Hello, Book Nerds! Welcome back to Reading Has Ruined My Life or welcome if you are new. As always, my name is Hannah and I am your captain on this journey into my bookcases.
I have a very special review for ya today. I was oh so kindly sent an advanced copy of an upcoming thriller. Thank you very much to Roundfire Books and Collective Ink for sending me a copy of today’s book. They aren’t paying me for my review, they just sent me the book for free. Thank you again so much for sending me a copy, it means the world to me when someone wants to send me books. Thank you so much!
And what title was I oh so kindly sent? Please give a warm welcome to By Way of Paris by Christopher J. Newman. By Way of Paris releases on December 1, 2024.
So let’s crack into it. As always, a spoiler alert is in order. If you’ve read any other post on this site then you know I love to spoil the entirety of the books I read. This is your one and only warning. I also have a content and trigger warning for this thriller. By Way of Paris is all about gangs and gang violence. There are discussions of physical and mental abuse, drug use, gaslighting and manipulation; the works! Know that this story is about gangs and you’re gonna get all the bad things that come with the subject. Synopsis time now.
Our story begins in the city of love, the city of lights, the one and only Paris. Luke is a 28-year-old soon to be grad student and aspiring writer who is visiting the city before his master’s program starts. While in Paris, Luke and his best friend Cash get into just a little bit of trouble. The pair go to buy some drugs for a party they’re about to attend, and while at the drug dealer's apartment, Luke discovers the dead body of a young woman. Now Remy, the shitty drug dealer, and George, the drug dealer’s dealer, are forcing these two Americans in Paris to hide said body. And that’s just the first five chapters!
When Luke and Cash finally leave Paris and get to London, they have both been changed forever. It comes as a surprise to no one. If you are perfectly fine after being forced to hide a dead body then you should seek therapy and a lot of it. Anyway, Luke changes for the worse. Before he left Paris, George gave Luke his cousin’s name and told him to look his cousin up when he got to London. Luke does look said cousin up. His name is Shane, and as it turns out, he’s a gang leader.
Luke then has the bright idea to hang out with Shane and other members of the gang in order to use their experiences for his novel. After a few weeks of not being able to shake him, Shane welcomes Luke into his gang. Soon Luke is selling drugs, beating people up, making decent money, and becoming friends with his fellow gang members. But let’s be real. Luke is in a gang. Shit is gonna hit the fan real soon, and hit the fan it does. Luke’s new found friends begin dying, he keeps getting involved in extremely dangerous situations, Shane is a master manipulator, and the police and Luke's professors are beginning to view him with great suspicion. What’s a boy to do? Find out in By Way of Paris.
I did not anticipate enjoying this read as much as I did. I expected a decent thriller, but then the beginning bored me. And if I'm being honest, the beginning chapters lowkey gave me whiplash. I was thrown right into the seedy underbelly of Paris with the main character admitting to having just kidnapped someone, but this came without knowledge of how I as a reader got there. Spoiler alert, this book actually starts with the ending. While I appreciate that the author comes out the gate swinging, I needed a few pages of set up in order to get to know Luke and how he ended up in a drug dealer’s apartment. Instead, I was flat out told Luke and his friend were going to meet someone who would sell them drugs. More showing and less straight up telling, please and thank you.
Now I find what I’m about to say next very funny because it’s going to sound so contradictory to the above paragraph. Once Luke helps hide a body and he arrives in London, the novel sets up his deteriorating mental state. It’s extremely necessary and if the author hadn't done so it would have negatively impacted my review, but Luke does nothing for chapters upon chapters as he attempts to weasel his way into a gang. Nothing happens. I was promised thrilling action and, as the official synopsis puts it, a “world filled with violence” and “a slew of crimes” filled with “dangerous enemies.” I want the record to show that this is a me problem. Setting up Luke’s poor mental state and him having to build some level of trust with Shane are both necessary and realistic, but I want more action in the earlier chapters. Sometimes I sound like the most wishy-washy reviewer out there, and I am sorry for that. To review, roughly the first five chapters do too much and then the next five or so chapters do nothing; I did not like the beginning of this book, it felt inconsistent.
Though one thing I can say with absolute certainty is that I love the supporting cast. I adore them. The boys in the gang, Kieran, King, Ibrahim, and Llanzo, are a hoot. My love for these four will never die. They are all so much fun! One has dreams of being a professional athlete, another dreams of being a comedian, plus they’re each other’s found family and I’m a sucker for the found family trope. The four of them are incredible sympathetic characters as well seeing as they were all manipulated by Shane into joining his gang.
Speaking of Shane, he’s a great villain. He's the type of antagonist who isn’t seen a lot currently. He’s not a morally gray villain with a sympathetic backstory. While I personally love a morally gray villain, I do appreciate when authors make the villains of their novels horrible, terrible people that readers love to hate. Now I don’t want to say Shane is pure evil, he's close, he's a very terrible person and master manipulator who preys on young teens when they’re at a low point in their lives; I'll say he's one step below pure evil. Shane is the exact type of villain this story needs and he plays his role so well.
Now let’s talk about the novel’s protagonist. Luke isn’t my favorite, but he’s a serviceable main character. He definitely the classic anti-hero. Though I will say, I really didn’t want to root for him throughout the story. I didn’t crave his downfall necessarily, but I did want horrible things to happen to him. Again, he’s a serviceable anti-hero. Not my favorite, but I guess he’s also not my least favorite.
Where By Way of Paris really shines though is in its insight into toxic masculinity. Christopher J. Newman shows how easy it is for young men to fall into this mindset and thus be trapped by it. I think that’s why I love the supporting characters so much. They’re clearly trapped by Shane and his toxic masculinity, but they’re fighting it when Luke gives them a wakeup call and are then trying to grow as people. Kieran, King, Ibrahim, and Llanzo want to break the cycle! They actively want to change their situation once their blinders are pulled off. Thanks to Luke, all four of them recognize they’re being forced to fit into a world and archetype Shane wants them to be in instead of being who they actually are and want to be.
I did not anticipate enjoying By Way of Paris as much as I did. But with action on nearly every page and loveable supporting characters, I found myself enthralled by the seedy world Christopher J. Newman created. Once again, By Way of Paris releases on December 1, 2024. A huge thank you goes out to Roundfire Books and Collective Ink. Thank you for sending me an advanced copy of By Way of Paris. It really means a lot to me that someone out there wishes to send me books. Thank you so much!
And with that, I shall bid you all adieu. I will see you all again next week with another great post. If you can’t wait that long, then you can always check out my podcast Nothing to See Hear over on Spotify or YouTube. Me and two of my dearest friends talk everything from Gothic lit, Disney, Scooby-Doo, and practically everything in between; there is bound to be something that strikes your fancy.
Until next time, stay safe, wash your hands, and read some good books for me.
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