I hate it when I see a book on GR that's virtually 4 and 5 stars across the board, so I go off to Amazon and buy it, and then I can't even get through the damn thing. That really burns my ass.

I truly don't understand the glowing reviews for this one. I made it just a hair over a third of the way through this muck before giving up. Why did I give up?

Well, supposedly, the protagonist, Eli Carver—who's completely unlikeable—keeps suffering from psychotic breaks. So, we'll be treated to him waking up and basically wringing his hands over stuff he doesn't know happened. Then Carly (whom I'll get to in a bit), will mention something, and we're treated to two things...

1-First we get an "oh yeah! Now I remember!" bit where a name pops out of the ether, and Carver goes on a long, incredibly detailed trip down memory lane about this character. Typically someone he's killed. Then...

2-That dead person then shows up as a ghost or phantom or memory or whatever the hell, in the back seat of his car, and they talk to him. Hell, there's even a point where he's got so many of these memory-ghosts, that two of them tussle in the back seat.

And that's about 80% of the story up to the point where I dropped it in disgust.

And then there's the only other main character, the aforementioned Carly. What we find out very quickly about her is, she's on the run with Eli, not necessarily of her own choosing. He's locked her in the trunk for two days at one point. When he's on his breaks, he apparently beats her. And yet, just about when I tossed the book down, we find out that, during one of his breaks, he robbed a place of several thousand dollars, then drove to a car dealership, threw the money at her and, without him saying a word, she divined that he wanted her to buy a car.

So, she's been abused to shit by the guy, but when he hands her a bunch of money and a way out, she buys a car and willingly gets back in with him. Instead of, you know, in the words of Steve Miller, whoa-oh take the money and run, woo-hoo-hoo!

I gave up when I was treated to the by now creaky, far-too-overused trope of creepy stepdad having his way with his far-too-underage daughter.

This entire story stretches the suspension of disbelief way too far. To the point where I began to feel insulted.

I will say, however, after having just read [b:Galveston|8262337|Galveston|Nic Pizzolatto|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1411926722l/8262337._SX50_.jpg|7904929] by [a:Nic Pizzolatto|603698|Nic Pizzolatto|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1392138501p2/603698.jpg] (a much more capable author), which is a book with a similar feel—a bad guy on the run from his mob boss with a much younger woman in tow—that this book doesn't just pale in comparison, it essentially disappears in a puff of embarrassed smoke.

Needless to say, I won't be reading the second book in the Eli Carver chronicles.

And today's lesson kids? Don't believe all the glowing reviews. Hell, don't believe mine. It's all just personal opinion.