Todd reviewed The shotgun rule by Charlie Huston
Review of 'The shotgun rule' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
At about 2/3 of the way through this book, I altered the review that had already been forming in my head. Until that point, I was thinking that it would end up being my least favorite Huston novel. The main reason for that was a constant shift in the time stream that really didn't add much to the story. It simply made things confusing and hard to follow.
Besides, the story wasn't all that engaging. One characteristic of most of Huston's previous novels was that I could barely put them down. It wasn't always because I was enjoying them so much; sometimes it was simply that Huston is so skilled at writing a story that makes you forget about chapter breaks, and all of a sudden it's 3:30 in the morning and you're done with the book.
But with 1/3 of the book left, the action picks up. Really picks …
At about 2/3 of the way through this book, I altered the review that had already been forming in my head. Until that point, I was thinking that it would end up being my least favorite Huston novel. The main reason for that was a constant shift in the time stream that really didn't add much to the story. It simply made things confusing and hard to follow.
Besides, the story wasn't all that engaging. One characteristic of most of Huston's previous novels was that I could barely put them down. It wasn't always because I was enjoying them so much; sometimes it was simply that Huston is so skilled at writing a story that makes you forget about chapter breaks, and all of a sudden it's 3:30 in the morning and you're done with the book.
But with 1/3 of the book left, the action picks up. Really picks up. I can't even say I enjoyed reading it all, because sometimes it really does feel like Huston is being graphic for the sake of being graphic. But it was engaging enough that I kept reading, and startling enough that I flinched at a few passages. I don't really flinch during many books, but this one I did.
The fact that a large portion of the beginning of this novel didn't feel like a Huston novel does keep this one as my least favorite of Huston's works, but even that is pretty good when compared to other novels. I don't regret reading this one, but it's hard to say I enjoyed it as I usually mean when I say I enjoyed a book. I feel a little beat up by it, to tell the truth. But I like it enough to read it again at some point.
On a side note, I don't think I could ever watch any movie made from this book. Hopefully, they won't try.