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Book Review of Blood Oranges

Blood Oranges
miz-firefly avatar reviewed on + 112 more book reviews


Blood Oranges is a bloody weird book. (said to be phunny, not to indicate gore altho a fair amount of killing happens) I think fans of J. F. Lewis, Harry Connolly and Rob Thurman would like it.

The MC is a recovering(?) junkie/newly minted werewolf/vampire. And the author does a remarkable job staying in character. The story progresses exactly as I would expect an addict to behave, with zero continuity. It begins after the events yet to be shown and flicks briefly forward to hint at coming events, then settles (mostly) into the story, sidetracking occasionally to relate past events that have bearing on present events all related in a wry tongue-in-cheek voice that is very entertaining, if a little heavy on eye roll inducing because of the lack of continuity. The kicker happened at about 100 pages in, when we learn that most of the story has been misrepresented. And have to discover how the events actually took place.

Because, Junkie, Duh!

I was amazed how well Tierney was able to hold my interest while keeping the main character IN Character. I was tempted to give this book a two because the staging drove me crazy. But the crazy-ass staging turned out to be pretty clever, and believe it or not, gave the story an authentic feel. And I think Tierney deserves props for keeping me reading when I really wanted to quit.