Sarah Dupeyron ~ "Hashimoto Blues"

I have been gone, gone, gone, and I have been a mess, mess, mess.
Vacation time is here, and as usual, all my stuff is yet to be laundered, my favorite brand of face primer is out of stock, and I need to make myself pack lest than 20 pairs of shoes.
On top of all this – family drama, health drama…heck! Every kind of drama there is was thrown in to my face.
So, maybe it was my mood – half destructive, half desperate – but I was hungry for some action, action, action!



There has been a lot of talk going around in the reviewer VS author boxing matches on goodreads about how Indi authors are the worst. I, frankly, refuse to touch that hot potato of a subject, but I can safely say, that sometimes Indie authors don’t have the best editing. Sometime the plot is horrible, and the writing makes my eyes water.
This was not the case with “Hashimoto blues".

This book was:

Fresh!
New!
Gripping!
Devious!

The writing was flawless. The dialogue flow was perfect. The characters were full of life. The adventure was engrossing. The angst was efficient, and the realism was shocking and scary.
I am (wo)man enough to state all these things. I will also say that even thou I was super busy, I used every second of my free time to see what will happen next – I abused the Kindle app on my mobile and bumped in to people all over town.
What is the final verdict, you ask? I loved this book as an idea, as a whole. I loved how this author knows her ABC’s and has a staggering use of her imagination.

BUT! (alas, isn’t there always a catch?)

Coming in to this book, I was expecting violence, realism, and utter chaos. I am not saying I did not find it, and even liked it – I did. But even thou drug use was carefully described and elaborated, sex was in constant fade out mode. The author did it rather artfully, so it did not make me utterly hate the “cleanness” of it. Still, the fact stands – there was a disbalance. Severed hands could fly in the air but penises are taboo? Strange. Again, I am not saying there were no erotic scenes, or sex talk – there was. I just felt like I was getting the PG version of it.
By the by, when on the topic and already talking about the vehemently dramatic course of the plot - I must say I was surprised with the last few pages. Some things were introduced and resolved out of the blue, and they felt almost transplanted form a different book. It felt rushed, and the ultimate “happy ending” was bizarre. Almost as much as the time jump that was stuffed in there.
In the end, I am mostly not sure I am the intended public for this read. Even thou I am unable to not applaud its content in the general sense – I pretty much disliked the characters. Their bad karma made me depressed. Their life choices caused me to scowl… and I am shamed to admit, that at times I was even rooting against them.

What was so bad about this sexy heroine and strapping wonder boy? Well, I am not really sure I can put my finger on the real source of my displeasure. It was just a bunch of little things.
Free spirited? Sure. Smoking pot all over the place? Not my thing.
For some reason, marijuana is a complete turn off for me. Recreational marijuana for somebody that strives to be athletic? Great. Just great.

(YOU IDIOTS!)

Thieves with a heart of gold? Yeah. Yeah, ok! I get it! These people are intelligent, street smart, fast, pretty, and at the heart of things – good.
All this is fine and dandy but - Eh! I still felt like they made the most appalling decisions. I was shouting at my reading device in the futile hope I can stop them from being morons – but no. And you know what they say? If you are not careful, you can loose an eye…which is weird – because somebody did loose an eye in this book. A lot of somebody’s. And people died. Which in turn made me angry – since they mostly brought it on to themselves.

Hey, wait! Is anger a good thing? Yes, yes it is. It shows how I got emotional. It gripped me, and it carried me trough the book.
Does this make “Hashimoto blues” a good book? Something I don’t regret reading? Yes. It does. It really does.
Does it make this author a good one? Again – yes.

All in all, this book has not won my love, but it won my respect in more ways than I can count.

Do I recommend it to readers? Yes. But I would say that people that liked Jamie Alden’s “Run from fear” and wanted it to be a little more realistic will absolutely love “Hashimoto blues”. Others? Sure. Maybe the fast flow of drama and activity will suck somebody else in. Maybe, unlike me, other people will see these rascals as lovable. Who knows….who knows!