Meatworks

Desmond Poole is damaged in more ways than one. If he was an underachiever before, he�s entirely useless now that he�s lost his right hand. He spends his time drowning his sorrows in vodka while he deliberately blows off the training that would help him master his new prosthetic. Social Services seems determined to try and stop him from wallowing in his own filth, so he�s forced to attend an amputee support group. He expects nothing more than stale cookies, tepid decaf and a bunch of self-pitying sob stories, so he�s blindsided when a fellow amputee catches his eye. Corey Steiner is a hot young rudeboy who works his robotic limb like an extension of his own body, and he�s smitten by Desmond�s crusty punk rock charm from the get-go. Unfortunately, Desmond hasn�t quite severed ties with his ex-boyfriend, and Corey isn�t known for his maturity or patience. Meatworks is set in a bleak near-future where cell phone and personal computer technologies never developed. In their place, robotics flourished. Now robots run everything from cars to coffee pots. Taking the guesswork out of menial tasks was intended to create leisure time, but instead robots have made society dependent and passive. Desmond loathes robots and goes out of his way to avoid them. But can he survive without the robotic arm strapped to the end of his stump? Review Desmond was a man who never once expected to be liked, let alone loved, and it was this fractured humanity that made him all the more likeable to me. Let me be very clear: Meatworks is not a romance. In fact, to say the book has a happy ending would be stretching the definition of the word happy to mean something along the lines of I'll try my best not to FUBAR on this one, baby . - The Novel Approach This is not a warm and fuzzy or touchy feely sort of book. So grab your vodka and punk/post-punk playlists and settle in. - Saucy Wenches Book Club