Book Review - Play Dead by Michael A. Arnzen
Category Book Reviews
Desperate for recreational reading material, I went over to the library and started browsing the fiction shelves. Play Dead by Michael A. Arnzen caught my attention with a rather "dark" playing card cover, so I picked it up. "Dark" is a good word to describe the story, which was better than I expected, and only let down at the very end...
Johnny Frieze is a high-stakes card player who finally hits rock bottom in Las Vegas. He bets everything he has, including a graphic account of removing his gold tooth, on a losing hand, and ends up in a homeless shelter. One of the residents, Wilson, seems to have an endless supply of money and resources, and starts a friendship with Johnny. This friendship leads to Johnny's recruitment for a bizarre card game called Butcher Boy, run by the richest casino owner on the strip. Four players, a million dollar pot, winner takes all, everyone else dies. But before you get to that point, you have to "make" the 13 cards that belong to your assigned suit. The players have cameras to capture the "essence of life" for each of the cards, with promises of more stake money for creativity. This essence in actuality are death scenes based on the suit and number of the next card. Each player stages continuingly more gruesome murders to get their deck finished in time for the game. Johnny is drawn to the game, but wants to play on his own terms, which means no killing. The story races forward with the characters killing away, Johnny trying to skirt the rules, and his "team" trying to help him escape with his life. Because once you're in the game, the only way out is to "fold"... permanently.
This is an extremely graphic novel, with plenty of gore and decadence. There's a underlying theme of "fate", how the cards control everything, and how the death deck contains incredible power. I found myself staying up a bit too late on a couple of evenings to find out how it all wrapped up. The final scene with the card game and the outcome, in my opinion, was a bit of a letdown. I think it's likely due to the "fate" theme becoming the entire focus, and everything getting very philosophical and ethereal. I would have preferred a more concrete ending rather than the "sophisticated" one, but others might disagree... Still, a morbid story that is unlike anything else I've read in a long time...
If you liked this review and found it helpful, please click on the Amazon book link in the review and click the Yes (Was This Review Helpful To You?) button at the bottom of my review. Thanks!
Desperate for recreational reading material, I went over to the library and started browsing the fiction shelves. Play Dead by Michael A. Arnzen caught my attention with a rather "dark" playing card cover, so I picked it up. "Dark" is a good word to describe the story, which was better than I expected, and only let down at the very end...
Johnny Frieze is a high-stakes card player who finally hits rock bottom in Las Vegas. He bets everything he has, including a graphic account of removing his gold tooth, on a losing hand, and ends up in a homeless shelter. One of the residents, Wilson, seems to have an endless supply of money and resources, and starts a friendship with Johnny. This friendship leads to Johnny's recruitment for a bizarre card game called Butcher Boy, run by the richest casino owner on the strip. Four players, a million dollar pot, winner takes all, everyone else dies. But before you get to that point, you have to "make" the 13 cards that belong to your assigned suit. The players have cameras to capture the "essence of life" for each of the cards, with promises of more stake money for creativity. This essence in actuality are death scenes based on the suit and number of the next card. Each player stages continuingly more gruesome murders to get their deck finished in time for the game. Johnny is drawn to the game, but wants to play on his own terms, which means no killing. The story races forward with the characters killing away, Johnny trying to skirt the rules, and his "team" trying to help him escape with his life. Because once you're in the game, the only way out is to "fold"... permanently.
This is an extremely graphic novel, with plenty of gore and decadence. There's a underlying theme of "fate", how the cards control everything, and how the death deck contains incredible power. I found myself staying up a bit too late on a couple of evenings to find out how it all wrapped up. The final scene with the card game and the outcome, in my opinion, was a bit of a letdown. I think it's likely due to the "fate" theme becoming the entire focus, and everything getting very philosophical and ethereal. I would have preferred a more concrete ending rather than the "sophisticated" one, but others might disagree... Still, a morbid story that is unlike anything else I've read in a long time...
If you liked this review and found it helpful, please click on the Amazon book link in the review and click the Yes (Was This Review Helpful To You?) button at the bottom of my review. Thanks!
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-- Michael Arnzen
Posted by Mike Arnzen At 18:35:22 On 03/01/2007 | - Website - |