What would it be like if noir writer Matthew Stokoe and fictional writer Hank Moody (Californication) came together and made a literary love child in the land of A Scanner Darkly? The result would be this new novel by Tom Piccirilli.
What Makes You Die is the newest from Tom (out from Apex Publishing in March) and is a literary noir ride of bizarre and sometimes confusing scenarios. The main character, Tommy Pic, is a man who is semi-alcoholic, a little bit schizophrenic, sometimes sees dead people, talks to a Pug, lives at home with his mom who puts secret money in his wallet, lost a girl he loved to a possible kidnapper at age 10, and hopeful writer of a new film, entitled, What Makes You Die. Throughout, you go on a acid trip style journey with Tommy, from his time in therapy sessions strapped to a table with family around, to working with Monty his agent to get this movie written, and get it shopped off to movie producers to be made.
Probably one of the greatest parts of the novel in my mind was when Tommy went to his old high school, and started seeing dead children who supposedly had been eviscerated and organs stolen by those at the school. He ends up staring at his old locker, when a girl named Celeste comes up asking him what he's doing, because it is her locker now. She realizes who he is, and asks for him to come speak with their cinema club in the garage of her parents home. Upon arriving, Tommy starts out taking questions well from the students, then it spirals downhill with him going into curse word laden rampages, and thinking of what it would be like to get with one of the girls. The dialogue between himself in his own head, and with the students, made the book better for me and gave me a chuckle or two.
Overall, I felt it was a decent novel, but it was written in a sometimes scattered and hard to follow style, as I've found noir novels to handle like from the few I've read. Definitely not the type of book for everyone, but for those that enjoy this style of writing, it would be a good read.
Review by Kyle Lybeck
What Makes You Die is the newest from Tom (out from Apex Publishing in March) and is a literary noir ride of bizarre and sometimes confusing scenarios. The main character, Tommy Pic, is a man who is semi-alcoholic, a little bit schizophrenic, sometimes sees dead people, talks to a Pug, lives at home with his mom who puts secret money in his wallet, lost a girl he loved to a possible kidnapper at age 10, and hopeful writer of a new film, entitled, What Makes You Die. Throughout, you go on a acid trip style journey with Tommy, from his time in therapy sessions strapped to a table with family around, to working with Monty his agent to get this movie written, and get it shopped off to movie producers to be made. Probably one of the greatest parts of the novel in my mind was when Tommy went to his old high school, and started seeing dead children who supposedly had been eviscerated and organs stolen by those at the school. He ends up staring at his old locker, when a girl named Celeste comes up asking him what he's doing, because it is her locker now. She realizes who he is, and asks for him to come speak with their cinema club in the garage of her parents home. Upon arriving, Tommy starts out taking questions well from the students, then it spirals downhill with him going into curse word laden rampages, and thinking of what it would be like to get with one of the girls. The dialogue between himself in his own head, and with the students, made the book better for me and gave me a chuckle or two.
Overall, I felt it was a decent novel, but it was written in a sometimes scattered and hard to follow style, as I've found noir novels to handle like from the few I've read. Definitely not the type of book for everyone, but for those that enjoy this style of writing, it would be a good read.
Review by Kyle Lybeck
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