Review by Booklist Review
The Savage takes place a few years after Bill's debut novel, Donnybrook (2013), when numerous militias have destroyed the power grids in protest against a collapsing economy. The result is a Hobbesian state of nature, where groups united by religion, racism, revenge, or fear fight for power and control across the Midwest. The reader initially follows the present-day horrors experienced by the young Van Dorn Reising, and then flips back to his earlier survivalist training with his father, Horace. Bill reacquaints the reader with some characters from the earlier book, such as Chainsaw Angus, the undefeated fighter. The most disturbing thread follows the chillingly psychotic Cotto Ramos, son of a Guatemalan mercenary. There are some missteps, such as Angus' training with a kung fu master, which feels out of place. With echoes of early Palahniuk, Bill's novel is part revenge thriller and part horror, while at heart it's about masculinity and fatherhood. An enjoyably blood-curdling and unrelenting read with an even bleaker depiction of humanity's worst impulses than its predecessor, this is not for the faint of heart.--Moran, Alexander Copyright 2017 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
This gleefully bloody tale from Bill (Donnybrook) tells the brutish, apocalyptic story of working-class Southern Indiana towns, the same physical setting as his previous books but set years later. Here, a near-future America has given way to anarchy, and numerous societal ills-the loss of manufacturing jobs; the devaluing of the dollar,;the destruction of the national power grid; a drug epidemic; the desolation of towns and communities; and the domination of roving, warring clans-have ravaged the nation and left the residents of rural Hoosier country desperate. Van Dorn Reisling, a young man versed in the "old ways" of hunting and tracking, tries to find his way: surviving the violence between warring clans, exacting revenge on "foreigners" who have plundered Indiana, and coming to the aid of those enslaved by these brutal militias. Van Dorn and the other characters are mere vehicles for scene after desensitizing scene of gratuitous violence; the narrative is so full of exuberant descriptions of splattered brains and bone, cannibalism, scalping, torture, and rape that there's little room for character development or prolonged suspense. With only a cursory set-up of America's downfall, the link between the decline of the state and the rise of these depraved clansmen on the page is never sufficiently explained, but serves simply as a justification for tired themes of vengeance and rage. Bill's prose, though inventive, is sometimes stylized to the point of distraction: "Shirtless, bruised, scabbed, tattooed with swastikas, skulls, the SS symbol flagging their necks. Their pants tucked into their boots. Suspenders ran from their waists up over their shoulders, each was smudged by ill living conditions. Stubbled faces, ratty locks, and their teeth were amiss, stained the colors of their yellow jackets." Troublingly, the narrative also invokes racial stereotypes (the wise Asian teaching the white man, the ruthless Latin American drug kingpin), which are likely to alienate readers. Bill's follow-up to his popular first novel will appeal to fans but will wear thin on readers looking for more than righteous violence. Agent: Stacia Decke, Donald Maass Literary. (Nov.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Review by Library Journal Review
If an X rating were still viable, this book would merit it; 100 percent for violence, zero percent for sex. It's a postapocalyptic gorefest, set in the present (unlike most of its kind), in a landscape littered with gutted houses, abandoned cars, and body parts, with the currency worthless and the power grid down. Also unlike its brethren, it's not particularly political. There are three main characters: the survivalist "hero" Van Dorn, bare-knuckle combatant Chainsaw Angus, and drug lord Cotto, who has an army of insane children. There are quest plotlines, but they are secondary to the characters' day-by-day survival amid marauding gangs, bizarre cults, and one another. Two scenarios stand out: a mansion inhabited by a brother/sister "couple" who are cannibals by choice, not necessity; and a fighting pit in an old church, its bottom soiled with blood and limbs from past bouts. This sequel to Donnybrook can be read as a stand-alone, but at 400 pages it could have benefited from more editing. Also, a postage stamp-sized "happy" ending seems pasted on. VERDICT Think Daniel Woodrell amped up many times in violence and diction and down a few notches in literary merit; for pure action readers with strong stomachs.-Robert E. Brown, Oswego, NY © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
The nasty, violent world of Donnybrook (2013) returns with a vengeance, and it's spread across the country.The U.S. dollar has crashed, leading militias of Disgruntled Americans to destroy the nation's power grid and society along with it. "Scavengers, militias and the horde" plunder the land, and gangs have become the ruling class across the country. "Seems many a folk has lost they way," opines the Widow Alcorn. She lives in southern Indiana, where young survivor Van Dorn shoots a doe for food. His father, Horace, always warned him that this day was coming, when a man must kill or be killed. Horace taught his son: "Do what you must to others and abandon weakness." Now Van Dorn searches for the men who are kidnapping women and children and enslaving them. In particular, he wants to free a girl named Sheldon, a family acquaintance who was raised much like he was. Along the way, he meets a man who's survived on "the meat of man, woman, and child." Another man, named Scar, has hair "black as a rotted avocado." The pages are filled with dark energy and Technicolor gore. When Van Dorn shoots a boar, "pieces of pork spine greased the air." Chainsaw Angus shoots a man, and "blood spewed like a blown head gasket." And as if these good folks don't have enough mayhem in their lives, they can look forward to the Donnybrook, which readers of the author's first novel will recognize as "a festival of carnage" where people do lots of drugs and sex and pay to watch men beat each other senseless. Combining these novels with his short story collection, Crimes in Southern Indiana, Bill isn't painting any Chamber of Commerce image of the state. No lack of excitement in this well-told tale, but it's holy-crap grim. May the author's ugly, brutish world remain forever fiction. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
