Review: Everybody Bleeds

Everybody Bleeds by L.J. Forster
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Everybody Bleeds is L.J. Forster’s debut novel and it’s a thriller that will leave you wanting to read more of the author’s work.

I’ll be completely honest and say this wasn’t quite a full four star rating from me. It is personal preference that prevented me from judging this a solid four-star rating, yet I enjoyed so many of the elements that I had to round my rating up. After all, personal preferences of mine will not reflect the personal preferences of all the readers, meaning many will happily rate this a solid four or five star book.

I’ll start with the solid factors of this book, before explaining the personal preference that prevented me from going completely crazy about this one.

We have an engaging storyline, one that will leave you intrigued throughout. There are multiple elements to this storyline, many things we wish to see come together. There is darkness to be found within many parts of the story, pulling you deep into the world. I will not give any specifics about the storyline – I have no wish to be the person to ruin it all through providing spoilers – but know it is one of those stories that deals with multiple dark elements. It’s not just the main criminal storyline that has darkness, as the backstories of the characters are also dark. In other words, this is a dark and gritty thriller – just the way I like my thrillers to be.

In addition to being dark and engaging, the storyline keeps you guessing. There are certain aspects of the storyline you’re positive about from the start, but you’re never quite sure how everything is going to come together. In fact, even at the end, you’re not one hundred percent sure about everything. It is one of those stories where certain aspects are shrouded in mystery, even when the story reaches a conclusion, leaving you second-guessing what you think you know. Again, I cannot say too much due to spoilers, but the last few chapters of the book really intrigued me. It wasn’t expected, and things were turned around so many times that I’m still dizzy – in the best of ways, of course.

The characters were also interesting, providing us with a number of different stories to follow. However, this is where my personal preference comes into play. The fewer characters we follow during a story, the happier I am. I prefer following just one character, can sometimes stretch to two characters. Two characters is usually if we are also going back in time, or if it’s a series where many story arcs need to reach a conclusion. I believe my only exception to this rule is the A Song of Ice and Fire series – and even then, it took me a while to accept so many points of view. With Everybody Bleeds, I felt as though I wasn’t quite as engaged as I could have been due to the multiple characters we followed. I know many will not mind such a thing, but for me I have a preference of following just one character. I know such is not possible in all stories, but it’s merely a preference of mine.

Overall, however, I really enjoyed this one. It was a solid debut novel and I’m certainly interested in seeing what L.J. Forster brings us next.

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