Review: Grisly in a Good Way
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 02 27, 2013
When I first read this book last year, I wasn't sure how I felt about it. But I've since revisited Joe Cafe after reading more of JD Mader's work and I can see how he's really developed as a writer. Joe Cafe is a promising novel that pulled me in right away. I like the author's short sentences and the risks he takes with boundaries of taste in terms of violence and gore. (If you're sensitive to this type of thing, stick with Oprah's list, and you'll probably never say "Ew" while reading a novel ever again.)While I liked the style and pacing of Joe Cafe, I had a couple of issues with one of the characters acting out of character. The author makes sure we know the character has been reliably a certain way his whole life, but then he takes a sudden about face, which just didn't ring true to me. Also, much of the dialogue read like it was all spoken by one person; there wasn't enough variation in the speech patterns to make any of the characters distinguishable from each other.Overall, though, I liked Joe Cafe. It's a little raw, but an enjoyable story with a satisfying conclusion and it's just about the right size book to gobble down in a day or so. I'm currently digging JD Mader's The Biker and look forward to posting that review soon.