The writing lacks subtlety and emotional depth in a way that is absolutely cartoonish. Despite the tagline of “Trained to make them laugh—now, he must make them bleed”, I was willing to give this a chance, but this is really not the gritty profound dark fantasy that the blurb is trying to make it be. Instead, I’m basically getting a play-by-play of what a teenage boy thinks is deep and affecting.

…where from distant, unreachable place, he could hear death laughing at his naivete—at his stubborn disbelief that it could have chosen his people, on this sacred night, in this sudden way. How foolish. Death makes no exceptions for a foolish street clown.

I too am a foolish street clown...

I don’t give a fuck if he’s the great conqueror. I’ll cut him into a thousand pieces.

2edgy4u

The next morning, Tazio awoke to the familiar feeling of urine hitting his back. He thrashed off the floor and jumped at the guard pissing on him through the iron bars. “Funny seeing you squirm like a caged rat! Want me to come in there and piss on your face? Can’t get it from this angle!” the guard taunted. Tazio let out a crazed scream. “Come closer and I’ll bite your face off!” The man backed off a bit. “Scared, aren’t you?” Tazio taunted. “Fuck off,” the guard said, tying his fly. “Don’t play coy. Come closer. I’ll give you a little kiss. Maybe a little nibble.”

[…]

“Outside! Now!” the piss guard yelled to the lot of prisoners, unlocking gates and beating resistors.

1- i'm sorry, you cannot use "piss guard" as an epithet and expect me to take this seriously.

2-

Also, @farron mentioned that this felt like it took inspiration from video games when we chatted, and I definitely agree—i respect the hell out of video games, but this book makes me feel like i’ve stepped into an insufferable reddit megathread full of people arguing you can learn to write and craft good prose just from watching tv/movies and playing games