DNF at p. 160/243

I normally would finish a book this short, but it was keeping me from reading things I'm actually interested in so I decided not to waste any more of my time.

I really liked the concept of this book. I love stories with morally questionable characters and I can appreciate a good thriller or dystopian. I thought it would be compelling and action-packed and a little violent, but I was wrong. There is barely any action or real exploration of the characters or the world. What explanation there is fails to be integrated well into the narrative. The writing fells stilted and is very intrusive. It feels like it's trying to be a character study on some level, but Spademan makes no sense as a character and his actions don't line up well with what we are told about who he is.

A lot of this book's problem is its failure to follow the "show don't tell" rule. Almost all of the characterization and world building is randomly shoved into the narrative with no transition, often in places where it doesn't make sense and distracts from the actual story. These explanations are either ridiculously dramatic or completely emotionless. I understand that, since the book is in first person, the writing style is probably meant to reflect Spademan as a character, but it still makes the book difficult to read and adds to the inconsistency of the character.

One other world building thing is that it's very centered on New York and doesn't do much to explain what may be happening in other parts of the country or the world. Some attempt is made briefly, but they still have access to the internet so it would seem like it wouldn't have been that hard to reference current events in other places more. I also had trouble caring about the destruction of New York, not because I have anything against the city, but because of the way the author tries to force the reader to feel sympathy for the city and even implies that New York is superior to other parts of the country, calling it "the country's soul." It's even kind of mocking of the midwest (where I'm from) relating it to "a plucky dollar store." I found this kind of offensive even though I know it's not that big of a deal and I was already fed up with everything else at that point. It just shows the lack of effort to develop the world.