Brand New Dark

I received an e-Galley of Brand New Dark: A Bishop Rider Book, authored by Beau Johnson , published from Down & Out Books, for review consideration. Cover design: Zach McCain. What follows is my honest opinion given freely. This was my first dive into the world of Bishop Rider. 25 shorts, spanning across the whole of the Rider saga; some short enough to count as breaths catching and faulting. A moment being taken if you will. I once watched the Lord of the Rings trilogy and hit next scene every time I saw Frodo, for the ultimate action event. Each short reads similar, we have the movement, the point of a story happening, not the build up or backstory. There are mentions of what has brought Rider and friends to where they are for that day, depending on which point of the book you are at; which means you can read this without reading the others, just like I did! But also the mentions are given in such a way that the information reveals just enough that you are constantly learning new things about this catastrophic, ground zero event for which the whole series is built on, it’s brilliantly done in my opinion. A person who has been failed by the laws of our society. Refusing to let these crimes continue against other innocents. Creating their own justice, bloody, swift, and final. This is a satisfying read, the bad people get punished. It is heartbreaking also, because the bad people are representative of a real world crime, thinking too hard on that makes you feel sick (e.g. Dugger), so I leaned into the bad guys paid for their sins. Because fiction can be an escape and with the world being a dumpster fire it was a stress relief of a sort to read a book that I could fall into that was well written and gave me my revengeance satisfaction. I thoroughly loved Brand New Dark, gotta catch them all and get the whole series in paperback. E-books are great, I use them often, but I still like having a physical copy if I’m going to re-read a title. It’s just a feeling thing, texture maybe. But, I think if you are one who enjoys crime or revenge horror fiction this should be on your TBR for sure. Thriller, horror lovers too. The bad guys are BAD guys, so check CW if needed.