Five Decembers

Five Decembers was a book I picked up because of a YouTube channel (mancarryingthing) recommendation and I am so happy that I did.

This book caught me off guard in every way I can think of. On the surface it looks like a pulpy, hard boiled, detective novel… and it is, but it’s so much more than that. The prose is absolutely beautiful annd admittedly terse at points, although this didn’t bother me at all. In fact, that is one of the aspects I admire most about it.

While being action packed, tense, and a violent story, it is also a heartbreaking and beautiful character study about a broken man. It’s just as much his struggle for identity and purpose as it is crime thriller. It walks that line brilliantly.

Please, don’t judge this book by the cover. It is so much more what it appears.