FIERCE BITCHES by Jedidiah Ayres

What a great find! I'm definitely not the first person to discover Jedidiah Ayres (I'm sure he has a bunch of fans already) but I'm glad I got to jump on the bandwagon early while his career is still relatively young! Although they're still niche areas of fiction, the new age of gritty noir and the novella format are getting more popular these days, so there are many great examples of both out there. But Jedidiah Ayres really put his mark down with this one and penned a true stand-out!

The book focuses on Politoburg, a small, depressing Mexican shanty town/brothel owned by a gringo crime boss. It's also where the crime boss sends all of the people in his outfit that have proven themselves useless to him. So it's a place filled with castoffs, fuck-ups, and failed dreams. Ayres tackles this story with panache: telling the tale with a creative structure, as well as with lyrical, haunting prose; writing that is both muscular and graceful at the same time. It's always exciting finding a new author that grips you simply with the way they form a sentence. He creates such an incredible atmosphere that the story feels almost like a fable or a myth. It's the best thing I've read this year so far. In just 55 pages, Jedidiah has locked in a new fan.

He put his nose on the top of her head and breathed in deeply. The aroma was hideous, but he breathed deeper as if he could somehow process the pollution and breathe purer air back to her, polish her scent til it shone like before. Deep, intense breaths through his nose, holding each breath like a precious object, stained and misused.

GRADE: A