What is it that makes one author get an enormous amount of hype while another more talented one doesn't get the same recognition? Cosby has written two absolutely electrifying books—Blacktop Wasteland and now this—and if there was any justice, he would be a household name. Maybe this book will do the trick.
“Folks like to talk about revenge like it’s a righteous thing but it’s just hate in a nicer suit.”
Ike is devastated when he learns his son Isiah was murdered along with his white husband, Derek. Ike spent years in prison during his son’s youth, but his inability to accept Isiah’s sexuality and subsequent marriage was his biggest failing and caused the biggest strain in their relationship.
Buddy Lee, Derek’s father, is also an ex-con, and also fought with his son about being gay. Descending from a long line of racist miscreants, Derek was not only gay but married a Black man—double the sin, as it were, in his father's eyes.
But with the police unable to make any headway in their sons’ murders (or do they just not care?), Ike and Buddy Lee reluctantly team up to do some digging. They both know they may cross a line from which they can’t return, but both feel they owe it to their sons to find the person responsible. Along the way, they have to come to terms with their own prejudices and decide whether avenging their sons’ deaths is worth a return to violence.
Powerful, sad, gritty, and utterly searing, Razorblade Tears is easily one of the best books I’ve read all year and it was one of my most anticipated. It’s very violent, so that may be a trigger for some, but it is truly a fantastic book.
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