Ugly As Sin

4.5 rounded up.

Nick Bullman makes a surprisingly compelling main character, I had expected him to be somewhat caricatural, but he actually comes across as a flawed but self-aware guy who is just trying to cope with his circumstances, you want to root for him. That's something that carries across with almost everyone in this book, from the drug addicted neighbor to the down on her luck daughter and even the cops, they're all trying to be decent people and even when they fall short, they're still very much human. The villains on the other hand were easy to hate and sometimes it's good for the soul to have a bad guy you don't have any sympathy for, so I enjoyed that.

For all Nick is a big guy with a potentially scary physique he is also not unreasonably powerful or immune to pain, it made for interesting fight scenes. While his disfigurement plays a role in the story it isn't treated in a way that I found over the top, I have read too many stories when even a fairly minor physical difference is treated like it's the absolute end of the world by everyone, so I really enjoyed the way it was dealt with here, neither tiptoed around or world ending.

The story is pretty polished and, in my opinion, there isn't much of any useless fluff left so the story moves along at a steady pace and characterization happens rather organically alongside the story. The relationships between the characters seemed a little unwarranted at times but otherwise it made for a satisfying and consistently entertaining read.

Disclosure: I received a review copy of this book through BookSirens.