Books like Something from the Nightside

Our first mention of the Nightside is (in my paperback edition) on page's 10 and 11 where we learn that, "The Nightside is the secret, hidden, dark heart of the city. London's evil twin. It's where the really wild things are." From that point on, Green continues to write the phrase the Nightside on nearly every single page, often accompanied by a lengthy description of the horrors one will find in the Nightside. For example, p.12 I considered the matter. How much, to go back into the Nightside?p.13 ...compared to what was waiting for me back in the Nightside, her anger, and implied threats were nothing.p.14 You know the Nightside.p.15 Let me tell you about the Nightside...The Nightside is a square mile of city streets and back alleys in the centre of the city, linking slums and tenements that were old when the last century was new...In practice, the Nightside is much bigger than that...there are those who say the Nightside is actually bigger than the city that surrounds it...It's always night in the Nightside...You can buy or sell anything in the Nightside...p.16 You can find anything in the Nightside, if it doesn't find you first.p.19 My name is John Taylor. Everyone in the Nightside knows that name...so there I was, going back again, back to the Nightside...p.20 I left the Nightside five years ago, fleeing imminent death and the betrayal of friends, and swore through blood-flecked lips that I'd never go back, no matter what.p.21 I used to be a dangerous man, even for the Nightside...p.22 My closest female friend is a bounty hunter, who operates exclusively in the Nightside...I'm more than just another private detective, in the Nightside...All routes lead to the Nightside.p.27 Anyone can walk down the wrong street, open the wrong door, and end up in the Nightside. Most of them don't last long, though. London and the Nightside have rubbed up against each other for so long now that the barriers are getting dangerously thin. Someday they'll all come crashing down, and all the poison in the Nightside will come spilling out...p.28 There are more worlds than we know, or would wish to know, and most of them send people through the Nightside sooner or later.p.30 Something new has come into the Nightside p.31 We have to travel through strange, harsh, places to reach the Nightside. Dangerous and unnatural places, that would blast the sight from your eyes and the reason from your mind.p.34 There are a great many mysteries in the Nightside, and much against my will, I'm one of themp.36 The only thing that moves faster than the speed of light is gossip in the Nightside.p.37 Many of the sleek and gleaming vehicles darting through the Nightside had to be new to Joanna...Taxis that ran on debased holy water, limousines that ran on fresh blood, ambulances that ran on distilled suffering. You can turn a profit from anything, in the Nightside. p.38 I've never been sure whether the moon really is bigger in the Nightside, or whether it's just closer...There were wonders and marvels to be found in the Nightside, sights and glories to be savoured and clutched to your heart forever...the Nightside is really just like...the city streets we walk in dreams and nightmares.p.39 'Welcome to the Nightside,' I said, smiling. 'Abandon all taste, ye who enter here.'..She gave me a hard look. 'I can never tell when you're joking.''Neither can I sometimes, in the Nightside. It's that kind of place. Life, death, and reality are all flexible concepts here.' ENOUGH! I made it through 78 pages before giving up. Even if Simon Green didn't tell, rather than show... and even if his characters were well written... and even if this story is perhaps much spookier in his head than it is in the actual writing of it.... I am freaking sick to death of reading the phrase, THE NIGHTSIDE ~ let alone the multiple descriptions of it on every single page. Normally I am not an advocate of violence, but something really needs to be done about the person who let this book be published in its current state. Even though the protagonist was frequently referred to by his full name, John Taylor ~ and even though that name (as always) brings me blissful images of my favorite sexy bass player ~ that still wasn't enough to rescue this horrid book. Ugh. Let me go listen to some Duran Duran, remember the good John Taylor and get this back to the library ASAP.