Book Review: Shovel Ready

Title: Shovel Ready
Author: Adam Sternbergh
Publisher: Hachette
Release Date: 14/01/2014
Pages: 256
Service: Bookbridgr
Format: Paperback
Buy: Book Depository
Author Twitter: @Sternbergh

‘Spademan used to be a garbage man. That was before the dirty bomb hit Times Square, before his wife was killed, before New York became a burnt-out shell. Now the wealthy escape the grim reality by spending their days tapped into a virtual world; the rest of the population have to fend for itself on the streets. Now there’s nothing but garbage.

So, Spademan has become a hit man. He doesn’t ask questions, he works quickly, and he’s very hand with a box-cutter.

When he’s hired to kill the daughter of a high-profile evangelist, Spademan’s life upended. To survive, he will have to navigate two worlds – the slick fantasy world of the elite and the waste land reality of the rest of the city’s inhabitants – to finish his job, clear his conscience, and make sure he’s not the one who winds up in the ground.’

So, I ended up requesting this book on BookBridgr because it looked pretty interesting and I hadn’t read a book like this in a while. Once I got I started to read it an immediately found that I was hooked, however, this did end up becoming a DNF for me.

This was not because of the writing though. I absolutely loved the plotline, it was fast paced and such a page turner. I was hooked as soon as the book started. Sternbergh wasted no time in making sure that his reader would be captivated. The very first page left you feeling extremely curious an wanting to find out more.

From what I had read of the book, the plot was really well thought out and I loved the way it was all being played out. Spademan was a character you seemed to learn more and more about as the book went on and it was just fascinating to see the way everything in his past ended up effecting him. Even though he is a hit man, I really struggled to dislike him and just wanted to give him a hug a lot of the time because you could see why he was doing these things.

You’re constantly sitting there trying to fit pieces together and wonder what will happen next. You’re trying to understand Spademan and understand everything else that’s going on in the plot and there are some things that you don’t really realise until the part is over.

One thing I did find extremely confusing throughout the book was the way the speech was laid out. I found it hard to keep track of who was talking and when people stopped talking since there were no speech marks in use.

I honestly did love reading this book up until the point I read some slightly explicit material in there. It was extremely explicit but I didn’t feel comfortable reading it so I did end up putting the book down. That kind of stuff really isn’t for me.

I don’t really have a huge amount to say on the book since I didn’t finish it. All I can say is if you don’t mind reading that kind of material and want a bit of a mystery book then I would definitely pick it up. I don’t want to give this book a rating as it did become a DNF for me and I don’t think that would be fair.

Rating: DNF 

Thank you to Hachette publishing and Bookbridgr for sending me this book in exchange for an honest review.