Review: Fiction unleashed, untamed, and unafraid. FIERCE!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 15, 2014
What is someone supposed to say when they've read the best of a genre? Somehow "OMG! I LOVED IT!" feels paltry and weak in comparison to how rich the experience was for me as a reader. It took me a long time to come up with words to describe how I feel about Suicide Ride: The Platinum Man since I wanted to put it out there from the perspective of someone who genuinely, truly, honestly loved every decadent detail involved in the work.I was stunned when I found this was a debut novel.That's a place to start.Debut novels typically have a variety of issues which plague them; I forgive almost all of those since they are debut novels. Everyone starts somewhere. Even the best writers had a first book---and it most likely was not their best work.I started reading The Platinum Man expecting a typical May/December gay-for-you queerlit piece which might be hot or might be not. It was one of those books I'd heard about. I had seen it around. It'd hit the charts a few times on Amazon. It had amazing reviews. The cover art was striking. I love May/December stories period so I snagged it on sale.The moment I started reading it I was there. I was rolling along with Johnny Gellis as he traded in one life for another, no idea where the road was really leading but not willing to stop to ask for directions because men don't do that, right? Men go in guns blazing, shooting first, asking questions after, and it was as if I were doing the same thing while reading this book. I was hooked.It was decadent reading in a way I haven't experienced in so long I can't fully describe how it felt to finally feel as if I were reading real prose again. Some people don't want that style. Some people prefer fade-to-black or simplicity in action. Me? I want it all. I want it as rich, as thick, as heavy, and as hard as you can give it to me because I want to feel raw all over when the ride is over otherwise?There are other books I could be reading.I read this one and then I read it again.That's how good this ride was for me.I wanted Norman to fall in lust/love with me. I wanted Johnny to be a man who'd do anything to change, to get his dream, to ride the ride. I never wanted it to end.If Quentin Tarantino didn't write his own scripts? I'd personally petition him to hire E. Llewellyn to do his next movie because he's the only director on the planet who could handle her and that's questionable. This work makes his movies look tame.It is fiction unleashed. It is lyrical madness. This? This is not a book. This is literature.E. Llewellyn can keep writing forever as far as I'm concerned because she'll always have a fan in me. I think she's an unstoppable force of nature and I'm the kind of madwoman who wants to say she lived through the experience of having taken the Suicide Ride with her.