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You Were Never Really Here (2013)

by Jonathan Ames(Favorite Author)

3.81 of 5 Votes: 3

languge

English

genre

Fiction

publisher

Byliner Inc.

review 1: I was a little apprehensive about reading You Were Never Really Here. Too often stories that deal with these sort of subjects devolve into torture porn and not being familiar with the author I didn't really know what to expect. Gladly Ames stays away from disturbingly graphic images and instead his word choice got the point across without disrespect.There are plenty of twists and turns in this action packed short and I was left wishing there were at least 200 more pages. Now that is how you know something is good: when you finish a book and you're yelling, "No! More! There's got to be more!"
review 2: Damn. I've never been much for the whole damaged-goods protagonist out for justice, because they all seem too action-hero-y to me, which turns me off. Not Joe, th... moreough. Sure, he IS an unstoppable killing machine capable of feats no normal human being could be expected to perform (at least not with such precise viciousness, but that's just the surface. Inside is a dark, self-loathing, suicidal soul who just wants to leave as little impact on the world as possible, minimize the damage that inevitably comes to those who come in contact with him. At first you might be inclined to think it's all just self-pitying woe-is-me nonsense, but by the end of this (way too) short story you see that Joe isn't too far off the mark at all. I like self contained stories. Stories that end. I'm not a "series" guy. But seriously, I need more Joe. The ending, while great and by no means a cop out, was by far the definition of a cliffhanger (though I have no doubt that Joe will most likely succeed in his mission). By the (unbeknownst to me) last sentence of this Kindle single, was all "Oh heeellll, yeah! How the hell is this going to wrap up in the next few pages.Spoiler alert: it doesn't. Well, it kind of does but not really. Basically this seems a bit like a teaser for a new literary character. Problem is, this came out in January 2013, and as far as I'm aware, Ames has no plans to write more about Joe.That's a shame, because this character was everything I wanted in "violent anti-hero" without succumbing to too many of the cliches and trapping for that character archetype.Mr. Ames, if you're reading this, come on! You could have yourself a real hit on your hands with this character. Let's see more! less

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