Book Review: The Velocity of Blood by MJ Williams

Jack Tolleson has done nothing wrong. Absolutely nothing. But that doesn’t stop him being viciously bullied. Online and offline. Twenty-four hours a day. Every day.

Every. Single. Day.

One day in October, dehumanised and stripped of his very identity, he breaks.

Jack wants revenge. Carefully calculated revenge. Justice.

Jack is willing to do whatever it takes to get even. He’s going to do something that’s never been done before. And when he’s done, you’ll remember his name.

You’ll remember his name for the rest of your life…

Review

I went into The Velocity of Blood expecting a cold, hard thriller. While I did get that, I also got a more emotional book than expected. As a school shooter, I really didn’t want to like Jack but I couldn’t help it. At least, I couldn’t help empathising with him. I really hoped that the blurb was misleading and he didn’t do anything bad at all.

This leads into my main reason for liking but not loving The Velocity of Blood. While the story was interesting the entire way through, it peaked too early. At one point I had to accept that there would be no major twists and turns.

I also found the book to be a bit drawn out at times. The story is told from three perspectives. One is Jack’s mother, which was probably the most realistic perspective. Then you have Jack, certainly the most interesting and emotional perspective. The only downfall here was I felt some chapters a bit drawn out. The third perspective comes from two true crime podcast hosts. I fell that the book could have done without them. They didn’t really add anything new to the story, the chapters were drawn out, and they just weren’t likeable characters.

Living outside the US, I felt I could really be detached from the story and treat it purely as fiction. For someone else, it might be a very topic so do keep that in mind. You can purchase The Velocity of Blood here.