Hell's Half Acre

Hell's Half Acre a truly wonderful novel, after what I believe was a bit of a sophmore slump with Penny Dreadful. But I Hell's Half Acre, Baer seems to once again capture that non-urgent nihlist qualty that our man Phineas possesses. Poe is the ultimate nihlist because instead of preaching about the virtues or sitting around debating the philosophical implications, he simply lives it. Course I guess most Junkies are and do just that. Or in our case a Pseudo-Junkie. Jude makes her return and we see that maybe, just maybe Jude isn't as tough as she thinks she is. And there is the possibility that she has finally gone over the deep end of sanity and likely isn't coming back, but instead falling deeper and deeper into the abyss of a psychological blackhole. Hope this helped, probably didn't if you haven't read the 1st 2 novels. Thanks for reading.

Will Christopher Baer has created his best work yet with Hell's Half Acre. The hallucinatory quality which other reviewers of the book have talked about is indeed a strange and compelling theme that permeates Baer's work. The reader, like main character Phineas Poe, may find themselves wondering what is real and what is just another twisted part of a dream. Baer's quick pace writing makes the book a very fast read, and the twists and turns help to keep things flowing down the increasingly curvy road that Baer has created. The book is so well written that the previous two novels concerning Phineas Poe: Kiss Me, Judas and Penny Dreadful, are not required reading for enjoying Hell's Half Acre. However, I would recommend picking up all three books. I look forward to what Baer has in store for us in the future.

Being the third book of the Phineas Poe trilogy I was worried that Baer wouldn't be able to end such a great ongoing saga in a manner that pleased. Luckily I was wrong. This book is a perfect ending for the trilogy, which started with Kiss Me, Judas and moved on to Penny Dreadful. I would ahve to say this is my favorite of his three and definitely the msot exciting. I read this book at work, a gas station job, and I read it in about 4 sittings. I remember in the first 25 pages I went "jesus christ this book is amazing" Then around page 50 I went "my god this book is so ####ed up" and those two seemed to repeat throughout the entire book. All in all I loved this book and I would strongly reccomend it to anyone who enjoys writes like palahniuk, clevenger, bret easton ellis, stephen king, and neil gaiman.

Where to begin... This is the third in a trilogy featuring Phineas Poe, an ex-cop who may or may not have murdered his wife, who may or may not love a feminine poison named Jude (one of the deadliest and sexiest characters ever written), and who may or may not be just a tad insane. Either way, Baer proves a master at writing compulsive and obsessive reading. If you have not read the first two in the series (Kiss Me, Judas and Penny Dreadful), don't let it stop you from picking up this addicting piece of literature. Be warned, however: Once you start reading about Phineas, you will not want to stop. For more insight into the strange universe of Will Christopher Baer, check out the his site at willchristopherbaer dot com. Also highly recommended: The Contortionist's Handbook by Craig Clevenger.

Will Christopher Baer returns to conclude the trilogy that started with kiss me judas. In his return, he brings even stronger writing and story telling. Don't make the mistake of not buying this book.