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petrange77's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
emilybryk's review against another edition
4.0
Deeply bleak and atmospheric, but not particularly propelled by much of anything. Which is too bad. It's allllllllmost there.
rebus's review against another edition
2.0
Another boring hack with an MFA who has no understanding of the world, Smith has crafted a book aiming to sell large numbers to the equally dimwitted upper middle class who can't see anything outside of their own bubble (not to mention that most violent crime is not of this type).
It's filled with far too much description of boring minutiae, repeating over and over that certain characters took drags on cigarettes or pulls of beer, because there really isn't all that much happening here (the blank pages and fancy depictions of kudzu--when he isn't turning it into something from a bad genre like magical realism to call it evil and tie it to certain characters--on virtually every chapter heading drop the page count closer to 215). The pace is brisk despite such lugubrious writing, though it may be worse when he mixes metaphors and waxes on so often about "hillsides lathered in light" instead of maintaining coherence. It also seems to come to a very sudden and quite unsatisfying conclusion. so it fails in terms of style and plot, and has a confusing mix of religious and pagan ideology sprinkled in to no effect.
Thematically, it's an Oprah book because 'Oh! The children' and it additionally takes a Reagan like tone about crime, seeming to have more sympathy for the cops who think they are boss in every small town (when they're the fascists). It's also very judgmental about the lower classes while attempting to virtue signal empathy towards them, with assumptions that that is where all crime is derived and that they should be happy with charity, using violent descriptors for their actions, while using more euphemistic terms for the violent actions of the upper classes (though there really is no discussion of how class really affects things) or those in authority.
As the great Derek Raymond once quipped through one of his characters: 'anyone who conceives of writing as an agreeable stroll towards a middle class lifestyle will never write anything but crap.' He meant that for Michael Farris Smith and nearly every writer from the last 30 some years (since they all have MFAs), which have produced no great writers and not even a handful of good ones (not to mention all of the bad genre literature). It's Stewart O'Nan for the dumb kids who didn't take college Literature classes.
It's filled with far too much description of boring minutiae, repeating over and over that certain characters took drags on cigarettes or pulls of beer, because there really isn't all that much happening here (the blank pages and fancy depictions of kudzu--when he isn't turning it into something from a bad genre like magical realism to call it evil and tie it to certain characters--on virtually every chapter heading drop the page count closer to 215). The pace is brisk despite such lugubrious writing, though it may be worse when he mixes metaphors and waxes on so often about "hillsides lathered in light" instead of maintaining coherence. It also seems to come to a very sudden and quite unsatisfying conclusion. so it fails in terms of style and plot, and has a confusing mix of religious and pagan ideology sprinkled in to no effect.
Thematically, it's an Oprah book because 'Oh! The children' and it additionally takes a Reagan like tone about crime, seeming to have more sympathy for the cops who think they are boss in every small town (when they're the fascists). It's also very judgmental about the lower classes while attempting to virtue signal empathy towards them, with assumptions that that is where all crime is derived and that they should be happy with charity, using violent descriptors for their actions, while using more euphemistic terms for the violent actions of the upper classes (though there really is no discussion of how class really affects things) or those in authority.
As the great Derek Raymond once quipped through one of his characters: 'anyone who conceives of writing as an agreeable stroll towards a middle class lifestyle will never write anything but crap.' He meant that for Michael Farris Smith and nearly every writer from the last 30 some years (since they all have MFAs), which have produced no great writers and not even a handful of good ones (not to mention all of the bad genre literature). It's Stewart O'Nan for the dumb kids who didn't take college Literature classes.
itsmarkyall's review against another edition
5.0
Every word of this book makes it feel like kudzu vines are creeping along and growing up your arms and legs until they’ve wrapped tightly around your throat and even though you can’t breathe you can’t put the book down because it’s that damn good and you gotta get to the end.
jimmypat's review against another edition
2.0
The good thing I can say about this book is that it moved at a fast clip. Otherwise, it wasn’t great. I’m not really sure what the author intended this to be. Horror? Southern gothic? Crime novel? Existential dreary modern novel? It had all of those elements but seemed really unfocused and pointless. As another reviewer noted, the prose was a clunky, self-aware version of Cormac McCarthy.
ensis's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
3.25
trishwils's review against another edition
2.0
I did not like the writing style and the whole thing was just depressing and messy.