DNF - I had such high hopes for this book, but it just didn't grab me at all. I gave up 50 pages in when I realized I didn't care one bit about what happened, or any of the characters. ( )

first acquaintance with this author, and i'm glad to meet him. Mookie Pearl makes a very unlikely hero - for one thing he's a part of Manhattan's mobster Underworld, and he's made a lot of mistakes. but down in the tunnels beneath the ground he uncovers another older UnderWorld full of dangerous monsters and the dead. not everything, or everyone, is as it seems, and that's a good thing for the story. this is a neopulp novel that reads kind of like if Aaronovitch's Rivers of London met Stross's Laundry Files and leaned into the horror end of another City with a dark and dirty Past. i liked it a lot, and you will too if you're fond of hardboiled detective stories: you can enjoy the Hell out of it without ever getting too serious, and the worldbuilding is as detailed and intriguing as the characters. ( )

Nothing bad, but nothing impressive either. Feels like playing a videogame. Excellent writing, but the story, not so much... ( )

Wow.

I mean... Wow. I am not sure a story has ever pulled me in so fast and kept me down and then made my brain pitch a fit when it was done. Watching the delay of the sequel has been tormenting but at last it is promised and do you know how hard it is to do other things when your brain is hopping up and down for joy?

Go meet Mookie. Understand that you'll be reading obsessively, pack accordingly. ( )

I love Chuck Wendig. I love the Miriam Black novels. I love the writing tips books. I love the terribleminds.com blog.

But for some reason, I didn't love this. Didn't hate it. Wendig's an engaging enough author that his crappiest stuff is going to be fun, but this one? Nah, just didn't quite do it for me.

Initially, I thought it might be the constant hits of new information he had to give so you could understand Mookie Pearl's world, much like Rowling had to do with the Harry Potter novels, and I still think that may be a bit of it. It felt, at times, a touch heavy-handed. Where Rowling often introduced new elements in situ so the reader learned about them while also seeing the elements in action, Wendig had to throw a fair amount of background at you just to get you going. Though, the cartographer notations at the beginnings of the paragraphs helped with this.

I think the other part was Mookie himself. I just didn't get a connection with him. Probably more my issue than Wendig's.

It's fun, it's action-packed, and it has all the smarm and sarcasm you'd expect from a Wendig novel. If you're a fan, give it a shot. ( )