Blood of My Blood by Barry Lyga

Title: Blood of My Blood
Author: Barry Lyga
Series: Jasper Dent #3
Publisher: Little Brown Books for Young Readers
Release Date: September 9, 2014
Source: Netgalley (thank you Little Brown!)

Summary from Goodreads:
Jazz Dent has been shot and left to die in New York City. His girlfriend Connie is in the clutches of Jazz's serial killer father, Billy. And his best friend Howie is bleeding to death on the floor of Jazz's own home in tiny Lobo's Nod. Somehow, these three must rise above the horrors their lives have become and find a way to come together in pursuit of Billy. But then Jazz crosses a line he's never crossed before, and soon the entire country is wondering: "Like father, like son?" Who is the true monster?
The chase is on, and beyond Billy there lurks something much, much worse. Prepare to meet...the Crow King.

Review

Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. I could not turn the pages of this book fast enough. Every. Single. Moment. Of. This. Book. Was. Amazing.

Blood of My Blood picks up right where Game left off and doesn't slow down for a second. I don’t want to reveal too much of the plot lest I ruin any surprises, but I will say that Blood of My Blood is everything we’ve been waiting for and more. Billy and Jazz finally face off. Jazz finds out what happened to his mother. Billy has a one-on-one with Connie. We meet The Crow King. We find out who Ugly J is. Truths are revealed. Lies are uncovered. Characters are tested. Questions are answered. Everything from the first two books culminates in this EPIC conclusion. It was magnificent.

A big theme of this series has been the idea of nature vs nurture. Throughout the series, Jazz has struggled to resist the teachings of his father, to choose to do good, be good. And he’s succeeded up until this point. But Jazz finally loses control in the wake of Billy’s latest actions. He becomes consumed by rage, desperation and grief and can only focus on putting an end to Billy, no matter the consequences. Watching Jazz self-destruct and go after Billy was like watching a head-on collision. I didn't want to look, knowing this wasn't going to end well, but I couldn't turn away either.

I can’t write this review without mentioning the very characters that helped bring Jazz back from the edge. Connie and Howie are as rock solid as ever in this conclusion and I completely adore these two. Despite what they have each been through, they stay true to Jazz and help him in whatever way they can. Howie even maintains his sense of humor and can be counted on to lighten the mood every once in a while. And G. Turner William steps up in a big way too. Jazz’s real parents might have failed him but Jazz has still got a family in Lobo’s Nod and the things they did for him warmed my heart.

Not only is this series thrilling, thought-provoking and unique but it also has a certain believability to it. The serial killer and police investigation pieces certainly felt well-researched but I was more impressed by the characters themselves. All of their thought-processes, deductions, arguments, doubts, questions, etc felt very very real and were consistent throughout the series. I applaud Barry Lyga for how well he crafted both internal and external dialogue in  each book. Really, the writing overall is just flawless.

I could go on and on but I will end here. This series is brilliant. This ending is brilliant. I highly recommend it to all readers but for Mystey/Thriller fans, it's a must read. It's definitely a favorite of mine.

REVIEW #108: Game (Jasper Dent #2) by Barry Lyga

Title: Game

Series: Jasper Dent #2
Author: Barry Lyga

Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Release Date: April 16, 2013

Pages: 528, Hardcover

Summary from Goodreads:

Billy grinned. “Oh, New York,” he whispered. “We’re gonna have so much fun.”

I Hunt Killers introduced the world to Jazz, the son of history’s most infamous serial killer, Billy Dent.

In an effort to prove murder didn’t run in the family, Jazz teamed with the police in the small town of Lobo’s Nod to solve a deadly case. And now, when a determined New York City detective comes knocking on Jazz’s door asking for help, he can’t say no. The Hat-Dog Killer has the Big Apple–and its police force–running scared. So Jazz and his girlfriend, Connie, hop on a plane to the big city and get swept up in a killer’s murderous game.

 

WELCOME TO THE GAME JASPER

To me, this series has all the right ingredients to make it a memorable one. First and foremost, our protagonist is the son of a notorious serial killer. Talk about a fun twist on a classic crime/murder novel. Jasper Dent has been raised to take over the family business but doesn’t want to be a killer, thus we have a very interesting nature vs. nurture battle present in this series. The internal struggle was more prevalent in I Hunt Killers, and takes a bit of a backseat to the murder mystery in Game, but it is still there. Billy Dent’s voice is still in his head. Jasper is still haunted by his strange nightmares. And he still fights to hold back his urges to do wrong. But to me it seemed that Jasper was a little more in control of himself. A little more sure that he wasn’t going to end up like his father.

And on that note, Jasper’s upbringing creates a very fascinating perspective to tell the story from. He’s been taught all the tricks of the trade - how to manipulate people to get what he wants, make them trust him, inflict pain, and evade capture - and he’s not above using some of the tools at his disposal to do what needs to be done. It gets my heart racing when we see this darker side of him. The side created by Billy Dent. Every time he bests someone or outsmarts them I do a little happy dance. I am totally Team Jasper, whether he is bad or good. And with respect to the crime solving, we don’t just get a cop’s way of looking at things but Jasper’s way of looking at things - which is the cops and the killers view of the crime. He understands the bad guys on a whole other level. It’s really something else. A whole lotta dark and scary but completely fascinating.

Second, we have a solid murder mystery. In I Hunt Killers, someone is impersonating the very gruesome crimes committed by dear old dad. Jasper, in an effort to do good to counteract the evil within, decides to help the police find the killer in what led to a very thrilling game of cat and mouse. And as I always enjoy, we get a few brief chapters from the killer’s perspective to keep things interesting. But the sequel Game takes everything to new heights. More killers, more murders, more mystery. The story has moved to the big apple and there are new players and one puzzling set of crimes. To catch the Hat-Dog killer, Jasper needs to must find the pattern behind the crazed murders. And it's a very good one at that, once revealed. 

If you like crime novels, murder mysteries, action/adventure - you name it - this book should excite you. I can admit I was truly stumped over the connection until the big reveal.And in case that isn’t enough, Barry Lyga gives us a little more in the way of some side mysteries that delve into the Dent past and bring Connie and Howie into the spotlight. This book is jam packed and kept me on the edge of my seat for a whole 500+ pages.

Third, we have some really great characters. I already raved a little over Jasper and he is one awesome lead (and you all know I love male POV) but the secondary characters stand out to be just as much. Connie is FIERCE. If anyone can handle Jasper, this girl can. She is AWESOME. Yeahhhh she does some stupid things in this book but I can’t say I wouldn’t do the same. She is one strong lady. And Howie, don’t even get me started. HILARIOUS. He can’t seem to shut up but everything out of his mouth is funny, and usually inappropriate. The grandmom is as crazy as ever. G. William Turner is still kickin’. And when I think of the ever so serious Detective Hughes I think of Tyrese Gibson for some reason, and that is one pretttyyy picture! ;)

Last but not least, this book is just well-written. It is engaging, informative, authentic (or at least feels that way). But above all, it is unique. And Barry Lyga skillfully continues to divulge the story of Billy Dent's past and Jasper's childhood while weaving an interesting set of murders for readers to solve. If you like crime stories or you are curious about the way serial killers think, then this is definitely your book. 

I Hunt Killers (Jasper Dent #1) by Barry Lyga

Title: I Hunt Killers (Jasper Dent, #1)
Author: Barry Lyga
Publisher: Little, Brown, and Company
Release Date: 4/3/2012
Length: 361 pages
Source: Audiobook
Rating: 5 stars

Summary from Goodreads:
What if the world's worst serial killer...was your dad?

Jasper "Jazz" Dent is a likable teenager. A charmer, one might say.

But he's also the son of the world's most infamous serial killer, and for Dear Old Dad, Take Your Son to Work Day was year-round. Jazz has witnessed crime scenes the way cops wish they could—from the criminal's point of view.

And now bodies are piling up in Lobo's Nod.

In an effort to clear his name, Jazz joins the police in a hunt for a new serial killer. But Jazz has a secret—could he be more like his father than anyone knows?

"Jazz hadn't given her many details of exactly what life in the Dent house had been like, but he'd told her enough that she knew it wasn't hearts and flowers. Well, except for the occasional heart cut from a chest. And the kind of flowers you send to funerals."

Jasper Dent (Jazz) has been groomed to follow in his father's footsteps as the world's most notorious serial killer. He was taught to charm, capture and kill without notice. He was taught that people don't matter. But ever since his father was locked up 4 years ago, Jazz has been trying to fight his father's voice in his head and his dark instincts that sometimes surface. He doesn't trust himself because he hasn't convinced himself he's not a killer. He really doesn't know. This nature vs nurture battle is really what carries the internal dialogue of the story.

"It's not that I want to or don't want to. It's just... I can. I imagine it's like being a great runner. If you knew you could run really fast, would you? If you were stuck walking somewhere, wouldn't you want to let loose and run like hell? That's how I feel."

I Hunt Killers has a strong idea and good writing but what makes it really stand out are the characters. Jazz is a pretty hilarious narrator and he lightens the mood of the sinister plot. 

"'Making a duplicate key from a wax impression was an extremely useful skill to have if you were the sort of person who liked invading other people's homes and killing them.'"

"'What if the whole thing was just an accident?'" 
"'And what? Accidentally cut off three fingers postmortem? 'Oops, of no, my girlfriend just died! Clumsy me, in trying to perform CPR, I chopped off some fingers! Guess I'll take them with me... Oh, darn, where did that middle finger go?'"

And I just love his best friend Howie, whom Jazz often ropes into his charades to catch the serial killer running around Lobo's Nod.

"'There's a little-known corollary to bros before hos, which states that if Bro One is terrified because Bro Two's girlfriend can make his nose bleed just by looking at him the wrong way, he's allowed to put hos before bros. I chose to implement that corollary because your girlfriend is a total badass.'"

Another element I really liked was the brief changes in perspective to the serial killer Jazz was after, the one that was impersonating Billy Dent's crimes. I really liked the following quote from his POV...

"He thought for a moment. About puppets. About being controlled. Everyone was controlled by something, the Impressionist knew. By a spouse. A parent. A boss. A firned. By one's own impulses, be they dark or light. Everyone was a puppet to something. Most people just couldn't see the strings, is all. And so they didn't believe they were puppets in the first place. The Impressionist could see his strings. He knew how long they were. He knew their tensile strength. How much slack they had. He knew who pulled them. But he wondered. He wondered about a puppet that can see its strings. He wondered... What if a puppet could cut its own strings."

So although this book can be gory and violent it is also light-hearted and charming. The characters really make this story into something more. I am really really looking forward to  the next in series. The ending of the book promised some good things to come.