About the Author: Adam Sternberg
Ugh – Where do I begin?
I would really like to contribute a proper review, full of quotes and a summary; however, I somewhat blame this book for putting me into a depression when I think of the direction that literature is going. Then again, I’d also like to offer a sincere apology for being so blunt.
Okay, we get it. The protagonist doesn’t care about anything other than getting the job done. He’s a trash man… in the future… and a hitman… and he doesn’t care… and he uses foul language to support this point. Because he’s a trash-man/hitman who doesn’t care. So when I see that point drilled into the reader’s mind, as if we are suppose to be reminded of it at the turn of every page, it gets redundant and annoying. This book is so noir and dull for such long periods of time that it took me about two weeks to finally stop reading. I really hate it when that happens.
To be honest, I did not read the entire book. I couldn’t. In fact, I put this book down and couldn’t pick up another for about 6 months. THAT’S what this book did to me.
I’m disappointed because I expected more based on the favorable reviews I have read. I was excited for Sternbergh’s debut. Though he is a talented writer and I respect the craft and the time an author dedicates to such a project, I found that this particular work just was not my cup of tea. After all, I found myself saying, “Okay, we get it,” more than once and suffered through a reading drought thereafter. It was painful.
I received Shovel Ready for free from Blogging for Books in exchange for this review.
Book Wasted 