I enjoyed this book and liked how the characters lives intertwined as the story progresses. The multiple POV was right up my street and I really enjoyed getting to know the characters. Loved the inclusion of New York Slang and it really makes you feel like you are there, living their lives with them. Overall an easy, enjoyable read!

It’s a rare book that makes you feel like you’re in the ‘hood with the characters. That you understand their emotions and - no matter how ridiculous- their decisions. And, as a woman, that you cheer each step the women take toward personal enjoyment

I received a copy of the book from Netgalley to review. Thank you for the opportunity.
A dark and grisly drama. The reader gets sucked into the world almost immediately. The writing is good and flows well. I liked the connections between the characters and how the author interlaced this with events and built the story up in layers.
A good read.

This is a depressing, gritty and violent crime fiction which looks at just how shit people can be given their circumstances, however I loved reading it. Boyle has created a whole cast of perfectly flawed characters that you are equally loving and hating throughout the book. These people have done and continue to do terrible sordid things but there is something heartwarming and endearing running right throughout the book.
I adored how all the stories intertwined and came together towards the end. And without giving any spoilers away, it was nice to see some good prevail at the end.

In City of Margins we are introduced to a series of characters starting with Donnie Parascando, a disgraced ex-cop who works as an enforcer for loan shark Big Time Tommy. One by one, the other characters are added to form a kind of dysfunctional family tree in a predominantly Italian neighbourhood in Southern Brooklyn.

We learn very early on in the story, how one act of revenge, one wrong decision, one judgement can trigger a devastating series of events that you could never have imagined possible.

I am ashamed to say that this is the first time I have read this kind of pulp/noir crime novel. I didn’t know what to expect but I was hooked right in from the start, it was really addictive, like reading a dark and gritty soap opera.

My main preconception about the book was that I wouldn’t warm to the characters, but, despite their flaws, I found myself rooting for them, hoping their luck would turn and was genuinely interested in their stories and backgrounds.

It was the level of characterisation that really pulled me in to the story, brilliantly written, I could quite happily have carried on reading about this mixed bag of individuals indefinitely.

New York in the 1990s isn’t an easy place to live. Several people’s paths cross but fate has decided not to grant them a lucky end. Ex-cop Donnie Parascandolo saves Ava Bifulco when her car breaks down. Ava’s grown-up son and teacher Nick wonders how his mother could so easily trust a stranger when he believed her still to mourn his father’s death. Donnie’s ex-wife, on the contrary, is still mourning since she didn’t get over the suicide of their son Gabe whose suicide note is found by another lost soul, Mikey, a college dropout without any plans or future. Unexpectedly, their lives are linked, yet not only by the encounters, but also by the blood that some of them have on their hands.

“City of Margins” is a perfectly pitched genre mix. On the one hand, Boyle meticulously studies and portrays the inhabitants of Brooklyn, a borough which could hardly have been in a worse state than it was at the beginning of the 1990s. On the other hand, it is a cleverly constructed crime novel which admittedly seems a bit outdated in its style but nevertheless is quite tempting. He creates a lively and gripping atmosphere which makes it easy to enter the plot.

The most fascinating was how Boyle links the different characters. Their stories are narrated alternatingly and only slowly is revealed what connects them. None of them has an easy life, nothing is granted, the need to fight every single day, but they know that this fight will not necessarily end in better times. There is a certain melancholy quite close to a depressive mood, but sometimes, this is just how the world works.

A great read with real depth in the character development.

I really enjoyed this book. It reminds me a lot of the Tale of the City books. I enjoyed the structure of the book, how each chapter is narrated by a different character, bouncing between different POV’s and gradually revealing the threads that join these lives together. Each character has their own story and it’s slowly revealed how intertwined everyone’s lives, secrets and mistakes are. The characters are all very different and so well-written they felt real. The book is quite dark and intense at times but there are some very funny moments to ease some of the grimness.

This is a wonderful slice of Brooklyn, with all its misfits and weirdos. The characters are joyfully sketched. They felt like real people.

Feeling like a lost series of The Sopranos, re-edited using A Song Of Ice and Fire’s structure, City Of Margins’ character-led chapters throw a compelling cast into garbage-soaked situations, dragging big themes (grief, destiny) from the gutter and into the light.

This Brooklyn-based crew (some criminal, some innocent, all feel like family) feels so real you can practically smell the booze-breath in every bar-set paragraph, one character’s so violent you want to flinch from each page-turn, but they’re all so sympathetic you’ll want to buy the next round of drinks if only to help them numb their pain. Because, be warned, this is a dark book, full of melancholy, but also hope. The quiet moments have as much impact as the louder ones, making the experience akin to listening to a really good record.

So, yeah, worth your time and money - because, as City Of Margins' denizens will tell you, there are definitely worse ways to spend both.

This book didn't work for me.

It took me a while to figure out why - all the characters sound exactly the same and they are all so very eloquent.

The story is supposed to take place in a working class Brooklyn neighbourhood in the 90's but not one character uses nicknames or slang or shortened words or shortened sentences or any other verbal tic that every single person on the planet has. I should be able to look at an exchange of dialogue and know who is speaking without being told and in this book, that is impossible.