By: Andrez Bergen
Renee Asher Pickup (Chapters 7-8)
From the author of Bullet Gal, Andrez Bergen, comes the novelization of his hard-boiled comic series Trista and Holt. In the comic series Bergen would often take clips from the media and apply filters to them in order to showcase the scenes, but this time around it’s all up to the words to tell the tale, and Bergen does a great job in keeping with the noir setting. Bergen even starts off with a scene of destruction as he sets of the landscape of the story. “The sweat caught in Trista’s eye. She’d been listening to the fire brigade sirens across town for something like three hours. They bothered her. Made the woman sense something had changed, and she didn’t mean just the architectural landscape surrounding a building aflame.”
The narrator doesn’t hold back, which gives the story a certain edge that fits it quite well. Each chapter contains parts that bring us to a different character in the story, and gives the narrator new territory to tread. Accompanying Bergen on this story is Renee Asher Pickup – taking over on chapters 7-8. Right from the get-go once Renee takes over we see a poetic tone take the page, “Fragmentary, over-simplified moments, shades of Tristan Tzara splicing them together in his arthritic dotage, after one too many Luis Buñuel surrealist martinis—the duffer. There’s a drip-dripping sound, very regular, exceptionally annoying. The world seems sticky.” – That little piece right from the beginning of chapter seven is loaded with visuals and slick wordplay, definitely showcasing Renee as a valuable asset to the novel.
This book offers up another look at Bergen’s take on the story of Tristan and Isolde. If you were a fan of the comic series, or any of his work for that matter, you’ll surely enjoy this novel – especially those who are fans of classic noir tales taking place in the gritty settings they thrive in.
Find the book on Amazon
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