I'm sorry. I didn't like it.

I'd previously read How to Successfully Kidnap Strangers, and while it failed to deliver on the premise of its name, it was a nice enough read that I wanted to read Toxicity, too. Toxicity however, was toxic.

I feel like I have lost over the last two years the enjoyment in the extreme bizarre, hardly fitted together kind of novel. This one was one of those. It features a lot of different POVs and characters, and of course everything is going to fit in together at the end but it is the way how they get there and that was just not really there. None of the characters were even in the least likeable and I didn't like the raw writing in this one.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Max Booth III has been crafting stories in his unique manner for a long time now. He has a style that is often raw and bizarre that may not appeal to all readers but is a joy for his fans. As a fan, it is always a treat to start a new book by Booth and I looked forward to reading “Toxicity.”

When Maddox Kane was released from prison, he had a lot of life to catch up on. The main focus of his life moving forward was to reconnect with his daughter. He had no idea what she would think of him after his absent years as he served his prison sentence. He did not know what her mother, who had moved on to another loser boyfriend, had told her about him. All he knew is that he had to go straight and gain back the life that was torn from him through is own misdeeds. Unfortunately, the world was not going to make this easy for him.

Before he could even see his daughter, Maddox found his old life trying to pull him back in. He learns that his ex-wife’s boyfriend is a heroin addict who is not afraid to take his lust and violence out on his daughter. His daughter was caught up in trouble of her own when she finds herself an unwilling participant in a murder and has to help her boyfriend dispose of the body. Maddox’s brother, who was supposed to be the one to give him a place to live until he got back on his feet, has fallen prey to a lot lizard turned succubus and introduced a new even into his life. Purple is the hottest new drug on the streets. Maddox finds himself caught up in a distribution scheme for the deadly drug that has gone wrong and the man behind the drug wants his money now. Now he has to figure out how to go straight and become a father to his daughter while on the run from both the law and the criminals he once partnered with.

“Toxicity” was not what I expected it to be but that is not to say that it was not good. The book is more of a crime story with a heavy dose of humor but it was not the bizarre slash horror novel that I was expecting. In spite of all his shortcomings, Maddox is a character that is easy to relate with. I found myself cheering for him as the world struggled to pull him back into the mud he was trying to climb free from. The fact that he is imperfect is what makes him human and the same can be said for the other characters in this book. Even though the characters on the side of good do bad things, there is a clear demarcation of good and evil in this novel that makes it easy for the reader to cheer for the heroes of the story. The strength of the characters holds the book together and allows the reader an easy entry into the world that Booth creates. This gives the story a human soul that makes it more powerful than it would otherwise have become.

“Toxicity” may not have provided the level of mayhem I was expecting but it is a very strong story with a touch of the bizarre thrown in. Booth gives the reader a tightly written story of a man trying to reclaim his life from a dark past even when the world is set against him. Every character in the story with the exception of Maddox and his daughter are written larger-than-life to help illustrate the plight of the story’s anti-hero. I expected more of a bizarre novel when I started the book and got a taste of that with Maddox’s brother and his lot lizard “girlfriend” but this only served to make the trials of Maddox even more real. The story borders on the absurd and has some episodes of extreme violence but the beating human heart at the center of the novel keeps it grounded and draws the reader in. I found myself drawn into the story from the very beginning and eagerly anticipating what was going to happen on the next page.

I would like to thank Post Mortem Press and NetGalley for this review copy. “Toxicity” is availability now.