I've really enjoyed almost every book that Jake Hinkson has written and
this collection of short and flash fiction is no exception. It exhibits
all of the elements that Hinkson's fans have come to expect: classic noir material, assured and succinct writing, examinations of the dark side of religion, and flawed characters who aren't heroes but
yet demand our attention and our empathy. The best stories in the
collection, like "The Theologians," is classic Hinkson, combining all of
these elements into a great tale. It also features another Hinkson trait, a knack for engaging dialogue. Other great stories in the collection are "The Serpent Box," an atmospheric revenge story about a family of Pentecostal snake handlers, "Casual Encounters," about an on-a-whim Craigslist ad that leads to destruction, and "Night Terrors," about a man who, after waking up to his one-night-stand shrieking in her sleep, begins to regret his night of passion, but when the morning comes, he will surely regret it even more.
This was published by All Due Respect, a publisher who's books I've been recently discovering and who specializes in material that I definitely gravitate towards: "low-life literature," in their words! I'll be exploring more of their books soon.
GRADE: B+
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