Chuck Gross would like nothing more than to prune himself from his family tree. He's already clipped his name, turning Charles Grossheart, Jr.--son of a billionaire labor exploiter, weapons manufacturer, and climate change denier--into ordinary good-guy Chuck, the "self-made" proprietor of an up-and-coming punk label. But when Daddy threatens to cut him off, Chuck is forced to get a "real job"—and conveniently, an old college friend has just swept back into his life with the perfect opportunity. Famed Harvard dropout and biotech darling Olivia Watts says she is on the verge of totally reinventing the field of medicine, but when Chuck signs on, he soon discovers that things at the vast Kenosis campus are not quite how they appear. Secret labs, vanished employees, and mutated test subjects seem to be as impossible as they are sinister. Is Olivia simply a scammer, or does her technology threaten to usher humanity toward a far bloodier fate?
As metaphors go, this is, admittedly, not too original ... But Hornsby brings a sharp wit to this worn crypt ... Silicon Valley’s shamans and charlatans regularly speak with such an astonishing blend of vanity, inanity and obliviousness that there isn’t much left for an enterprising satirist to add, but Hornsby’s descriptions frequently draw blood ... What really keeps Sucker airborne, though, is how it spreads its wings to embrace the whole nefarious network of super-rich fiends who hang in the shadows and drain ordinary people dry.
Sucker is his chance to branch out into macabre comedy and crime capers. In truth, there’s a feeling of forced wackiness to the writing, which is mottled with inelegant variations ... Increasing the silliness is a Gothic plot twist foreshadowed by a dripping fang on the cover art. Even so, the author has found a thoroughly entertaining guide to such nonsense in Charles, a dim but likable man-child born with a silver spoon in his mouth.
