I'm not especially enamored of "Nailbiter", but I always get a kick out of Hack/Slash and this hardback collection and crossover certainly looked intriguing. It collects "Nailbiter" Issues 21 through 30, (which are also available as a two trade paperbacks series, "Bound by Blood" and "The Bloody Truth"). These are the final Nailbiter story arcs, and they appear to close out the series. We open with a brief Hack/Slash run-in with Nailbiter, and I thought this was a prologue sample. Turns out that opening quickie is the only appearance of Hack/Slash, so the whole crossover Hack/Slash promo is misleading.
This far into the series the Nailbiter premise is getting pretty stretched. I get it that it's odd to have at least sixteen over-the-top serial killers all come from one little town. But to have the police chief of that town trying to figure out why, and to have all the townspeople sitting around arguing about whether it's because of a curse, or water pollution, or aliens, or a secret government project, just feels like a parody. As this story develops it looks like we're going to focus on the "Butcher", who may be some super-serial-killer who's behind it all, and we're going to focus on Alice, Nailbiter's daughter. That was fine by me because it gave the tale some focus. And darn it, once we got two issues in I was hooked. This series may be odd, and it may feel like it shouldn't work, and it may be uneven, and it may be randomly plotted, but it is somehow addictive.
NO MORE EVEN MILD SPOILERS, except to say that all of the threads get tied up in terms of where the characters are at the end. Big questions are all answered and any other problems or questions get the "then everyone was hit by a bus" treatment. Given the wacky plot gyrations throughout the book I guess the resolutions they came up with were the best that could be expected.
For newbies this might feel like too far into the series to be starting. But, it's actually O.K.. There's a lot of subtle monologuing that will bring you up to speed without it feeling like there's a bunch of info dumps, but just to be safe there are also a lot of final info dumps and some serious villain monologuing. There are lots of references to other characters, many of whom are dead by this point, but the context gives you enough info to follow what's happening and you gradually get caught up.
So, I came for the Hack/Slash and I stayed for the Nailbiter. This is a long read, and I pretty much feel like I've satisfied my funny-gory-violence requirement for the year.
(Please note that I had a chance to read a free ecopy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)
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Amazon Customer
Cool concept, great story, nailed it
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 19, 2019