What do you think?
Rate this book
Love and Other Wounds
In the hard-edged tradition of Hubert Selby Jr., Daniel Woodrell, and Donald Ray Pollock, and with the fresh, complex humanity of Breaking Bad and Reservoir Dogs, a blistering debut collection that unsparingly confronts the extreme, brutal parts of the human heart.
A man runs away from his grave and into a maelstrom of bullets and fire. A Hollywood fixer finds love over the corpse of a dead celebrity. A morbidly obese woman imagines a new life with the jewel thief who is scheming to rob the store where she works. A man earns the name “Mad Dog” and lives to regret it.
Denizens of the shadows who live outside the law—from the desolate meth labs of the Ozark Mountains to the dog-fighting rings of Detroit to the lavish Los Angeles mansions of the rich and famous—the characters in Love and Other Wounds all thirst for something seemingly just beyond their reach. Some are on the run, pursued by the law or propelled relentlessly forward by a dangerous past that is disturbingly close. Others are searching for a semblance of peace and stability, and even love, in a fractured world defined by seething violence and ruthless desperation. All are bruised, pushed to their breaking point and beyond, driven to extremes they never imagined.
Crackling with cinematic energy, raw and disquieting yet filled with pathos and a darkly vital humor, Love and Other Wounds is an unforgettable debut from an electrifying new voice.
A man runs away from his grave and into a maelstrom of bullets and fire. A Hollywood fixer finds love over the corpse of a dead celebrity. A morbidly obese woman imagines a new life with the jewel thief who is scheming to rob the store where she works. A man earns the name “Mad Dog” and lives to regret it.
Denizens of the shadows who live outside the law—from the desolate meth labs of the Ozark Mountains to the dog-fighting rings of Detroit to the lavish Los Angeles mansions of the rich and famous—the characters in Love and Other Wounds all thirst for something seemingly just beyond their reach. Some are on the run, pursued by the law or propelled relentlessly forward by a dangerous past that is disturbingly close. Others are searching for a semblance of peace and stability, and even love, in a fractured world defined by seething violence and ruthless desperation. All are bruised, pushed to their breaking point and beyond, driven to extremes they never imagined.
Crackling with cinematic energy, raw and disquieting yet filled with pathos and a darkly vital humor, Love and Other Wounds is an unforgettable debut from an electrifying new voice.
176 pages, Paperback
First published July 7, 2015
117 people are currently reading
1760 people want to read
About the author
Jordan Harper
32 books1,042 followersJordan Harper is the Edgar-Award winning author of SHE RIDES SHOTGUN, THE LAST KING OF CALIFORNIA, EVERYBODY KNOWS and the short story collection LOVE AND OTHER WOUNDS. He lives in Los Angeles, where he works as a writer and producer for television.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 131 reviews
October 23, 2019
i read an early ARC of this, and i'm probably totally not supposed to be reviewing it already, but i've been in a bit of a review slump lately, and of the twenty or so books i still have to review, this was the one i was most enthusiastic about reviewing today, even though there's at least one book i liked more than this one in the bunch. (that sentence is a mess, and gives you an idea of what happens to me during a review slump - i forget how grammar works)
so caveat, caveat etc. the copy i have has a jacked-up table of contents. one story is listed twice, and another is listed under two different titles. this is only relevant because i am going to be reviewing the stories individually, so the order may vary from the finished book, and i'm not sure which title is going to be used for the story so nice they named it twice. i guess we will all know in july.
but let's be clear - none of these stories are nice. this is grit lit in all its glory, and fans of the genre are going to eat this up. the rest of you - i don't know what you'll make of it. fortunately, there are DOZENS of us who love this kind of operatic-violence-in-the-underworlds-of-various-backwoods-locations stuff. this one employs a cinematic brand of storytelling; very visual prose in which things escalate very quickly and are described in stark and vicious detail. but they are also occasionally funny. and they are all better written than what i have managed so far, rusty and dusty as i am.
i appreciate the range of subject matter in this collection. he manages to showcase the entire spectrum of familiar grit lit elements, touchpoint by touchpoint, but the stories are surprising, even to grizzled veterans of the genre like me. they read like dark little o. henry pieces. there's some callbacking - recurring characters and reverberations, but all of the stories stand alone just fine.
Lucy in the Pit
opening line: If she pisses, she lives.
this man knows what a hook is.
it's a story about a sixty-pound fighting dog named lucy. and yes - reading about dog fights is gruesome and horrifying, but despite all the uncomfortably graphic detail, there's also something unexpected in this story: heart. sweetness. affection. this fierce and gutsy dog: Tough little bitch. Proud little warrior is inspiring, in a way. i know, it sounds unlikely, but it's true. i do not like that dog fighting exists, but i really liked this story.
Prove It All Night
this one is told in a woman's voice, which is rarely convincing when it comes from a male writer in this genre, Winter's Bone being one of those exceptions. this is probably my least favorite in the collection, but it's not a complete clunker. there's some definite male-fantasy qualities on display here, but also some surprising nuance (surprising because - genre) and i liked the quiet explosion of the ending, even though the story as a whole was a little writing-workshop, structurally.
Agua Dulce
okay, so this one is like grit lit turned up to eleven. it is almost comically violent, but i mean that as a compliment because i enjoyed the shit out of it. right out of the gate we have a man running away from his grave through the desert, pistol-whipped and bleeding.
i mean, crikey.
and i also love that this man spells "teevee" the way i do when i write it out. that gets fifty points.
I Wish They Never Named Him Mad Dog
all good things. the importance of honor even within a system of codified lawlessness, the weary necessary violence of a job done right, posturing bravado vs. professional etiquette, building and maintaining a dubious reputation, a sort of set piece that highlights the distinction between showy gym-muscles and those that come from actual work, where "muscles" in this case is more specifically "badassery." quiet, true badassery vs. showboatty badassery.
This is not going to end well.
truer words never spoken.
it's a great piece about a "watchdog;" muscle hired to supervise illicit transactions to make sure everything goes smoothly and without bloodshed. and what happens when a younger man stumbles into a reputation that leads him into our watchdog's path, unwittingly in over his head and charmed by his own legend.
but he isn't fooling everyone, and there are some fantastic descriptive passages.
He … got out with a pump shotgun in his hands and that hammer still hanging from his belt. He nodded and swung the shotgun up on his shoulders as he walked our way. I bet the others saw what he wanted them to see, the bad guy making his entrance to the movie. I saw the joy kidlike behind his eyes.
there's a great build to this one. quiet, brooding, brutal.
Playing Dead
this was probably my favorite of the collection. the descriptions in this one are excellent, and the details are vivid and original and it's more the wire than justified - AKs instead of shotguns, coke instead of meth, black gangs competing for the new york drug trade instead of white skinheads competing for the meth market. and i know - shotgun,
but you take my point.
If you can't catch Quaco, you catch his shirt.
oh, indeed.
Red Hair and Black Leather
and this is why they call it "country noir"
Plan C
robbing banks is hard!! so very many things can go wrong! and they do, here. i thought this one was very funny, but that reaction made me feel really bad about myself. oops!
Beautiful Trash
speaking of hooks: They meet over the body of a beautiful dead boy
this is another perfect story, and one which broadens the possibilities of the grit lit landscape - takes its themes of drugs, violence and old testament vengeance into a much glitzier world. it's about a "cleaner;" a man whose job it is to move softly behind the scenes of hollywood's misbehaving idols - smoothing suicides into unfortunate accidents, clearing away the pills, sweet-talking the bruised victims of celebrity rage. it's a little peek into a rarified world where misdeeds can be spun and glossed.
There are two kinds of publicists in this world. The kind who get good news out and the kind who keep secrets in. Sarah is the second type.
green and sarah strike up a sort of relationship - meeting occasionally as their workpaths intersect, and it is horribly entertaining to read about the process of their professions.
Sarah nods and looks at the body. The smile goes away again.
"It's sad," she says. "Is it okay, what we're doing? Is it wrong?"
"You should get out," he says. "Of this business."
"Why?" She bristles, defiant, and Green likes her even more.
"You asked about right and wrong."
this one has some of the best descriptions of the whole collection. it's terrifically powerful and it fits the tone of the collection perfectly, despite its setting being so different.
Love and Other Wounds
very short, and very clean. a clever road out of a seemingly impossible situation.
this one you can read here:
http://www.outofthegutteronline.com/2...
Like Riding a Moped
this is a little cautionary tale about why we don't underestimate women. and why con artists who assume BBWs are desperate for affection and are therefore easy targets for romantic manipulation and exploitation should tread lightly.
Ad Hominem Attack, or I Refute This
this story is great. because how many times have you
and that is why i love this story.
Heart Check
this one has a callback to an anecdote told in Agua Dulce, although the four-year-old boy becomes a six-year-old boy in this story, which tells of the repercussions and aftermath of the anecdote. again - i read an ARC so this will probably be fixed before it pubs, or it might remain as an example of the way stories morph as they become mythos, warnings, the word-of-mouth of the criminal underworld.
Always Thirsty
the return of the watchdog from I Wish They Never Named Him Mad Dog, showing that he's still sticking to his code, cool and cautious as ever. he is only a secondary character here, but his presence is necessary and appreciated. i don't have much to say about this story. it was fine, but not a favorite.
Your Finest Moment or Just Look What the Bitch Made You Do
the best laid revenge plans of cuckolds gang aft agley. even if you think you know all the potential pitfalls and take your precautions. fate's a tricky bitch. woof.
Johnny Cash is Dead
this one, like Love and Other Wounds is also about the kind of clever quickchange lateral thinking that turns the impossible situation into one that, while not ideal, at least gets the job done. but damn, the price is steep. love, vengeance, sacrifice. a great haunting way to end this collection.
i loved this book, and harper also has a full-length novel coming out the same month as this one: If All Roads Were Blind: A Novel, which i am going to grab with my hands ASAP please.
* may not be an exact quote.
come to my blog!
so caveat, caveat etc. the copy i have has a jacked-up table of contents. one story is listed twice, and another is listed under two different titles. this is only relevant because i am going to be reviewing the stories individually, so the order may vary from the finished book, and i'm not sure which title is going to be used for the story so nice they named it twice. i guess we will all know in july.
but let's be clear - none of these stories are nice. this is grit lit in all its glory, and fans of the genre are going to eat this up. the rest of you - i don't know what you'll make of it. fortunately, there are DOZENS of us who love this kind of operatic-violence-in-the-underworlds-of-various-backwoods-locations stuff. this one employs a cinematic brand of storytelling; very visual prose in which things escalate very quickly and are described in stark and vicious detail. but they are also occasionally funny. and they are all better written than what i have managed so far, rusty and dusty as i am.
i appreciate the range of subject matter in this collection. he manages to showcase the entire spectrum of familiar grit lit elements, touchpoint by touchpoint, but the stories are surprising, even to grizzled veterans of the genre like me. they read like dark little o. henry pieces. there's some callbacking - recurring characters and reverberations, but all of the stories stand alone just fine.
Lucy in the Pit
opening line: If she pisses, she lives.
this man knows what a hook is.
it's a story about a sixty-pound fighting dog named lucy. and yes - reading about dog fights is gruesome and horrifying, but despite all the uncomfortably graphic detail, there's also something unexpected in this story: heart. sweetness. affection. this fierce and gutsy dog: Tough little bitch. Proud little warrior is inspiring, in a way. i know, it sounds unlikely, but it's true. i do not like that dog fighting exists, but i really liked this story.
Prove It All Night
this one is told in a woman's voice, which is rarely convincing when it comes from a male writer in this genre, Winter's Bone being one of those exceptions. this is probably my least favorite in the collection, but it's not a complete clunker. there's some definite male-fantasy qualities on display here, but also some surprising nuance (surprising because - genre) and i liked the quiet explosion of the ending, even though the story as a whole was a little writing-workshop, structurally.
Agua Dulce
okay, so this one is like grit lit turned up to eleven. it is almost comically violent, but i mean that as a compliment because i enjoyed the shit out of it. right out of the gate we have a man running away from his grave through the desert, pistol-whipped and bleeding.
i mean, crikey.
and i also love that this man spells "teevee" the way i do when i write it out. that gets fifty points.
I Wish They Never Named Him Mad Dog
all good things. the importance of honor even within a system of codified lawlessness, the weary necessary violence of a job done right, posturing bravado vs. professional etiquette, building and maintaining a dubious reputation, a sort of set piece that highlights the distinction between showy gym-muscles and those that come from actual work, where "muscles" in this case is more specifically "badassery." quiet, true badassery vs. showboatty badassery.
This is not going to end well.
truer words never spoken.
it's a great piece about a "watchdog;" muscle hired to supervise illicit transactions to make sure everything goes smoothly and without bloodshed. and what happens when a younger man stumbles into a reputation that leads him into our watchdog's path, unwittingly in over his head and charmed by his own legend.
but he isn't fooling everyone, and there are some fantastic descriptive passages.
He … got out with a pump shotgun in his hands and that hammer still hanging from his belt. He nodded and swung the shotgun up on his shoulders as he walked our way. I bet the others saw what he wanted them to see, the bad guy making his entrance to the movie. I saw the joy kidlike behind his eyes.
there's a great build to this one. quiet, brooding, brutal.
Playing Dead
this was probably my favorite of the collection. the descriptions in this one are excellent, and the details are vivid and original and it's more the wire than justified - AKs instead of shotguns, coke instead of meth, black gangs competing for the new york drug trade instead of white skinheads competing for the meth market. and i know - shotgun,
but you take my point.
If you can't catch Quaco, you catch his shirt.
oh, indeed.
Red Hair and Black Leather
and this is why they call it "country noir"
Plan C
robbing banks is hard!! so very many things can go wrong! and they do, here. i thought this one was very funny, but that reaction made me feel really bad about myself. oops!
Beautiful Trash
speaking of hooks: They meet over the body of a beautiful dead boy
this is another perfect story, and one which broadens the possibilities of the grit lit landscape - takes its themes of drugs, violence and old testament vengeance into a much glitzier world. it's about a "cleaner;" a man whose job it is to move softly behind the scenes of hollywood's misbehaving idols - smoothing suicides into unfortunate accidents, clearing away the pills, sweet-talking the bruised victims of celebrity rage. it's a little peek into a rarified world where misdeeds can be spun and glossed.
There are two kinds of publicists in this world. The kind who get good news out and the kind who keep secrets in. Sarah is the second type.
green and sarah strike up a sort of relationship - meeting occasionally as their workpaths intersect, and it is horribly entertaining to read about the process of their professions.
Sarah nods and looks at the body. The smile goes away again.
"It's sad," she says. "Is it okay, what we're doing? Is it wrong?"
"You should get out," he says. "Of this business."
"Why?" She bristles, defiant, and Green likes her even more.
"You asked about right and wrong."
this one has some of the best descriptions of the whole collection. it's terrifically powerful and it fits the tone of the collection perfectly, despite its setting being so different.
Love and Other Wounds
very short, and very clean. a clever road out of a seemingly impossible situation.
this one you can read here:
http://www.outofthegutteronline.com/2...
Like Riding a Moped
this is a little cautionary tale about why we don't underestimate women. and why con artists who assume BBWs are desperate for affection and are therefore easy targets for romantic manipulation and exploitation should tread lightly.
Ad Hominem Attack, or I Refute This
this story is great. because how many times have you
and that is why i love this story.
Heart Check
this one has a callback to an anecdote told in Agua Dulce, although the four-year-old boy becomes a six-year-old boy in this story, which tells of the repercussions and aftermath of the anecdote. again - i read an ARC so this will probably be fixed before it pubs, or it might remain as an example of the way stories morph as they become mythos, warnings, the word-of-mouth of the criminal underworld.
Always Thirsty
the return of the watchdog from I Wish They Never Named Him Mad Dog, showing that he's still sticking to his code, cool and cautious as ever. he is only a secondary character here, but his presence is necessary and appreciated. i don't have much to say about this story. it was fine, but not a favorite.
Your Finest Moment or Just Look What the Bitch Made You Do
the best laid revenge plans of cuckolds gang aft agley. even if you think you know all the potential pitfalls and take your precautions. fate's a tricky bitch. woof.
Johnny Cash is Dead
this one, like Love and Other Wounds is also about the kind of clever quickchange lateral thinking that turns the impossible situation into one that, while not ideal, at least gets the job done. but damn, the price is steep. love, vengeance, sacrifice. a great haunting way to end this collection.
i loved this book, and harper also has a full-length novel coming out the same month as this one: If All Roads Were Blind: A Novel, which i am going to grab with my hands ASAP please.
* may not be an exact quote.
come to my blog!
February 7, 2023
She had an ass like a heart turned upside down and torn in half, and that's what you call foreshadowing, friend.Holy Hell This Book Is Awesome.
STUNNING writing.
That's the first thing that kept running through my head while reading this stellar collection of dark crime stories. The five next thoughts were:
1) Who is Jordan Harper?
2) Where did he come from?
3) Where has he been all my life?
4) What book is he releasing next?
5) Where can I do more damage to my wallet to buy said book?!
Harper's mastery of prose is completely evident all throughout this collection. He is one of those writers that wastes no words, but is always creative with choosing the right ones with awesome efficiency. At times his writing is growling and brutal and other times it's just plain lyrical. Every story here is a beauty of a read.
Here's an excerpt where the author describes a death:
First there was fear and then there was pain and then there was knowing and then there was nothing.At times, I found myself reading out loud, so I could appreciate the story's rhythm and the cadence in the writing. If anyone wants to record a random audiobook for this thing I would contribute just out of the pure fun of it!
There are some standout stories though:
"Plan C" and "Your Finest Moment" are hilariously violent bumbling crime tales and they both look at what we all know about best laid plans
"Prove It All Night" is a beautiful little twist on the cliched Bonnie and Clyde tale, with a great ending.
"Beautiful Trash" is a melancholy and romantic story of finding love among all the decadence and manufactured romance of Hollywood. Great characters. If any of these stories was to be fleshed out and extended, I would vote for this one. It could be like Ray Donovan, or Scandal set in Tinseltown with better writing and bigger balls.
"Playing Dead" is a well-told little tale of survival and vengeance in Brooklyn.
I also really enjoyed the tragic ambition in "Heart Check."
And finally, what seems to be the crowd favorite, "Lucy In The Pit," is a tender but savage tale of a dogfight medic and handler trying to save a fight dog that just became a legend in the pit.
The fight is a pit dog's highest purpose. We have bred them to not feel fear or pain. We have bred them to have wide jaws and a low center of gravity. A pit dog wants the fight the way a ratter wants the rat, the way a bloodhound wants the scent. A dead-game dog wants it more than it wants life.And while there are standouts, it's hard to pick those out because every story was enjoyable, with great characters, creative developments, callbacks to other stories in the book, and recurring players. And each tale is about a varying group of individuals around the country living mostly on the fringes, who find themselves at a crossroads in their lives of violence. I can't wait to see what Jordan Harper can do with a full-length novel! As you can tell, I REALLY enjoyed this book (definitely one of my favorites released so far this year, along with Bull Mountain and The Whites ), and if you enjoy great stories, you'll love this one too.
Tommy and Nikki had been all fireworks—Roman candles pointed at each other's faces. They had raged. Lived hard, drank hard, fucked hard, fought hard. He needed the fireworks for the heat they gave him. Everything else in his life felt cold.
August 20, 2015
UPDATE!
I carelessly neglected to mention in February when I reviewed this fabulous collection of stories that I was reading an ARC - this book is now available and I can't recommend it enough. More Harper, please!
.............................................................................
It's ok if most of these stories are culled from Harper's earlier collection American Death Songs. If you missed that book you can catch up; if you've read ADS you can revisit stories that will make you feel like you're walking on legs recently broke and not set right.
I read the titular story aloud to my wife and made her cry. I read Lucy in the Pit before bed last night and made myself cry. I'm not here to tell that everything between the covers of this book is depressing, but I am here to say that all 16 stories play straight with their audience.
This collection will be availble for purchase in July 2015. Many thanks to friend Karen for sharing her galley copy with me. Sorry, karen not Karen. She may be all lowercase but she is all UPPERCLASS.
I carelessly neglected to mention in February when I reviewed this fabulous collection of stories that I was reading an ARC - this book is now available and I can't recommend it enough. More Harper, please!
.............................................................................
It's ok if most of these stories are culled from Harper's earlier collection American Death Songs. If you missed that book you can catch up; if you've read ADS you can revisit stories that will make you feel like you're walking on legs recently broke and not set right.
I read the titular story aloud to my wife and made her cry. I read Lucy in the Pit before bed last night and made myself cry. I'm not here to tell that everything between the covers of this book is depressing, but I am here to say that all 16 stories play straight with their audience.
This collection will be availble for purchase in July 2015. Many thanks to friend Karen for sharing her galley copy with me. Sorry, karen not Karen. She may be all lowercase but she is all UPPERCLASS.
February 21, 2018
I done got shafted. By Jordan Harper or his evil minions.
I got Jordan Harper’s first book in 2013. It was called American Death Songs and it was published in 2013 by Beautiful Trash Inc which I guess is an indie publisher.
I loved American Death Songs & gave it 5 beautiful stars.
I wanted more Jordan Harper but I only just noticed another collection, Love and Other Wounds, published in 2015 by HarperCollins, a big grown up publisher of proper books.
I was late but heck, another book of meth-head Aryan Race ultraviolence – yes, I’ll have some of that please.
I got it today and guess what – it’s the same damn book as American Death Songs, only with one story deleted and two added. And the story that was called "Just Look What the Bitch made You Do" is now called "Your Finest Moment", so that wasn’t new either.
Nowhere does it say anywhere that Love & Other Wounds is the same as American Death Songs.
They lied to me.
If HarperCollins was a character in one of these stories, it would have about two minutes to live and then a pit bull would be ripping its throat out.
But I can get my money back! I see that this first edition of American Death Songs is now retailing on Amazon for a stunning $579.99 – check it out! So it’s become a sought-after collector’s item!
I could undercut those bozos by a couple of hundred and still walk away a clear winner.
But, you know, I probly won’t do any such thing. I’ll just set Love and Other Wounds right next to American Death Songs on my shelf and smile every time I catch sight of it. Readers can be strange beasts.
I got Jordan Harper’s first book in 2013. It was called American Death Songs and it was published in 2013 by Beautiful Trash Inc which I guess is an indie publisher.
I loved American Death Songs & gave it 5 beautiful stars.
I wanted more Jordan Harper but I only just noticed another collection, Love and Other Wounds, published in 2015 by HarperCollins, a big grown up publisher of proper books.
I was late but heck, another book of meth-head Aryan Race ultraviolence – yes, I’ll have some of that please.
I got it today and guess what – it’s the same damn book as American Death Songs, only with one story deleted and two added. And the story that was called "Just Look What the Bitch made You Do" is now called "Your Finest Moment", so that wasn’t new either.
Nowhere does it say anywhere that Love & Other Wounds is the same as American Death Songs.
They lied to me.
If HarperCollins was a character in one of these stories, it would have about two minutes to live and then a pit bull would be ripping its throat out.
But I can get my money back! I see that this first edition of American Death Songs is now retailing on Amazon for a stunning $579.99 – check it out! So it’s become a sought-after collector’s item!
I could undercut those bozos by a couple of hundred and still walk away a clear winner.
But, you know, I probly won’t do any such thing. I’ll just set Love and Other Wounds right next to American Death Songs on my shelf and smile every time I catch sight of it. Readers can be strange beasts.
October 8, 2019
Jordan Harper's Love and Other Wounds is a collection of fifteen short stories that are so good they will literally blow your mind.
Harper has captured a gritty, crime-ridden, kinda-bent, hair-raising corner of hell in these stories. So grab a few shots of your favorite whiskey and enjoy. This collection includes meth-heads in Agua Dulce, cattle stampedes, modern-day Bonnie and Clyde stories, dogfights, a mean little bar out in the Ozarks, what happens when you accept a nickname, Jamaican coke dealers and AK-47s, a redhaired gal with black leather pants and an ass like a heart turned upside down and torn in half, biker gangs, the legendary owner of Jackie Blue's, prison tats, prison yard policy, a scene out of Dog Day Afternoon, a fixer in Hollywood, overly literate undergrads in the wrong coffeeshop, stompings, stabbings, doing watchdog duty, a perfect murder, and revenge fantasies. Yes, it is violent. But, most of all, it is mad, crazy, and spiced with a touch of irony.
Worth reading more than once. Easy to read. Hardcore, gritty, nasty, and more honest and true than you want it to be. Filled with people driven to desperate actions. By their own actions or by a world filled with circumstances and choices that just have to be made. This is high-grade octane, the good stuff.
Harper has captured a gritty, crime-ridden, kinda-bent, hair-raising corner of hell in these stories. So grab a few shots of your favorite whiskey and enjoy. This collection includes meth-heads in Agua Dulce, cattle stampedes, modern-day Bonnie and Clyde stories, dogfights, a mean little bar out in the Ozarks, what happens when you accept a nickname, Jamaican coke dealers and AK-47s, a redhaired gal with black leather pants and an ass like a heart turned upside down and torn in half, biker gangs, the legendary owner of Jackie Blue's, prison tats, prison yard policy, a scene out of Dog Day Afternoon, a fixer in Hollywood, overly literate undergrads in the wrong coffeeshop, stompings, stabbings, doing watchdog duty, a perfect murder, and revenge fantasies. Yes, it is violent. But, most of all, it is mad, crazy, and spiced with a touch of irony.
Worth reading more than once. Easy to read. Hardcore, gritty, nasty, and more honest and true than you want it to be. Filled with people driven to desperate actions. By their own actions or by a world filled with circumstances and choices that just have to be made. This is high-grade octane, the good stuff.
May 3, 2025
First of all, how does this great book of short stories have only 82 reviews and fewer than 500 ratings, while the last two steaming piles of offal that I read in this genre both have over 20,000 reviews? What is wrong with the publishing world? It seems that all you have to do these days is write any dumb ass novel in which a woman is either kidnapped or hacked to bits and you have a bestseller. I just think that publishers decide which books become successful, not readers. Most readers just read what they are told to read, and they're told to read books about disappearing, hacked up women, or some silly-ass mystery that makes no sense.
Second of all, if I had kids, I'd read them these stories at bedtime. It's probably best for everyone involved that I'm childless.
I read She rides Shotgun first (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...), which chronologically is out of order, but I think there are advantages either way. The novel spun off directly from the stories here.
I want more novels. I loved many of these stories, but the best stories leave you with a feeling of wanting much, much more. You want what came before and sometimes what will come next. The best short stories give you the feeling that there isn’t a single sentence, even a single word that could be removed or added without detracting from its current near perfection, much like you wouldn’t add any brush strokes to a portrait by Caravaggio. I realize that I just contradicted myself by saying how stories sometimes feel incomplete, and then suggesting that stories can be perfect. I love writers who do both, who write stories and novels.
But maybe John knew the whole time in the back of his brain, where the rot was blackest, that he wasn’t buying meth from Carter. He was putting down payments on a slow-motion suicide.
The bill came due that morning in a shitty hotel room in Agua Dulce.
For my money, that’s about as good as it gets in gritty crime writing, or any kind of writing, for that matter. It’s not flowery or overly-descriptive, it’s just telling it how it is.
“Beautiful Trash” was one of my favorites, if you’re making me confess. I’ve often thought that the TV series Ray Donovan completely missed the boat on the whole idea of a fixer to the stars in Hollywood. Instead of being noir and gritty, they fell for what I call “The Meadow Soprano Effect” which also shanghaied The Sopranos. “The Meadow Soprano Effect” turns a crime drama into a god-fucking-awful family telenovela. “Beautiful Trash” kept on course. This is something that would make a great novel.
This story alone is worth every domestic thriller on this putrid list.
Reading this book was more fun than sleeping with a fat chick, and I don't care who sees me do it! If you find this insensitive, it's only because you haven't read the book and met the gal in "Like Riding a Moped." The title alone makes the story memorable.
Second of all, if I had kids, I'd read them these stories at bedtime. It's probably best for everyone involved that I'm childless.
I read She rides Shotgun first (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...), which chronologically is out of order, but I think there are advantages either way. The novel spun off directly from the stories here.
I want more novels. I loved many of these stories, but the best stories leave you with a feeling of wanting much, much more. You want what came before and sometimes what will come next. The best short stories give you the feeling that there isn’t a single sentence, even a single word that could be removed or added without detracting from its current near perfection, much like you wouldn’t add any brush strokes to a portrait by Caravaggio. I realize that I just contradicted myself by saying how stories sometimes feel incomplete, and then suggesting that stories can be perfect. I love writers who do both, who write stories and novels.
But maybe John knew the whole time in the back of his brain, where the rot was blackest, that he wasn’t buying meth from Carter. He was putting down payments on a slow-motion suicide.
The bill came due that morning in a shitty hotel room in Agua Dulce.
For my money, that’s about as good as it gets in gritty crime writing, or any kind of writing, for that matter. It’s not flowery or overly-descriptive, it’s just telling it how it is.
“Beautiful Trash” was one of my favorites, if you’re making me confess. I’ve often thought that the TV series Ray Donovan completely missed the boat on the whole idea of a fixer to the stars in Hollywood. Instead of being noir and gritty, they fell for what I call “The Meadow Soprano Effect” which also shanghaied The Sopranos. “The Meadow Soprano Effect” turns a crime drama into a god-fucking-awful family telenovela. “Beautiful Trash” kept on course. This is something that would make a great novel.
This story alone is worth every domestic thriller on this putrid list.
Reading this book was more fun than sleeping with a fat chick, and I don't care who sees me do it! If you find this insensitive, it's only because you haven't read the book and met the gal in "Like Riding a Moped." The title alone makes the story memorable.
December 31, 2019
Outstanding anthology!
Collection of short stories reminiscent of Jedidiah Ayres, Frank Bill, Donald Ray Pollock.
Intense and amusing with frequent outbursts of violence and your run-of-the-mill mayhem.
Highest Recommendation!
Collection of short stories reminiscent of Jedidiah Ayres, Frank Bill, Donald Ray Pollock.
Intense and amusing with frequent outbursts of violence and your run-of-the-mill mayhem.
Highest Recommendation!
July 19, 2016
OUTSTANDING collection of short stories. I love to sink my teeth into exceptionally written hardboiled, noir, gritty masterpieces and I was more than fulfilled with Jordan Harper’s stellar writing talent.
Harper manipulates language shaping and forming it into amazing prose. His creativity cannot be denied. His style possesses a beautiful brutal in your face slap, and at other moments it’s stark, smooth and melodic, highly detailed and visual as well. EVERY story in this collection is amazing with its various substance.
Character development, hardcore narratives, revisiting characters from previous stories in the collection, repeating characters, each dealing with violence in their individual circumstances. Jordan captures the required ingredients to craft powerful stories and characters. I anxiously await more from this gifted writer, Jordan’s abilities should be highly noted. Incredible writing and reading!
Harper manipulates language shaping and forming it into amazing prose. His creativity cannot be denied. His style possesses a beautiful brutal in your face slap, and at other moments it’s stark, smooth and melodic, highly detailed and visual as well. EVERY story in this collection is amazing with its various substance.
Character development, hardcore narratives, revisiting characters from previous stories in the collection, repeating characters, each dealing with violence in their individual circumstances. Jordan captures the required ingredients to craft powerful stories and characters. I anxiously await more from this gifted writer, Jordan’s abilities should be highly noted. Incredible writing and reading!
February 25, 2017
Four and a half.
Gritty and sharp stories about people, mostly hardened men, struggling in subworlds where violence and death are the norm. The prose was mostly concrete and to the point, and the writer took care in setting things up so the endings of many of the stories were surprising and original. Plenty of strong images that will stick with me, like .
I had some issues. A few of the stories start doing something that, although I understand why it's used, I hate: open with a strong passage and almost immediately backtrack to how the story got to that point. Screwing with the chronology takes me out of the visceral experience, which as far as I'm concerned should be maximized. In some of the stories, the prose was a bit more abstract or thin than I would have liked, contrasting with others in which it was precise and lean, and some of the repetition of sentences for thematic effect didn't work for me. I prefer short sentences, but with variety, and in some parts the similar length stood out.
In general, I loved it quite a bit.
Gritty and sharp stories about people, mostly hardened men, struggling in subworlds where violence and death are the norm. The prose was mostly concrete and to the point, and the writer took care in setting things up so the endings of many of the stories were surprising and original. Plenty of strong images that will stick with me, like .
I had some issues. A few of the stories start doing something that, although I understand why it's used, I hate: open with a strong passage and almost immediately backtrack to how the story got to that point. Screwing with the chronology takes me out of the visceral experience, which as far as I'm concerned should be maximized. In some of the stories, the prose was a bit more abstract or thin than I would have liked, contrasting with others in which it was precise and lean, and some of the repetition of sentences for thematic effect didn't work for me. I prefer short sentences, but with variety, and in some parts the similar length stood out.
In general, I loved it quite a bit.
July 13, 2020
Very raw; this short story collection is very reminiscent of Frank Bill and other Appalachian writers. Meth heads, Aryan brothers, murder, prison tattoos, hillbillies, bar fights, and heists; these quick and dirty stories real you in instantly. There are no happy endings, only vindictive victories, revenges, or defeats. Not an uplifting read, but an engaging one that readers won't be able to stop thinking about.
September 27, 2015
Just a bunch of great gritty and gory crime-noir stories. Had read several of these previously in Thuglit, but sitting down and reading 15 of these back-to-back-to-back feels like being the last man standing after a two-hour all-hands furniture-throwing saloon brawl. The writing is concrete and energetic: Harper uses nouns and verbs to describe, uses them as weapons, and I love to see that. Whether it be in the prison yard or "cleaning up" after a movie star, the verisimilitude is impressive and gives these stories a strong sense of authenticity. Some of these stories have beautiful character arcs to them, which is super hard to pull off in short stories. My only quibble is that a few of them end with the first-person narrator dying in the last sentence; never liked that type of story, so half-star deduction. 4.5. Great stuff.
February 27, 2020
There are two types of authors. The Storytellers and The Writers. There’s a rare third type which is The Wordsmith - An author who can tell entertaining, meaningful stories with prose that sound like poetry. Harper is a wordsmith. He writes about ugliness in beautiful ways and keeps you thinking about the stories well after you’ve closed the book.
Definitely someone to watch.
The fact that he is published by the same publisher as Fante, Bukowski and Tobias Wolff says a lot.
The only negative point that I can critique his stories on is that a couple of them come a little too close to imitating Ellroy’s staccato style.
Excellent
Definitely someone to watch.
The fact that he is published by the same publisher as Fante, Bukowski and Tobias Wolff says a lot.
The only negative point that I can critique his stories on is that a couple of them come a little too close to imitating Ellroy’s staccato style.
Excellent
September 18, 2015
Now this sonofabitch can WRITE.
July 10, 2015
Love and Other Wounds starts you running for your life (or maybe just half a step ahead of your death) through the burning California high desert with meth and madness pounding through your veins, and while the characters and their circumstances change drastically in the fourteen stories that follow the heart-pounding opener Agua Dulce, that coagulating mixture of urgency and dread in the pit of your gut will stick with you throughout.
Harper flawlessly casts the reader into the vexed psyches of his characters without wasting words.Whether in a dog fighting ring in the modern ruins of Detroit or a biker bar in the Ozarks, these gritty tales truly come alive as the body count piles up.
With dashes of dark humor and even some unlikely poetic justice throughout, Love and Other Wounds is among the best short story collections I've read. I'm definitely hooked.
Harper flawlessly casts the reader into the vexed psyches of his characters without wasting words.Whether in a dog fighting ring in the modern ruins of Detroit or a biker bar in the Ozarks, these gritty tales truly come alive as the body count piles up.
With dashes of dark humor and even some unlikely poetic justice throughout, Love and Other Wounds is among the best short story collections I've read. I'm definitely hooked.
August 19, 2015
Fantastic collection of short stories. Many tread familiar ground within the rural/crime genre, but the characters are fully realized, complex people that elevate the stories to something special. A couple didn't land quite as well with me, but making every single story exceptional is damn near impossible. I can't wait for his next book.
July 21, 2015
I first read Jordan Harper in Thuglit. I stretched this book out over the course of days and savored each story. It was fucking glorious.
August 11, 2025
this is probably the best short story collection i've read. with collections, there are always the hits and the misses, but the thing is, i don't think a single story was a miss. harper does a great job building suspense in such few pages, and he has no problem throwing you for a loop when violence hits the page.
i'm glad i read this in tandem with my reread of She Rides Shotgun. it was so fun to see harper referencing his own short stories in the novel. i'm really enjoying the interconnected universe he's created.
April 11, 2021
What a great collection of stories by Jordan Harper that had been on my TBR for some time after finishing the incredible She Rides Shotgun. There are an assortment of stories ranging from violent, to comical, to heartbreaking, and even introspective. A few of my favorite stories were Agua Dulce, Playing Dead, Lucy in the Pit, and Like Riding a Moped. Truly though every story in this collection is a ton of fun to read and is well worth your time.
April 2, 2021
This collection of shorts was so gritty and satisfying, as well as sad in a weird way. Its also the first collection of short stories where I loved every single one, each with their own personality but in the same setting. I bought Jordan Harper's novel after reading this.
July 29, 2024
Great debut collection of stories. Lots of gritty mean stories. Rural fiction at it's best.
September 4, 2024
Spectacular gritty noiresque grime crime fiction stories.
July 24, 2015
Good Lord, that was great. I've read Jordan Harper before, some of the stories in this collection were previously featured in AMERICAN DEATH SONGS (fortunately he only kept the best stuff), but that guy is back with a vengeance and a pure, crystalline, sometimes Ellroyesque prose that would make the greats of Southern Gothic fiction jealous. Perhaps my favourite aspect of LOVE AND OTHER WOUNDS is that it's not dealing with that tried street justice cliché like most of the crime fiction coming out these days, it's about lost souls figuring their way in a world of violence and defining their existence with every moral choice.
LUCY IN THE PIT, one of the new stories in LOVE AND OTHER WOUNDS is both an assault on cliché dog stories and a terrific study of character that may or may not have dragged a couple tears out of me. Jordan Harper understands the human heart and by that, I mean he understands more than what's in his own. LOVE AND OTHER WOUNDS is the mainstream debut of a major, game-changing talent, guys. Get in the bandwagon while you can. It's about to get crowded.
LUCY IN THE PIT, one of the new stories in LOVE AND OTHER WOUNDS is both an assault on cliché dog stories and a terrific study of character that may or may not have dragged a couple tears out of me. Jordan Harper understands the human heart and by that, I mean he understands more than what's in his own. LOVE AND OTHER WOUNDS is the mainstream debut of a major, game-changing talent, guys. Get in the bandwagon while you can. It's about to get crowded.
January 21, 2024
"Painlessness outside of death is an unnatural condition, she’d said. A man can’t get to where he’s feeling no pain for too long before it starts to itch at him. Before he starts to notice the hole where his pain’s supposed to go."
This is without doubt one of the best collections of short stories I have read in a long time, Jordan Harper is simply put brilliant. Normally in a collection of stories you find a few duds, not here, I can say that out of the 15 there was maybe one that I didn't like that much, and picking a favorite is hard but if I have to I'll say "Agua Dulce", "Beautiful Trash" and "Like Riding a Moped" were big favorites. Fair warning, the stories are gritty, raw and often brutal so if you usually have a problem with that, this one may not be be for you.
This is without doubt one of the best collections of short stories I have read in a long time, Jordan Harper is simply put brilliant. Normally in a collection of stories you find a few duds, not here, I can say that out of the 15 there was maybe one that I didn't like that much, and picking a favorite is hard but if I have to I'll say "Agua Dulce", "Beautiful Trash" and "Like Riding a Moped" were big favorites. Fair warning, the stories are gritty, raw and often brutal so if you usually have a problem with that, this one may not be be for you.
March 18, 2019
Jordan Harper's Love and Other Wounds collects many stories. Most of them are beautiful, more of them are dark, but all of them are worth your time. Standouts for me were Lucy in the Pit, Beautiful Trash, Like Riding a Moped, and Plan C. If you get the chance, go forth, see out, purchase and enjoy.
January 13, 2021
I'm on a short story kick these days and this book didn't disappoint. Almost makes you want to take up a life of crime after reading. Two of my favorite movies are Bonnie & Clyde and Badlands and this book conveys the same tone those two flicks did. Running and gunning and up to no good! A fun read!
May 6, 2022
This collection covers a variety of crimes. Along with the author’s fluid writing style, the strength of the stories is found in the well developed characters.
The protagonist of “Agua Dulce” is an addict whose debts to dealers exceed his ability to barter his drug mule services. In this most cinematic of the stories, John goes to great lengths to protect a child, a child who he brought as a plus one to a drug deal. The kid’s mother isn’t physically in the story, yet Harper deftly paints a picture of her and her sketchy priorities.
Some of the stories in the collection were hard to read, such as “Lucy in the Pit,” which shows a trainer trying to save the life of dog bred to fight. By showing Lucy’s money-hungry owner, Lucy’s desire to win, and the rival trainer’s methods, the tragic situation is revealed and heart strings are yanked. “Love and Other Wounds” also features a dog and a person desperate to save a loved one, only of the human variety.
Crime stories often have less than happy endings, but they sometimes render justice in the form of bloody retribution or show the protagonist haunted by their choices. The protagonist of “Like Riding a Moped” is a severe departure from society’s beauty standard, but she’s smart and savvy, and well used to being used. The protagonist of “Prove It All Night” lives a life of regret, reliving memories of an adrenaline-fueled robbery spree and an unattainable fantasy of being a modern day Bonnie to her partner’s Clyde.
My favorite story of the collection is “Beautiful Trash,” which follows a cleaner and a publicist charged with managing celebrity scandals. Harper is a master of story openings and this one is no exception: “They meet over the body of a beautiful dead boy. Green likes her right away. Her hands don’t shake. She doesn’t make bad jokes or cry or act cold. A lot of people wouldn’t handle their fear so well. After all, it is her first corpse.”
LOVE AND OTHER WOUNDS is a must read for crime fiction aficionados.
The protagonist of “Agua Dulce” is an addict whose debts to dealers exceed his ability to barter his drug mule services. In this most cinematic of the stories, John goes to great lengths to protect a child, a child who he brought as a plus one to a drug deal. The kid’s mother isn’t physically in the story, yet Harper deftly paints a picture of her and her sketchy priorities.
Some of the stories in the collection were hard to read, such as “Lucy in the Pit,” which shows a trainer trying to save the life of dog bred to fight. By showing Lucy’s money-hungry owner, Lucy’s desire to win, and the rival trainer’s methods, the tragic situation is revealed and heart strings are yanked. “Love and Other Wounds” also features a dog and a person desperate to save a loved one, only of the human variety.
Crime stories often have less than happy endings, but they sometimes render justice in the form of bloody retribution or show the protagonist haunted by their choices. The protagonist of “Like Riding a Moped” is a severe departure from society’s beauty standard, but she’s smart and savvy, and well used to being used. The protagonist of “Prove It All Night” lives a life of regret, reliving memories of an adrenaline-fueled robbery spree and an unattainable fantasy of being a modern day Bonnie to her partner’s Clyde.
My favorite story of the collection is “Beautiful Trash,” which follows a cleaner and a publicist charged with managing celebrity scandals. Harper is a master of story openings and this one is no exception: “They meet over the body of a beautiful dead boy. Green likes her right away. Her hands don’t shake. She doesn’t make bad jokes or cry or act cold. A lot of people wouldn’t handle their fear so well. After all, it is her first corpse.”
LOVE AND OTHER WOUNDS is a must read for crime fiction aficionados.
September 17, 2017
If you like Frank Bill and Matthew McBride, you will love Jordan Harper's first collection of short stories. Harper is the writer/producer of "Gotham" on tv. This collection won't give you the solution for world peace, but will entertain with a group of memorable thuglit characters as they move through their often complex dark noir situations. This Harper universe is definitely not for the squeamish. For example, in one story set out west, not only is there a cattle stampede, the herd runs through a massive brush fire, so the cattle become flaming engines of destruction. I thoroughly enjoyed these pulp fiction adventures and look forward to reading Jordan Harper's latest novel.
August 3, 2020
I picked this up because I liked She Rides Shotgun so much. In this collection, you can see Harper feeling through the kinds of characters and styles he would crystallize in that novel. In this collection of short stories, we get vignettes of violence, vice and comeuppance. Despite the subject matter (meth addicts, Nazi bikers, armed robbers), Harper is (appropriate to his last name) quite lyrical. And the stories often didn't go where I thought they would.
This isn't as good as his novel, but if you like thuglit and short fiction, this is a good collection to pick up.
This isn't as good as his novel, but if you like thuglit and short fiction, this is a good collection to pick up.
October 7, 2024
In the old days, like before TV, a writer could make a decent living writing nothing but short stories. Sic transit gloria mundi*, as they said back then. It's sad this fun-as-hell collection has so few reviews. I couldn't recommend this more. I also think it's time to reread this as my memory is weaker than my bench press.
* I learned this bit of Latin from an article in Rolling Stone magazine back in the mid 1980s. I remember how cool I felt. Now remember, this was before the internet so I had to put in a bit of effort to track down what these words meant, although they were familiar to the Spanish I'd learned.
* I learned this bit of Latin from an article in Rolling Stone magazine back in the mid 1980s. I remember how cool I felt. Now remember, this was before the internet so I had to put in a bit of effort to track down what these words meant, although they were familiar to the Spanish I'd learned.
April 21, 2025
Excellent and violent. Mostly told through first person or third person limited view, this is a series of viscera-covered and bullet riddled stories that were nearly all exciting or at least interesting. Generally small time crooks, local drug muscle, and violent crime newbies. Fun isn’t the right word, given the mayhem, but that’s kinda what I had. As if Elmore Leonard decided to go full Red-band in small doses.
There’s some fun interconnected story play as well, where one character shows up as a secondary character in another story.
It did get a little one-note in style and story progression, but it ain’t a long collection so absolutely worth your time (if you like your neo-noir crime stories spattered with blood).
There’s some fun interconnected story play as well, where one character shows up as a secondary character in another story.
It did get a little one-note in style and story progression, but it ain’t a long collection so absolutely worth your time (if you like your neo-noir crime stories spattered with blood).
Displaying 1 - 30 of 131 reviews