BOOK REVIEW: Reasonable Facsimile by Chris Shella

Reasonable Facsimilie by Chris Shella

Paperback:  186 pages
Publisher:  Digisoda Publishing (December 1, 2011)
Language:  English

Synopsis:

Can Jasper Davis pull himself from his life of loose women, liquor and general debauchery in enough time to win a murder case and possibly save his own hide?  

Jasper Davis is a criminal trial lawyer in Baltimore who has slowly but surely become like the drug dealers and lowlifes he represents.  He spends more time with hookers than clients and more time drinking Jack Daniels than studying the lawbooks.  Simply put...he is a shade of his former self.  

Jasper finds himself in the middle of a first degree murder trial when he becomes the suspect in the murder of a DEA agent who has set to testify against his client.  Jasper is so far gone on women and liquor he sees his trial skills deteriorate right before his eyes.  Jasper is confronted by the situation is he gonna continue to be a reasonable facsimile of a human being or is he gonna become the man he once was?

My Thoughts:

While I was impressed with the title of the book and how the other explains it via the main character, Jasper Davis a.k.a. JD.  I thought it was a nice way to set the tone for the book's plot and how the character interacts with his surroundings and was looking forward to an enjoyable read.

However, I was wrong.  

I couldn't find myself caring for JD, I thought he was a cliché and a stereotype and I found it truly hard to get past the lack of any depth to the character.  I found his introduction of women, by their breast size and skin colour and sometimes even their "booty" size was quite frustrating and removed me from the story.  I thought one or two examples of such would've sufficed but every single time a women is briefly in a paragraph??  And no, I did not find that it set the character up with this kind of drivel, I found it removed from the character of JD, instead of enhancing him.

I thought that the antagonist or the criminal, Billy Badass, that JD was representing wasn't overly believable in the explanation and found the whole trial to be without emotion and found myself seeing the trial as a prop to undergo the "transformation" of JD.  

I found the vulgarity of the story to be repetitive and didn't carry well with the overall story as there was too much of it, drawing away from the literary aspect that the story had the potential to become.

I would give Reasonable Facsimile a two and an half stars out of five.  

  **  Reviewed by me...as I see it~!!  **

BOOK REVIEW: Real-Eyez- Realize-Real-Liez by Robert A. Nelson

Real-Eyez Realize Real-Liez is an Urban Thriller Fiction.

The book situates around three main players, Zoey, the white girl who learned playing with the ghetto boys can end you up in a whole lot of troubles.  Riley, who ended up in prison and came out a saviour and Detective King who has fought to keep the drugs from touching his own life while watching humanity succumb around him.

Each of these three plays a role as the events unfold.  Zoey is a mixed up white girl whose life changes dramatically one night after she  visits her boyfriend and his friends at his crib.  On the way home she is accosted on a bus and the bus driver hands her a card that will change her way of thinking irrevocably.  On the same night, Riley has been arrested for drugs and after his first day in prison, he meets two people who will also change his life forever.  Detective King has just learned that someone in his family is using drugs and vows to stop them from ingesting more.

The tension builds as Riley becomes lieutenant in The Order, a group of templar like knights who vow to bring humanity back to the white race.  White power takes a backseat as white pride takes the forefront.  Riley works to bring the white people together so that they can lead the other races by example.  Setting up outreach centers, hospices, education retreats and more, the plan is beginning to work until Savage decides he wants his share.

Savage is a black youth with a huge power trip.  Not ony does he wish to control the gangs, he wants revenge on Zoey for a past discretion.  As he gathers his posse and makes his claim as the leader of the hood, the social system begins to break down as the gangs take over the streets.

White people are being killed at an alarming rate and the civil unrest develops in Washington, DC where the story unfolds.  Everything is annihilated as the gangs take to the streets, if they aren't killing someone, they are hopped up on drugs and looting everything they can.

As each of the characters come to a head and the conclusion unfolds, the players realize that only one man can remain standing.

I thought Real-Eyez Realize Real-Liez was a very gripping and gritty novel to peruse.  I found many parts of the story downright disturbing when one realizes that this is actually occurring on our streets, the Gangsta way of life has been glorified by the media for over a dozen years and people are drawn to its mystery.  However, to truly lead a gangsta life means short life spans and dodging bullets and this book truly finds the heart of the streets.

I thought the books cover doesn't do any justice to the story inside and quite frankly, I don't see the correlation.  I have asked several people to judge the books cover and not one got it right and after hearing what the book was about, each of them look at me in a bewildered way.

I found the characters to be intriguing, each one was believable in their roles.  I thought how they interacted with the plot was a perfect blend in order to keep your reading.  Their thoughts and actions continued to spur the story on and their tie-ins all worked properly.

I loved the fight scenes, they were filled with much graphic detail.  Whether it was fists flying or bullets, the scenes were climatic, graphic and your adrenaline raced as you perused the events. 

I would give Real-Eyez Realize Real-Liez a four out of five stars.  While I thoroughly enjoyed the read the editorial issues were astounding.  With some decent editing this book would be phenomenal.  I read so many books that this can be frustrating to someone such as myself.  I found myself rewording the passages and thinking, dang, if only...

I am looking forward to the next two books in the series, I just know that there is someone who is going to return even though from this books perspective, one may not think so but the scene was left open and if I can figure out a way to write the character back in, then I am quite sure author, Robert A. Nelson, can also.

SYNOPSIS:
The War for the heart of Urban America won t televise from some foreign shore. It ll be fought in your living room with dope, cash, blood and bullets. The American way of life has strayed into the shadows and one by one we re losing our children to the illusion of Hood Dreams and a Gangsta s Paradise. Only one man stands strong enough to hold back the tide. A renegade Aryan Prodigy and his crew, and an unfathomable amount of guns are all that protects the last shreds of civilization in the streets. The name Riley Bennett will echo through the ages as he who so loved his people that he d rather see the World in flames than see them suffer. The War is coming... Whither we re ready for it or not...

 

** Disclosure: I did not accept any compensation from the sponsors other than review copies, my views are my own, reviewed by me..as I see it~!! **