Violence on the Meek by Stuart Bray

1/5 stars

This one wasn’t really for me, but not for the reasons you might think. Yes, it was depraved, and horrible things were done by the main character, but there were some glaring things that I just couldn’t look past that killed anything I might have gotten from this.

The first is repeated and gross use of the r-word. There are loads of ways you can insult someone without using that particular word. I cannot abide by that word being used anywhere, and it was an instant rating drop. Violence on the Meek was just published in February 2023…..do better. There’s no reason to use a word like that.

My second issue was with continuity issues and grammar. Paul stated in one spot that he was entirely out of ammo for both weapons that he had, but then in the next scene, he magically had ammo. Then, a bit later, it was mentioned that he had exactly one bullet left, but he was out of ammo before that, so where did the ammo come from? There were also a lot of really obvious spelling and grammar mistakes, enough to be really distracting.

My final problem is with the characters. What Paul did was absolutely horrible, but I never really cared about any of the characters. I didn’t have any sort of rapport or connection with anyone, so I couldn’t feel any horror or disgust for his actions beyond the upset for the act itself. Paul didn’t feel well-written. He just came across as a whiny, “edge-lord” teen who never figured out how to express himself, so he chose violence. His tantrums, as that’s what they read as, were punctuated with liberal uses of the f-word and extremely similar scenes of torture and murder.

As I said, this one wasn’t for me. Maybe I’ve been desensitized from other books I’ve read, but this one just didn’t provoke the reaction from me that I was waiting for after everything I’d heard about it.