If you’re looking for a book to drive you into the deeper depths of sadness, The Violent is the book you’re looking for. It’s an everything-that-can-go-wrong-does kind of story, but it’s so melancholy, so terribly disconcerting that it could be likened to the cliché car-crash. The book pulls the reader in instantaneously. It’s real. It’s relatable. It’s hopeless, like so many of us.

I’ve been a battler of extreme depression since my childhood, and it’s a devastating thing to deal with. I spent 15 years losing a war with alcohol and drugs. Reading a book like this, that feels, in many ways similar to my own life, is just a painful yet magnetic experience. I’m eager to see what becomes of Mason, a struggling father, fresh out of the penitentiary, trying desperately to get his life together. And I’m sympathetic for his love and the mother of his child, Becky. She too is battling demons, working at staying clean and maintaining a job to keep the roof over the head and the meals on the table. Their story is heartbreaking and true to a great deal of us out here in the real world.

Ed Brisson’s story hits home, and while it is painful, it’s also infectious. It’s addictive. Adam Gorham, who handles the artistic duties, brings a style seamlessly suited for this horrendously bleak tale. Together, we’re seeing an amazing duo create a book that should never be forgotten. It’s simply too powerful to slip through the cracks. It’s too painful to shake once the final page has turned. What The Violent is, is a genuine masterpiece designed to appeal to those of us who have never seen our story told in this medium.

If you’re feeling the desire to add a new book to your reading lineup, make it The Violent. Whether you’ve lived a rough one, or experienced a life of smooth sailing, it’s bound to tap a nerve somewhere inside of you.

Order it here.

Rating: 5/5