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What We Reckon
Reminds me of a young Quentin Tarantino. Pruitt is one of our best Southern fiction writers. --Bookreporter Meet Jack Jordan. He's a smooth-talking con artist with a penchant for the fast life. He's snuck into Lufkin, Texas, in the dead of night with little more than a beat-up Honda, a hollowed-out King James Bible full of cocaine, and enough emotional baggage to sink a steam ship. He's charming, dedicated, and extremely paranoid. Summer Ashton, his partner-in-crime. She's stuck by him through thick and thin, but lately her mind has begun to slip. They've told their fair share of lies and she's having a devil of a time remembering what's the truth. And recently, she's been hearing voices. Unfortunately for both of them, she's the brains of the operation. Furthermore, they have begun to tire of one another. For these two career grifters, the sleepy East Texas countryside is but another pit stop on their rampage across the American South. Will it be their last? In WHAT WE RECKON, Eryk Pruitt explores themes of identity, loyalty, and purpose with psycho-delic, transgressive, chicken-fried twists that read like Trainspotting cut with a couple grams of Helter Skelter.
301 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 10, 2017
61 people are currently reading
229 people want to read
About the author
Eryk Pruitt
49 books143 followersEryk Pruitt is a screenwriter, author and filmmaker living in Durham, NC with his wife Lana and cat Busey. His short films FOODIE and LIYANA, ON COMMAND have won several awards at film festivals across the US. His fiction appears in The Avalon Literary Review, Pulp Modern, Thuglit, and Zymbol, to name a few. In 2013, he was a finalist for Best Short Fiction in Short Story America and has been nominated for two Pushcart Prizes for 2014. His novel Dirtbags was published in April 2014, and HASHTAG will be published in May, 2015. A full list of credits can be found at erykpruitt.com.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
November 27, 2019
This novel starts out in a seedy motel room as two shady people with a hollowed-out Bible full of stolen cocaine buy fake IDs.
We’ve all been there, right?
The couple we know as Jack and Summer are desperate to leave their old lives behind, and they quickly make their way to a small East Texas college town where they plan to sell the coke and get their act together. Sort of. What we soon see is that Jack and Summer’s partnership is based around a combination of grifting and drug dealing. Summer plays the typical hippie college girl whose spacey persona hides a knack for inserting herself in social circles and identifying the weak spots that can be exploited. Jack acts as Summer’s friendly dealer who is always looking to sell or score bigger quantities.
They’ve got a good racket going, but it becomes apparent why the two of them are constantly on the move. While they’re smart and sly enough to con some local college kids and dealers for a while, they’re a little too fond of their own products. They’ve also got a dysfunctional, non-romantic relationship in which they frequently end up trying to sabotage each other only to realize time again that the other person is the only one who knows the ‘real’ version. When fueled by drugs and paranoia they create explosive situations that do immense damage to those around them.
This is a helluva crime novel that sets up a scenario that depends almost entirely on making you understand these two self-destructive agents of chaos. Jack and Summer are unforgettable characters, and the writing deftly made me shift from feeling sorry for them to being absolutely sure that they were pure evil. After a variety of twist and turns that I didn’t see coming it ends the only way it could. There’s also a great sense of verisimilitude to the various Texas settings and situations like small time drug dealing in a college town.
I got this novel by chance when I picked it as one of the freebies available when I attended Bouchercon in Dallas. I chose this one just based on the description without knowing anything else about it or the author, and I was pleasantly surprised when I later saw Eryk Pruitt hosting a very fun Noir At The Bar event. Then the next day he moderated an excellent panel on modern noir so I made a point of seeking him out later and getting this one signed. Now I’m very glad I got a chance to meet him because he’s a writer I want to read more of.
We’ve all been there, right?
The couple we know as Jack and Summer are desperate to leave their old lives behind, and they quickly make their way to a small East Texas college town where they plan to sell the coke and get their act together. Sort of. What we soon see is that Jack and Summer’s partnership is based around a combination of grifting and drug dealing. Summer plays the typical hippie college girl whose spacey persona hides a knack for inserting herself in social circles and identifying the weak spots that can be exploited. Jack acts as Summer’s friendly dealer who is always looking to sell or score bigger quantities.
They’ve got a good racket going, but it becomes apparent why the two of them are constantly on the move. While they’re smart and sly enough to con some local college kids and dealers for a while, they’re a little too fond of their own products. They’ve also got a dysfunctional, non-romantic relationship in which they frequently end up trying to sabotage each other only to realize time again that the other person is the only one who knows the ‘real’ version. When fueled by drugs and paranoia they create explosive situations that do immense damage to those around them.
This is a helluva crime novel that sets up a scenario that depends almost entirely on making you understand these two self-destructive agents of chaos. Jack and Summer are unforgettable characters, and the writing deftly made me shift from feeling sorry for them to being absolutely sure that they were pure evil. After a variety of twist and turns that I didn’t see coming it ends the only way it could. There’s also a great sense of verisimilitude to the various Texas settings and situations like small time drug dealing in a college town.
I got this novel by chance when I picked it as one of the freebies available when I attended Bouchercon in Dallas. I chose this one just based on the description without knowing anything else about it or the author, and I was pleasantly surprised when I later saw Eryk Pruitt hosting a very fun Noir At The Bar event. Then the next day he moderated an excellent panel on modern noir so I made a point of seeking him out later and getting this one signed. Now I’m very glad I got a chance to meet him because he’s a writer I want to read more of.
November 10, 2017
I've read Pruitt before, but he gets better and better with every book. Guy cracked it open. He figured out how to write things that are essentially his own.
WHAT WE RECKON is a fundamentally cynical novel with an oddly positive message: nothing is sacred in this life. You can be who you want to whoever you want and not suffer the consequences if you're willing to go through with it. That nothing is set in stone. It's kind of an inspiring and enlightening message for a crime novel, but it makes what would've been a run-of-the-mill coke trade novel unpredictable and enjoyable.
WHAT WE RECKON is a fundamentally cynical novel with an oddly positive message: nothing is sacred in this life. You can be who you want to whoever you want and not suffer the consequences if you're willing to go through with it. That nothing is set in stone. It's kind of an inspiring and enlightening message for a crime novel, but it makes what would've been a run-of-the-mill coke trade novel unpredictable and enjoyable.
November 29, 2017
The Ballad of Jack and Summer in Texas
Bonnie and Clyde had better move over. There's a new team of two in town and their named are Jack and Summer. Well, sometimes their names are Jack and Summer and sometimes these two hustlers go by different names - whatever it says on their new driver's licenses.
Pruitt has delivered a butt-kickin tale of friendship, loyalty, betrayal, madness, trust, and addiction. It absolutely gets the vibe of the endless obsessive bond between these two and the rootless boundless disconnected world they have as they drift from college town to college town slinging dope and trying to stay under the radar. And, the book gives us strong insight into their madness and paranoia and codependency.
And that's all in part one. Part two continued the journey in ways that their lowlife partying days could never have hinted at but still plays with the bonds of loyalty, addiction, and madness. This is just terrific stuff.
Bonnie and Clyde had better move over. There's a new team of two in town and their named are Jack and Summer. Well, sometimes their names are Jack and Summer and sometimes these two hustlers go by different names - whatever it says on their new driver's licenses.
Pruitt has delivered a butt-kickin tale of friendship, loyalty, betrayal, madness, trust, and addiction. It absolutely gets the vibe of the endless obsessive bond between these two and the rootless boundless disconnected world they have as they drift from college town to college town slinging dope and trying to stay under the radar. And, the book gives us strong insight into their madness and paranoia and codependency.
And that's all in part one. Part two continued the journey in ways that their lowlife partying days could never have hinted at but still plays with the bonds of loyalty, addiction, and madness. This is just terrific stuff.
February 4, 2018
Tore through this in a few sittings. Fantastic southern noir novel. Grit Lit at its finest. Pruitt's WHAT WE RECKON is must-read material for crime fiction aficionados.
October 27, 2020
Tearing through this one, buddy-ro. Why did it take me so long to realize Rural Noir, Crime Fiction, and Literary Novels about Dangerous Losers are THE SAME? Will report back once I wrap it up.
Update! I got a concussion right after I finished this book, which seems EXTREMELY APPROPRIATE. Anyway, if I remember correctly, the end wasn't as satisfying as the beginning, but I really enjoyed it in a very trashy ultraviolence kind of way. The chapter with a bunch of idiots sitting around getting high while being deftly manipulated by the protagonist is the most realistic 'bunch of idiots sitting around getting high' scene I've ever read. And my best friend's brother was a 20-year-old skateboarder with a pool in the 90s.
Update! I got a concussion right after I finished this book, which seems EXTREMELY APPROPRIATE. Anyway, if I remember correctly, the end wasn't as satisfying as the beginning, but I really enjoyed it in a very trashy ultraviolence kind of way. The chapter with a bunch of idiots sitting around getting high while being deftly manipulated by the protagonist is the most realistic 'bunch of idiots sitting around getting high' scene I've ever read. And my best friend's brother was a 20-year-old skateboarder with a pool in the 90s.
March 26, 2018
MYSTERY/SUSPENSE
Eryk Pruitt
What We Reckon
Polis Books
Paperback, 978-1-9438-1864-8, (also available as an e-book), 320 pgs., $15.95
October 10, 2017
reckon: 1. to settle accounts; 2. to make a calculation 3. a. judge, b. chiefly dialectal: suppose, think; 4. to accept something as certain: place reliance—Merriam-Webster Online
Jack Jordan (aka Grant, Keith, Hux, Andrew, ?) and Summer Ashton (aka Jasmine, Stormy, Christy, Autumn, Katrina, ?) are on the run from South Carolina to East Texas with a stolen kilo of cocaine hidden in a hollowed-out King James Bible. Lifelong grifters, they wash up in Lufkin, Texas, with new identities and old habits. Jack and Summer soon establish their trade, picking up product in Houston and selling it to university students in Nacogdoches. All is well (more or less) until Jack falls for a co-ed, declaring that he’s going straight (and he means it this time), leaving Summer to her abandonment issues and psychedelic therapy.
Rules of the road: “Never contact anyone from the past. Let
sleeping dogs lie.”
But Summer, in desperation and an altered state, wakes a South Carolina pit bull, and someone is gonna die, someone is gonna have a near-death experience, someone is gonna check into a sober camp, and someone is gonna rise from the dead, all “due to [an] avalanche of psychological hoodoo.”
What We Reckon is the third novel from award-winning screenwriter, author, and filmmaker Eryk Pruitt, whose short story “Knockout” was a finalist for the Derringer Award. What We Reckon is East Texas noir with elements of farce, a wild ride both disturbing and disturbed, as if Larry Brown climbed into that contraption in The Fly, but instead of an insect getting spliced with Brown, it was Carl Hiaasen.
Pruitt’s codependent antihero and -heroine are indiscriminate junkies, hard to like but easy to appreciate. Jack, who appears to suffer neurological damage and anxiety attacks from too many (or not enough, depending) substances, is pure con man with no redeeming qualities. Summer remains a child at heart—proud and confident one moment, vaguely suicidal the next—a restless chameleon with a gift for reading people, longing for a home, fearing Jack will shed her unceremoniously one day without warning. Summer’s the smarter of the two, but she’s got voices in her head that aren’t always her own. They are each equally dangerous, to each other and anyone who gets too close, exerting gravity like a charismatic black hole.
What We Reckon is fast-paced and twisty, sometimes archly humorous (as when a friend “commenced a melee upon their counterpart”), frequently laugh-aloud funny (as when they heard knocking at the front door “where only came cops and pizza delivery guys and hey, didn’t nobody order a pizza, but before Jack could say a word, the population increased by five and one giant German shepherd”), with smart, sharp dialogue which makes me imagine “The West Wing” with Charlie Sheen instead of Martin:
Donnie called, “Did none of you try CPR?”
“We prayed and prayed,” said Suzie
“That’s all you can do,” Barney assured them.
“It literally isn’t,” said Donnie.
Pruitt is also capable of curiously moving pathos, as when Summer recites the things only Jack knows about her. Pruitt possesses a distinctive style, playing with cadence and word order (as when Summer decides to “focus her attention on fields of greener pasture”).
What We Reckon is by turns horrifying and bemusing, but always entertaining. The resolution is unexpected, strangely elegant and comforting. And somehow the whole package puts me in mind of O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Originally published in Lone Star Literary Life.
Eryk Pruitt
What We Reckon
Polis Books
Paperback, 978-1-9438-1864-8, (also available as an e-book), 320 pgs., $15.95
October 10, 2017
reckon: 1. to settle accounts; 2. to make a calculation 3. a. judge, b. chiefly dialectal: suppose, think; 4. to accept something as certain: place reliance—Merriam-Webster Online
Jack Jordan (aka Grant, Keith, Hux, Andrew, ?) and Summer Ashton (aka Jasmine, Stormy, Christy, Autumn, Katrina, ?) are on the run from South Carolina to East Texas with a stolen kilo of cocaine hidden in a hollowed-out King James Bible. Lifelong grifters, they wash up in Lufkin, Texas, with new identities and old habits. Jack and Summer soon establish their trade, picking up product in Houston and selling it to university students in Nacogdoches. All is well (more or less) until Jack falls for a co-ed, declaring that he’s going straight (and he means it this time), leaving Summer to her abandonment issues and psychedelic therapy.
Rules of the road: “Never contact anyone from the past. Let
sleeping dogs lie.”
But Summer, in desperation and an altered state, wakes a South Carolina pit bull, and someone is gonna die, someone is gonna have a near-death experience, someone is gonna check into a sober camp, and someone is gonna rise from the dead, all “due to [an] avalanche of psychological hoodoo.”
What We Reckon is the third novel from award-winning screenwriter, author, and filmmaker Eryk Pruitt, whose short story “Knockout” was a finalist for the Derringer Award. What We Reckon is East Texas noir with elements of farce, a wild ride both disturbing and disturbed, as if Larry Brown climbed into that contraption in The Fly, but instead of an insect getting spliced with Brown, it was Carl Hiaasen.
Pruitt’s codependent antihero and -heroine are indiscriminate junkies, hard to like but easy to appreciate. Jack, who appears to suffer neurological damage and anxiety attacks from too many (or not enough, depending) substances, is pure con man with no redeeming qualities. Summer remains a child at heart—proud and confident one moment, vaguely suicidal the next—a restless chameleon with a gift for reading people, longing for a home, fearing Jack will shed her unceremoniously one day without warning. Summer’s the smarter of the two, but she’s got voices in her head that aren’t always her own. They are each equally dangerous, to each other and anyone who gets too close, exerting gravity like a charismatic black hole.
What We Reckon is fast-paced and twisty, sometimes archly humorous (as when a friend “commenced a melee upon their counterpart”), frequently laugh-aloud funny (as when they heard knocking at the front door “where only came cops and pizza delivery guys and hey, didn’t nobody order a pizza, but before Jack could say a word, the population increased by five and one giant German shepherd”), with smart, sharp dialogue which makes me imagine “The West Wing” with Charlie Sheen instead of Martin:
Donnie called, “Did none of you try CPR?”
“We prayed and prayed,” said Suzie
“That’s all you can do,” Barney assured them.
“It literally isn’t,” said Donnie.
Pruitt is also capable of curiously moving pathos, as when Summer recites the things only Jack knows about her. Pruitt possesses a distinctive style, playing with cadence and word order (as when Summer decides to “focus her attention on fields of greener pasture”).
What We Reckon is by turns horrifying and bemusing, but always entertaining. The resolution is unexpected, strangely elegant and comforting. And somehow the whole package puts me in mind of O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Originally published in Lone Star Literary Life.
December 9, 2017
Crime fiction has a new reverend. His name is Eryk Pruitt.
Bonnie and Clyde. Mickey and Mallory Knox. Jack Jordan and Summer Ashton. With WHAT WE RECKON, Eryk Pruitt has thrown his hat into the ring of notable criminal duos, and believe me, brothers and sisters, the man does not disappoint. This guy gets better with every story he writes, and in WHAT WE RECKON, I would argue that he's outdone himself. Jack and Summer are living, breathing people, victims of their own flaws, surviving on their wits, and while they may be utterly horrible people, I promise you that you will be rooting for them in the end.
WHAT WE RECKON is captivating, a wild romp through the depraved corners of the rural south, with two drug-slinging grifters at the wheel. They're headed on a collision course with destiny, and along the way, they might even pick up a moral or two. Do not miss this book.
Bonnie and Clyde. Mickey and Mallory Knox. Jack Jordan and Summer Ashton. With WHAT WE RECKON, Eryk Pruitt has thrown his hat into the ring of notable criminal duos, and believe me, brothers and sisters, the man does not disappoint. This guy gets better with every story he writes, and in WHAT WE RECKON, I would argue that he's outdone himself. Jack and Summer are living, breathing people, victims of their own flaws, surviving on their wits, and while they may be utterly horrible people, I promise you that you will be rooting for them in the end.
WHAT WE RECKON is captivating, a wild romp through the depraved corners of the rural south, with two drug-slinging grifters at the wheel. They're headed on a collision course with destiny, and along the way, they might even pick up a moral or two. Do not miss this book.
April 2, 2018
an incredible journey into the underbelly of southern Gothic crime. Mr Pruitt takes a well worn premise ( grifters on the run) and transforms it into a modern southern gothic tour de force. bristling with fascinating characters and dialogue as sharp as a butcher's knife WHAT WE RECKON will stay with you long after the last con is done
June 8, 2018
2.5 stars. The pull quote from Joe Lansdale made me pick this up at the library while I was in between books. I guess you could call this drug fiction? It’s all about bad drug addict romance and scoring drugs and drug heists and drug violence and drug euphemisms and stuff like that. I think there was a decent story in there somewhere, but it just didn’t click with me.
August 10, 2019
Like a redneck version of Bonnie & Clyde mixed with Trainspotting.
October 14, 2020
We need more Eryk! Get to work.
October 31, 2017
Great read. Like a drug-fueled Joe R. Lansdale adventure across Texas that's totally unique to Pruitt. Impressive and recommended, especially for the character work.
October 14, 2017
I don't usually read crime novels, but this was a lot of fun! Both Summer and Jack are profoundly messed up people, but Pruitt manages to somehow build sympathy for them. At a recent book reading Pruitt explained that women in noir are often called strong without a lot to back it up. This is certainly different than those archetypes! I think it's Summer and Jack's weaknesses that make them most compelling.
February 5, 2018
What, or who, do you read when you choose to step out on your preferred genre of book for an illicit, rowdy escapade of fiction? For me, when it isn’t horror, it’s Eryk Pruitt. Always Eryk Pruitt. He is dedicated to telling the lives of southern fiction dirtbags in the most entertaining way possible. What We Reckon is the next view into these wretched lives and it flows with the same sharpened Pruitt bite that I have come to fiend for.
Following two distinctive periods of a young woman’s journey, life proves that your demons follow you eternally, so do your soul mates. But what happens when they are one in the same? Names change but the soul always shows through.
I had a wonderful time reading What We Reckon. Truly a joy. Beyond the fascinating main characters, every one of the supporting cast brings something to the table. Differing individuals with unique voices. Which I think is one of Eryk’s most desirable attributes, the ability to craft unforgettable characters and the polish to be able to make them stand out from one another. He has the wherewithal to give these believable people equally believable discourse. Anyone who has followed me for any period of time knows that dialog is key to selling me on a book. The folks inhabiting a story need to have rational, down to earth things to say. It’s can elevate any narrative, it can also bury a book. Pruitt’s dialog is fluid and interesting, snappy without venturing into overly ultra-hip lingo.
The situations Jack and Summer find themselves in don’t feel like plot points, but a natural path extending from their poor decision-making. It feels less like you are reading a book and more like you are following a vignette of a person’s life. It makes for compelling reading. From the first page I was caught in this narrative. I felt for these people and their lives, and they are unsavory people, which is a victory. The literary world is full of unlikable characters. Some you love, other’s that cause you to put a book down and walk away, but when characters are such pieces of crap that you can’t help but be excited to follow along and watch the spectacle, that’s what I call a good time.
Zakk is a big dumb animal...
https://zdubbzattmom.wordpress.com/20...
**Note: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author and/ or publisher and I am choosing to review it voluntarily. These are my honest, unbiased feelings. I did not receive any sort of compensation.
Following two distinctive periods of a young woman’s journey, life proves that your demons follow you eternally, so do your soul mates. But what happens when they are one in the same? Names change but the soul always shows through.
I had a wonderful time reading What We Reckon. Truly a joy. Beyond the fascinating main characters, every one of the supporting cast brings something to the table. Differing individuals with unique voices. Which I think is one of Eryk’s most desirable attributes, the ability to craft unforgettable characters and the polish to be able to make them stand out from one another. He has the wherewithal to give these believable people equally believable discourse. Anyone who has followed me for any period of time knows that dialog is key to selling me on a book. The folks inhabiting a story need to have rational, down to earth things to say. It’s can elevate any narrative, it can also bury a book. Pruitt’s dialog is fluid and interesting, snappy without venturing into overly ultra-hip lingo.
The situations Jack and Summer find themselves in don’t feel like plot points, but a natural path extending from their poor decision-making. It feels less like you are reading a book and more like you are following a vignette of a person’s life. It makes for compelling reading. From the first page I was caught in this narrative. I felt for these people and their lives, and they are unsavory people, which is a victory. The literary world is full of unlikable characters. Some you love, other’s that cause you to put a book down and walk away, but when characters are such pieces of crap that you can’t help but be excited to follow along and watch the spectacle, that’s what I call a good time.
Zakk is a big dumb animal...
https://zdubbzattmom.wordpress.com/20...
**Note: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author and/ or publisher and I am choosing to review it voluntarily. These are my honest, unbiased feelings. I did not receive any sort of compensation.
July 19, 2020
Recommended to anyone who likes good characters with bad intentions. What We Reckon zigs when most would zag!
December 12, 2019
This book had some pretty severe issues with continuity throughout. Take for instance a scene where the parents are bringing their daughter to this 'Miracle rehab' as a last-ditch effort to save her, they're asking questions and clearly deciding if they're going to choose this place or not. The character says to the parents that I'd like to speak to your daughter alone for a few minutes and we are never returned to the parents. I get that there isn't a need to return to a conversation and that things could be implied - like for instance that they gave permission for her to stay there, but that is not the case here. We go from the scene where he is asking her questions, then straight to an action scene because this was near the climax of the book. I kept thinking that all of this is happening and her parents are left in the other room still waiting for her! There were many instances of this problem of continuity and I'm quite surprised by at least some of the reviewers who made no mention of this at all, at least going by the attention to detail they've given some of their other reviews.
That being said... I did enjoy the story, I enjoyed the twists and turns we took with these characters, Jack and Summer, the author did an amazing job of of creating the illusion that what you see is not necessarily what you get. And the dialogue is first rate - anyone who can do dialogue as well as Eryk Pruitt deserves to be read. So with that in mind, I will seek out other books written by him and hope - HOPE - that the continuity issues are not still a thing. I can only think that the author had a deadline that didn't allow for these things to be worked out -or - an editor who only payed attention to grammar.
That being said... I did enjoy the story, I enjoyed the twists and turns we took with these characters, Jack and Summer, the author did an amazing job of of creating the illusion that what you see is not necessarily what you get. And the dialogue is first rate - anyone who can do dialogue as well as Eryk Pruitt deserves to be read. So with that in mind, I will seek out other books written by him and hope - HOPE - that the continuity issues are not still a thing. I can only think that the author had a deadline that didn't allow for these things to be worked out -or - an editor who only payed attention to grammar.
November 25, 2018
A love story of sorts
Eryk Pruitt’s What We Reckon is a dark combination of the movies Train Spotting, and Sid and Nancy, and the book One Flew Over the Cockoo’s Nest, as if the mashup were written by Quentin Tarantino. Pruitt’s voice is uniquely his own. What We Reckon is an engaging story of moral depravation with numerous twists and turns. I have to admit I wanted to like the two main characters Jack and Summer. That was hard to do. No real heros in this story. They do have a love story of sorts and Pruitt tests the boundaries of that love. We’re engaged by Jack and Summer even as we find little to love about them. Pruitt has given us an excellent insight into a slice of life most of us rarely encounter.
Eryk Pruitt’s What We Reckon is a dark combination of the movies Train Spotting, and Sid and Nancy, and the book One Flew Over the Cockoo’s Nest, as if the mashup were written by Quentin Tarantino. Pruitt’s voice is uniquely his own. What We Reckon is an engaging story of moral depravation with numerous twists and turns. I have to admit I wanted to like the two main characters Jack and Summer. That was hard to do. No real heros in this story. They do have a love story of sorts and Pruitt tests the boundaries of that love. We’re engaged by Jack and Summer even as we find little to love about them. Pruitt has given us an excellent insight into a slice of life most of us rarely encounter.
August 11, 2021
Not sure that I found it entertaining but it sure made an impression. Don't really find all the drug use and dealing all that interesting. The two main characters are supremely interesting though - they jumped out of the pages and became giants in my mind while listening to this audiobook. This love/hate thing going on, lovers with no benefits, like two halves of the same person. It's just wild. Then when it takes a cultic turn - wow! So not quite entertaining. Some bits were difficult, true gut punches. Yeah, not quite a good time. More fascinating, impressive, emotional. And the audiobook narrator does a fine job.
April 25, 2018
Got to page 155 and chucked it in. Depressing sad stuff about a buncha people one really doesn't give an iota about. Thin story line drives a tale of drug heads being losers of the first order. Of absolutely no interest to me...a modicum of the drug scene would have surpassed, but these are lost souls that deserve to rot in the gutter.
January 27, 2019
A riveting tale of drug-fueled insanity between inseparable souls
The primary characters are a man and woman, whose names have changed so many times they are no longer sure what they were called before they clambered aboard the roller coaster that takes them through drugs, crime, passion, betrayal & murder.
The primary characters are a man and woman, whose names have changed so many times they are no longer sure what they were called before they clambered aboard the roller coaster that takes them through drugs, crime, passion, betrayal & murder.
June 4, 2022
I may have detected a shadow of a plot on page 200 but it slipped away by page 210. Not sure what the author was trying to accomplish. The characters are addicted to narcotics and the book describes affect of drugs on their cognition and behavior but to what end is a mystery. There is no plot that I can detect.
November 15, 2024
Sometimes people remain trapped, no matter who or what they become. Yes you can run, yes you can hide, but nothing is forever. Add a life of drugs and grifting to the mix and Pruitt’s WHAT WE RECKON becomes a character study in identity and the prisons we make for ourselves. Go forth, seek out, purchase and enjoy. Tell ‘em another contender for Luther sent you.
May 11, 2018
Wavered between a three and a four. This is a wild ride, often funny, which careens down the tracks until it left me scratching my head. Comparisons to Quentin Tarantino's stuff are apt. Clever dialogue, more drugs than you can shake a stick at and quirky characters make this a unique and strange read I found difficult to categorize.
February 7, 2019
"Find what you love and let it kill you"- Charles Bukowski
September 7, 2020
Drugs, drugs, drugs and more drugs. Not really my thing. Fairly well written but well, just too many drugs.
April 30, 2024
Fans of gonzo tales of meth and stoner student lifestyles may enjoy this one a little more than I did.
March 9, 2025
3.5. Mean, hard-scrabble stuff I like and it goes to an interesting place.
August 4, 2025
Weird novel about strange people that are agents of chaos. They can’t help themselves. In that vein it was interesting, and I hope to never meet anyone like these two weirdo’s.
August 27, 2025
DNF’d at 90%. Miracle I got this far !
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews