You Were Never Really Here is a new kindle single from Byliner by Jonathan Ames. I saw it linked over at Super Punch and bought it for when I’d be in between longer reads. I caught some time this week to read it but forgot what it was about. It turns out that it’s hard-boiled noir, which I have enjoyed, but this was noir that was too dark for me.
I guess this next bit might be a spoiler so I’ll put this sentence here to keep you from reading further unless you want to.
There was a lot of heavy violence in there but that comes with the “hard-boiled” and “noir” territory. What put me off was the fact that I’ve got a 13-year old daughter so the plot points based around the one in this story were disturbing to the point of taking enjoyment away. I’ve got enough irrational fear about my kids out in this world that I’m not looking for more fuel in my recreational reading.
It’s a punchy story that doesn’t slow down for much of anything. I’d recommend it to someone without kids, though.