Bleed More, Bodymore by Ian Kirkpatrick

Title: Bleed More, Bodymore

Series: Bodymore #1

Author: Ian Kirkpatrick

Expected Publication Date: October 31, 2021

Publisher: Steak house Books

Pages: 302

Goodreads

Introduction

Baltimore smells like rot, like corpses, like death. It always has. But ever since Joey was called to collect her friend's car in Baltimore's infamous body dumping ground and found a corpse in the trunk, and her friend MIA, it's been getting worse. The city feels more grim. Ravens seem to be watching her. And where is Wayland? As she tries to find him, she's also finds out just how sinister Baltimore can be, if you just look close enough.

Writing Style

Something about this writing style missed the mark for me, There was a lot of telling, not showing, and because of that, it was very choppy and made it hard for me to feel immersed in the story.

Joey

I didn't connect to Joey as I hoped I would. Mostly because a lot of her dialogue made me cringe and made her come off younger than she was supposed to be. For example, when she is being questioned by a detective and she asks what they found on her record, the dialogue goes like this:

"What do you think I found?"

I shake my head. "Nah fam, not playing."

The insertion of the words "nah, fam." makes her feel so young to me and it was hard to take her seriously during her scenes like this. Additionally, it was hard to take her and the detective scenes seriously at all because she always acted so nonchalantly. It's like it never actually dawned on her that she could be getting herself in trouble. I understand that she's supposed to be tough and edgy and untouchable but at times it was very unrealistic.

Romance: Joey and Jag

Romance wasn't a central theme in the book by any means, but I wasn't really interested in any of what Joey and Jag had going on. I liked Jag individually, but the scenes where he and Joey were acting physically affectionate felt so out of place to me because there was never any foundation established for any kind of intimate relationship. Occasionally they kiss quickly, the moment passes, and Joey never thinks about it. As a reader you just have to accept that that's something they do without ever having any substance to go with it. This might be because their situation is so casual that Joey has no reason to think about it beyond the moments of the affection, but to me, as a reader, the relationship fell flat. I'm hoping that in the future books, if they continue to be involved in some way, it's developed a little more deeply.

Ending

The ending came together really fast. It felt like it took a little bit of a left turn from the rest of the plot in order to drive itself towards a sequel. That being said, I really liked the way it ended, it's probably my favorite aspect of the book.

Conclusion

This book was an okay introduction. Although I had trouble connecting with Joey the plot was interesting enough to keep me going through the book and I am looking forward to seeing how the plot continues, should I read the sequel.