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3.19 AVERAGE
3.19 AVERAGE
I'm not ashamed to admit that I did not get this book. It obviously was meant to be pieced together, with gaps to fill in yourself, but it didn't come naturally and I wasn't invested enough to put in the work. :shrug:
Starts solidly as an unnerving horror, shifts disappointingly in to a dull meditation on grief in the Midwest.
I was totally on board for the first quarter of the book and slowly came to the realization that it wasn't going to tell the story I wanted it to tell as it went on.
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
One of the weirdest books I've ever read, but also one of the most "Iowa" books I've ever read, too. He gets what it's like to live here, to go out into the fields on two-lane blacktop or dirt roads. How eerie and quiet it is. This is a book that twists and changes perspectives as the characters themselves change during the story. The layers of reality shift but it isn't a book with supernatural elements - everything has an explanation in the end. IMO, this is a bit more straightforward than Darneille's previous novel, Wolf in White Van.
Call it three and a half stars. When the power is out, it's nice to have a book to read. It's even better if its a creepy book. Universal Harvester doesn't quite live up to the creepy premise that its book jacket calls suggests, but it's an interesting meditation on loss all the same. Like Wolf in White Van, something about the author's style misses for me--like I'm missing some pieces or his point is just left of where I'm looking--but it intrigues me all the same. I'm not sure who I would recommend this to, but I did enjoy it enough to tear through it. I still want someone else to run with this premise though in some creepier directions.
A sufficiently creepy novel for October. Might not go where you want or expect it to go, but still and interesting and worthwhile read.
I don't know how to feel about this. I enjoyed it but the perspective and disjointed narrative never really clicked for me. Still, I'm happy to have read it. Also, lots of colons used.
2.5 stars. Book club book that I was literally finishing as the members of book club were assembling in my living room (technically my roommate was the book selector & host of this meeting). I struggled with this one. It just wasn't holding my interest, particularly in the latter parts. It felt like there were a couple incomplete books in here that I maybe would have enjoyed if they were separated out and completed. I enjoyed the first section of the book far more than anything that followed. The best part of the book by far was the sense of place. The rest was just not my thing.
So I'm gonna have to unpack this for a while. Probably needs a re-read. Maybe I'll check out the audiobook. Pretty unsettling, and I have little confidence in my initial impressions.
It's like if Willa Cather wrote a book about Iowa, but with VHS tapes and a weird cult. Vividly disconcerting and melancholy.
It's like if Willa Cather wrote a book about Iowa, but with VHS tapes and a weird cult. Vividly disconcerting and melancholy.