Reviews with content warning for Death of parent - Universal Harvester

Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Universal Harvester by John Darnielle

18 reviews

mariaranger98's review

sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

I started this book to get back into reading. It’s pretty short so it’s not daunting. At the start. I was super interested and could hardly put it down. The change in perspectives helped hold the tension. However, I felt like there were some plot lines left unresolved and it was a bit anticlimactic. I still enjoyed it enough, but I probably wouldn’t re-read it. Marketing it as a horror novel is a bit misleading as well. It’s more about grief/loss of a parent.

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jterk221's review

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dark mysterious medium-paced

Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

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moonyreadsbystarlight's review against another edition

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reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.5

I read the first third or so of this a couple of years ago and stopped just because life happened. I picked up The audiobook on a whim and read it all in one night and it was quite the time.

I'm not sure that I've totally wrapped my head around the book completely. This strange story is told going between characters and between times. There were fourth wall breaks and explorations of how things may have gone differently, as well as insight on grief and memory. Thematically, there are a lot of profound things to unpack. However, if you are a plot person, you will come out of it far more unsettled that I am. There are a lot of everyday "plotless" points in order to (in theory) discover what is behind the mystery of the tapes.

I feel like this is one I'm going to have to process and maybe reread to totally get it (and there were enough compelling bits that I would like to). I had an interesting time with it nonetheless.

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kessejeen's review

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adventurous dark emotional slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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judassilver's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

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readthesparrow's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

I have... complex feelings about this book.

It was labeled as horror on the library's site, and after reading through the description, I assumed the same. It's not horror, though. No, certainly not.

I do love the story, and I'm very glad I listened to it. It's got some very interesting ruminations on grief, memory, and loss, particularly in a small town context. I liked all the characters (except

the new family at the end--not that I disliked them, but more so that they were part of an unsatisfactory end

), especially as they all felt deeply, deeply real. Of the issues I have with this novel, character writing was not one of them.

My issue is that the narrative holds onto revealing *anything* about Lisa and the truth of the tapes for so long that it becomes tiresome. I was so ready for things to wrap up at the end of section two, but was more than a little annoyed to see that there was still an hour and a half left, then even more annoyed when there was a jump to the future with a whole new family of people.

Yes, this time skip is narratively thematic, and yes, it does have some interesting stuff on the theme of loss and remembrance.

But those final act reveals come via an infodump by Lisa which reveals she's been the (possibly part time?) narrator all along. Instead of getting to discover this conclusion alongside Jeremy--or even get to experience what he experiences during the farmhouse interrogation--we are randomly ripped to another time, painstakingly introduced to four new people, those four new people find the tapes and figure out a little about them. We get to see what happened to Jeremy, which for some reason comes now, not earlier. Then the new guys wander offstage while Lisa mops the story up all clean in a final narration that reveals that the tapes were of a cult deprogramming.

I want to like this book. I loved the prose and the characters, and it hits a lot of themes/topics I love;

small towns, religion/cults of personality, complex but deeply loving family dynamics, VHS and found footage, and loss and grief

. But the narrative's tendency to skirt around actually telling the story was growing to overstay its welcome at about 70%. Events (such as

the Jeremy tape

and anything new about the actual content of the tapes) were not shown to to the reader for no discernible reason other than an attempt at mystery, which is a risky move and was not executed well here.

The summary focuses pretty hard on the weird spliced footage moment. While that is the spark that begins the novel, and the footage is a thorough line of the novel, that creepy footage is not the main focus of the novel at all, even when it is the primary plot point on the page.

Also, it was a little hard to follow at times. But that is likely because I was listening on audiobook (which I would actually recommend; it's read by the author, who has a lovely voice).

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necroplasm's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

all i can really say about this book is that it's definitely the kind of story you'd expect to see from the guy that wrote no children! i wasn't expecting it to be Like That going into it and i wasn't really prepared for all that but it's a great read if you want to feel sad and have a slight existential crisis 👍

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mikkitooloud's review

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challenging emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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retswerb's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No

4.25

If you’re looking for a horror book, Universal Harvester probably wont scratch that itch. It’s creepy, and there’s a bit of a mystery, but it’s really about people and a place and grief and relationships - observed by someone who loves that place and respects those people and their griefs and understands their relationships. Darnielle’s authorial voice is bound to be polarizing; I found it riveting. This one will stick with me for a bit.

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atiek's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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