Regina's Reviews > Razorblade Tears

It would be all too easy to gloss over the title of this novel, but it’s one well worth a pause for reflection. “Razorblade Tears.” Imagine a sadness or grief so palpable that your body’s physical expression of it is harmful. Quite a visual, isn’t it?

On the heels of 2020’s much-lauded Blacktop Wasteland, S.A. Cosby has delivered a gut punch of a novel that’s grit lit at its finest. The story itself seems simple: Two fathers band together to seek vengeance against the people that killed their sons. But it’s not that easy.

One father is Black (Ike), one is white (Buddy Lee). Both are ex-cons, and while one has found redemption in living life on the straight and narrow after release, the other finds solace at the bottom of a bottle. Their paths would never have crossed had their sons not gotten married… to each other. Both fathers turned their backs on them, refusing to accept this same-sex union.

The story begins at the funeral and follows Ike and Buddy Lee as they unravel the mystery of what happened to their boys. Be forewarned though, their vengeance is violent. There are guns and bombs and even machetes - it’s that kind of story. But what elevates this Southern noir tale above gratuitous splatter fiction is the pervasive tone of redemption. One can’t help but feel that the outward rage Ike and Buddy Lee exhibit is a reflection of the inward shame they feel for not accepting their sons when they were alive. Their tears are like razor blades.

I listened to an advance copy of the audiobook courtesy of the author and Macmillan Audio via NetGalley. Narrator Adam Lazarre-White’s gravely voice is well-suited for the gravitas of the story.

The novel has already been optioned by Jerry Bruckheimer and Chad Oman for a film through Paramount Players. I hope they don't screw it up.

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