Hellrider

2.5 Rounded Up! Thank you to Netgalley & Flame Tree Press for providing me with an e-arc of Hellrider by J.G. Faherty in exchange for an honest review! Content Warnings: I unfortunately did not jot down all the content warnings in Hellrider, however I do know there are a few mentions of rape & very close to being rape scenes. Hellrider starts off pretty well; we get introduced to our protagonist (err…. antagonist?) Eddie. Eddie is an ex-Hellrider who gets murdered by his former bike gang. In the beginning, I felt for this character — he so clearly cared about his mother (who’s diagnosed with emphysema) & younger brother. After the introduction we get introduced to the real meat of this tale & that’s Eddie returning from the dead with powers; y’all my dude’s out here controlling electricity & possessing bodies. Honestly, this whole concept is pretty rad. After awhile, Eddie becomes drunk with revenge. Understandable, really. It’s a good time witnessing this development & see how much Eddie changes throughout his time in death. J.G. Faherty definitely developed a wonderful concept & characterization. However, I do have some issues with Hellrider. As it progresses, Eddie continuously possesses bodies in order to get his revenge & this does start to feel repetitive & in all honesty, boring. & although I know it’s intentional & it probably won’t bother many other people, I did start to get uncomfortable with Eddie going too far. Hellrider starts to get real rape-y when it comes to Eddie & his younger teen brother’s girlfriend, Kellie. There’s a scene where Eddie possesses Kellie & squeezes her breast & honestly, it just felt so weird and uncomfortable to read. There’s other rape-y aspects, including possessing a a gay man & having him force himself onto a female co-worker. What the what. All in all, J.G. Faherty is a wonderful writer & he definitely told a tale that had a wonderful concept. However, towards the last half — most of my interest had evaporated & I was left with being uncomfortable.