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Call Him Mine #2
How to be Nowhere EXPORT
Life is finally on the right track for reporter and recovering addict he is slowly coming to terms with the murder of his photographer boyfriend Carlos, pursuing sobriety and building a new home with a new partner.Andrew has almost forgotten about the story that ruined his life - but that story hasn't forgotten about him, and a series of deadly threats forces him into helping the very man whose gang murdered his boyfriend and left him homeless.A literary take on the classic chase movie, HOW TO BE NOWHERE is the sequel to Tim MacGabhann's genre-busting and critically-acclaimed debut CALL HIM MINE, and a blistering thrill-ride deep into the fog of Central America's murky present and tragic future.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
July 29, 2020
Journalist Andrew thinks he's getting on with his life following the brutal murder of his boyfriend/photographer and his investigation of a brutal story involving a Mexican drug cartel and the dozens of family greed destroyed when trouble comes knocking on his door again. Suddenly Andrew finds himself in the thick of everything again, except instead of holding a pencil, this time he's holding the gun.
"The white guy always survives at the end" - Maybe not this time, for Andrew.
I really enjoyed Call Him Mine - and while this is an exciting, action-packed sequel, it's deinfitely not a necessary one. I don't think anyone would be really missing out on a big piece of the story if they only read Call Him Mine and didn't pick up How to Be Nowhere.
One of the reasons I loved Call Him Mine was because Tim MacGabhann did use a lot of inspiration from his own life as a journalist in Mexico, and experiences of others in his field. While the story and the conclusion of the investigation in Call Him Mine was a little bit too perfect, the trouble in How to be Nowhere was even more unrealistic - which makes sense, as this story was inspired by "classic chase" movies.
I do think that Andrew became this completely different person in How to be Nowhere and I'm not sure if I liked it. He lost the gentle fragility that I loved about him, and I didn't like how suddenly he was not only holding a gun but actually using it to hurt people.
This book is also VERY horrific and violent in parts and it does go into some detail - there is one particular torture scene of a character I had grown to like, and it was pretty difficult to read.
I still enjoyed this book as the writing is very good, the setting is unique and the story itself is unlike a lot of things I've read before. But I preferred Call Him Mine, and would probably recommend it as a standalone novel.
"The white guy always survives at the end" - Maybe not this time, for Andrew.
I really enjoyed Call Him Mine - and while this is an exciting, action-packed sequel, it's deinfitely not a necessary one. I don't think anyone would be really missing out on a big piece of the story if they only read Call Him Mine and didn't pick up How to Be Nowhere.
One of the reasons I loved Call Him Mine was because Tim MacGabhann did use a lot of inspiration from his own life as a journalist in Mexico, and experiences of others in his field. While the story and the conclusion of the investigation in Call Him Mine was a little bit too perfect, the trouble in How to be Nowhere was even more unrealistic - which makes sense, as this story was inspired by "classic chase" movies.
I do think that Andrew became this completely different person in How to be Nowhere and I'm not sure if I liked it. He lost the gentle fragility that I loved about him, and I didn't like how suddenly he was not only holding a gun but actually using it to hurt people.
This book is also VERY horrific and violent in parts and it does go into some detail - there is one particular torture scene of a character I had grown to like, and it was pretty difficult to read.
I still enjoyed this book as the writing is very good, the setting is unique and the story itself is unlike a lot of things I've read before. But I preferred Call Him Mine, and would probably recommend it as a standalone novel.
November 20, 2025
You leave home as often as I do, you never really unpack, because you never know when you might have to do it again.
On my blog.
CWs: descriptions of gore, violence, graphic descriptions of torture, mentions of past drug abuse and addiction
Galley provided by publisher
Sometimes you can look at a book and know without a doubt it is going to fuck you up. And, lo and behold, that is exactly how this book went. Granted, I did know somewhat what I was getting into by reading this, after Call Him Mine.
Not that it helped.
How to be Nowhere follows Andrew, now in Argentina, a few months on from the events of the first book. He has settled down, thinking himself safe from the major players of the story he helped uncover, but then they come bursting back into his life, leaving him forced to help them.
What I loved about Call Him Mine, and what I continued to love about this one, was the writing. Tim MacGabhann has that kind of writing that’s just quietly devastating. It’s the kind of writing that makes you want to stop even bothering to try, maybe you’ll go fling yourself into the sun, so that you can escape the way it shreds you into tiny pieces in only a sentence. It reminds me of Melina Marchetta in that respect, that ability to find the single perfect sentence to cause maximum devastation.
And it’s not just that about it. It also has all these repeating patterns and motifs, and that is honestly one of my favourite things about it. All the times Andrew spoke to “you”, the repetition of Love, if you get this, all of it was…a Lot, really.
It’s the writing which has turned this book which, plot-wise, I was possibly less involved in than the first, into a book which has entirely wrecked me. It’s a violent book, but the violence doesn’t overshadow the journey Andrew has taken (has had to take).
And really, after that ending, I need even more.
January 8, 2021
If ever there was an unnecessary sequel, it's this. Even MacGabhann must have realised this when, 100 pages in, he's still summarising the plot of the first book.
He's a good writer and Call Him Mine was excellent but it's time to find new characters, new stories. This is a dead end.
He's a good writer and Call Him Mine was excellent but it's time to find new characters, new stories. This is a dead end.
May 29, 2023
Didn’t realise there was a first book in the series, that might’ve cleared up a lot of the confusion
May 2, 2022
Pretty gnarly
May 22, 2024
"Missing you is shit, I managed to say, and I think he was about to say something else when the bullet-holes on his chest began to widen, his outline began to waver, and then he was gone, leaving me alone in a night that smelled of burning thorn-bush and mesquite. "
How to be Nowhere takes the foundation that Call him Mine laid down, injects it with steroids, douses it with gasoline and throws a lit match upon it. It's entirely ramped the hell up, to perhaps even overkill levels, yet never for a moment is it unenjoyable. It's a difficult yet beautiful and poetic read, an absolute festival of violence and death. A real horrific offering, a blood-drenched sequel we didn't know we needed, overflowing with explosions, car crashes, torture and brutality. Once again, the writing is paramount, taking center stage above the carnage.
Sometimes, from the very first page of a book, you can tell that it's going to devastate you, that it's going to utterly ruin you. That's the exact feeling you get when beginning to read How to be Nowhere, a feeling that it delivers on with a shocking rapidness. Typically, a sequel is out-shined by its predecessor, here that's entirely not the case. How to be Nowhere is every bit as brilliant, if not more so than Call him Mine. Tim MacGabhann's writing is gorgeous, it's haunting, it's heart-wrenching and makes you feel as if the only option is to fling yourself upon the blacktop and let passing traffic squish you.
Plunging back into this terrifying, white-knuckle, drug fueled world was a fucking joy. Violence, gore, viscera and entrails are flung about and woven together into a somehow lovely story. It's difficult to even describe the particular feeling this novel brings about, it's charged by destruction and savagery, but it's all really rather bleak and upsetting, despite the action it's an overwhelmingly sad novel. Instead of being the kind of novel you can switch your brain off to, How to be Nowhere is obliterating to the soul, numbing the pain with it's disgusting barbarity, only to stab you in the gut once more. It may be over the top, it may be insane, but it works so very marvelously. It's absolutely riveting, and not at all for the feint of heart.
"His vibe was different from before, stand-offish, cold, like those white marble statues of Ancient Greece, of Orpheus or Eurydice or someone, I don't know. 'It'll kill you. But gently, you know?' The fizz spritzed my face like drizzle. 'It could all be over if you just let yourself drown, vato' Carlos said. His voice was gentle, his fingers were broken, and his eyes were pinkish with petechial hemorrhaging."
How to be Nowhere takes the foundation that Call him Mine laid down, injects it with steroids, douses it with gasoline and throws a lit match upon it. It's entirely ramped the hell up, to perhaps even overkill levels, yet never for a moment is it unenjoyable. It's a difficult yet beautiful and poetic read, an absolute festival of violence and death. A real horrific offering, a blood-drenched sequel we didn't know we needed, overflowing with explosions, car crashes, torture and brutality. Once again, the writing is paramount, taking center stage above the carnage.
Sometimes, from the very first page of a book, you can tell that it's going to devastate you, that it's going to utterly ruin you. That's the exact feeling you get when beginning to read How to be Nowhere, a feeling that it delivers on with a shocking rapidness. Typically, a sequel is out-shined by its predecessor, here that's entirely not the case. How to be Nowhere is every bit as brilliant, if not more so than Call him Mine. Tim MacGabhann's writing is gorgeous, it's haunting, it's heart-wrenching and makes you feel as if the only option is to fling yourself upon the blacktop and let passing traffic squish you.
"I wanted to tell her about him. I wanted to tell her that you can't recover from a thing like the one he'd been through - or like the things I'd been through - because you can't even try, you just shunt yourself onwards, lessened, punctured, quietly a wreck. On the outside, it looks a lot like peace. Really, though, it's just devastation."
Plunging back into this terrifying, white-knuckle, drug fueled world was a fucking joy. Violence, gore, viscera and entrails are flung about and woven together into a somehow lovely story. It's difficult to even describe the particular feeling this novel brings about, it's charged by destruction and savagery, but it's all really rather bleak and upsetting, despite the action it's an overwhelmingly sad novel. Instead of being the kind of novel you can switch your brain off to, How to be Nowhere is obliterating to the soul, numbing the pain with it's disgusting barbarity, only to stab you in the gut once more. It may be over the top, it may be insane, but it works so very marvelously. It's absolutely riveting, and not at all for the feint of heart.
"His vibe was different from before, stand-offish, cold, like those white marble statues of Ancient Greece, of Orpheus or Eurydice or someone, I don't know. 'It'll kill you. But gently, you know?' The fizz spritzed my face like drizzle. 'It could all be over if you just let yourself drown, vato' Carlos said. His voice was gentle, his fingers were broken, and his eyes were pinkish with petechial hemorrhaging."
September 10, 2020
Tim MacGabhann is one of those rare authors who can combine rich, literary style with engaging and thrilling narratives.
Following on from his superlative debut, Call Him Mine, was never going to be an easy feat, but with How To Be Nowhere, MacGabhann dispels all concerns that he may have been a 'one book wonder'.
The story charts the further exploits of Andrew, a journalist living in Latin America, whose recent expose on corruption in Mexico left him bereaved, bereft and on the run for his life.
Tenuously holding on to his sobriety, he has built somewhat of a new life for himself...one which is shattered when the past lands upon his doorstep, holding a gun and an ultimatum.
What follows is a series of white-knuckle events which act, not just as a sequence of explosive and gripping action sequences, but as a sensory and stimulatory experience on many levels. Terror, violence and treachery all exist in abundance, but are seamlessly woven together with grace and skill.
MacGabhann's descriptive style, full of scent and simulacra, is one which adds so much to the pulp pacing and crime fiction archetype of which the novel happily adheres to. While using his journalistic background to create a believable and reflective view of the societal structures, systematic ills and dark histories of the countries in which his novels are set, he simultaneously avoids exploitative tropes, emphasising the wonder, beauty and hope, which form the true heart of his work.
It was a joy to step back into this world for a few hours and it feels as if there may be further left to tell, and let us all hope that will be the case, for the world could use more stories as well-crafted as this.
Following on from his superlative debut, Call Him Mine, was never going to be an easy feat, but with How To Be Nowhere, MacGabhann dispels all concerns that he may have been a 'one book wonder'.
The story charts the further exploits of Andrew, a journalist living in Latin America, whose recent expose on corruption in Mexico left him bereaved, bereft and on the run for his life.
Tenuously holding on to his sobriety, he has built somewhat of a new life for himself...one which is shattered when the past lands upon his doorstep, holding a gun and an ultimatum.
What follows is a series of white-knuckle events which act, not just as a sequence of explosive and gripping action sequences, but as a sensory and stimulatory experience on many levels. Terror, violence and treachery all exist in abundance, but are seamlessly woven together with grace and skill.
MacGabhann's descriptive style, full of scent and simulacra, is one which adds so much to the pulp pacing and crime fiction archetype of which the novel happily adheres to. While using his journalistic background to create a believable and reflective view of the societal structures, systematic ills and dark histories of the countries in which his novels are set, he simultaneously avoids exploitative tropes, emphasising the wonder, beauty and hope, which form the true heart of his work.
It was a joy to step back into this world for a few hours and it feels as if there may be further left to tell, and let us all hope that will be the case, for the world could use more stories as well-crafted as this.
February 22, 2021
A brilliant fast moving sequel to Call Him Mine, with more gory violence which left me feeling a bit queasy on occasion - but not enough to stop me from reading on. With plenty of references to what happened in the first book, and before, it shows that Andrew is having a tough time moving on, especially as he is accompanied by his late boyfriend Carlos's ashes, sewn into his jacket! There's a lot of suitably dark humour and a great ending too which leaves the door open for more of the same. Well I hope so anyway.
December 31, 2020
I started this - then went back to Call him mine which I loved. Then back to this. hmmmmmm
To be honest I lost the plot at times - literally. I could not longer see the point nor know who was the goodie and who the baddie. Were they all just baaad? Or why this was happening. Or what Maya was doing all the time.
The writing don't sizzle, the main character lost his charm and his new boyfriend.
I'd give MacGaghann another go - good writing - but I need more point to all that violence.
To be honest I lost the plot at times - literally. I could not longer see the point nor know who was the goodie and who the baddie. Were they all just baaad? Or why this was happening. Or what Maya was doing all the time.
The writing don't sizzle, the main character lost his charm and his new boyfriend.
I'd give MacGaghann another go - good writing - but I need more point to all that violence.
July 30, 2020
I enjoyed this book but I also found ti extremely violent, too much for my tast.
I think it's well written, the characters are interesting and the plot is solid.
It's completely out of my comfort zone but I think it can be recommended if you like this type of books.
Many thanks to the to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.
I think it's well written, the characters are interesting and the plot is solid.
It's completely out of my comfort zone but I think it can be recommended if you like this type of books.
Many thanks to the to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.
August 29, 2020
An over the top action thriller that levitates entheogenically high above the cinematic carnage driving the plot thanks to the visceral and profound sense of grief and loss that being inside Andrew's head for it shares with us. A ripper.
September 20, 2021
Riveting chase scenes and lurid gun fights. Fast paced but not for the faint of heart.
February 14, 2023
Great follow up to Call Him Mine.
March 22, 2022
How to be Nowhere by Tim MacGabhann is the follow-up novel to Call Him Mine, which I read last month. Andrew is trying to assimilate into normal life after the events surrounding Carlos' death left him exiled from Mexico. But, behind every corner, Andrew is facing demons and it is not before long that he is drawn back into the life that cost him so much. Gripping and gory, a worthy addendum to the tale.
March 23, 2022
I read the first of these books earlier in the year & now we find our guy Andrew recovering from addiction & with a new boyfriend 🥰 until the gang that murdered his previous boyfriend come looking for his help. I firmly believe this book should be banned due to the most graphic & vile description of torture (involving an eyeball 🥴) I have ever been subjected to but otherwise it's great!
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews