4.5/5 ⭐️

THIS REVIEW HAS SPOILERS

Wow. Just wow.

I honestly don’t have any words to describe how this book made me feel.

I hope that if anyone is told to read this book and the see “splatterpunk” or “slasher” that they arent deterred because this book is truly so much more than that.

From the very beginning, John Lynch hooks you in and doesn’t let go. This has horror, action, drama and, of course, violence and gore.

The book opens with a creepy segment that gave me serious The Grudge vibes and I totally thought that this book was going to be a supernatural killer book (which in the Author’s Notes, it appeared like if was originally intended to be).

After that first chapter, we get into the aftermath of the IED explosion and the battle that ensues. I had realized at that moment that I have never read and modern military books with action and felt like I was watching a movie as I read this chapter. This is now the benchmark for how I believe action sequences should be written.

The next chapters of the book are the examination of the varying traumas of the members of the company and how they are adapting to life outside of the military.

It’s this middle portion of that book that makes this book so fucking amazing. I was blown away by the by vividness in reality of how these characters felt and I know it can only be based on similar feelings and stories that John has felt/heard about in his experience with the Marine Core.

This book is one of those works of fiction that is so steeped within reality that you can draw facts from it and I feel that this book should be offered as alternative reading in University courses on Trauma around the world.

I finished the book thinking about a quote from a song by one of my favorite rappers, Aesop Rock:

“I guess it is kind of funny when you look at it from a step back
How one man can literally buckle under the same pressures
Other men operate normally under.”

I think of that quote often, but this book really drove it into my head.

Once we get to the retreat and Ray spirals, the fast paced, gory kills had me squeeling and squirming in disgust. John Lynch has an amazing way of writing violence that I will forever be reading his new books for.

My only real gripe with the book that kept it from a full 5 star rating is how quickly it ends once they get to the retreat.

Lynch spent a lot of time making me know, understand and feel for the characters, but once they at the retreat it’s just wham, bam, thank you ma’am, they’re all dead. I would have liked a little more of an ending and -at least – the illusion some of them would survive. It was pretty obvious that no one was surviving. Maybe an escape, only to be chased down and caught etc.

But honestly, that is just a teeny, tiny criticism (and very personal) complaint on what is, in my opinion, an otherwise flawless book.

Hope you loved it as much as I.