The notion of having to play thousands for a cure is terrifying enough. But imagine being part of a subculture that is considered anti-establishment and seeing such developments encroaching on people’s way of life. You have to make a stand.
Which is what Jim Ruland has done with Make It Stop, his first novel since 2014’s Forest of Fortune, although writing for Razorcake and authoring books on Keith Morris, Bad Religion and SST Records have certainly been time well spent.
Described in the press notes as “A speculative tale of dysfunctional vigilantes and corporate healthcare run amok…”, it focuses on Make It Stop, a group of skilled addicts (of whom Vinnie, Melanie, and Trevor start us on the journey) who have taken it upon themselves by rescuing those trapped in prison hospitals due to new policies that allow many detox and rehab centres across California to force patients to stay until they pay off their bills. However, a few operations go badly wrong, leaving senior MIS members with the suspicion that there is an informer operating amongst them. But when Bliss, a new drug is introduced, it’s war on the fjords.
With a plot that straddles a fine line between ‘bleak speculation’ and ‘reality’ (the notion of sport teams being taken over and renamed after pharmaceutical brands), the characters have to come to life to help give these dire predictions a fantastical and engrossing element for the reader to latch onto. Melanie is the type of heroine who is great at her job but can wallow in self-pity (even speculating how her own cat prefers her neighbour over her), and knows it all too well:
As she sits down, she can feel the pity party descending on her, self-loathing being her go-to move in moments of emotional intensity. Her mother was the same way. The way of the lush. She’d learned it from her. Even though she knows getting all woe is me isn’t going to change anything, she can’t help but go there because that’s where she lives.
With these little touches, Ruland does a great job in presenting her as a flawed but capable character who will hold the attention of the reader throughout.
Ruland’s prose is generally utilitarian, but he has a knack for describing characters in such a way that makes the reader understand that the world in which the novel exists is one that denies character, hence the need to ensure that we (as readers) understand the contrast between the bland world and the rich individuals. Take this introduction to Trevor as one such example:
It’s been three years, nine months, and twenty-four days since he’d chewed up three hundred milligrams of OxyContin, chased it with a pint of rum, and waited to die. Trevor woke up in a hospital in restraints, hooked up to all kind of tubes. For three days the lights burned through his eyelids while the voices of his deceased father and missing mother drifted through his head and he truly wished he was dead.
Infused with the anger and positivity that punk rock can offer, Make It Stop is both an excellent comic book style romp and a frightening look at what, potentially, lies ahead.
Jim Rutland, 2023, Make It Stop. Rare Bird Books, ISBN-13: 978-1644283035
🕮 Christopher Owens was a reviewer for Metal Ireland and finds time to study the history and inherent contradictions of Ireland. He is currently the TPQ Friday columnist and author of A Vortex Of Securocrats.
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