Official Review: Noise by Brett Garcia Rose
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- Latest Review: "Noise" by Brett Garcia Rose
Official Review: Noise by Brett Garcia Rose
[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Noise" by Brett Garcia Rose.]
3 out of 4 stars
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Noise, a realistic fiction crime thriller, is Brett Garcia Rose’s first novel. The present-day story takes place in some of the darkest and seediest areas of New York City and is narrated by the main character, 25 year-old Leon. From the moment you open the book, there is never a doubt that what you’re about to read is going to be dark and scary, as he opens with, “The world is an ugly place, and I can tell you now, I fit in just fine.” Rose’s novel is gritty and involves horrendous individual acts of violence as well as crimes against humanity. Readers are kept on the edges of their seats throughout this action-packed journey into the frightening underworld of human trafficking.
One post card was all it took to renew a brother’s hope for a reunion with the only human he has ever loved. On a fresh clue, Leon travels from South Carolina to New York City in search of his adopted sister Lily, who’s been missing and presumed dead for over ten years. The two siblings have had a close bond ever since Lily’s mother rescued Leon from Africa when he was nine. He was a deaf orphan living on the streets. For six years and up until the time of her disappearance, Lily who was two years his senior, taught her brother love and trust, and how to communicate. However, Leon has more than love in his heart as he follows Lily’s trail through Manhattan’s underworld. The instincts and skills he learned as a babe on the war-torn streets of Nigeria have equipped him well. He is able to turn off his emotions and focus on the urban jungle hunt for his sister. He will stop at nothing to find Lilly, taking down anything and anyone who gets in his way.
Rose does a terrific job describing a bleak and grimy underworld, complete with vile and despicable antagonists. New York’s Manhattan, as seen through Leon’s eyes, makes his childhood home on the violent streets of Nigeria look like paradise. I also have to commend Rose on his action scenes, which were numerous and impressively disturbing. He painted a violent and graphic picture of Russian organized crime, human trafficking and slavery in American. This made it easy for me to root for Leon as he went on a crime spree of his own.
One area where I felt the novel fell slightly short was in the background of the main character, Leon. I was intrigued by this dark giant of a man from Africa, powerful and dangerous, yet I had so many questions about his past. I wanted to know more about his childhood in Nigeria and how he came to live in South Carolina. Then there was a huge ten-year gap when his 17 year-old sister disappeared. Also, what was up with his adoptive mother? Why did she adopt him in the first place, and why was she so cold? She seemed like a contradiction. Also, it was a bit puzzling how Leon jumped from being a poor African orphan and street soldier to a techno-geek on the streets of Manhattan with practically super-human fighting skills. I can see how and why he had the instinct to fight, but his advanced computer skills were a bit unbelievable. This seemed to conflict with his work background being in construction demolition.
While Rose’s detailed descriptions of the setting and action made it easy to visualize his story as an action movie, in a few instances he overdid it, in my opinion. Some details seemed pointless and odd, such as in Chapter Two when he is describing a translator in a police station, “…her face bored and severe, her posture correct.” Then in Chapter Three, Leon experiences a crowded subway train, where, “A policeman’s holstered gun rubs against my kidney. A small boy leans against my leg and falls asleep; his mother plays Scrabble on a tablet balanced on bruised knees.” Why did I need to know about a lady’s bruised knees? Why are they bruised, by the way? I felt sidetracked as I pondered these things instead of wondering about where Leon was going or what he might do next.
Another criticism I have for Rose’s writing, I hesitate to even mention, but I will anyway. In my opinion, he used too many sentence fragments. It wasn’t enough to ruin the story though—just a pet peeve of mine. There is a place for incomplete sentences in novels, and indeed they often make the story more readable. But sometimes they are just distracting, such as in the opening sentence of Noise when Rose writes, “Below the window, the grind of traffic, the thrum of a city rush, the weary desperation of people nudged around like house pets.” To me this just reads as a run-on and an incomplete sentence—not a great way to begin a story in this instance.
I contemplated between a rating of 2 or 3 stars for Brett Garcia Rose’s Noise. Ultimately I decided that it definitely deserved the higher rating of 3 out of 4 stars. Rose did a terrific job describing the setting and action scenes. His story is exciting, fast-paced, and kept me turning the pages. This is a novel that will appeal to readers who enjoy dark crime fiction with violent acts described in gory detail. Had the author further developed the background of his main character and perhaps added in a few more chapters to describe the ten-year gap in the story, he might have garnered a higher rating from me. But this did not prevent me from enjoying the story, and I will definitely recommend Noise to others.
******
Noise
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on Barnes and Noble
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3 out of 4 stars
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Noise, a realistic fiction crime thriller, is Brett Garcia Rose’s first novel. The present-day story takes place in some of the darkest and seediest areas of New York City and is narrated by the main character, 25 year-old Leon. From the moment you open the book, there is never a doubt that what you’re about to read is going to be dark and scary, as he opens with, “The world is an ugly place, and I can tell you now, I fit in just fine.” Rose’s novel is gritty and involves horrendous individual acts of violence as well as crimes against humanity. Readers are kept on the edges of their seats throughout this action-packed journey into the frightening underworld of human trafficking.
One post card was all it took to renew a brother’s hope for a reunion with the only human he has ever loved. On a fresh clue, Leon travels from South Carolina to New York City in search of his adopted sister Lily, who’s been missing and presumed dead for over ten years. The two siblings have had a close bond ever since Lily’s mother rescued Leon from Africa when he was nine. He was a deaf orphan living on the streets. For six years and up until the time of her disappearance, Lily who was two years his senior, taught her brother love and trust, and how to communicate. However, Leon has more than love in his heart as he follows Lily’s trail through Manhattan’s underworld. The instincts and skills he learned as a babe on the war-torn streets of Nigeria have equipped him well. He is able to turn off his emotions and focus on the urban jungle hunt for his sister. He will stop at nothing to find Lilly, taking down anything and anyone who gets in his way.
Rose does a terrific job describing a bleak and grimy underworld, complete with vile and despicable antagonists. New York’s Manhattan, as seen through Leon’s eyes, makes his childhood home on the violent streets of Nigeria look like paradise. I also have to commend Rose on his action scenes, which were numerous and impressively disturbing. He painted a violent and graphic picture of Russian organized crime, human trafficking and slavery in American. This made it easy for me to root for Leon as he went on a crime spree of his own.
One area where I felt the novel fell slightly short was in the background of the main character, Leon. I was intrigued by this dark giant of a man from Africa, powerful and dangerous, yet I had so many questions about his past. I wanted to know more about his childhood in Nigeria and how he came to live in South Carolina. Then there was a huge ten-year gap when his 17 year-old sister disappeared. Also, what was up with his adoptive mother? Why did she adopt him in the first place, and why was she so cold? She seemed like a contradiction. Also, it was a bit puzzling how Leon jumped from being a poor African orphan and street soldier to a techno-geek on the streets of Manhattan with practically super-human fighting skills. I can see how and why he had the instinct to fight, but his advanced computer skills were a bit unbelievable. This seemed to conflict with his work background being in construction demolition.
While Rose’s detailed descriptions of the setting and action made it easy to visualize his story as an action movie, in a few instances he overdid it, in my opinion. Some details seemed pointless and odd, such as in Chapter Two when he is describing a translator in a police station, “…her face bored and severe, her posture correct.” Then in Chapter Three, Leon experiences a crowded subway train, where, “A policeman’s holstered gun rubs against my kidney. A small boy leans against my leg and falls asleep; his mother plays Scrabble on a tablet balanced on bruised knees.” Why did I need to know about a lady’s bruised knees? Why are they bruised, by the way? I felt sidetracked as I pondered these things instead of wondering about where Leon was going or what he might do next.
Another criticism I have for Rose’s writing, I hesitate to even mention, but I will anyway. In my opinion, he used too many sentence fragments. It wasn’t enough to ruin the story though—just a pet peeve of mine. There is a place for incomplete sentences in novels, and indeed they often make the story more readable. But sometimes they are just distracting, such as in the opening sentence of Noise when Rose writes, “Below the window, the grind of traffic, the thrum of a city rush, the weary desperation of people nudged around like house pets.” To me this just reads as a run-on and an incomplete sentence—not a great way to begin a story in this instance.
I contemplated between a rating of 2 or 3 stars for Brett Garcia Rose’s Noise. Ultimately I decided that it definitely deserved the higher rating of 3 out of 4 stars. Rose did a terrific job describing the setting and action scenes. His story is exciting, fast-paced, and kept me turning the pages. This is a novel that will appeal to readers who enjoy dark crime fiction with violent acts described in gory detail. Had the author further developed the background of his main character and perhaps added in a few more chapters to describe the ten-year gap in the story, he might have garnered a higher rating from me. But this did not prevent me from enjoying the story, and I will definitely recommend Noise to others.
******
Noise
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on Barnes and Noble
Like jazziemommie's review? Post a comment saying so!
Latest Review: "Noise" by Brett Garcia Rose
