Savages

Simply brilliant. Very different from his other books in style and from anything else I've read. I thought it might be a deliberate writing exercise, and if it was - pass with flying colours! Unusually for me I might even read it for the third time. PS I’ve been kinder than Don about the acronym!😂

Not his best (I think the Cartel Trilogy books are exceptional), but a good read. I think it would be impossible for Winslow to write a bad book. The style of writing is interesting, almost verging on a parody of his own writing! Compelling characters, and the suspense really builds up and keeps going till the very end.

Don Winslow has a varied body of work behind him, a unique voice that manages to communicate complex ideas and exposition in a smooth, clear voice one moment then deliver hard and emotional setpieces the next. He can be meditative and thoughtful about the criminals and damaged protagonists that populate the worlds he create. Savages is a distillation of all that and all the better for it. With younger protagonists and terse pacing, Winslow makes Savages into a smooth and intense read, laced with a laconic humour and a slightly ironic, campy pace that makes the inevitable scenes of violence all the more visceral. It also follows the basic premise of all great writing - no one is an idiot, or to be precise, no one is an idiot for the purposes of narrative. The nihilism is followed through to the logical conclusion that surprised me with it's tenderness and poetry. I have long believed that crime fiction contains some of the most insightful and beautiful writing beneath it's gruff exterior and Don Winslow is clearly an exponent of that.

Not a bad book but too much on surfing

Easy to read. Page turner. Fun. These are my words to get the a a a a a a review

Riveting read and wonderful writing style. All in all, an engaging and enjoyable experience. Looking forward to my next Don Winslow novel

I am a Don Winslow fan. Some of his books are some of the best crime fiction going. Savages does not rank with the best but that is unfair, not the best for Don Winslow still knocks the spots of most otehr crime writers. This is a fast paced book, with twists and turns. Funny and at times fantastical. Written at times like a film script with a lot of puns and word games. I read it in two days because I was enjoying it so much. And the ending is certainly not what I expected.

At first I saw the movie from Oliver Stone and I loved it. But I knew that in order to deeper understand the characters I need to read this book. We get to know what made Chon (John) the Chon he is now-the wolf and what made Ben a Ben-dog you may say. This book is a perfect example of suppressed human nature and what happens when you push a man too far - the savage side awakens - basically we are chimpanzees with machine guns as Chon says although with a great potential to finally become "humans". The book is quite like modern Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid - very intense, very entertaining to read (great quotes by the characters), It's honest, funny at the times, very well written and I recommend this book to everyone that can appreciate a good thriller or wants to learn more about human nature. What are you willing to sacrifice, how far will you go for the people that you love ? Buy this book & find out !

If the uber-hip Max Barry ("Syrup," "Company"...) had written Don Winslow's monster drug war epic "The Power of the Dog," it would end up looking a lot like "Savages," a radicalized and ripping rush of a read through the southern California drug culture that succeeds on the strength of "savage" characters on both sides of the California-Mexico border. On one side there's "Chon," the literally too-cool-for-school who dropped out and became a Navy SEAL, finding that the skills he picked up in "StanLand" and "I-Rock-and-Roll" have served him well pushing high-grade marijuana to a well-heeled Orange County customer base. His partner, Ben, champion of third world causes, is the product of a liberal up-bringing by a pair of psychologist parents. Forming a neat little love triangle is dyed and tattooed "O," the spoiled offspring of the stereotypical SoCal diva who jumps from husband-to-husband while flitting from the latest pop culture answer to self-actualization to the next with ADD-like precision. So life is sweet for the drug-trade made multimillionaires - until the feared Baja drug cartel proposes a business deal - via a web video of seven heads separated from their bodies hanging from meat hooks. Chon prefers to fight while "peaceful" Ben would rather run, but when Baja raises the stakes, both boys are sucked into a wild and fiendishly brutal ride worthy of the title. Nobody - not Crais, not Connolly, not Wambaugh - does southern California like Winslow. In his stripped, hip dialogue and convention-be-damned prose - keep your Urban Dictionary handy - Winslow at the same time skewers and venerates San Diego's culture, it's citizens, and the love/hate symbiosis between those south-of-the-border who produce the drugs and their el Norte clientele who provide the demand. Ben, Chan, and "O" are the appropriately arrogant wunderkinds of a permissive society and bureaucratic corruption that render the "war of drugs" futile - a thorny problem bounded mind numbing economic stakes and unthinkable violence. But Winslow isn't here to preach but, excepting some misplaced Oliver Stone-like political rants, to entertain. And he succeeds - big time - in spinning a bare-knuckled, blistered-pace drama of crime, suspense, and passion that explodes in a climax fitting of the carnage and emotion that precedes it. Don Winslow is an under-appreciated writer - a talented and consistent storyteller with a unique style, backed by the authority that only comes from living the life of what you write. Fast and furious, yet paradoxically poignant. Don't miss it.

Das Buch ist in kurzen Kapiteln geschrieben, die teilweise nur aus einem Wort bestehen. Das macht das Buch zu einer willkommenen Abwechslung. Sehr spannend und mit einem genialen Humor geschrieben. Auf jeden Fall zu empfehlen.

Ho adorato questo romanzo che ho letto subito dopo il prequel (The kings of cool). Dalla spensieratezza allegra degli eventi raccontati nell'altro romanzo (scritto successivamente, ma ambientato anni prima), i personaggi vengono a vivere l'età adulta del crimine nel quale si sono impegnati. Dalla leggerezza con cui avevano intrapreso la loro attività di spacciatori di marijuana, alla selvaggia brutalità dei concorrenti con cui si trovano a dover aver a che fare. Una storia coinvolgente e piacevole da leggere, scritta con uno stile fresco e giovanile. Molto molto bello!

I couldn't stop reading until I finished it. It let me sort of empty, or drained. One may think that the underworld is not so far beneath us

OK it’s written in what can be annoying Californian newspeak and it has too much violence and the sex is .. er ... a bit off putting. But it’s bloody difficult to put down, funny and makes me want to go to SoCal - never mind I’ve bought a San Diego tee shirt as consolation.