ARC received from Hachette Australia for an honest review

I was excited to start reading The Last Smile In Sunder City after I read the blurb. It is not really a genre that I usually read, however I was intrigued.

Unfortunately, the book did not hit the expectations that I had for it.

It started off with a great noir feel to it, and I could kind of picture our main man Fetch Phillips walking the dystopian, post magic world in a trench coat, cigarette hanging from his mouth and a hat slouched over his face. Except that that would be too clean for Fetch lol

I found myself skimming through patches of this book, particularly the flashback scenes. I was just completely disinterested in them.

Also, I felt that there was just too much going on, too many people/beings brought into the story. What started as a missing person/being story turned into a confusing mish mash of different creatures that I was not sure all were required.

And the the noir feel that I was enjoying just vanished.

There was nothing at all I found about Fetch that made me want to like the man. The flashbacks ( that I did read right through) were all woe is me, everyone else is to blame for my life 0 gah. Just no Fetch!

To me, this could have done with a big round of editing out the superfluous characters and a bit of streamlining, as the story did plod along, and at times I did contemplate not finishing it.