Thank you to NetGalley and Blood Bound Books for the chance to review a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Trigger warnings for alcoholism, racism, misogyny, suicide, incest, rape, drug addiction. Spoilers ahead.

I first picked up this book because the cover and description really intrigued me. However within the first 20 pages I already wanted to DNF this book. The immediate sexualization of the female character Mary Pierce was really disappointing. She’s only been introduced in one page and I’ve already been subjected to reading about her breasts and how the MC Ronnie Rampage wants to give her a bikini wax. This description adds nothing to the plot except for letting the reader know the MC has a gross view of women. Throughout the book women are described as chunky or that they have a nice round rump. The misogyny is so gross to read as so many female characters are immediately sexualized or written off as being ugly or fat. The fat phobia for multiple characters in this book is insane.

Again I’m trying to give this book a chance but the author them has the main character talk about how he’s not politically correct, which is why he chooses to refer to the store clerk as a “ young black woman”. I would have thought nothing more of this description, but the fact that two paragraphs was used to explain this choice was jarring and uncomfortable. And again the store clerk was referred to specifically as a “black woman” three times. She could have been described as just a woman or store clerk. The book is littered with stereotypical descriptions for different races and ethnicities and it makes the book uncomfortable to read.

A lot of the physical descriptions of most of the characters, even minor ones were uncomfortable. He writes that when the Necromancer pushes s syringe into a woman’s forehead that “I’ve seen people from India where little red dots there.”, likening the little drop of blood that comes out to an Indian bindi. He even describes another character as “His skin is dark, and his nose is wide like a black guy, but his eyes were slanted like an Asian. I figured maybe he was Samoan or something. I knew Samoans liked tattoos and Devious is covered in them.” If he wanted to describe a character as racially ambiguous I feel like there were better ways to do so. This character is also overtly racist, content warnings for the hard n-word used multiple times derogatorily.

Too many digressions into long explanations about unnecessary details. I don’t need a full description of the embalming process if it’s not going to come up later as an important foreshadowing clue.

It’s implied that the love of the main characters life who he slept with is his long lost half-sibling and they even slept together again even knowing they might be half-siblings. And that the first time they slept together after he hid in the closet to kill her was rape. And she partakes in suicidal behavior (cutting). We find out they aren’t siblings a few chapters later, but having to read this with no warnings was disgusting.

I wanted to give this book a chance because the premise and cover was really intriguing, but ultimately this book was definitely not for me.

Aaron Thomas Milstead has been on my radar since I read Earworm, I was so excited to see another release!

Ronnie Rampage, wow, I finished this book and thought “this character is like Ace Ventura, if he was a hired hitman but also a horrendously messed up dude” and that’s what I’m sticking to.

This book reads as four short stories in once timeline, going through the seasons and events of Ronnie’s life. We journey through some pretty horrid stuff with him, I wouldn’t pick this book up thinking you are going to witness him having a pleasant life.

I really enjoy the way Aaron writes, the humour and the offensiveness just dance around each other so well. And there is something just so bizarre in his storytelling that I really get a kick out of. This book is not going to be for everyone, but I definitely enjoyed it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Blood Bound Books for allowing me the opportunity for an early read! My review is happily volunteered.

I cannot review this... I was disgusted immediately. The language is abrasive and really gross. Reader beware. I don't usually dnf but this was so so bad