MY RATING: ★★★★★/5

A father protects his daughter from the legacy of his past and the truth about her mother’s death in this thrilling new novel from the prize-winning author of The Good Thief.

“Everything breaks if you hit it hard enough.”

Isn’t it weird how you love a book too much but you just run out of words to describe your love? This is the case for this novel. I don’t think I can ever express how grateful and deeply touched by this novel I am. If you liked the movie Logan, you’ll love this novel. It has the same father and daughter vibe but the dynamic is very special. We have a father Sam, who doesn’t know what’s good for his daughter Lou, because he always lived in the dark sides of criminal activities. The death of his wife is the turning point of his life and where he decides that he would never go back to those dark activities again and take care of Lou instead. 

The book is divided into 12 bullets. Each bullet that has crashed on his body has a story behind it. I love this structure, the author alternates between Lou’s perspective and the bullets stories. It’s very coherent and spot on. The past-life chapter explains what’s going on in their present lives. I’ve read a lot of novels lately that didn’t deliver on the plot structure and this one is magnificent wrapped gift (bonus points for the exquisite writing). The structure is just perfect and the ending is very well thought; I got so emotional. 

The two main characters have striking and marvelous traits, they are very static and they have undergone an altered development that make them so complex and unique.  Let’s take Samuel Hawley for example. He has the role of a father who doesn’t know how to be a parent. He’s been on his own and an orphan since he’s young and the only thing he’s good at is shooting guns and deliver himself into criminal activities. It’s his everyday combat within himself to control his criminal temptations and balance his fatherly duties.

This kind of behaviour affects directly Lou, who’s been on the run with him for all her life and she just adapt to his everyday lives. She learned to develop a thick skin, to shoot a gun and also a tendency for violence influenced by her father’s inability to express affection. The only way she knows how to cope with the world is via violence (see the resemblance between Laura and Logan ?)

It was such a fun and thrilling reading experience, you have suspense, internal and external conflicts between the characters and the consequences of an unforgiving past .

You can purchase a copy @Amazon Canada now!

Thank you to Penguin Random House for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review ! 

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