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3.26 AVERAGE
3.26 AVERAGE
I probably wouldn’t have hung in there if it wasn’t an audiobook. The repetition and leeeeennnngth of it was tough, but Malerman is such a good writer, I wanted to know what happened and I settled into a slower, character-driven narrative. People facing their demons.
SPOILER QUESTION…
…..
…..
…..
So… Moxey killed Dwight with the strings on the pistols which I’m assuming is how he did his “magic trick”? So… he somehow attached a string to a different pistol to the other guy in the duel? How???
SPOILER QUESTION…
…..
…..
…..
So… Moxey killed Dwight with the strings on the pistols which I’m assuming is how he did his “magic trick”? So… he somehow attached a string to a different pistol to the other guy in the duel? How???
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This is the second Malerman novel I've read, and I am officially a huge fan. It's much different from Bird Box, my first experience with his work, but in its own way it's equally creepy, and definitely equally fascinating. This one is the story of Carol Evers, a wealthy and influential woman living in a town located in a western-era town, but this western era is a little different from our usual understanding of the west... there are some elements of mystery and magic. Also, Carol has a dark secret that is only known by 2 people. Her secret is that she suffers from an odd medical condition... she has "died" numerous times throughout her life. These small deaths are actually comas which for all practical purposes are indistinguishable from death. They generally last a few days, and while she's "dead" she can't speak or move, but can hear what's going on around her. The only two people alive who know her secret are her former lover, the mysterious outlaw James Moxie, and her husband Dwight. The problem is that since the other two people with knowledge of the condition (her mother and her gay friend John) have died, Dwight has decided to snatch her fortune by having her buried alive. When Moxie learns of the plot, he races against time to travel from the opposite end of "the Trail" that connects their hometowns to show up in time to stop the burial. At the same time, Carol is struggling to overcome the restraints of her coma in order to save herself.
This story starts off running and never stops. It's a masterful blend of horror, magic, and redemption that kept me enthralled from the first page to the last.
This story starts off running and never stops. It's a masterful blend of horror, magic, and redemption that kept me enthralled from the first page to the last.
A curiously beautiful gothic western from the author of Bird Box. Themes of love, fury, identity and time play out in a slightly surreal wild west landscape.
A woman with an illness that puts her in a coma while she is still aware. A husband who plots to bury her alive for control of her inheritance. An outlaw who has two days to rescue a woman he loved twenty years before and a killer hired make sure he doesn't arrive.
Though suspenseful and more than a little violent, Unbury Carol is strangely lyrical and poetic. There's a rich romanticism buried beneath tales of violence and revenge. The mythology of the west is explored in fantastical elegy punctuated by moments of visceral finality. Comparisons to Cormac McCarthy, Flannery O'Connor and Poe seem surprisingly apt. Malerman is a gifted writer whose work surpasses the boundaries of his genre.
A woman with an illness that puts her in a coma while she is still aware. A husband who plots to bury her alive for control of her inheritance. An outlaw who has two days to rescue a woman he loved twenty years before and a killer hired make sure he doesn't arrive.
Though suspenseful and more than a little violent, Unbury Carol is strangely lyrical and poetic. There's a rich romanticism buried beneath tales of violence and revenge. The mythology of the west is explored in fantastical elegy punctuated by moments of visceral finality. Comparisons to Cormac McCarthy, Flannery O'Connor and Poe seem surprisingly apt. Malerman is a gifted writer whose work surpasses the boundaries of his genre.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
I just hit the second instance of "castrated gelding" halfway through and if I were reading this in paperback I'd have thrown it. The language is so repetitive and awkward that it distracts from the mediocre damsel in distress story. Hell's heaven!
It was a bit slow to start and I felt the ending was rushed but over all a very enjoyable western. I enjoyed to switching perspectives the writing. I was squeamish with the Smoke chapters when it went into too much detail about his legs but even then he was a solid villain.
This book is a long existential ramble about good vs evil, that ends rather abruptly. I enjoyed the idea of the concept more than the execution. Ok, but definitely not great.
3.5, rounded up to 4. I really enjoyed the plot of this, but it could have used a bit more dread for me to really make it pop. I thought this book would lean more into Carol's pov, and that's where the dread would come from, but it was more reliant on everyone in the world around her. The worldbuilding was great and I thought the characterization of our cast was well done. This story has a western/old time feel, with bandits who ride the trail from town to town on horses. This is all fine, it's just not the thriller I expected.
There is a heavy focus on the various male characters: her husband Dwight, previous lover and notorious bandit James, and assassin Smoke - a man hired by Dwight to kill James and prevent him from saving Carol. Dwight has taken advantage of Carol's condition that leaves her alive but in a coma like state occasionally to bury her alive and reap the benefits of her fortune. James learns of this and is racing down the trail to save her. I thought Dwight's sleaziness, James' urgency, and Smoke's crazed lunacy were all well written and I often reacted to their actions - frowning at Dwight and cringing at Smoke because the dude was really bat shit crazy (even though you can't help but feel a bit of sympathy once you hear his backstory).
Although things wrap up maybe a bit too nicely for some people at the end, I really liked it. There were several moments where my jaw dropped (ex: Farrah being a total badass, James seeing through Smoke like... well smoke). I liked the solution to the whole ordeal and enjoyed it. and the backstory to that was neat.
Overall, a couple parts of the story dragged a bit but I enjoyed it nevertheless. Maybe I'll have to read more western themed books.
There is a heavy focus on the various male characters: her husband Dwight, previous lover and notorious bandit James, and assassin Smoke - a man hired by Dwight to kill James and prevent him from saving Carol. Dwight has taken advantage of Carol's condition that leaves her alive but in a coma like state occasionally to bury her alive and reap the benefits of her fortune. James learns of this and is racing down the trail to save her. I thought Dwight's sleaziness, James' urgency, and Smoke's crazed lunacy were all well written and I often reacted to their actions - frowning at Dwight and cringing at Smoke because the dude was really bat shit crazy (even though you can't help but feel a bit of sympathy once you hear his backstory).
Although things wrap up maybe a bit too nicely for some people at the end, I really liked it. There were several moments where my jaw dropped (ex: Farrah being a total badass, James seeing through Smoke like... well smoke). I liked the solution to the whole ordeal and enjoyed it.
Spoiler
Carol saves herselfOverall, a couple parts of the story dragged a bit but I enjoyed it nevertheless. Maybe I'll have to read more western themed books.
I liked it but I expected to like it more, because Bird Box was so amazing. Carol, the heroine, was not very well drawn. She was kind of cloudy and a bit helpless, which always annoys me. All the other major characters were male and were much more vivid. There seemed like there were big gaps in the backstories that were never filled in, so my feeling when finishing the book, was frustration.