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opheliabedilia's review against another edition
2.0
I almost hated this book. A friend said it's like ADD in print, and that's true, but it's worse than that.
1. A hint to writers: if you're going to make your narrator a professional writer, he needs to be able to write. With sentences and coherent thoughts and those kinds of things. For an example of how this is done, see Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl. If your narrator is going to write with ridiculous sentence fragments and no sense of plot or timing or anything useful, say he's anything but a professional writer.
2. Um, what? What just happened? What time are you recalling now? Who the heck is this person? Where are we... Wait now we're here? With whom? And what year are you suddenly telling me about? What the hell did that last sentence mean? These were my thoughts during the first chapter. And all 10 chapters that followed. Repeat what I just wrote 100 times in your head and you've experienced reading this book. I don't think I've ever actually rolled my eyes while reading. Before this.
3. I read all 250 pages, and I have only some idea what happened. I was counting on it coming clear at the end. Which was silly, given that nothing is clear ever in the rest of the book. I admit that I'm not always the most astute reader, and rarely the first to figure out the culprit in a mystery. But I am intelligent enough that I usually know what happened after I've read the whole thing, for goodness sake.
The author is good at one thing, which is creating a place. Rural Texas was essentially one of the characters in this book, and possibly the only well written one.
1. A hint to writers: if you're going to make your narrator a professional writer, he needs to be able to write. With sentences and coherent thoughts and those kinds of things. For an example of how this is done, see Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl. If your narrator is going to write with ridiculous sentence fragments and no sense of plot or timing or anything useful, say he's anything but a professional writer.
2. Um, what? What just happened? What time are you recalling now? Who the heck is this person? Where are we... Wait now we're here? With whom? And what year are you suddenly telling me about? What the hell did that last sentence mean? These were my thoughts during the first chapter. And all 10 chapters that followed. Repeat what I just wrote 100 times in your head and you've experienced reading this book. I don't think I've ever actually rolled my eyes while reading. Before this.
3. I read all 250 pages, and I have only some idea what happened. I was counting on it coming clear at the end. Which was silly, given that nothing is clear ever in the rest of the book. I admit that I'm not always the most astute reader, and rarely the first to figure out the culprit in a mystery. But I am intelligent enough that I usually know what happened after I've read the whole thing, for goodness sake.
The author is good at one thing, which is creating a place. Rural Texas was essentially one of the characters in this book, and possibly the only well written one.
andy5185's review against another edition
5.0
This was written with such personality and was so real. Stephen Graham Jones is quickly becoming a favorite writer of mine.
bookwyrm55's review against another edition
5.0
There is so much to unpack in this book. Author Stephen Graham Jones takes readers back to his childhood, to a dusty Texas town where lives are lived one cotton module to the next, where famliies have been living and loving and lying to and about one another for generations. Parts of this are the results of conversations with people he has not seen in a very long time, talking about a mysterious fire that brought several deaths to the community... but even in those parts, it's about so much more.
There's a thing about Jones' writing that is on full display here, that is wonderful. He takes you into his head. He writes, thinks twice about things, seques into memories and back and it's not at all like fiction. It's like you are sitting around a fire somewhere, sipping something strong, and listening, as he tells a story. His voice is so strong it replaces the story with images that start to feel like your own memories.
This is very, very good book. It fits in between the cracks of genres, but stitches them together with a blunt needle and thick thread, letting the characters, thoughts and memories slip through the seams to other places. Mystery, memoir, alternate or corrected history? All of that.
Very highly recommended.
There's a thing about Jones' writing that is on full display here, that is wonderful. He takes you into his head. He writes, thinks twice about things, seques into memories and back and it's not at all like fiction. It's like you are sitting around a fire somewhere, sipping something strong, and listening, as he tells a story. His voice is so strong it replaces the story with images that start to feel like your own memories.
This is very, very good book. It fits in between the cracks of genres, but stitches them together with a blunt needle and thick thread, letting the characters, thoughts and memories slip through the seams to other places. Mystery, memoir, alternate or corrected history? All of that.
Very highly recommended.
paperback_heart's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
anna_hepworth's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
I struggled reading this, because I found it difficult to keep the cast of characters separate, and I wasn't every quite sure which bits were 'truth' and which were conjecture, or even which parts were past and which present. Made worse by bits suddenly rambling into other bits of past to add context.
Once i declared (about halfway through) that I wasn't going to try and remember who was who or how they all related--I felt a bit like the character with dementia who confused the son and the grandson--and just experience the writing it was much better.
There are a lot of moving parts, multiple crimes and deaths and 'who is to blame' threads. Felt more like listening to a bunch of people gossip about people I'd never met.
Once i declared (about halfway through) that I wasn't going to try and remember who was who or how they all related--I felt a bit like the character with dementia who confused the son and the grandson--and just experience the writing it was much better.
There are a lot of moving parts, multiple crimes and deaths and 'who is to blame' threads. Felt more like listening to a bunch of people gossip about people I'd never met.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death and Suicide
Minor: Child abuse, Sexual assault, and War
sofipitch's review against another edition
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
3.75
Stephen Graham Jones I love you but what did I just read?
This book was told not chronologically, often flitting between events and a large cast of characters that it was pretty difficult to follow. And sometimes just boring bc I had forgotten how what I'm hearing now fits into the bigger picture. A lot of reviews say not to listen to this as an audiobook, you need it physically in front of you so you can underline or make notes. But the thing is I'm not sure the plot is quite interesting enough to warrant that much work
It's a challenging read but Jones has such excellent prose that pulls it out of being a slog. I didn't expect the genre to be southern gothic but it 100% was and that aspect I thoroughly enjoyed. Overall just very mixed feelings about this one
This book was told not chronologically, often flitting between events and a large cast of characters that it was pretty difficult to follow. And sometimes just boring bc I had forgotten how what I'm hearing now fits into the bigger picture. A lot of reviews say not to listen to this as an audiobook, you need it physically in front of you so you can underline or make notes. But the thing is I'm not sure the plot is quite interesting enough to warrant that much work
It's a challenging read but Jones has such excellent prose that pulls it out of being a slog. I didn't expect the genre to be southern gothic but it 100% was and that aspect I thoroughly enjoyed. Overall just very mixed feelings about this one
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Gore, and Animal cruelty
michaellouisdixon's review against another edition
4.0
Stephen Graham Jones writes a poignant memoir about growing up in West Texas. It's part mystery, part tragedy, and part comedy. It's an exploration into the wounded hearts that beat in the families of a small community.
MLD
MLD
breadandmushrooms's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
nancywif's review against another edition
5.0
Even though I have never been to West Texas I feel like I've been there now after reading this book. The writing was so vivid that when he talks about the fire, I could smell it and taste it. When I first finished the book I couldn't decide whether or not to give it a 4 or 5, but since I'm still thinking about it hours later I decided that it was a 5. It is also a book I think I could read again and again and I would discover new things each time. Anyone who loves great writing will enjoy reading this book.