 Hello everybody, E here. Welcome back to another book review. Today we are talking about one of my most anticipated books of the year and that is Razorblade Tears by SA Cosby. First off, I want to let you guys know that I've already read and reviewed Blacktop Wasteland. That review is up on the channel. I'll leave a link down there in the doobly-doo. I read that one, absolutely fell in love with it. Sean's writing is fantastic. Absolutely amazing. It's the best crime fiction I have ever read, period. I used to be a huge Lawrence Block fan. I've not read him in ages, but that was the last crime stuff that I read. I don't know if that's more like detective fiction or what, but anyway, today we are talking about Razorblade Tears. This is a book about two, not old men, but two older men, their sons get married and they are murdered. The whole plot is these two men coming to grips with how they treated their gay sons, dealing with that along with trying to figure out who murdered them. I bring up the bit about them. There's a very heavy theme of regret in this one, and I think it was handled so very, very well. Sean has a knack for the written word period, but there were so many truths that I read in this book that just blew me away. One of my favorite lines, and I'm not going to quote it verbatim because I listened to the audiobook, but on the way to and from the scares that care, we blew right through it, man. It was so, so good. Anyways, so with this one, the theme of regret is all-encompassing. These two men are trying their best to deal with their own emotions regarding their homosexual sons, how they treated them when they were younger, when they found out, and now they are on the warpath. And one of the quotes, what I was talking about just a second ago, one of the quotes that I remember is hate is just, no, revenge is just hate in a better suit. I really, really dug that. Talking about how revenge isn't really about justice. It's about hate. You want retribution for being wronged. The pacing in this is off the fucking charts. I don't know how else to put it. It starts, and it never stops. It's one of those books where I never wanted to stop reading it, never want to stop listening to it. Anytime we had to stop at a rest area or something, I was like, man, I got to know what's going on between Buddy Lee and Ike. There's another character that I really, really liked, Tangerine. I loved all of these characters, and the villains are so well drawn. Grayson, the main bad guy, which I can't say because it's a spoiler. I really, really loved the twist. I didn't see it coming at the end regarding a main character, and I don't want to spoil it for you. I don't even want to tell you which character it revolves but when that hit, my jaw dropped. Literally, I was in the car like, so yeah. It's very, very few times has that ever happened to me. I think the last time it happened to me where my jaw was on the floor was with Chuck Pollinick's Choke. This is one of those, this is a book that is going to upset some people, and rightly so. I won't go into any more details, but there is a strong, I mean, already getting, he's already being buffeted, the author is. Sean's already being buffeted by people upset because he told the truth, and I respect the hell out of Sean for that. He's just a fantastic person. He's an acquaintance of mine. We follow each other on Twitter. I've never really talked to the man, but I like to cut of his jib as the saying goes, but the characters are amazing. Pacing is amazing, and the dread suffused in this book is just dripping with dread. As you're going along, you're wondering how they're going to get out of certain situations, how they're going to fix certain things. It's almost a horror novel, especially with the action and the violence and the brutality. The gore is so well done. It's a horror novel for me, and it might not be for you, but it definitely is for me, especially being a parent. I can't imagine losing one of my kids no matter how old they are. The themes of LGBTQIA were, I feel they were well done. I feel that every single character was represented well. That's the best way I can put it. I wanted to see these two men succeed at just waging utter war, and I wanted them to get the I wanted the bad guys to get their comeuppance. They were vile. They were hateful. They were ugly, racist, all different kinds of things. The type of villains that you absolutely love to hate, those are my favorite ones. Those are my favorite types of villains. It's not really that you understood where they were coming from, but all of their motivations were believable. Do I like it more than Blacktop Wasteland? I think I do. In fact, my wife said we're going to have to buy two of his books from now on, two copies, because she is now a fan, so she'll be reading Blacktop Wasteland next. I highly, highly recommend this book, the highest possible recommendation, and it's now in my top five of the year. I don't know if it's contender for number one yet, because I mean the other Black girl and where the truth lies were fantastic also, but those three are up here at the top, and I'm going to have to do some serious debating and thinking about who I'm going to put up there, or I might just, you know, chicken out and just say that this list is in no particular order, and this is, you know, like I did last year. But anyways, have you read this fantastic book, Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby? If you have, let me know down there in the doobly-doo whether or not you loved it, whether or not you hated it, or whether or not you were meh. If you were any of those things, let me know why. Don't just say, there's book socks, or this book is fantastic. Let me know why so that we can have a conversation. But until next time, I have an E, you have an U, this has been another book review. I'll talk to you guys later. Bye!