Everybody Smokes In Hell

Rating:
Summary: It's Not Surprising That All His Books Get Made Into Movies
Review: The way John Ridley writes is like an explosion of moving pictures, vivid and exciting, one take after the next. Everybody Smokes In Hell wasn't a short read, but the fast pace and wild ride make it a weekend read.

Rating:
Summary: Style without substance
Review: The writer has panache, unfortunately the story has none. A huge disappointment! If you like stories about L.A., read Robert Crais. If you like noir, read Andrew Vachss. Ridley should stick to directing.

Rating:
Summary: It's not like I'm particularly picky...
Review: This book irritated me greatly. Not only were the characters extremely underdeveloped and uninspiring, the writing literally made me cringe with a far greater frequency I can tolerate in a novel. Tense shifts and choppy, rambling sentances abounded. I'd prefer having my teeth drilled to reading more of this sort of tripe.

Rating:
Summary: Everybody Just Smokes
Review: This book serves as an interesting read and is well prosed, but Ridley flat out drops the ball with the plot. Predictable, amusing, cute, whatever you want to call it; you've sen one Tarnatino you've seen 'em all. Benjamin Franklin once said "The learned fool has the ability to express his nonsense to the unlearned, but in the end it is still nonsense." I will give Ridley props on one thing, that Brice chick got me going.

Rating:
Summary: COULDN'T GET ENOUGH
Review: This book was recommended to me by a friend. As I soon as I finished, I got Ridley's previous two novels. I couldn't get enough. More than just a great story, Ridley has a unique style of writing and a great wit. I feel very lucky to have "discovered" a new writer early in his career. The only bad thing is now I have to wait for his next novel. If it's half as good as this one, the wait will be well worth it!

Rating:
Summary: fast paced, energetic, roller coaster ride
Review: This is a very busy book. Many storylines that intertwine and eventually come together at the end, when everything plotwise goes to hell. This was a very enjoyable book to read, and quick read, you're not going to be challenged here, but for gen-x readers, these are the kinda books that we like. Characters that we can identify, especially Paris, a man, in his 20s, who just wants a shot at the big time. Read it and enjoy

Rating:
Summary: A Masterpiece
Review: This is the kind of book that shows you that you couldn't possibly have "a bad day". 'Cause the anti-hero in this story wrote the book on it (no pun intended). This is the perfect road thriller, an exciting read... this is the kind of book that should not only be made into a movie, but the it's the kind of books that all movies should try to copy. John Ridley, your books inspire me and intrigue me. Spielberg, in case you are reading this, get your pen out, this one is a keeper. America go on the road!

Rating:
Summary: Starts great, then dies from a hamster-on-a-wheel plotline.
Review: This started off great. I was totally into it. I live in L.A. ... on Swall, in fact, where Paris' ex lives. Loved the descriptions and all that, yeah, yeah... but anybody who a) compares Ridley to Elmore Leonard, or b) says this is a "great" novel... is way off the mark. This book begins with enormous promise in setting up the characters, the environment and the situation. Then it becomes this redundant "get the guy with the drugs" story (you forget about the tape entirely at one point). You bounce back and forth like a ball in a tennis match. The interesting but underplayed Paris running away... The stereotypical drug dealer screaming at his minions to get him (yes, I know he spins some darn fine poetic street-speak, but after awhile you hear the writer behind every single word, feeding the reader phoenetics -- the equivalent to writing a latino charcter going, "No, you eediot! You must geeef me la chalupa!"). The unbelievably drawn sexpot assassin screwing her way to her goal. The monotonous talent agent screaming at his equally monotonous assistants to "get the guy with the tape" (huh? oh yeah, there's that tape...) which plays as a redundant parallel plot device to the drug dealer's aim. Then Paris runs to Vegas and everything just blurs into a sort of stream-of-consciousness kind of writing. Like Ridley wrote the novel off the top of his head as he went. He only scratches the surface of Hollywood sleeze and class-struggles. What about what REALLY goes on in a talent agency? (You wanna talk class struggle? Look at the huge gap between big agent and his or her assistant's salaries). What about the musician who made that tape (one of the better characters who is gone too early, albeit necessarily). And what about Paris? Who is this guy, really? This novel lacks any real substance in both its theme and its main character -- because Ridley is too busy hopping back to irritating, meaningless two-page bits of the same exact thing over and over again. "You find Paris?" "No, not yet." "You better find him, or I'll..." It's like Ridley knows he didn't create a fully-realized main character in Paris and therefore kept avoiding him by spreading the story too thin among too many characters who frankly just weren't that interesting. It would have been MUCH more interesting if Ridley had cut the fat, delved deeper into his main characters and stuck with the much more interesting premise of Paris having this rock star's final recording. There was some real opps for humor lost in the desperate agent's quest for this thing and the coincidental plotline of Paris' roommate "just happening" to get those drugs and "just happening" to hide them in the same duffel bag the tape was in and "just happening" to be pursued at the exact same time as Paris was being pursued for the tape was too much to swallow and totally unnecessary. Word of advice, John, we've seen the man-with-drugs-on-the-run before... off the top of my head in True Romance, which did a much better job with both the Hollywood spoofing as well as the plotline. One reason why? Tarantino kept it lean and gave you some real insight into his characters. "Everybody Smokes" is a few big rewrites away from being something really interesting, but with the amount of work Ridley apparently has on his plate, it's little wonder he spit this out and moved on to the next project. You're a gifted writer, Mr. Ridley, but don't let all those Hollywood offers compromise the quality of your work TOO much, or you're no better than those you point your finger at.

Rating:
Summary: Chandler for the next millennium
Review: What a fabulous book! If you want to read a great gritty book set in Los Angeles, look no further. What Chandler and Ellroy did for La-La-Land in the 40s and 50s, Ridley does for today's Lozangeles.

Rating:
Summary: GREAT
Review: What eles can I say? It's funny, it's shocking, it's fast paced. Everybody Smokes in Hell is just about the best book I've read this year. Or last, or the year before that come to think of it.