Official Review: Reasonable Malice by JT Sather

[PashaRu]

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Reasonable Malice" by JT Sather.]

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2 out of 4 stars

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The American West. The Frontier. The tanned, tough, but noble cowboy as judge, jury, and executioner, exacting his own brand of vigilante justice on those who done him wrong. Like this? Okay, let’s lift these sepia-toned images out of the dusty 19th century and deposit them, with appropriate revisions, in the early 1990s. If you have a special affinity for these tropes, you might enjoy Reasonable Malice by JT Sather. Published in December 2013 by Inknbeans Press, it’s available as a download or paperback from both Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Both sites list it as about 70 pages. I was expecting a swell little novella, but my eBook came in at a scanty 28 pages – divided into nine chapters – which makes this more of a long short story.

From the author’s biography on Amazon, it seems that this might be a dollop of autobiography, an a la carte slice of the author’s own life from the aforementioned decade. It is told from the first person POV. The author, living in Las Vegas, reunites with his high school buddy Paul after both of their marriages have failed. They live the lives they had always wanted – that is, before wives and children got in the way. “We worked together, lived together, partied together and chased women together.” The author wryly remarks about his compadre, “In retrospect, I should’ve married him, but I just can’t get past that whole penis thing.”

These two guys’ guys do a lot of guy things together, including cliff diving, rock climbing, rappelling, and spelunking in the vast, rocky hinterland-that-still-is in the environs surrounding Las Vegas. Basking in the single-dad-with-kids lifestyle, “everything seemed to be going swimmingly,” the author observes. That is, until a friend of a friend, Jerry, moves in to their apartment on a favor. Bunking on the couch, this was to be for only a month, but Jerry is a bit irresponsible and stays a good spell longer than planned. And he turns out to be a bit of a baddie (the outlaw), selling drugs out of the apartment. Told he must leave tomorrow, he steals some of the guys’ property and disappears. A police report is filed, but nothing comes of it.

A series of events follow which reveal the whereabouts of the bandit. The stage is set. The sheriff having failed, the main character-narrator (our cowboy), along with two friends, mount up (in an '81 Monte Carlo) and ride south to the vast Arizona territory (Phoenix) after the outlaw desperado. Vigilante justice will be exacted. But not with a noose or six-shooter. Ah, but no spoilers.

This tale is told with all the finesse and eloquence of an average guy sitting next to you at a bar who is already on his third or fourth Heineken. The language is coarse (Chapter One is entitled “Piece of Sh*t Number One.” Can you guess the title of Chapter Two?), the grammar is bad, and the common-man vernacular is employed without apology or embarrassment. It’s as if the guy on the stool next to you, rendered slightly obnoxious and braggadocious by a few brews, launches brashly and unabashedly into a let-me-tell-you-how-full-of-piss-and-vinegar-I-used-to-be tale from his heady days as a twenty-something knucklehead. I was unable to determine if this writing style was intentionally invoked or if the author’s speaking and writing level is simply laid bare by the tone of the narrative. I suspect the latter, since some of the grammar, along with misspelled words and incorrect punctuation, add nothing to a possible stylistic voice, but simply come off as incorrect. For example:

scaling the cliffs and repelling back down [rappelling]; he was so exited he made it there in one shot [excited]; UNEXCEPTABLE! [unacceptable]; Me and Rick climbed out [Rick and I]; a shinny white crown [shiny]; not to be triffled with [trifled]; All of this bullsh*t was for not [naught]

Colloquialisms abound, which make this feel more like an off-the-cuff conversation than a polished narrative. Dickens it’s not. More like Uncle Remus. You’ll either chuckle or grimace over phrases such as we had a decent enough pad; after din din, me and Paul would take turns…; Paul stayed home with the kiddies; I did have a Bengi [hundred dollar bill]; I started whaling on his left kidney; a strong sense of morality and whatnot. You get the picture. I found myself more in the “grimace” camp. There is a certain idiosyncratic style present here, but I can’t say I’m a fan.

Nobody is terribly likable in this story. Admittedly, 28 pages isn’t an expansive canvas that allows for a multitude of tiny brushstrokes, but these guys are out to have guy fun, and then they’re out for revenge. That’s about it. Their outside-the-law approach is a bit off-putting, and the pound of flesh they demand, and the alacrity with which they go after it, is questionable at best. A slight twist at the end adds a modicum of irony to an otherwise one-dimensional narrative.

The story, however, moves quickly. The pace is fairly consistent; there is the standard rising action-climax-falling action formula, albeit in truncated form. I can’t say I wasn’t interested in the outcome for these anti-heroes and their quest for retribution. The narrative is carried more by action than by dialogue or (heaven forbid) any kind of introspection. It’s a guys’ story from start to finish. Stuff happens. Guy stuff. Nothing touchy-feely or warm and fuzzy here. And although it held my interest, I wasn’t completely satisfied with the dénouement. In fact, I question the title itself. After all is said and done, was the level of malice, in fact, reasonable?

I rate Reasonable Malice 2 out of 4 stars. While it is an interesting and entertaining story, the subject matter, coarse language, and writing style – including numerous errors in grammar, spelling and punctuation – don’t help to create a polished narrative, but simply an average everyman’s mediocre retelling of something from his past. Nothing truly stands out to make this unique or different either narratively or stylistically. I can recommend this story to those who want a short, fun read with a bit of action and revenge, but aren’t too picky about the way the story is told. If you’re looking for eloquence or depth, ride on, pardner. You won’t find it in this town.

******
Reasonable Malice
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Like PashaRu's review? Post a comment saying so!

[Cee-Jay Aurinko]

28 pages! That's like one hour of reading. Okay, guy sells drugs, guy must be taken out. Nah, I think I'll pass. Great review! Seems like you went to get your own justice pardner. (spit--stair--and stair).

[gali]

Great review! I enjoyed reading your review, but the book isn't my cup of tea.

[PashaRu]

Thank you both for your comments!

[zeldas_lullaby]

This is a thorough, well-written review about a beautiful bro-mance. I know you can't give any spoilers, but I hope these two guys rode off into the sunset at the end and lassoed some streetlamps.

[bluemel4]

Great review and analysis! You went into wonderful amount of detail without giving away any spoilers. Amazing job.

[PashaRu]

This is a thorough, well-written review about a beautiful bro-mance. I know you can't give any spoilers, but I hope these two guys rode off into the sunset at the end and lassoed some streetlamps.

Haha, well, if you can plough through all 28 pages, the secret will be yours!

Great review and analysis! You went into wonderful amount of detail without giving away any spoilers. Amazing job.

Thank you for your kind words!

[bookowlie]

Great review! It's funny that the book was less than half the estimated number of pages. I've had the opposite happen on more than one occasion, where the book will turn out to be 75-100 pages longer than the number estimated on Amazon.

I'm glad you were able to enjoy some parts of the book, even though it wasn't the best read overall.

[PashaRu]

Thanks. i don't know why the page count is so off. There is most likely a difference between eBooks and physical books, but that wouldn't explain the difference of 28 pages vs 70.

[bookowlie]

I have noticed that the estimated number of pages is off, even with a book that is published in e-book format only. I would imagine it all depends on the method the author uses for estimating. Some authors may use a standard words per page estimate and divide that number into the total word count. If you google this question, I've seen the standard words per page estimated at 250 or 300. The 50 words per page difference might account for the difference in the actual number of pages.

OK, now I will go back to my statistical analyst hole.

[zeldas_lullaby]

When I self-publish, Amazon does that for me. I've never inputted a page count into their publishing forms, and there's no place to input a page count... Hm...

[bookowlie]

Amazon might be the culprit. I've found the estimated page count to be significantly off in indie ebooks in both directions. It's a nice surprise when the book is much shorter. It sometimes is annoying if the book turns out to be much longer than you anticipated.

[PashaRu]

Well it sounds like it might be a fault in Amazon's system.

OK, now I will go back to my statistical analyst hole.

But this made me laugh.

[Jesska6029]

I think I will be skipping this one! Grammar and spelling mistakes do happen, but I hate when they take me out of a story. Also, 28 pages seems like an extremely short story. Really great review!

[PashaRu]

Thanks! I think this one has a somewhat limited audience, due to length, style, technical errors, and subjet matter. At least it's not a huge investment of time.