Books › Sandman Slim

Sandman Slim
416 pages
A whiskey-soaked, blood-spattered joyride through a grimy supernatural Los Angeles with a protagonist who literally crawled out of Hell.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like being strapped into a muscle car with no brakes, careening through the darkest, grimiest alleys of a supernatural Los Angeles. It is a relentlessly propulsive, blood-soaked joyride that thrives on its own chaotic energy and pitch-black humor. The narrative voice is incredibly distinct, cynical, battered, and armed with a razor-sharp wit that cuts through the relentless violence and existential dread. You are immersed in a world that smells of sulfur, cheap whiskey, and stale cigarette smoke, guided by an antihero who is as likely to punch a problem as he is to mock it. It will absolutely delight readers who crave gritty, hardboiled urban fantasy that never takes itself too seriously but always delivers on visceral thrills.
- Mood
- grimy
- chaotic
- neon-lit
- blood-soaked
- frenetic
- Tone
- irreverent
- cynical
- hardboiled
- darkly comedic
- gritty
- Pace
- propulsive
- Themes
- quest for vengeance · reluctant redemption · urban decay · absurdity of existence · antiheroic survival
- The writing
- Punchy, visceral, and relentlessly profane, the sentences hit like a brass-knuckled fist.
- The arc
- The protagonist shifts from a state of pure, destructive vengeance to a begrudging, messy acceptance of his role in a chaotic universe.
- Who it's for
- Readers who love their urban fantasy soaked in whiskey, dripping with sarcasm, and starring deeply flawed, unkillable antiheroes.
Content notes
- graphic violence
- gore
- profanity
- substance abuse
- torture
About the book
Supernatural fantasy has a new antihero.Life sucks, and then you die. Or, if you're James Stark, you spend eleven years in Hell as a hitman before finally escaping, only to land back in the hell-on-earth that is Los Angeles.Now Stark's back, and ready for revenge. And absolution, and maybe even love. But when his first stop saddles him with an abusive talking head, Stark discovers that the road to absolution and revenge is much longer than you'd expect, and both Heaven and Hell have their own ideas for his future.Resurrection sucks. Saving the world is worse.Darkly twisted, irreverent, and completely hilarious, Sandman Slim is the breakthrough novel by an acclaimed author.
Description from Open Library.
Books like Sandman Slim
See why they match
Kill City bluesRichard KadreyA blood-soaked, neon-drenched joyride through the supernatural underbelly of Los Angeles with a chain-smoking antihero.
Kill the deadRichard KadreyA blood-soaked, neon-drenched joyride through a grimy Los Angeles where the monsters are real and the hero is worse.
The Devil You KnowMike CareyA gritty, sarcastic descent into a haunted London where the ghosts are dangerous but the living are worse.
You SuckChristopher MooreA manic, blood-splattered rom-com that trades brooding gothic romance for slapstick comedy and teenage goth snark.
Half-resurrection bluesDaniel José OlderA shadowy, supernatural mystery that explores the eerie, liminal space between the living and the dead.
The devil's detectiveSimon Kurt UnsworthA grim, supernatural noir where a weary investigator must navigate the ultimate corrupt bureaucracy to solve an escalating string of murders.