Name: Lauren Dale's review of Blacktop Wasteland by S. A. Cosby
Item: Blacktop Wasteland
Rating: 3
Author: Lauren Dale

S. A. Cosby

A husband, a father, a son, a business owner...And the best getaway driver east of the Mississippi. “Sensationally good—new, fresh, real, authentic, twisty, with characters and dilemmas that will break your heart. More than recommended.” —Lee Child Beauregard “Bug” Montage is an honest mechanic, a loving husband, and a hard-working dad. Bug knows there’s no future in the man he used to be: known from the hills of North Carolina to the beaches of Florida as the best wheelman on the East Coast. He thought he'd left all that behind him, but as his carefully built new life begins to crumble, he finds himself drawn inexorably back into a world of blood and bullets. When a smooth-talking former associate comes calling with a can't-miss jewelry store heist, Bug feels he has no choice but to get back in the driver's seat. And Bug is at his best where the scent of gasoline mixes with the smell of fear. Haunted by the ghost of who he used to be and the father who disappeared when he needed him most, Bug must find a way to navigate this blacktop wasteland...or die trying. Like Ocean’s Eleven meets Drive, with a Southern noir twist, S. A. Cosby’s Blacktop Wasteland is a searing, operatic story of a man pushed to his limits by poverty, race, and his own former life of crime.

A Novel

Blacktop Wasteland

Christian Beck

For some reason this has been in my TBR for a while and I can’t remember why it. It was definitely interesting but not necessarily my cup of tea…

Lauren Dale

Sarah Sammis

Every decision Beauregard makes, including taking the first job, is judged against memories of his father both as a getaway driver and as a parent. For most of the novel the conflict is the compartmentalizing of criminal life as Bug and respectable life as Beauregard. But his crimes find their way home. His children either become criminals or are hurt by them.

While Beauregard is a driver and knows cars and trucks as well as he knows his own body, the novel doesn't find its placement in the road narrative spectrum until the climax. How it fits has nothing to do with the Blue Highways and other backroads he knows. Nor does it have anything to do with the cities and towns he travels between for his jobs. Instead, the road narrative spectrum placement defines the decisions he makes to end his involvement in crime to keep his family safe.

http://pussreboots.com/blog/2020/comm...

6666FF - marginalized home cornfield

Charlsy Sekyere

⭐️3.5

Despite my love for Razorblade Tears, this was a perfectly fine book I enjoyed by an author that I admire. 

In certain sections of the book, I found myself uninterested in details about cars, parts of cars, car chases/escapes, and the heist. Consequently, those were the moments I didn't particularly enjoy, since they were often dull and monotonous. 

I also wasn't impressed with the ending, as it felt very open-ended, which may have been very intentional on S.A. Cosby's part. I wasn't a fan of the ending, as it didn't seem to wrap up the story. It left some loose ends, and felt ambiguous, which is in contrast to Razorblade Tears, which I felt was beautifully concluded.

 However, I would recommend this book, as well as Razorblade Tears (more specifically Razorblade Tears), if you are looking to get into S.A. Cosby, or just a worthwhile read that is a Southern noir heist novel with a fast paced, action packed plot and a deep, dark exploration of the dangers and lengths involved in escaping poverty and crime, and the search for identity and purpose, as well as parental abandonment and its effects, with memorable, gritty, excellently written characters.

addictive writing style, couldn’t put it down. brutal, gory, real. loved it.

Michelle García

This book was so heartbreaking in do many different ways. It portrays wonderfully how difficult it is to get yourself out of debt, the vicious circles you can fall into.

Fraser Simons

This was a fun crime story. The pacing and plot lend it to a very cinematic feel, which I like a lot. I tend to think in those terms often enough. It’s a fun heist flick that becomes complex and Bug, the main character and wheel man, has to deal with both the fallout from his individual circumstances—his own and southern poverty, in general being a major theme here—as well as powder keg situation that erupts from the heist itself. 

This book has good character work. I really liked Bug’s character arc and his reactions to the world around him feel very authentic. His actions really telegraph his inner life, in a way that I think a lot of authors would aspire to. I love the details with the cars as well. I’m just interested in cars enough to find that fun and cool. It strikes a good balance. I don’t think people not into cars will get bored. It’s interspersed enough, and the plot is fast paced enough, that nothing overstays it’s welcome. 

So why only 3 stars, right?

This would have easily been 4 stars for me, except I didn’t get on with the writing despite liking the form. The actual prose are serviceable in terms of diction and imagery (when not using similes), but there are some wonky things at the paragraph to paragraph and sentence to sentence level that repeatedly pulled me out of what was happening. 

Sentence to sentence the cadence is really repetitive because of the writing style. Short clipped sentences and no meaty long ones create a stilted cadence. 

Paragraph to paragraph there’s an issue with stuff editors usually catch. There’s a lot of similes that go against what the paragraph is about. When we first get to see the main characters wheel man skills in action the simile is him gripping the steering wheel like a life preserver. Then it goes on to describe the car as his instrument, and driving is his symphony. Why not… just lean into the vehicle as a musical instrument and then make the shifting happening while driving from the police “notes” being played. It would have been really cool, but instead there’s a dissonance that occurs—and reoccurs often in this fiction—where imagery is summoned with a simile that doesn’t help at all, pulls you out of the fiction, and then the rest of the paragraph continues with something different. 

The character pulls a man off of his bed he’s sharing with a woman, who has breasts spilling over her front like an avalanche. For one, it’s a crime story so summoning that image is weird, and it also doesn’t work? She’s stationary and breasts wouldn’t be like that. On the other hand, if her entire body and posture was shaped like an avalanche going down a hill or something, I’d at least kind of understand the figure of the person on the bed and it might be communicating character info that becomes pertinent. But if there is a simile in the book, it’s probably not there for that kind of craft work. 

To end on a positive note though, one thing this book absolutely excels at though: action. The sentence to sentence structure, while a clipped cadence in scenes that need to breath, absolutely belong in the action. I’m betting the authors style comes from crafting these kinds of scenes. It imparts just the right amount of information and creates a sort of suspense like feeling when each short sentence comes to an end. It’s like a repeated hook, love that about it. 

I think if you come to this expecting commercial fiction you’re gonna love it. It’s more intelligent than something you’d pick up in that setting. It’s got a good marriage of crime/heist that doesn’t lose sight of it just being about action. Clearly it wants you to think about the variables that force these people to live like this and situate them in time and place, in the south. I was expecting more of a literary novel, especially with a cover like that. Had my expectations been more in line and the craft stuff not bothered me, It would be higher rated.

Madhuri Sridhara

3.5/5

This book started off well and had an amazing protagonist. Beauregard is an amazingly gritty, someone you definitely do not want to mess with. I thought this book would be like a Dennis Lehane story but it ended up resembling a season of Justified (a must watch show). 

But I was shocked to find out that the book was only 275 or so pages. (I read the Kindle version) because it felt so much longer. The pace was inconsistent and the writing was off. The analogies used made me cringe at places. This was a great story though and I kept thing how great it would be on TV probably as a mini series or as a full blown series. 

I'm open to more books on Bug and his adventures as long as the writing gets better plus Razorblade Tears is on my reading list.

mads

would have rated this hire if it wasnt dripping in sexism

Jeff Brown 

This was a violent, yet moving story that I wish I got to finish in time for the Goodreads voting, although I'm sure my vote wouldn't have meant enough.

"A man can't be two types of beasts."

The main character, Beauregard (Bug) was trying to explain to his wife, as their child was in a hospital room, due to what he has done, yet explaining how he has lived his life.

His father (Ant) was an outlaw, and he hated him, but in time he put his father on a pedestal and revered him.

While Beaureguard's youngest son is in the hospital, and he is trying to save his marriage, he says about himself -- "I am an outlaw part of the the time and the rest of the time a daddy and a husband. That is my lie to you."

The entire book is about Beaureguard chasing his demons, living up to his image of his father, trying to protect his family, lying about how he did it, and trying to save his business. And the fact that he really is an outlaw.

It certainly wasn't one of the love stories, or timely ethic stories in the finals -- but I can't imagine a more well-rounded emotional story from the initial round that should have made the finals.

Maddy Lennon

Devin Mainville

This book hooked me from the beginning and never let go! Bug is a former getaway driver trying to go straight, but when a series of financial hardships hit at once, he decides to do one last job with a big payday to set himself right. Of course, the job goes sideways and he’s thrown into increasingly dangerous situations to protect himself and his family. 

A neo-noir crime drama, Blacktop Wasteland // S.A. Cosby reads like the best type of action heist movie; fully immersive with incredibly high stakes. I loved the way the action was written and am truly excited to see this adapted into a movie (because of course it's going to be). 

But there is so much heart here, too. The novel has a lot to say about toxic masculinity without ever feeling heavy handed. I’ve only read this book by the author, but its so good I already consider him an autobuy from here on out.

Randy Robbins

This is a fun little heist book with a few interesting characters. I am glad I checked it out.

Christian Beck &
Blacktop Wasteland by S. A. Cosby

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