In this audacious, lightning-paced thriller, a smart-mouthed, white-collar drug dealer–a hilariously irreverent antihero–seeks revenge when an unknown enemy takes out a contract on him.Jack Price is having a bad day. What he absolutely did not need was for someone to execute his grouchy old neighbor as if she was a drug mule. Questions will be asked, and Jack is a small businessman in a … businessman in a competitive sector hobbled by red tape and, you know: laws. Just because the product Jack trades in is cocaine, people assume it’s all guns and murders, but that is the old cocaine business and Jack is all about the new one: high-tech, high-end and on-demand.
But when Jack begins making some inquiries with a view to calming the whole thing down, someone hires the Seven Demons to kill him. You bring those people in to kill generals and presidents and take down countries, not to mess with a guy who’s just trying to get along.
The thing is that the Seven Demons and their client have misunderstood the situation. Jack is not upset. In fact, he’s grateful for the clarification. Jack is the kind of guy who adapts well to new business models. He has a unique approach to executive problem solving. In fact, Jack is batshit crazy. And when you mess with Jack, there is a Price to be paid.
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This novel has high-octane everything. It’s a witty, gory, whiplash revenge tale narrated by a brilliantly entertaining sociopath. You’re mortified by the things you find yourself laughing at — and when you turn the page, there’s more. Guess what: you keep laughing.
John Wick walks into Shits & Shingles Gentlemen’s Club and sidles up to Quentin Tarantino, who’s sucking down Golden Grain by the beer stein at the diesel-and-snot-crusted bar. They fuck each other all the hell up, without lube, taking turns bending each other over stools, throwing down on the whisky-and-piss soaked floor, against the bullet-ridden walls, breaking window panes with their cocks, taking glass splinters up their asses and slapping balls as they bang. One of them (I’m not sure which) gets knocked up and births the sickest, most insane, brilliant son of a bitch to ever live. They name baby THE PRICE YOU PAY and leave it on the sweat-and-ass-streaked bar as payment for their drinks.
Hands up, who wants to babysit?
*Bouncing on balls of feet and flailing arms* Fucking hell, pick me! For fuck’s sake, pick me!
Ahem.
So, I’m not sure if you worked it out, but I loved this book. Like, I want to impale it with a foot-long dagger and pin it to my pillow so it will sleep beside me every night and never leave me.
Jack Price is the (anti-)hero of our story. He deals in cocaine, but he’s a nice coke dealer who prefers to take a hands-off approach to his business:
“I am Uber for illegal drugs. I have everyone from executives in Beemers to old codgers with Z frames running cocaine for me.”
Jack keeps to himself, has few friends, doesn’t make trouble. Then the old bitch who lives below his penthouse turns up executed. And then some dudes from the Seven Demons hit squad come and fuck him up real bad:
“What you have here is basically indestructible: an idea of a gang of seven that restores its losses and never stops. It is defined by a complete lack of compunction, by being more fucking terrifying than the gold standard of contemporary fucking terrifyingness.”
And that’s when Jack gets pissed.
Jack unleashes his vengeance on the Seven Demons in much the same way a fire-breathing dragon might wipe the ass of a fledgling turtle suffering from anal leakage as it breaks for the sea amid an LSD-powered rave on the beach.
Actual explosives may be methods of mayhem that leave holes in people and places the story, but there are also word bombs galore (this is a good thing, trust me), and they’re fucking delicacies of the highest order. I had to stop, bend down, and smell the aromas so many times, I lost track. Lucky for me, I abused the highlight function on my reader to the point where it quit begging me for mercy and just jizzed itself to death. Pretty much the entire book is now the piss-colored yellow, ejaculated from someone who pulled an all-nighter with a barrel of plutonium-238 for a drinking buddy and peed it out on a swath of dried electronic ink.
This book was so mind-blowingly awesome that I’m afraid to pick up another book. Nothing compares to the braingasms I have endured over the last few days, and I fear nothing else ever will. I loved it so much, I’m breaking my self-imposed NO STARS rule and giving it 5-stars. Don’t believe me? Go look at the rest of the books I’ve read. This is the only one I’ve rated. I loved it THAT much.
Fair warning—and this is my only (minor) beef with the story: the author doesn’t use quotation marks a single time in the entire book. He seems a bit allergic to commas and other punctuation as well. If you’re a grammar freak like me, hold your nose and jump in with the expectation that the water will be very dirty until you get used to Truhen’s unique stylistic choices. Normally, something like this will put me off a book from the get-go, but in this instance, it works. Just takes some getting used to.
Please, for the love of all that is holy, PLEASE, Mr. Truhen, invite Quentin and John over for tea with the expectation that once all pinkie fingers have been lowered, they’ll fuck each other up again and have another love child for me to cuddle and dangle out of a 50-story window. The door is wide open. This can—and should—totally happen. The sooner, the better, Mr. Truhen. Get those horny fuckers in a room stat!
THE PRICE YOU PAY is currently sitting pretty at the top of my 2018 Reads List, waiting for some asshole to come and (try to) knock it off its perch.
Authors, I triple-dick-dare you.
I recommend this book to non-pussies who enjoy ultra-violence, absolutely SICK (I mean that in both of the good ways) writing, and heads lobbed as weapons.
Unique
Unusual and clever but way over the top! I got bored with the cleverness after 50 pages.
This book wasn’t worth reading. I forced myself hoping that it would improve, it didn’t. A waste of time.
The worst book I ever read! Poorly written and I just kept thinking it would get better but it never did! Good thing he uses a pseudonym because I sure would not want my name on this book.
omg that was AWESOME! This is a Really different book, let’s get that out of the way first. I’d like to say it’s written in “stream of consciousness” but I could be wrong. I’ve certainly never read a book like it. So it takes a little getting used to, let’s just say that. This is also not a book for the squeamish. Our “hero” is as ill as they come, ok? But I found myself rooting hard for him anyway. I kinda just LOVE this guy! I’ll definitely be reading this one again. So keep an open mind, try not to read it on a full stomach, and prepare to fall in love. This book TOTALLY ROCKS!
POS wanna-be “writing”. The author would be a legend in his own mind if he had one.
Great character. Unique. Just loved it.
Hard to read due to the writing style.
Totally contrived. Poor plot and excruciatingly painful writing o read
Freaking hilarious is what this book is in such a dark way. I simply cannot wait until the next Aidan Truhen novel hits
The Price You Pay
By: Aidan Truhen
This book is probably one of the most interesting books I have ever had the privilege and pleasure of reading. In terms of character attitude and voice, in the narrator. Jack Price is a tuff guy. It’s clear from the start he is the kind of guy that speaks his mind and doesn’t take BS from anyone! He’s snarky and cocky and hilarious! The novel doesn’t take its time getting into the action either! Aiden Truhen’s ‘The Price You Pay’ starts off immediately throwing punches with Jack’s upstairs neighbor, a poor old woman, getting murdered during the night.It seems someone has done a number on the poor lady and Jack is majorly pissed off (this wording is basically his type of attitude). Not only did someone committ murder in his building, but even more brazenly: right above his very apartment! This novel is written in a beyond entertaining way, filled with action, and absolutely brimming with attitude! It’s almost impossible not to be interested in everything that Jack thinks and feels, and the whole entire action packed mess (I use the word ‘mess’ in the best possible way). Jack’s life spirals on and out of control throughout the rest of the novel! A great, wild, tripy, romp of a read for mature readers who like an aggressive and gritty, super bada** narrator that’s got a potty mouth and some serious stones!
Yeah, I’m one of those who couldn’t get into the style/voice here AT ALL… I loved the concept, but the execution just wasn’t for me. I saw one reviewer describe it as “gonzo” – that hits it on the head. If you like your snarky antihero written as Breaking Bad blended with Hunter S. Thompson, then you will probably really enjoy this (and you can tell me about it, because I’m vastly curious how it all works out, but still not curious enough to slog through the reading of it). For me, it just didn’t work. I couldn’t find the rhythm of the writing…