LitPick Review
Omniviolence follows teenage tech assassin, Jackson, who uses his skills in coding to be a hired gun using his weaponized drones. He's not the only one. The entire world is in constant violence, with a slight grievance being enough to be murdered. There are no more police, and no one in charge except the rich and powerful who can kill anyone in their way. Bones, an old school hitman, is hired by a group of the most rich and powerful, but there's one problem. Bones has rules as a hitman, one of them being he doesn't kill kids. Instead, Bones finds Jackson and tries to warn him, only to find himself also with a hit on him. Jackson and Bones flee, and we follow them and their travels to try to escape their fates and fight for their lives. Read on to find out if evil is as evil does.
Opinion:
To be honest, this book took me a long long time to finish. You know how in the series Friends, Joey has to hide The Shining in the freezer when the book gets too much? That was me with this book. Omniviolence. I realize it hints that in the title, but the violence is just so overwhelming that I had to take breaks.
I really enjoyed the characters Jackson and especially Bones, as it was nice to see in the eventual world that breaks down into violence, there's some hope of a little morality here and there. I appreciated getting to see how both of these main characters grew, just in a few days time, their moral compass becoming stronger and winning in the end. It was chilling how easily I could see our world developing into this sort of horror. We're already there with the technology and greed, as well as our care for others diminishing every day. I loved loved loved that psychotic Monster with a capital M being killed the same way he killed others. It is not often I find myself rooting for a character to die, but I don't think I could have had peace with this novel without it. The kitten was such a nice touch and incredibly necessary to add in some normalcy and compassion into the book. We need that little kitten surviving and softening Jackson and Bones' hearts. Anya, boy, a real piece of work. I really wish there was more of the book devoted to her character and understanding more about her work and plan. That seemed rushed, but I got enough information technically to understand her motives and ideas. Yet, we get so much time with Jackson and Bones, just two more chapters on Anya would have been helpful.
Overall, the book surprised me. When I first started it, I really considered not finishing it, it is just so graphic and horrific, and it doesn't really ever let up. Once Savinaire and Anya were introduced, and I could begin to see where we might be heading other than still just graphic violence, I ended up wanting to continue and finish the book. I made my review 4 stars really just because of the graphic nature of the book.
