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rocketiza's review
5.0
A incredibly powerful writer, with a dark sense of humor. Highly recommend this collection of short stories.
craftyscene's review against another edition
1.0
No conclusions to any of the stories! Not one! Made me crazyyy good concepts and all the "makings" of a good fictional story were there, but that was it. He leaves the reader hanging, but not in a positive way.
linzer712's review against another edition
4.0
Such great characters from such dissparate places. My only problem was some of the ending left me hanging, wanting more.
pearloz's review against another edition
5.0
Excruciatingly well-written. WT is a great writer, b/c the stories (short on "story") are full, the characters are always well developed, the settings are perfectly and efficiently evoked and the dialogue is always natural and believable. Just...all around great, what a craftsman.
labtracks's review against another edition
1.0
Remember when I wrote, probably not even two months ago, that I'm not a fan of short stories.... well that hasn't changed and this book is no exception to my "I don't like short stories" mantra.
Not much else to say here. Not one of these stories really moved me. No character gained my like, or dislike for that matter. The whole book was pretty much a pile of indifferent.
Not much else to say here. Not one of these stories really moved me. No character gained my like, or dislike for that matter. The whole book was pretty much a pile of indifferent.
ashleykmarty's review against another edition
5.0
I remember stumbling upon a Wells Tower short story in a best southern short stories collection one night and loving it so much that the next day I spent my entire lunch hour at a bookstore with this book. Definitely worth it. His writing is sharp, even when it's not driving the plot. It makes you want to read it over and over. Also recommend his nonfiction (often in GQ, The Believer and occasionally the NYT).
dcmr's review against another edition
2.0
I don't get what all the buzz is about. This did not move me at all. But I'm not a Raymond Carver fan either.
aemkea's review
3.0
It was well written! The short stories are just not my cup of tea. I'm more of a high-flying fantasy adventure type of girl. But, well worth a free read! :)
ben_miller's review against another edition
3.0
"Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned" improves as it goes along, starting out with 4 wretched stories before finding its feet with "Leopard" and achieving mixed success until the final story, the title story, which is the crowning achievement of this collection.
The writing here is mostly serviceable, and ranges from the very bad to the very good. Someone tell Wells Tower to never again write about divorced men who drink too much, because he ends up with a Raymond Carver story minus the clever, simple plotting and the irrepressibly engaging voice. In other words, he ends up with a bad Raymond Carver story. When he writes about children and teenagers and Vikings, something comes alive in the prose that is dead elsewhere - he abandons the flat sarcasm and the sharp jokes which consistently fail to amuse and produces something more honest and affecting.
Towers' sense of story structure is bizarre throughout. Rather than using his inventory and bringing the business of the story to a conclusion, he consistently drops threads in order to pick up other ones, never returning to the original story. I have no doubt that he's doing this on purpose, but I do doubt its effectiveness. He allows the stories to go sideways, to take unexpected paths, as good stories should. However, some of these pieces feel like watching 20 minutes out of the middle of a movie - they don't end, they just stop. It would be a worse sin for him to tie each story up in a little bow, but still, these stories are mostly unresolved. In fact, in a number of them it feels to me as though the central business of the story, the key scene, never even happens.
There's plenty in this book to indicate that Wells Tower could go on to write something really good, but this isn't it.
The writing here is mostly serviceable, and ranges from the very bad to the very good. Someone tell Wells Tower to never again write about divorced men who drink too much, because he ends up with a Raymond Carver story minus the clever, simple plotting and the irrepressibly engaging voice. In other words, he ends up with a bad Raymond Carver story. When he writes about children and teenagers and Vikings, something comes alive in the prose that is dead elsewhere - he abandons the flat sarcasm and the sharp jokes which consistently fail to amuse and produces something more honest and affecting.
Towers' sense of story structure is bizarre throughout. Rather than using his inventory and bringing the business of the story to a conclusion, he consistently drops threads in order to pick up other ones, never returning to the original story. I have no doubt that he's doing this on purpose, but I do doubt its effectiveness. He allows the stories to go sideways, to take unexpected paths, as good stories should. However, some of these pieces feel like watching 20 minutes out of the middle of a movie - they don't end, they just stop. It would be a worse sin for him to tie each story up in a little bow, but still, these stories are mostly unresolved. In fact, in a number of them it feels to me as though the central business of the story, the key scene, never even happens.
There's plenty in this book to indicate that Wells Tower could go on to write something really good, but this isn't it.