Genre: Noir
Publisher: Dark Highway Press
Release Date: August 2, 2021
3 Hearts
Many thanks to the author for an arc.
LOSER BABY is a propulsive blast through the streets of the SoCal melting pot, a breakneck dark-comic neo-noir populated by misfits and malefactors, criminals and innocents, down-and-outers and spun-out dreamers. Prepare yourself for an adrenaline rush of rat-a-tat he-said-she-said narrative twists—all in service of a giddily slam-bang shock ending.
Review:
Twins Jasmine and Jordan Frank escaped an abusive home altering birth certificates to pass themselves off as older. Living together in a tiny apartment in Santa Ana, California, they keep mostly to themselves. Jordan appoints himself as protector of his beautiful sister and attempts to keep her out of trouble. After accepting an invitation to a party, Jordan awakens to find Jasmine missing. The party was a wild freak show of designer drugs. He knows he was dosed with some type drug that knocked him out for the night to separate him from his twin sister. He panics and begins a search to find her. Jasmine comes to on the side of the road outside an In-and-Out Burger joint. She has no recollection of what happened, but she does recognize that she's in serious trouble. She's in possession of something that belongs to a dangerous man. What does she do and where does she go from here?
Loser Baby is a convoluted, crazy ride with a cast of losers. Points of view change with each chapter allowing readers to get the story and history of a wild collective group of characters. While it's an interesting concept, it's also confusing and quite graphic in language. The story unfolds over one day in Orange County in pages of insane confrontations and chases. There is no good guy riding in on a white horse in this one. Each character is severely flawed with questionable morals. Bovberg tells the "other" side of the story of golden California - the overlooked, down on their luck, underpaid, just trying to survive ordinary people. These characters aren't likable, but they're real. However, at some point, it all becomes overwhelming in the sheer volume of people and their lives. I feel like the end result are some character and plot lines left dangling. Having said that, Loser Baby is unique - a one of a kind type crime fiction that I won't soon forget.
Synopsis:
Jasmine Frank is missing.
It’s a humid summer morning in Santa Ana, California, and her twin brother Jordan abruptly finds himself on a desperate search—fearing the worst. The party last night got way out of hand, and his brain is still chemically fried. But this is Jasmine’s story. She’s awakened far from home to her own mystery: She’s unwittingly stolen something from the most dangerous person she’s ever known. Tommy Strafe. And now Tommy is raging through the sunbaked streets, gathering illicit forces to seek brutal retribution. But all Jasmine really wants is to get out of Orange County, escape her past, and find a measure of redemption.
LOSER BABY is a propulsive blast through the streets of the SoCal melting pot, a breakneck dark-comic neo-noir populated by misfits and malefactors, criminals and innocents, down-and-outers and spun-out dreamers. Prepare yourself for an adrenaline rush of rat-a-tat he-said-she-said narrative twists—all in service of a giddily slam-bang shock ending.
It’s a humid summer morning in Santa Ana, California, and her twin brother Jordan abruptly finds himself on a desperate search—fearing the worst. The party last night got way out of hand, and his brain is still chemically fried. But this is Jasmine’s story. She’s awakened far from home to her own mystery: She’s unwittingly stolen something from the most dangerous person she’s ever known. Tommy Strafe. And now Tommy is raging through the sunbaked streets, gathering illicit forces to seek brutal retribution. But all Jasmine really wants is to get out of Orange County, escape her past, and find a measure of redemption.
LOSER BABY is a propulsive blast through the streets of the SoCal melting pot, a breakneck dark-comic neo-noir populated by misfits and malefactors, criminals and innocents, down-and-outers and spun-out dreamers. Prepare yourself for an adrenaline rush of rat-a-tat he-said-she-said narrative twists—all in service of a giddily slam-bang shock ending.
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