HORROR IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN EVIL OVERTAKES THE HEART.
Joey, a mechanic, receives a phone call late in the night to pick up her friend's car from the infamous Baltimore body dumping grounds, Leakin Park. She arrives to find the car abandoned and her friend missing entirely. When she brings the car back to the body shop, she then finds a body in the trunk. While the Baltimore Police Department tries to find her friend under for suspected murder, Joey races to find him first and discover what really happened, where that body came from, and just why there's so much death in Baltimore.
When Joey discovers a ghost town below Baltimore, she meets a reaper, a raven, and her future. She thinks she's going crazy, but it is only the start of her seeing the world for what it is for the first time and why everyone in this city is always angry - has always been angry - will always be angry. Bash the windows, bash your neighbor in the nose, take whatever shiny thing you see in the store, you deserve it..
Assessment:
Prose/Style: The first-person storytelling from protagonist Joey’s point of view sets readers perfectly in the action and the main character’s thoughts. A perfect balance between action and descriptive prose is achieved.
Originality: The combination of a typical murder mystery with the otherworldly aspects of the afterlife make for a fascinating, wonderful tale readers of both mystery and fantasy genres will enjoy.
Character Development/Execution: Joey’s equal parts passion, recklessness, and loyalty to her friends — even when they seem to be murderers — make for an interesting character who feels a little larger than life but never unbelievable. Secondary characters bolster the story successfully.
Blurb: Mystery, fantasy, and contemporary Baltimore combine in this genre-blurring novel that will have readers hooked until the last page.
Date Submitted: July 27, 2021
Bleed More, Bodymore is an entertaining dark journey involving reapers, the afterlife, and not so dead a**holes. I am very much looking forward to what else Ian Kirkpatrick comes up with for the characters, because it ended with the promise of interesting things to come.
Wow, what can I say other than that this was a ride!!!
The plot had so many twists and turns, and I really enjoyed the bits of mythology that were within it.
Joey as a character makes all the wrong choices and that made you care about her in the same way that Jag does, you don't want to see anything bad happen.
HOLY MOLY! This book is amazing! How do you know if you're dead? How do you know if you're alive? This story has me questioning everything - and I love it. If you love a scary-mystery-thriller (and dislike Baltimore?), read this! I promise it's like nothing else you've read. I think it would make a great movie, too!
This is my first time reading Ian Kirkpatrick's work, and I went into it expecting a dark and twisted tale. That I did indeed get, but what I was not expecting was the heavy dose of absurdist writing style that flavoured this entire work, reminding me of Christopher Moore's "A Dirty Job", with heavy doses of introspection as we read the story from the first-person perspective of Joey, whose mind is anything but dull. From the very first chapter, I was instantly drawn into Josephine's world, her perspective on life tinged with the intensity of her angst and her surprising wisdom, being painfully aware of life's harshness, with zero sugarcoating and refreshing honesty.This is where Ian Kirkpatrick shines as a writer, her writing style being very beautifully descriptive, not shying away from portraying Joey's damaged life as authentically as possible, being vulgar in all the right ways to make all the right impacts. The world building was pretty good and the atmosphere was beautifully crafted. I could nicely visualize the locations in Baltimore and the lands beyond, with the dark skies and the blackened moon and stars and the way the lights shine purple on the leaves at nighttime, and the cold fog that mutes out all the surrounding sounds when it spreads around you. The presence of ravens that symbolize death added a nice gothic touch to this world that's teeming with spooky delights.
