Mickey & Mo – Robert Essig and Tomasz Czarny

3.5 stars

Mickey and Mo is a very fast-paced novella about two drug dealers and their path to depravity. These two like a little bit of everything, and the more they take, the more paranoid they get. Everything takes a turn, though, when they’re asked to watch their friend’s baby, and they do a little acid to soothe the nerves….

This didn’t read nearly as extreme as I was anticipating. Honestly, I thought this book was more sad than anything. Robert and Tomasz did a really good job of showing how much the body and mind degrade from hard drug use, how desperate someone can get for their next fix, and the increasing amounts that they need to chase that high. They put into perspective how warped someone can get once they cross the line into hard using, and it was really sad to see what Mickey and Mo had been reduced to.

Now, that’s not to say there weren’t any horrifying parts (see aforementioned decision to trip while watching the friend’s baby), I just thought cold sad reality superceded the actual horror.

The ending was super rushed for me, but I’m hoping that means the authors will turn this into a series of novellas. I’m curious where Mickey and Mo will end up, if they’ll turn their lives around at all, or if Skull will catch up to them and make them pay.