Review: good, but not as good as New York
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 02 21, 2013
I'd call this a 3.5.I really loved The Nightlife: New York and anticipating liking this one just as one. Such was not the case, however. Luedke's writing is just as crisp and wonderful here as it was in the first, but a lot of what I really appreciated about the first book didn't carry over into this one. Most notable was Aaron's innocence. This was one of my favourite aspects of The Nightlife: New York. It seemed to have been replaced in The Nightlife: Las Vegas by The Predator. While I liked The Predator's protective nature and general badassness it was no substitute for the nice-guy feel that was lost.Similarly, there was a lot of sex in this book. There was plenty in the first one too and I have no problem with sex (and Luedke can write one hot scene), but here it started to crowd out the plot a little bit. A good 30% of the book passed between meeting the antagonist the first time and him taking any action toward Aaron and Michelle. There was very little in the intermediate 30% but sex of every imaginable sort. Plus it all felt a little one sided. Michelle, Aaron, and Ana are all about reckless abandon, but apparently only with girls. Never once is another man brought into the mix. There are countless women and just Aaron's 'sole penis,' four on one at one point. It didn't feel very natural. As one should probably expect of Las Vegas it all takes a bit a turn toward the depraved too. No longer are the pages full of Aaron's appreciation of Michelle's beauty and sexuality, instead they are littered with what every power-hungery, scumbag would like to do to 'that piece of ass,' 'whore,' 'tramp,' 'slut,' etc. I didn't find this to be an improvement. It felt like something indefinable had been corrupted.The ending was fairly predictable, but the addition of the new character Michael intrigued me. I'd be interested in knowing where that plot line goes.