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3.26 AVERAGE
3.26 AVERAGE
I thought this was a supernatural horror but which turned out to be sort of a Western. Surprisingly, I loved it anyway. There is a bit of the paranormal but most of the magic is of the sleight-of-hand sort, which is so much more interesting. I'm trying to think of what I could compare it to, but all I can think is it's like the Discworld without the asterisks.
Carol has a condition where she sometimes looks very dead. She's in a sort of coma and can't communicate. Her husband knows this, but decides that this time he's going to let people think Carol is dead. He's going to bury her. Unfortunately for him, there's Farrah, a servant and friend, Opal, the sheriff, and James Moxie, a notorious outlaw who was once in love with Carol and who knows about her secret condition. And there's Carol, who isn't the type to need rescuing after all.
I'd recommend the hell out of this book.
Carol has a condition where she sometimes looks very dead. She's in a sort of coma and can't communicate. Her husband knows this, but decides that this time he's going to let people think Carol is dead. He's going to bury her. Unfortunately for him, there's Farrah, a servant and friend, Opal, the sheriff, and James Moxie, a notorious outlaw who was once in love with Carol and who knows about her secret condition. And there's Carol, who isn't the type to need rescuing after all.
I'd recommend the hell out of this book.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE Malerman and this book did NOT disappoint! By the end, I was frantic to learn Carol's fate!!! Read this book!!!
A really nice blend of horror and western! Loved the atmosphere, it's really rich!
From the author of Bird Box comes this creepy, dark read. One off my library pile. I absolutely loved it. The setting. Transported back into time through the description. The evil characters VS the good characters. I really enjoyed this one. But poor Carol.
Carol suffers from a very rare illness which makes her look and feel dead but she isn’t. Her husband takes advantage of this and is about to Bury her alive. But is anyone who knows about Carol’s illness going to stop this? Save her? With many, many obstacles along the way it won’t be easy for her to be buried. It’s a very clever story. Very dark in parts, containing fire, deaths, fights and a little bit of magic.
I was hooked. I had to know what happened to Carol! A fast paced, edge of your seat read. A race against time. I don’t think I’ve read anything similar to this either. I really liked it. Something different. I’d hate to be buried alive, I’m sure we all would! Highly recommend. A well deserved four stars from me.
Carol suffers from a very rare illness which makes her look and feel dead but she isn’t. Her husband takes advantage of this and is about to Bury her alive. But is anyone who knows about Carol’s illness going to stop this? Save her? With many, many obstacles along the way it won’t be easy for her to be buried. It’s a very clever story. Very dark in parts, containing fire, deaths, fights and a little bit of magic.
I was hooked. I had to know what happened to Carol! A fast paced, edge of your seat read. A race against time. I don’t think I’ve read anything similar to this either. I really liked it. Something different. I’d hate to be buried alive, I’m sure we all would! Highly recommend. A well deserved four stars from me.
Let me start by saying that I LOVED "Bird Box" by Malerman, so was interested to see what this book would be like. Boring. It was boring, I was bored. The "Sleeping Beauty" association seems a bit stretched - it is about a woman 'asleep' who isn't dead but some people think she is, but the town around her isn't also asleep, she hasn't been asleep for centuries, there is no curse aside from biology, so ... meh. The whole Western outlaw thing was bizarre, in a boring way, to be honest. I picked up this book having loved the previous creep-fest of a book by Malerman, and was disappointed that this veered so far from it. I didn't understand the 'Trail' with a capital T, and hoped that it'd be more creepy than just a wild, outlaw-run situation, and maybe I missed something by stopping early, but if I'm not drawn in after 1/4 of the book, then it's just not worth it, in my honest opinion.
Full disclosure, I only made it 25% in before I just decided I have a big ol' list of books I'd rather be reading.
Full disclosure, I only made it 25% in before I just decided I have a big ol' list of books I'd rather be reading.
**4.5/5 stars**
Carol Evers has suffered all her life from comas that late anywhere from 2 to 4 days. While she is in Howltown (her name for the world she inhabits in the comas), Carol can hear the people around her and is aware of her surroundings, but she appears to be dead. Only her husband, Dwight, and her first love turned outlaw James Moxie, know of her condition. When Carol succumbs to a coma the same day one of her best friends dies of an illness, her husband moves to have her buried straightaway in order to seize her fortune. Carol is aware of Dwight’s betrayal but unable to wake up. While she fights against Howltown’s shackles, James Moxie is racing to save her, and a terrifying hitman known as Smoke is hot on his heels...
After being terrified by/loving “Bird Box” last year, I was eagerly anticipating this book from Josh Malerman and I LOVED it! :) This story is a blend of fantasy, horror, and western. Set in an imaginary string of Wild West style towns connected by the treacherous forested Trail, where sheriffs, outlaws, and hired guns roam, this story is anchored by a love story. There is also kind of a huge plot point where the main character may get buried alive so I would not recommend this to any of my claustrophobic friends. But omg this is one of the most original stories I’ve read this year if not ever, and I feel like I’ll be thinking about it for a long time.
Carol Evers has suffered all her life from comas that late anywhere from 2 to 4 days. While she is in Howltown (her name for the world she inhabits in the comas), Carol can hear the people around her and is aware of her surroundings, but she appears to be dead. Only her husband, Dwight, and her first love turned outlaw James Moxie, know of her condition. When Carol succumbs to a coma the same day one of her best friends dies of an illness, her husband moves to have her buried straightaway in order to seize her fortune. Carol is aware of Dwight’s betrayal but unable to wake up. While she fights against Howltown’s shackles, James Moxie is racing to save her, and a terrifying hitman known as Smoke is hot on his heels...
After being terrified by/loving “Bird Box” last year, I was eagerly anticipating this book from Josh Malerman and I LOVED it! :) This story is a blend of fantasy, horror, and western. Set in an imaginary string of Wild West style towns connected by the treacherous forested Trail, where sheriffs, outlaws, and hired guns roam, this story is anchored by a love story. There is also kind of a huge plot point where the main character may get buried alive so I would not recommend this to any of my claustrophobic friends. But omg this is one of the most original stories I’ve read this year if not ever, and I feel like I’ll be thinking about it for a long time.
This one disappointed me. It's a pretty rich premise — a woman who periodically appears to die, but is only in a coma; the husband who takes advantage to try to get her buried alive; the Old West outlaw who's the only other living man who knows her secret. And when the book just focuses on those three elements, it's breathless and exciting. But there's a supernatural side that barely seems connected to all of this — an entity named Rot that haunts the outlaw and the woman in long, repetitive poetic passages that are nightmarish and evocative but don't add much to the actual story, an act of "magic" that makes the outlaw a legend, and is teased constantly throughout the book, but then gets a pretty unclear and unsatisfying payoff. The villain of the piece is one scary bastard, but he does the same thing over and over and over throughout the book until he defangs himself, both through repetition and by not focusing enough on his goal. His revenge story, which pops up out of nowhere and resolves mid-book without enough background to make it meaningful, is a particularly odd touch.
Super disappointing. Only made it to page 60. Premise seemed great but just didn't hook me.