exellent pulp ( )

Very raw; this short story collection is very reminiscent of Frank Bill and other Appalachian writers. Meth heads, Aryan brothers, murder, prison tattoos, hillbillies, bar fights, and heists; these quick and dirty stories real you in instantly. There are no happy endings, only vindictive victories, revenges, or defeats. Not an uplifting read, but an engaging one that readers won't be able to stop thinking about. ( )

Jordan Harper's Love and Other Wounds is a collection of fifteen short stories that are so good they will literally blow your mind. That's the good new. The bad news is that, if like me, you picked this up, hoping this would be like his collection American Death Songs, you will find its nearly the same collection you read two years ago with a couple of items that have appeared in Thuglit, etc. It appears that the earlier collection was self-published and this one is legitimately published. But, you know what, every single story in this collection is so good that it was worth reading again.

Harper has captured a gritty, crime-ridden, kinda-bent, hair-raising corner of hell in these stories. So grab a few shots of your favorite whiskey and enjoy. This collection includes meth-heads in Agua Dulce, cattle stampedes, modern-day Bonnie and Clyde stories, dogfights, a mean little bar out in the Ozarks, what happens when you accept a nickname, Jamaican coke dealers and AK-47s, a redhaired gal with black leather pants and an ass like a heart turned upside down and torn in half, biker gangs, the legendary owner of Jackie Blue's, prison tats, prison yard policy, a scene out of Dog Day Afternoon, a fixer in Hollywood, overly literate undergrads in the wrong coffeeshop, stompings, stabbings, doing watchdog duty, a perfect murder, and revenge fantasies. Yes, it is violent. But, most of all, it is mad, crazy, and spiced with a touch of irony.

Worth reading more than once. Easy to read. Hardcore, gritty, nasty, and more honest and true than you want it to be. Filled with people driven to desperate actions. By their own actions or by a world filled with circumstances and choices that just have to be made. This is high-grade octane, the good stuff. ( )