Books Read

Property Values

Property ValuesProperty Values by Charles Demers
Published: 2018
Length: 176 pages

This takes place mainly in Vancouver, and I don’t often read novels that are set anywhere near me, so this was a treat in that regard. I was excited to see that the first chapter took place in my hometown, Kamloops. I think the only other time I’ve seen it mentioned in a book was in the introduction to The Best of Robert Service, as he lived there briefly. The characters described the town as redneck buttfuck nowhere, which I think is fair.

Scott Clark has broken up with his girlfriend and is currently living alone in the house they shared. It’s his childhood home, which he bought with the help of his former father-in-law, and he either needs to sell the house or buy his girlfriend’s dad out. He feels like the house is his only connection to his dead mother and refuses to sell, so the only option is to buy out. Vancouver, for those who don’t know, is going through a housing crisis at the moment, with skyrocketing property values, and there’s currently no way he can afford to do this. He decides that he needs to find a way to lower the value of the property and doing so eventually places him in the middle of a gang war.

This was a fun read, but the plot and characters were a bit silly. I found myself really liking the dynamic of the core friend group by the end of the novel, although the individual characters did feel woefully underdeveloped. Their actions, as well as the overall plot, seemed disconnected from reality. If you ignored that, and just went with the flow of the story, it was enjoyable and quite funny. Charles Demers is a stand-up comedian, and that humour did come through in the quick dialogue.

3.5/5
A quick comedic nerd-turned-gangster story set in Vancouver. It’s a fun read, and I’ll consider his other books.

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