chasc.taylor_reads’s review of King of Ashes > Likes and Comments
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Great review! I felt the same way, but you articulated the issues better than I did haha
I’ve read all his books and agree this one fell flat in comparison. I’ve read past Cosby books in a day and this took me almost a week to get through. I agree with the repetitiveness and overuse of similes. I also noticed he referenced the wrong character in part of the book, he mentioned Dante when he was clearly talking about Roman.
Same, he paints the picture and explains the sentence right afterwards! Also the dialogue gets me. All the characters talk like 50 year old Black women. Too many old school references for young men. Everytime someone says "playing in my face " I cringe.
My thoughts exactly, but you said it better 😜
I’m not even finished reading it yet, but thus far it’s shaping up to be my least favorite Cosby novel. It’s not bad by any means it just doesn’t hit the same as his some of his previous books.
Thanks for this review. I struggled with my rating and ended up on four stars but I think part of that is the love I have in general for Cosby. I didn’t mention it in my review, but when you called his writing “simplistic,” I nodded vigorously. So many times as I read, I kept thinking, this isn’t the Cosby I know.” It was too repetitive. The figurative language felt like a crutch, not his usual excellent style. Idk what happened. Was he rushed by the publisher? Has he gotten so big that editors are shy about recommending revisions? I hope his next one feels more like his earlier books. Razorblade Tears and Blacktop Wasteland nearly killed me they were so good. Thanks again!
I was scrolling through and seeing all these wonderful reviews and I felt the same way you did. I found the story very good for the first 3rd of the book. Then I found the next large chunk of the book to be dragging and repetitive. Then I feel like the last quarter of the book everything happened like the author was in a hurry to get things wrapped up. I didn't really care for the ending either
My community. As a long time Cosby fan I was disappointed too. For one I liked the disappearing mother storyline more than the main storyline which was not convincing for me. It was just too easy. Dante had different characters which did not make sense. But overall I was not convinced that someone can just fall into a life of crime so easy. The build was not enough to convince me. I have this book a hard 3 after rating all his books solid 5. My least favorite but this is what happens when you start becoming big
All of that and I didn’t like the ending and the big reveal was a let down.
I totally agree. I did not like the massive moral decay of the characters. All of his characters have bones in the closet, but Romans quick degradation into really an awful human being was hard to believe.
The writing was choppy and it really felt weird thinking it was third person omniscient the whole time, but obviously the curveball at the end...
I also felt like he was really laying out this much more involved story and then decided that he just needed to finish it and wrapped it all up very quickly. Dante's ending was just awful.
All that being said, I will have his next book on pre-order.
I 100% agree with your review. I think I said something very similar
Thanks for your review! I felt very similar to you. This book was a 3-star (3.7) for some of the same reasons. The first book I read by Cosby was All the Sinners Bleed which was fantastic for me. This one was good but I did feel that it was more repetitive than expected. I wasn’t the biggest fan of the main character and the ending of the book didn’t wrap up smoothly.
Someone above mentioned that the missing mother element of the story was way more engaging than the actual storyline and I have to agree.
@momma lee— I really enjoyed All the Sinners Bleed as well! That one is my fave SA Cosby. Too bad this one didn’t fully work for us!
I agree fully. Im not a fan of stories where the leads wealth is integral to the plot working. Feels like an attempt at noir style narration, that didnt work.
I couldn’t agree more. I did a deep dive into the reviews looking for these comments
I agree 100%! The writing and pacing were off!!
I agree! I couldn’t root for any of the characters. Not my favorite! But I loved Razorblade Tears
I’m currently on page 66. And I couldn’t agree more. The over use of metaphors and similes… my lanta and I even said out loud “we knooow your dad built it brick by brick. We get it.” It woke my husband up lol the writing style of this book… I’m finding it hard to read.
I agree, I had started reading this book because of the past books of SA Cosby. But the addition of the gruesome violence was to much for me. It just seemed like the book was rushed and kind of thrown together. I understand that Cosby maybe wanted more realism of the subjects he was writing about, but it seemed that the violence was gratatius, and somewhat over the top and excessive.
I agree 100% with your review! I listened to the audiobook and the times I heard “Rome said” or “Nevaeh said” really threw me off. I was thinking it was just me!
Thanks for pointing out the repetitiveness! Yeah a 2.5 for me…
Couldn't agree more. Repetitive and overly long.
Totally agree!!! I thought the pacing was so off!
Agree. Currently listening and looked for this thread to see if I’m justified in my feelings.
If I hear one more time the litany regarding his mother and that the father killed her, i just can’t. Remove a third of the book for the repetition of what has happened/not
You’re 100000000% correct. This book needed an editing so bad, but it was better as an audiobook. I had the same exact experience as you. Sometimes it felt like fan fiction of The Wire 😹
I just finished and these were my thoughts as well. I didn't too much like it
Yes the overuse of similes was driving me nuts! It made the writing feel so corny
Fully agree! Felt like the plot was dragging on and it could have been wrapped up way sooner.
Well put! I got the same feeling too. This was my first book by SA Cosby so maybe I should read other books to get a fair assessment of this author.
¡En el clavo! I hated all the characters from the beginning to the end
He’s pretty heavy-handed with similes in general in my opinion. I’ve been able to mostly ignore it in previous books.
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Tiffany Foster
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Jun 21, 2025 06:11PM
Great review! I felt the same way, but you articulated the issues better than I did haha
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I’ve read all his books and agree this one fell flat in comparison. I’ve read past Cosby books in a day and this took me almost a week to get through. I agree with the repetitiveness and overuse of similes. I also noticed he referenced the wrong character in part of the book, he mentioned Dante when he was clearly talking about Roman.
Same, he paints the picture and explains the sentence right afterwards! Also the dialogue gets me. All the characters talk like 50 year old Black women. Too many old school references for young men. Everytime someone says "playing in my face " I cringe.
My thoughts exactly, but you said it better 😜
I’m not even finished reading it yet, but thus far it’s shaping up to be my least favorite Cosby novel. It’s not bad by any means it just doesn’t hit the same as his some of his previous books.
Thanks for this review. I struggled with my rating and ended up on four stars but I think part of that is the love I have in general for Cosby. I didn’t mention it in my review, but when you called his writing “simplistic,” I nodded vigorously. So many times as I read, I kept thinking, this isn’t the Cosby I know.” It was too repetitive. The figurative language felt like a crutch, not his usual excellent style. Idk what happened. Was he rushed by the publisher? Has he gotten so big that editors are shy about recommending revisions? I hope his next one feels more like his earlier books. Razorblade Tears and Blacktop Wasteland nearly killed me they were so good. Thanks again!
I was scrolling through and seeing all these wonderful reviews and I felt the same way you did. I found the story very good for the first 3rd of the book. Then I found the next large chunk of the book to be dragging and repetitive. Then I feel like the last quarter of the book everything happened like the author was in a hurry to get things wrapped up. I didn't really care for the ending either
My community. As a long time Cosby fan I was disappointed too. For one I liked the disappearing mother storyline more than the main storyline which was not convincing for me. It was just too easy. Dante had different characters which did not make sense. But overall I was not convinced that someone can just fall into a life of crime so easy. The build was not enough to convince me. I have this book a hard 3 after rating all his books solid 5. My least favorite but this is what happens when you start becoming big
All of that and I didn’t like the ending and the big reveal was a let down.
I totally agree. I did not like the massive moral decay of the characters. All of his characters have bones in the closet, but Romans quick degradation into really an awful human being was hard to believe.The writing was choppy and it really felt weird thinking it was third person omniscient the whole time, but obviously the curveball at the end...
I also felt like he was really laying out this much more involved story and then decided that he just needed to finish it and wrapped it all up very quickly. Dante's ending was just awful.
All that being said, I will have his next book on pre-order.
I 100% agree with your review. I think I said something very similar
Thanks for your review! I felt very similar to you. This book was a 3-star (3.7) for some of the same reasons. The first book I read by Cosby was All the Sinners Bleed which was fantastic for me. This one was good but I did feel that it was more repetitive than expected. I wasn’t the biggest fan of the main character and the ending of the book didn’t wrap up smoothly. Someone above mentioned that the missing mother element of the story was way more engaging than the actual storyline and I have to agree.
@momma lee— I really enjoyed All the Sinners Bleed as well! That one is my fave SA Cosby. Too bad this one didn’t fully work for us!
I agree fully. Im not a fan of stories where the leads wealth is integral to the plot working. Feels like an attempt at noir style narration, that didnt work.
I couldn’t agree more. I did a deep dive into the reviews looking for these comments
I agree 100%! The writing and pacing were off!!
I agree! I couldn’t root for any of the characters. Not my favorite! But I loved Razorblade Tears
I’m currently on page 66. And I couldn’t agree more. The over use of metaphors and similes… my lanta and I even said out loud “we knooow your dad built it brick by brick. We get it.” It woke my husband up lol the writing style of this book… I’m finding it hard to read.
I agree, I had started reading this book because of the past books of SA Cosby. But the addition of the gruesome violence was to much for me. It just seemed like the book was rushed and kind of thrown together. I understand that Cosby maybe wanted more realism of the subjects he was writing about, but it seemed that the violence was gratatius, and somewhat over the top and excessive.
I agree 100% with your review! I listened to the audiobook and the times I heard “Rome said” or “Nevaeh said” really threw me off. I was thinking it was just me!
Thanks for pointing out the repetitiveness! Yeah a 2.5 for me…
Couldn't agree more. Repetitive and overly long.
Totally agree!!! I thought the pacing was so off!
Agree. Currently listening and looked for this thread to see if I’m justified in my feelings.
If I hear one more time the litany regarding his mother and that the father killed her, i just can’t. Remove a third of the book for the repetition of what has happened/not
You’re 100000000% correct. This book needed an editing so bad, but it was better as an audiobook. I had the same exact experience as you. Sometimes it felt like fan fiction of The Wire 😹
I just finished and these were my thoughts as well. I didn't too much like it
Yes the overuse of similes was driving me nuts! It made the writing feel so corny
Fully agree! Felt like the plot was dragging on and it could have been wrapped up way sooner.
Well put! I got the same feeling too. This was my first book by SA Cosby so maybe I should read other books to get a fair assessment of this author.
¡En el clavo! I hated all the characters from the beginning to the end
He’s pretty heavy-handed with similes in general in my opinion. I’ve been able to mostly ignore it in previous books.