Book, I am very upset with you. Your meager 407 are the longest 407 pages I've ever read. Ever. Even "1001 Nights" wasn't that long when I read it last. 

If it wasn't for the empty banter between the characters and the small pockets of cute nothingness or dull brooding or any other unnecessary details that can be easily done outside of the book (like little ficlets), the whole reading experience would have been much more pleasant.

Rest in peace now. I am glad I am finally free of you.

PS
It's not a bad story, just the way it's told that didn't agree with me.

I absolutely blew through Bernstein's Episodes of Violence. I literally couldn't put it down. There was just something about this tale that sickened me and rocked me to my core. After taking some time between finishing it and writing this review, I believe it's simply that the story of these teenage losers going around and systematically killing for fun felt way too real. We all know kids like this. No, not necessarily first-hand knowledge that the scumbags across the street are offing random people. It's more like that you could see these kids fly under the radar because people don't necessarily notice them. They're undesirables, loners, not someone that the masses pay attention to. Bernstein uses this to his advantage and paints a picture that hits a little too close to home. A little too real. A little too believable. That's the beauty of Episodes of Violence. Be prepared to be uncomfortable when you read EoV. Be prepared to look at your neighbor kids across the street with a little more scrutiny. Are they just a bunch of misfit potheads that raise a little hell or is there more too them? You might want to make sure the doors are locked, just to be on the safe side.

5 Bashed Mailboxes out of 5

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This was a great book until the last 25% or so. 

Extra points for excellent russian here and there, tho I still can't figure out why stupid typos were left untouched. "Pecherskaya" was spelled "Pe r cherskaya" literally half the time. No matter the language, it's an annoyance. "The band was called "Gryaznykh Angelov"...". Say what? @.@ A minor mistake, sure, but on top of interchangeable peRcherskaya it screamed "I don't really care. they won't get it anyway.", not to mention the name is such a cliche. What else... "'mu'dak' means 'asshole'". Sure if "asshole" means "meany". Let's be nice, I guess. So, that was the minor stuff.

My major complaint - and it's me, probbly, since I like sex in my books in very moderate amounts - is that the last 20% turned into pure porn. I really don't care who topped whom in the end, how many times and how sticky the stickiness got. Both characters, especially Zak, were crazed enough on sex from the very beginning, but by the end the lust came out full force without MCs surfacing for air for 20% straight. I lost all interest in the book and going to DNF it at 93%.

That leaves me with - what? 75% is pure awesomeness, save for the typos. I can easily dish out 5 and more shiny stars. The last 25% tho? A star and a half maybe.

Good luck following the story. It makes no sense whatsoever.

Skip it, don't waste your time.

I tried, I really really tried :/

I made it to 60% (barely) and it was either me or the book. Guess who had to go.

Originally I gave this book 1.75 stars. Let me correct that now. Book, you're demoted. 1 star. I was bored to tears by the pity fest and the long lists of who did what and where and only sometimes how they felt while doing it.

PS
A warning: brush up on your French and German before you read this book.

I dislike the use of foreign languages without translation immensely, no matter if I know the language or not. It's disruptive and annoying. Worse, if the author gets the foreign language wrong.

But I get it, Johann is Austrian, he is a foreign element in this book, so it's OK for him to speak German, I guess.

Conny, tho? WTF? He is French. We know he speaks French even if it's written in English, cause - obvious reasons. So why does he switch from his (English) French and to (French) French within one paragraph? I know why - to annoy the crap out of us :(