I like Joe Denton from Small Crimes because you could tell he was trying to make a better life for himself after serving a seven year sentence in prison.
As for the protagonist in Pariah, I truly despise him. Like Joe Denton, he served out his full term like a good ol' Mama's boy but when he comes out, instead of trying to turn his life around like Joe, he harbours this bitter desire to hunt down the man who sold him out years ago. He is so blinded by his desire that he cannot see that he has bought a no return ticket on the road to Hell.
The old days as he used to know it are long gone but for Kyle Nevin, nothing else matters. He may be living in the present but his mind is still set in the past. He is as mean, heartless and bad-ass as you can possibly find in a loser, actually he is much worse. If Small Crimes is about redemption, Pariah is the polar opposite - it is about revenge.
Dave Zeltserman has not only successfully created a credible character so rotten and disturbed that we would love to hate him but also take the reader on an ultra raw and perverse trip into the realms of evil itself. There is maturity and wisdom in his writing and I reckon a worthy lesson to be learned once you can get past your repulsion.
As much as I am repressed by the protagonist, I am compelled to read the book page after page. As the protagonist is keen to remind everyone in the book, "Nothing in the world's lower than a rat." Ain't that true? But if you want to know what's lower than a rat, you gotta read the book. It is an A+++ book by a very gifted writer.
Pariah is the second book in the 'man just out of prison' trilogy.
Rating: 5/5
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