My Rating: 4 stars
This is an interesting book and quite honestly, I’m kind of at a loss on how best to write this review without giving too much away yet at the same time trying to do justice to the book. There are so many things to talk about with this book, so many angles to explore, so many points to discuss, it’s actually a bit overwhelming.
From the get go, when we as readers are introduced to the main character Samuel Hawley, we already know that he is a tough guy with a dark past – a past that possibly involved some amount of violence given the number of guns and ammunition he owned. Not long into the story, we find out that Hawley didn’t just have a violent past, he actually had a criminal one that involved robbery, assault, and even murder. Basically, he was a “bad guy,” a seemingly hardened criminal constantly on the run from his checkered past – and he had the scars to prove it: the twelve bullet wounds all over his body. After his beloved wife dies in a tragic drowning accident, leaving behind an infant daughter, Hawley finally decides to step away from his previous life of crime to raise his daughter Loo and make it his life’s mission to protect her at all costs. Eventually, Hawley’s past catches up with him and his daughter in their present lives and together, they must face an uncertain future amidst a past that threatens to destroy them.
This is the kind of book that cannot be placed “nicely” into any one genre or category because there is so much going on in the book all at the same time. There were times when this book felt like a mystery thriller, where I found myself right alongside Loo growing curious about her mother’s mysterious death and trying to put the pieces together with each clue that is dropped as the story progresses. Other times, it felt like a coming-of-age story centered around Loo as she grows into her teenage years and struggles to come to terms with her father’s past and the ominous influence it has on her present life. The chapters that detailed Hawley’s past exploits and the significance of the various bullet wounds on his body read like a suspense novel, with the intensity building up as each detail of Hawley’s situation is revealed. The gun battles and brawls and constant references to alcohol and bars as well as the idea of a menacing tough guy who is inherently good doing battle with those who are truly evil all remind me of those cowboy westerns I used to watch as a kid, except this one was in a modern setting. There was also the family drama element with the various relationship lines interwoven throughout the book: father-daughter (Hawley and Loo), husband-wife (Hawley and his wife Lily prior to her death), mother-daughter (Lily with her mother Mabel Ridge and also briefly with her own daughter Loo), grandmother-granddaughter (Loo’s tensed relationship with her grandmother Mabel Ridge), etc. And of course, there was the romance element in Loo’s relationship with her classmate Marshall.
In terms of structure, this is where the book is unique in that it essentially uses the scars on Hawley’s body as a “blueprint” for the entire story. As the narrative cuts back and forth between past and present, we are taken from Loo’s current life back to her father’s past, with every other chapter telling the “history” of each of the twelve bullets that had once gone through Hawley’s body. There was also quite a bit of symbolism interspersed throughout the story, especially in the chapters dealing with Hawley’s past, as well as metaphors about love, death, the significance of time, etc. I also picked up on a few subtle parallels with Hawley’s story to Greek and Roman mythology, which I felt was very clever of the author to weave into the story in such an unassuming way. As for the writing, I appreciated how descriptive the author was and the compelling way that the story was told. With that said though, the prose did feel a bit clunky at times and some sentences I had to read twice because the flow seemed a little off, but since this was an ARC and I understood I was reading an uncorrected proof that would probably undergo some more editing prior to publication, this was not too big of a deal for me.
As I said earlier, it is hard for me to do justice to this story through a short review. I would recommend reading the book and experiencing it for yourself. The only caution I would give is that there is quite a bit of violence in the book as well as some gritty depictions of criminal acts that some readers may find offensive. Personally, I struggled with some parts and actually disagreed with some of the characters’ actions, attitudes, and handling of certain situations, but overall, the story was good and I found myself still being drawn to the characters, despite their many flaws.
Received advance reader's copy from Random House via NetGalley.
(Expected publication date: March 28th, 2017)
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