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| Bookcover Via Amazon.com |
I'm going to start this review with my initial impressions, and this initial impression is one where it took time to think about it. "Wolfman is Back" was filled with the incredibly intense subject matter that can be normally considered nightmare fuel. "Wolfman is Back" is the book that picks up where "Outlaw MC" came, and it's about one of the antagonists of that novel, Wolfman. No spoilers here, but that man is not a wholesome person. I did read this novel very quickly, but it was because I wanted to finish it as soon as I could. I had a tough time with what the antagonist was doing.
For those of you who have trigger warnings or certain subjects you just do not want to read, please note that this novel deals with sexual assault, child abuse, child sexual assault, underage drinking, intense drug use, and incredibly graphic scenes. The other novels had elements of that in them, but for this one, those subjects are more focused and polished in "Wolfman is Back". I don't like anything involving children becoming harmed, or even teasing about harming children. I really struggled with this novel, especially finishing it, but I did read every page and processed my notes accordingly for this review.
At any rate, for my first impression, this was intense and I was overwhelmed by it. I know for a fact I'm not the target audience, but I also picked up some things that I think will benefit those of you who may enjoy something this intense.
Let me go into my critiques, and for my first critique under category "Story Structure, Foundation and Presentation". Specifically in the same critique as the second novel "Outlaw MC," we have tense issues. Sometimes things are in the past tense, other times they are in present, and it's outside of dialogue situations. It's not as frequent as it was in the second novel, but I did notice it and I wanted to make sure to bring it up here.
Secondly, under "Story Structure, Foundation and Presentation" specifically under "Story Structure" this book was tenser than the previous ones, and sometimes I felt it went overboard. WOlfman is a very bad man, and he does very bad things, but I don't think having the quantity of intensely graphic tense situations and scenes to demonstrate it, was plot moving. It didn't slow the pace down necessarily, but it ramped up the adrenaline to the story to 11 and never let go. The tension is so high, it goes all the way to the last page, and there are infrequent tension breakers. That much tension makes the reader feel so much of it without any kind of break. Even the attempted slam of the breaks near the climax where the protagonist is talking to his fiance about getting a pizza is sabotaged by Hitchcock like intensity because we the reader already knows what Wolfman was planning on doing. So the tension builds and builds and suddenly, the reader is out of pages to read because the story ends. It took me about five minutes to catch my breath as I rapidly took notes. I'm not a fan of that, but if you love your stories to be white-knuckled to the end page, this may be your book.
Let me go into what I enjoyed, and we will start with "Cliche Much" and I'm happy to report, this did not have the typical cliche issues that I noticed with the second story. The characters fit their roles better, were more unique and I didn't have any "Of course this happened" moments. I found the premises and ideas to be individualized to this story, and it kept me guessing.
Next under "Whole Story", this is a fully fleshed out story, with a beginning, middle and ending. The ending of the story and action come to the same stop, so that was a unique way to bring this to an end, and there isn't any kind of cliffhanger "gotcha" moment.
Lastly under "Story Structure, Foundation and Presentation" the kindle edition reads very well. I had no problems with the settings on default, and I found that the margins, alignment and came together well. The editing was spot on minus the past tense, present tense issue, and overall it read very well. The reading itself was easy on the eyes, and no eye bending text was welcome.
Overall, this wasn't my cup of tea, but I do not score or remove points on my personal preference. I score specifically on how the book was written, how the ideas came together and how the experience was in reading the words. Though I am not the person who would personally enjoy it, the story was good, and it fits into its series nicely. If this is the end of the series, I would say it ended very well, and as a series ender, it did bring a good stop to what is a fully fleshed out series. The overall series is fantastic, and the life of "Brad Coulter" is an interesting one to be sure.
Score
With all of that in mind, I'm giving "Wolfman is Back: A Brad Coulter Novel" a score of 90/100 which is a five-star review on Amazon and Goodreads. Please pick this up if you have read the other two books, or have someone in your life who loves police drama stories that are graphic, intense, and don't pull any punches. Until next time my friends, enjoy your day and happy reading!
