I enjoyed the first book immensely, and this one was no different! I saw a review describing Caleb as a combination of Dexter and John Wick and I can’t agree more. They are all great characters with severe trauma and as many readers agree trauma adds some great spice to an MC. I love everything from Caleb’s jokes to the bestest boy Roscoe, but what I really want to talk about is how Jeff Menapace wrote Caleb perfectly.
I feel like when someone makes a story like this, with a main character that by all intents and purposes should be considered a monster, you risk making the reader feel conflicted/guilty for rooting for them. And I don’t know if it’s just me but I prefer a book that doesn’t make me feel bad for liking the protagonist. Which is how I know Jeff Menapace succeeded in creating Caleb because not once did I feel bad for loving Caleb. I think the key details Jeff added that made Caleb a good bad guy and not a bad bad guy were 1)his empathy, 2)his self-awareness/guilt, and 3)his friends and family. All of these combined made it obvious that Caleb is not a true monster which in turn made him lovable to me. Once again I loved this book and give it a 9 out of 10 and can’t wait till the next one.
Nerd Thoughts 