King of Ashes by S. A. Cosby

 

So after last night's minor dud, I figured I needed some fireworks. Holy fucking shit, y'all. A brutally honest book, tracking a morally flexible character's failure to be a hero on the slide to becoming a villain, or maybe a monster. Bad shit happens to fucking everyone, there is no respite for the weary or hope for the good--at least the latter because there ain't much good. The book has many themes--racism is less overt, here, because just about everyone's Black, except for the occasional Latin--but probably the main one is how money poisons everything, especially relationships and very especially relationships we think are or want to be based on love. Strong stuff, as one might expect from Cosby.