Finished BE Ellis's The Shards on the weekend. It took me a bit longer to finish it than I thought, the writing is deceptively straightforward but I kept having to go back and forth, because I constantly thought I had missed something.
Somehow this seems like the type of book he should have written maybe 20 years ago, if not further back. It does seem like drawing a line under his entire life, and career, and the stuff he has been writing about pretty much forever. It's also a bit longer than I think it should have been. The hints of Bret being the Trawler himself weren't too on the nose, imo. The whole doppelgänger thing with Mallory was a bit more interesting.
Anyway, even having said all the above, I really enjoyed this. It's wild to imagine that 16-17 year olds really live like this, or at least used to? Driving luxury cars, being able to buy anything they want, having straight and gay sex left right and center, going trough cocaine, weed, Valium, Quaaludes and tequila like they are air. Jeeez.
Looking forward to what he does next. Let's hope the next novel doesn't take 13 years.
