Title: Chasing the Dragon

Author: Mark Towse

Release date: March 23, 2024

*Huge thanks to Mark and Eerie River for sending me a digital ARC of this one!*

I’ll be honest here. I had no idea what I was getting into with this one. I knew it was a pseudo-superhero type story, but I saw snippets and some things online about it being humorous. Oh dear. I truly struggle with reading humour. Doesn’t matter if it’s fiction or non-fiction, there’s just something that really doesn’t connect with me. Saying that, I’m a massive fan of British/UK humour when it comes to series. The Inbetweeners, Cuckoo, Psychoville, and even the dark humour of The Misfits series are some of my most favourite shows I’ve ever watched. So, I went into this hoping that it would read kind of like one of those shows and to my delight, it was essentially a mix of all of them.

What I liked: The story follows Simon, struggling to make his horribly abusive mother proud. She’s dead, but her constant tearing down of him that she delivered over his entire life has left deep scars and now, he’s out to show her that he can do good. This is coupled with the reality that where he lives is now a cesspool. Crime is rampant, residents fear for their lives while drug use skyrockets and the streets are ran by Kingpins and the cops could care less.

Bolstered by a few cheesy sayings his mother used to say, Simon decides that the only way for things to turn around is for someone to take the lead and start the change themselves. So, Reformo is born – Simon in a custom made suit – and he takes to the streets to try and make the wrongs go away.

Towse does a wonderful job of walking the line between silly and serious. We see Simon constantly battling that inner monologue of his mother ripping him to shreds. The truth is, while Simon cares, he is getting stronger and starting to understand that what she says no longer matters. He falls for a streetwalker, one who he promises to help her leave the life behind. And he slowly, incident after incident, gets the towns people on his side.

Simon is a wonderfully flawed character. Big heart, bigger dreams and for a long time, going head first with no fear. As things pick up and he makes his way from low level to thug, to mid level and ultimately to the highest of the high, his body gets beaten down, but his mind never falters. It makes for a highly engaging story, one that had me rooting for Simon all the way through.

The ending is great, a true bright spot when considering everything that Simon goes through and ultimately does the very rare job of giving the reader the idea that anything is possible and hope can light the darkest of days.

What I didn’t like: I did struggle with some of the ‘sillier’ aspects. I’m looking at you, names-of-thugs. Butter Balls and Bum Fluff and the like. I know it’s designed as a mood-lightener and a funny, tongue-in-cheek look at crime, but when it kept happening, it lost it’s hilarious touch and became an eye roller.

Why you should buy this: When an action-adventure book is done well, you’ll race through it and be whole-heartedly invested in the story and characters and this was 100% one of those books. Towse has created such an amazing figure with Simon/Reformo and it worked well to act as purely a story, but also as a larger piece on the state of the world. This was a really fun read and one that I’m glad to have tackled, as normally this wouldn’t be something I would ever seek out.

4/5