Review: How To Be A Vigilante by Luke Smitherd

Published: September 2016

Pages: 215

Synopsis: “In the late 1990s, a laptop was found in a service station just outside of Manchester. It contained a digital journal entitled 'TO THE FINDER: OPEN NOW TO CHANGE YOUR LIFE!' Now, for the first time, that infamous diary is being published in its entirety.

It's 1998. The internet age is still in its infancy. Google has just been founded. Eighteen-year-old supermarket shelf-stacker Nigel Carmelite has decided that he's going to become a vigilante.

There are a few problems: how is he going to even find crime to fight on the streets of Derbyshire? How will he create a superhero costume - and an arsenal of crime-fighting weaponry - on a shoestring budget? And will his history of blackouts and crippling social inadequacy affect his chances? This is Nigel's account of his journey; part diary, part deluded self-help manual, tragically comic and slowly descending into what is arguably Luke Smitherd's darkest and most violent novel.”

Rating: **

I received a free copy of How To Be A Vigilante in exchange for an honest review.

I thought this came across a bit manic as there were words emphasised in CAPITAL LETTERS and some in italics. This was however, by the very fact of it being a diary entry in which the writer intended for someone else to find it, a very good example of a piece of writing breaking the fourth wall. Breaking the fourth wall is becoming common in films (such as Deadpool) in which the character or characters know they are in a film and communicates directly with the audience. The fact that Nigel intended his diary to be found meant he was able to directly communicate with the reader, which is in contrast to usual diary writings, which are usually private with the author not intending them to be read.

I didn't warm to Nigel at all which meant I lacked a connection with the book and made it difficult to want to continue reading. My main aim for reading to the end was to hope Nigel got his comeuppance for being (in my opinion) a thoroughly horrid character.

This would appeal to people who like films which feature vigilantes, such as Kick-Ass and possibly even Deadpool, but personally wasn’t for me.