Amber Hawthorne and Jolene Morris, roommates and business partners at the Hawthorne Funeral Home, are drowning in debt. Because both young women have trouble keeping their partying habits in line, they start selling body parts on the black market to keep their business alive – and their new buyers seem friendly and trustworthy enough at first. That is until the dead gangster they've recently parted up turns out to have been full of disease. Now Amber and Jolene's buyers want something else to make up for lost profits, leaving the two undertakers to learn sometimes running your own business can cost you an arm and a leg. Literally.
This is the last Flame Tree Press ARC left on my pile, so I was really looking foward to checking it out. As soon as I started, I was dragged right into the insane activity.
Frank used to be a doctor before he spent time in jail. Now he's still a doctor, but works out of his shabby home and patches up people skirting the more dangerous underbelly of society.
Jolene and Amber run a funeral home, but between their partying and loose business practices, they're struggling to keep the business afloat. So, as soon as a nefarious offer comes their way, they take a chance.
After the doctor and the undertakers cross paths, their lives take an awful turn that can only lead to a whole bunch of bloody trouble...
Oh my. This book! Where do I start? There's so much to unpack. So much to process. I know this is a story I will think about quite a bit in the future. It's got that sticky kind of effect that leaves residue behind that's impossible to wash away.
Most of this felt like a twisted comedy of errors. It's like a cross between the Tarantino violence level and the hilarity of Stephanie Plum, with a good dose of Jerry Springer. On steroids. There's a LOT of violence, balanced out with plenty of dark humour and a bunch of screwed up over the top situations.
So many insane things happen in this story and escalate so quickly, I almost got whiplash a few times.
One of my favourite aspects was how many times this story full of criminals and worst kind of misfits--dealers, mobsters, traffickers--crossed into the black comedy of errors territory. Just when I thought things couldn't get worse or crazier, they totally did.
Yet, no matter how bizarre or out of control everything got, it all worked. And I think that's because this story was so well written. I mean, the characters in this tale of depravity are all awful, but I was engrossed in their wretched lives, and wanted to follow them to the end.
Chop Shop turned out to be an interesting, hilarious crime novel guaranteed to please anyone interested in a fast-paced story full of fumbling characters with a good dose of despicable. It's gory, focuses on heavy adult content, and is definitely not for the faint of heart. Not to mention that every chapter raises the stakes, and leads to a morbid, hopeless, yet strangely satisfying ending that fits perfectly.
I seriously enjoyed the hell out of every moment I spent reading this crazy little violent book.
You should check it out!
You should check it out!