Book Impressions - The Jigsaw Man by Gord Rollo

The voice of the narrator immediately drew me into this book. He's a man down on his luck and he captures the essence of his life perfectly. For a while the story didn't matter as I was happy to just get to know the main character.

The story gets going quickly and while the setup is a little improbable it does its job. The overall story was fine, although predictable. The main character carries it well though and while I knew what was coming the writing was such that I still wanted to actually read what would occur.

There's some minor issues with the pacing. In particular in the middle the story drags for a bit, although it does recover. The biggest issue for me were the secondary characters - in particular the villains. The two main bad-guys are cardboard cutout bad guys. They filled their roles, but lacked depth.

Despite these issues the book is a good read. The quality of the writing and the perspective of the main character are enough to smooth out the flaws. Worth a read if you're a fan of body horror.

Click on image to buy from Amazon

A BROKEN MAN DOWN ON HIS LUCK...

Michael Fox is a homeless man living in a garbage dumpster beneath the Carver Street Bridge in Buffalo, NY. He's bitterly depressed and ready to commit suicide; anything to put an end to his miserable existence.

AN OFFER TOO GOOD TO REFUSE...

When a mysterious billionaire surgeon offers Michael two million dollars for his right arm, he thinks his luck might be about to change. Little does he know that the surgeon has other plans for him. His arm is only the beginning. Bit by bit other pieces of Michael's body are surgically removed; his natural body stripped away and then reassembled using other harvested parts from thirteen different 'donors'.

A MODERN DAY FRANKENSTEIN...

Now Fox isn't sure if he's a man or a monster, or whether or not he'd be better off dead. One thing he is sure of though, he's not checking out of this world until he finds a way to make the people responsible pay for turning him into the experimental nightmare known as... The Jigsaw Man.

Click here to buy The Jigsaw Man from Amazon US / Amazon UK (and it's a solid horror read)