man or woman.
Jane is described as a Mensa genius, stunning (an ex model), quirky, tall, queer twist savage, steel toed boot string blond, wealthy, linguist, violent, troubled, weapons and martial arts expert, a heart of gold, lives in her own retro/film noir world. She is a NOW generation kinda plugged in girl, seeing the world in a acid etched reality.
This book takes us into Jane's world as she first handles a couple of jobs for the police, living and partaking enthusiastically of the den of sin that her world is. She is all guns and glam with a massive sexual drive. One of the beautiful girls who come to Vegas with stars in their eyes only to end up in a gutter of deadbeat degradation, reaches out to Jane about her missing thirteen year old daughter.
As Jane tracks the missing child, we are taken through all sorts of darkness and mayhem, depravity and justice.
This is a genre defying work. It cannot be slotted into a neat box. It is erotica. It is crime. It is action. It is stream of consciousness. It is also social and political commentary. It is all these things and yet cannot be contained in just one of these genres.
Written in first person, the style is entirely unique. Clipped phrases form short, staccato sentences that move incidents along at a rapid fire pace. Jane's thoughts move along a stream of consciousness going from thinking of a evil man to Taylor Swift and back seamlessly. The style is kind of mesmerising and addictive.
This is a genre defying work. It cannot be slotted into a neat box. It is erotica. It is crime. It is action. It is stream of consciousness. It is also social and political commentary. It is all these things and yet cannot be contained in just one of these genres.
Written in first person, the style is entirely unique. Clipped phrases form short, staccato sentences that move incidents along at a rapid fire pace. Jane's thoughts move along a stream of consciousness going from thinking of a evil man to Taylor Swift and back seamlessly. The style is kind of mesmerising and addictive.
Brooke doesn't shy away from writing everything in explicit and excruciating detail -- whether it is sex (including a singularly detailed BDSM 'scene'); gut-wrenching and stomach-churning descriptions of what happened to a victim; heart wrenching aftermath of the aforementioned knowledge on Jane via tortuous dreams; and sordidly graphic violence (which feels strangely satisfying given who is at the receiving end).
This is not a book for the squeamish or faint hearted but if you do pick it up, it is quite an experience. Enthralling, even.
We certainly recommend this book. Tread the path not frequented and walk the wild side.
⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
