Garth Risk Hallberg is the author of the epic, memorable novel City on Fire, which was among my short list of favorites the year it was published. My thanks go to NetGalley and Alfred A. Knopf for the invitation to read and review his new novel, The Second Coming. This book is for sale now.

The story begins in New York City when Jolie, who is thirteen years old, is nearly struck by a train. Her parents are divorced, and she hasn’t seen her father in quite a while. Ethan is addicted, and his cravings make him unreliable. He makes promises he won’t keep, and Jolie has more or less given up on him, but her brush with death convinces him that she is in a darker place than her mother realizes, and that only he can save her.

Heaven help the girl!

The episode is the beginning of a twisted, bizarre odyssey. Jolie’s mother is distracted, not paying a lot of attention to her daughter, and Jolie becomes involved with a complete stranger, young man much older than herself. As a reader, I became frustrated and wanted to shake Jolie’s mama and tell her to wake up and take care of her kid. Just because they look grown at 13, doesn’t mean they are grown.

On glorious display here is Hallberg’s remarkable word smithery. The man has a gift, and he’s not afraid to use it. Portions of this book were a joy to read, simply because his prose is matchless.

For me, however, the plot and characterization of Ethan got in my way. Addicts and alcoholics in literature are becoming a trope, and I had vowed to myself to steer clear of them. I read the synopsis of this one and knew what I was walking into when I accepted the galley; I had hoped the author’s talent and skill would take a tired old plot point and make it seem new. He partially succeeded; I didn’t throw my reader across the room as soon as the addiction material appeared. But I didn’t love it the way that I loved City on Fire. Also, large portions of this are in epistolary form, from letters that Ethan writes to his daughter, and although they have been edited down considerably between the galley I read and the polished, finished result, they still got in my way.

So, this is a competent effort, but not a magical one. If you enjoy fiction with addicted characters, or if you like books about fathers and daughters, this book may be a happier experience for you than for me. However, I was expecting great things, and I came away feeling somewhat disappointed.