RAZORBLADE TEARS BY S. A. COSBY

Well, I have mixed thoughts about this novel.

I read this book for a Pagebound Read-a-long; I'm not sure that I would have picked it up otherwise. The writing in it was definitely not for me. It is extremely obvious this was written by a man - I have seen arguments happening over how the characters are SUPPOSED to be that way, to make you uncomfortable. But it wasn't even the characters themselves really, I can definitely separate how the characters are vs the descriptors in the book. Both of the mmcs were extremely homophobic at the beginning, and the entire novel is them reconciling their thoughts and actions towards their sons now that they can't ever see them again. I understand that Buddy Lee was most certainly racist and tried to work through that, hence all of the maybe triggering dialogue. What I found fault with was the inconsistency of the descriptions of the events. It was told in third person, but from many peoples' perspectives. I thought it was odd that it wasn't more just Ike and Buddy Lee's voices, we got the perspectives of even smaller characters in scenes with them. (For a specific example: When Ike and Buddy Lee go to Derek and Isaiah's house and the two bikers show up and they fight, we get specific thoughts that those two side characters have mixed in with Ike and Buddy Lee's perspectives which threw me off for sure). I think, at least in my opinion, the novel could have been stronger if the author didn't switch between peoples' perspectives so often and abruptly. On top of that, the descriptions of the thoughts of the characters varied widely. There were some absolutely abhorrent lines (ie. "His chest felt as tight as a virgin pussy) that just made me cringe, but then in the next sentence there could be a beautiful descriptor with a wide vocabulary. It felt misplaced at times for sure. I wish the author would have picked one voice for each character, I think it would have strengthened the characters individually.

Overall, the plot was interesting, it was fairly fast paced (I listened to the audiobook). I did really like that the characters had significant growth. I found the plot maybe a little bit predictable, which impacted my rating as well. This wouldn't be a novel that I recommend since I didn't enjoy it a ton. But I also don't believe I am the target audience at ALL. So if you read the description and are intrigued, give it a read!