Title: Gluttony Bay (A Sin du Jour Affair #6)
Authors: Matt Wallace (Twitter)
Rating: So Funny I’m Gonna Die, So Highly Freaking Recommended
Genre/Category: Politics, Urban Fantasy, Supernatural, Food, Cannibalism
Release Date: November 7, 2017

Publisher: Tor.Com Publishing

Order Here: BARNES AND NOBLE | AMAZON (KINDLE)

I’ve been doing drunk reviews of Matt Wallace’s Sin du Jour series from the start because well…

I like drinking.

I also do it because I want to and it’s fun.

I started Gluttony Bay, the penultimate book in the series, while sober. I made it to the end of the first chapter before I straight up needed liquid courage to tackle this book. (If you’re wondering, I went with a rum-vodka-juice mix in my Homecoming glass.)

Matt’s one of my favorite authors and people. He’s writer goals to the nth power. He’s one of like five authors I feel comfortable talking to in my reviews (and then showing them to him afterwards). He’s cool as hell.

But man… Gluttony Bay had me all kinds of fucked up.

Set a while after Greedy Pigs and with many members of the wider cast returning from jail following an attempted assassination of the president of the supernatural underworld, Gluttony Bay is basically the most intense book ever and it was just… amazing and upsetting in what it meant for my favorite characters and ships. It was also some seriously quality writing.

And Gluttony Bay is one more brilliantly written and utterly devastating book in the series’ lineup.

I don’t even know where to start.

Do I start with what happened to Mr. Mirabel?

Do I start with Ritter?

Or Lena and Darren?

Or what the meat is that they serve at Gluttony Bay?

Geez.

I was doing my drunk read and review on the couch in my dorm room’s common area and at one point, I turned to my roommate who was on the other end of the couch, and was like “I think I may have to fight one of my favorite authors”.

Because I was that messed up from this book.

I guess I’ll start with Mr. Mirabel.

At first, Gluttony Bay makes you feel like things will be okay. They won’t be fine, but “okay” is good enough. The first time we see some of the Sin du Jour crew together, it’s as they prepare to welcome Mr. Mirabel and Pacific back from jail. At first, the scene is like… sort of somber but there’s this sweetness to it that is certainly helped along by Bronko and the crew’s desire to welcome them back with bomb ass Puerto Rican food. Like they clearly care, yo.

But man… Matt basically destroyed me with what happened next. Mr. Mirabel passed away offscreen, in prison. (Natural-ish causes, no worries.) And like… I bawled, man. I bawled.

I don’t handle death well and I have this… this thing about the elderly passing away (that stems from having elderly parents) so I was a mess. I was a freaking mess. Because man, Mr. Mirabel was such a chill little old guy.

And like… as if that wasn’t enough in that first chapter, Matt’s brilliant but evil behind had to end the chapter basically on the promise that the party would be the last time they all saw each other alive.

That was the point where I reached for the rumka.

Because I was already NOT OKAY.

And I knew it would only get worse.

Okay so you know how… Ritter basically kind of had to choose between his brother Marcus and Darren? And how, as a result, Darren got brainwashed and forced to attempt to kill the president of the Sceadu (like the government of the supernatural beings)?

Okay so I’m still VERY UPSET with Ritter even though I know I wouldn’t have the slightest clue where to begin if I was in his place.

Man… I just don’t know how to feel about Ritter. I said in my last review that while he’s been my book boyfriend for like two years, I think his actions in Greedy Pigs meant that we should see other people. But like… I’m almost ready for a reconciliation.

The first time we see Ritter in Gluttony Bay, it’s in a fight in New Jersey where apparently, everything is legal. It’s like supernatural MMA only it’s not televised and also Ritter fights a satyr. And wins. Which is AWESOME!

Like… from the second he reappears, I found myself wanting to give him an inch.

I don’t want to forgive Ritter and I don’t think Lena should any time soon, but man… it’s Ritter.

He’s just such a great guy/character.

And I think that Matt… Matt doesn’t make him apologize. I mean, you can’t apologize for making a choice like what Ritter did. You can’t. It’d be insincere or at least would come off as such. Matt gets it. He gets that if Ritter dared to look any member of his team in the face (but Lena in particular like…) and apologize, that they would be well within their rights to pop him one.

(Peep also when Moon has his major fuckup near the end of the book – a fuck up that will wreck you, btw. He doesn’t apologize. He’s sorry, but he has to show it via actions. And I think that as a result of the scene and the backstory it revealed, I actually found myself like… being okay with Moon for once…)

Anyway, like…

Lena.

My girl.

Look, there were several points where I feared for her life and/or immortal soul in Gluttony Bay. Several. Her run-in with Allensworth was basically the height of anxiety inducing everything. I literally freaked out like I threw my kindle folks.

Threw my dang kindle.

Because it was such an intense scene.

I think one of the things Matt is really amazing at (aside from creating characters that I would love to hang out with) is his action scenes. Like he’s out here writing scenes that feel like a movie in your mind. And the scene where Lena winds up face to face with Allensworth when she should be eating her breakfast is like… something out of this world.

(And again, folks, I need to know why there hasn’t been any buzzing about a Sin du Jour comic or film series…)

Getting back to Lena…. I think the hardest scene to read was what happens with Darren. I swear, I returned to the kindle throwing because the alternative was screaming and then scaring my roommate. I think the thing that got me about the scene was that I didn’t know what Lena would do.

I didn’t know if she’d do what Allensworth wanted or what was right.

I honestly didn’t know.

(So the thing is that Gluttony Bay is an actual-facts establishment across from Guantanamo Bay that serves humans to demons – and maybe humans – and it’s all apparently a thing the government knows about and ignores in the name of pacifying big-wigs and bigger monsters.

Picture the pigs eating everything scene in Spirited Away that I may be misremembering, but it’s even worse because they’re not pigs when they’re cooked, they’re humans.  Darren’s not one of those, but that doesn’t mean he’s off the menu and like… shit… Shit.

I can handle cannibalism in fiction. It’s kind of my thing. But the scenes Matt wrote and the callousness that the actual bad guys approached it with…

That had me all kinds of fucked up. I think I was at my most messed up because of the Gluttony Bay scenes.)

Lena… I think Lena is the biggest heroic figure in the book. Maybe in the series. Her moral compass may waver, but man… it doesn’t shift that far. I knew that from the last book when Bronko was taking her around and introducing her to what the world really looked like, that he was preparing her to follow in his footsteps and like… I think that’s where this is going.

I think that’s maybe why I’m okay with her slowly healing and working towards figuring out her relationship with Ritter. She deserves good things in her life. I mean… the fact that they’re my OTP and I desperately want them to be canon doesn’t hurt but like also… I think healing from a betrayal like that can happen. I think it should happen.

And I feel like Matt has them on the right track.

I recognize that this was more of a “stream of context” ramble spree than a review but like… I really can’t think of a better way to get my love of Matt’s world and work out than to ramble about them.

I don’t know what’s going to come next, in the final Sin du Jour book, but man… I know I’m going to need a whole lot of rumka to handle what Matt does to wrap up what is basically one of the best urban fantasy series I’ve ever read.

Please go buy Gluttony Bay.

Please.

It’s such a good book in such an excellent series.

You won’t regret it.

(Do me a favor and go preorder Taste of Wrath while you’re here because it’s going to destroy us all. I just know it. Don’t make me go through this experience alone, folks. I’ve already preordered my copy!)