New Yorked

What Our Readers Are Saying

Share your thoughts on this title!

Average customer rating 5 (3 comments)

---

`

I read this book and was utterly engrossed, not because I love a good mystery, but because of Ash's voice. He is lovelorn, trying to get over the death of his ex, Chell, even though it's not totally clear just what kind of ex she was, he is also determined to get revenge for her death. He starts off on a journey that takes him all over New York City, across boroughs and bridges, but also across generations and gentrification. The book weaves from his present, visiting various underworlds with a brash fearlessness that comes from having lost pretty much everything, to his past, trying to figure out what his dad's death and legacy have meant to him. I am not actually much of a noir reader, but I don't think you have to be to be drawn into this story. Through Ash's attempts to peel back the layers of what happened to Chell, he also has to peel back his own layers, his own romanticism about New York, a much-changed city, and about his own place in it. This is a mystery at its heart, but I also found myself caring less about the exact whodunnit and more about how Ash worms his way in and out of trouble. For me, Ash's scrappiness, his willingness to do anything to get to the bottom of Chell's death, including go up against people who are clearly better armed and far more dangerous, was the biggest draw of this book, even more than the actual outcome, which is my usual way of approaching a mystery. It's to Hart's credit that I almost didn't want him to solve it, because I didn't want the story to end. I look forward to reading the next book in the series for that precise reason.

`

I've been anticipating the release of New Yorked for some time now. The author, Rob Hart, is the class director over at LitReactor, a site I frequent almost daily. I was also a fan of Unprintable, LitReactors now defunct podcast (over a year since the last episode) which Rob Hart co-hosted. Rob Hart and that podcast turned me on to some of my favorite books. One title for which I am eternally grateful is "Kiss me, Judas." Part neo-noir, part scary love story. I couldn't get enough of Will Christopher Baer's nightmarish prose. So as Someone who hold's the author in such high esteem, when I cracked open New Yorked I had some very high expectations. Expectations which were quickly exceeded as I burned through the book late into the night. Ash McKenna is a blunt instrument. Roaming through New York's criminal underbelly with the grace of a wrecking ball, trying to solve of the mystery of what happened to the woman he loved, while being haunted by the hard truths of his past. Ash loves New York. He was raised in New York, but he's also feeling disillusioned and rejected by the city. He lashes out as the cards continue to stack against him, cracking a few skulls and unfortunately bruising a few friendships along the way. The climax of the book hinges on Ash finding some semblance of redemption. The best noir always is. Rob Hart writes with dark and powerful prose. My head was flooded with notable comparisons as I read, but having finished I've got to say Rob Hart is all his own. I'll finish with probably my favorite line from the book. "Time is supposed to heal all wounds. Which is a thing people say when they've never been cut to the bone. The big wounds, even when they do heal, they don't heal right. Every time you move you feel the tug of the scar tissue."

`

Ash McKenna wakes up one morning from a drunken blackout to find a voice mail from his ex-girlfriend, left moments before she was murdered. He sets out on a quest-qua-vendetta to find her killer, and everything unravels from there. New Yorked is part Eight Million Ways to Die, and part Red Harvest meets the Warriors. As a detective novel, New Yorked is good. It hits the expected high notes of the genre while providing enough novelty to keep it the story fresh and interesting. By that standard alone, New Yorked is a solid four star story with great pacing, an interesting protagonist, and plenty of action. However, the brilliance of New Yorked--and what kicks it up to five stars for me--is the parallel of Ash’s relationship to his murdered girlfriend and his relationship to the city. As an existential meditation on the struggle against mortality, this book is a thing of near perfection. *New York* is the real victim of the novel--or, at least, the New York that Ash McKenna once loved. While he’s searching for the literal killer who murdered his ex, he guides the reader on a tour of the people responsible for murdering his real love, the once dirty, dangerous New York you had to earn your way into. The “gents” (out of towners responsible for the gentrification of the city), hipsters, and long time residents more interested in profit than preservation all have a stab at the heart of his true love, while all also punishing Ash for daring to stand up for what the city once represented. He takes a beating and with every wound he’s a little more “New Yorked”--a little more transformed by others’ plans for and designs upon him.