Bracken MacLeod

The Terrorizing of Hipstas
Review of the Mariner Books hardcover (July 20, 2021)

It will seem a bit counter intuitive, but after reading Mai's hilarious and entertaining 2-star "live-tweeting-reaction" style review of this book, I couldn't resist trying it out for myself. Partly just to see if I had similar reactions and/or others.

This is a domestic invasion thriller where a married couple who have moved into an isolated home which is apparently beyond their means are terrorized at first by one assailant and then later by another pair as well. The mystery elements are who is the first invader (who is unidentified for quite some time), where did Nelle & Evan get the money to buy the house, & what are the additional assailants after? The domestic terror aspect is amped up considerably and all the villains are of a sufficiently cartoonish evil nature that you will not mourn them when karma comes calling.

Mai was certainly spot on with her reactions and my only further thoughts were along the nature of Chekhov's gun, in that what seemed like interesting and quirky plot elements were introduced, but which apparently had no purpose. The couple Nelle & Evan have a Portuguese last name and speak some Portuguese for no apparent reason (it is never used as 'secret' language to deceive their assailants). They are regularly described as "rockabilly hipsters" which aside from sounding anachronistic (an old-time music that is hip?) did nothing further in the plot except perhaps dictate their music choices. So it was just quirkiness introduced for its own sake. The authorities are apparently clueless and have no access to modern forensics, allowing for a tidy wrap-up with no questions asked.

Anyway, the domestic terror aspects here are often quite repellent so steer clear if that is not to your taste.… (altro)

This was a pretty cool book! I have found some new authors to discover too. Favorite stories are:
Melvin by Matt Shaw, The Passion of the Robertsons by Duncan Ralston, Molly by Glenn Rolfe, Limb Memory by Tim Curran, Feast of Consequences by WD Gagaliani and Dave Benton, and Darla's Problem by Kristopher Ruffy. Also I was happy to buy this book in support of fighting cancer as I too know people that have it and this was a great idea for all these authors to put this book together to help fight the cause. Giving the book four stars.… (altro)