Blood Father (2006) Book Review

Verdict
4

Summary

Blood Father is an easy read with some great characters and the odd exciting action set-piece; the ending lets the story down though and I really hope they tweak it for the movie. Definitely worth a read though.

Plot: Lydia Carson, age 17, has managed to get herself mixed up with the wrong people: her boyfriend, an older man, is obviously not on the right side of the law. When he takes her along on a job and then insists that Lydia shoot someone (as a character-building exercise), Lydia does exactly that–but instead of the intended victim, she shoots her boyfriend. Now, on the run from his colleagues (cohorts?), she turns to the only person who can help: her long-estranged father, newly sprung from prison and trying to turn his life around. Unfortunately, the only way to protect his daughter is to plunge right back into his old life.

Review: We seem to always be discussing the upcoming movie adaptation of Blood Father and no release date has yet been confirmed but it’s looking likely that it will now be released in 2016.

To tide me over I thought I would read the original novel to get an idea of the story; it’s actually quite different to what you may be expecting and isn’t the Taken-esque tale we originally thought.

It’s very much a tale of family, especially the relationship between a daughter and her estranged father Link (Mel Gibson in the film).

The character of Link is almost more of a side character and it’s really about Lydia, the screw up daughter of Link who calls him for help after she shoots her drug-dealer boyfriend Jonah.

We get flashbacks into how Lydia and Jonah meet and it’s very much a character piece; she is quite difficult to root for as she is so messed up but that’s the whole point of the story.

Link is suitably badass and he has a few cool action sequences but there are also some nice scenes as he tries to reconnect with his daughter and we find out more about his past, the time he spent in prison and even some of the people he’s killed. Despite this he was a vulnerable side and I can totally picture Gibson playing him perfectly.

There are some nice twists and turns to the story and the characters are certainly memorable but the only thing is the ending is rather flat. I’m hoping they make it a bit more cinematic and exciting for the movie as I found it incredibly unsatisfactory.

Author Peter Craig paints some exciting action scenes and his use of language captures LA life perfectly. From the pushers, to even small characters they all feel like real people and the story has moments of nail biting tension.

Sadly there are no bar fights or massive punch ups to speak of so hopefully they change that up for the movie as well.

Overall, Blood Father is an easy read with some great characters and the odd exciting action set-piece; the ending lets the story down though and I really hope they tweak it for the movie. Definitely worth a read though.