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3.26 AVERAGE
3.26 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I wouldn’t call this horror, but it’s a great book! Quick easy read.
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Good story with varied characters. An old western horror tale with just enough of both to keep me hooked.
I'm kinda sad James didnt get to rescue her though. It felt like his whole journey was kinda moot
I couldn't get past the first chapter of this one. I couldn't tell what time period it was set in, but it definitely wasn't present day. However, the characters still spoke and acted like present-day people. The writing was all tell and no show. Honestly, I'm surprised this novel made it through the publisher's manuscript screening process.
I received this book in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. Unfortunately this was not a book I would highly recommend. It seems to be set in America in the early days of our country. It had a somewhat Western Fiction feel to it. I just could not be engaged by any of these characters. I found the pace slow, the characters flat and the story line just couldn't keep my interest. I'm sure there is an audience for these types of stories but I'm just not one of them.
Gotta say, for how much tension and dread it built up throughout, the end felt a bit anticlimactic. Could be that I was too bleary and ill to understand early on, but I also couldn't tell that Hattie and Carol's mother were the same person? Hattie seemed like a friend or a sister, or maybe it just didn't register calling her by her first name and then also saying Mother in the same sentence. Guess that could be confusion from listening rather than reading. And maybe I'm a romantic, but I was disappointed that Moxie didn't actually get to save Carol in the end, it was just some trick box. Maybe that would have been built better if during the Hattie bits I wasn't trying to figure out who was who, and I could have heard more about The Box? And am I mistaken but do we not ever learn how the trick at Abbertown worked, or how Rinaldo got out of the outhouse? Or how Moxie shot the killer in the prison? Is it supposed to be... with string? Not sure I got that at the end with the Sheriff. Could be winked away and just handwaved as "magic" but I did want to know. Seemed maybe the man who would have bought the books shot Daniel Prouds, but it's never confirmed. Which could be the point, but whatever. Also, everyone in this book LOVES the swears "pig-shitting" and "hell's heaven," so much they really stuck out to me by the end, kind of grating. I really liked Rot as a villain, but I wish we got to see more of Howltown in some way. The vibes were impeccable though, gritty spooky western with stage magic and real magic all muddled up. Fun, but the end left me a bit flattened because I guess it's all about love but the proclamations it finishes with are kinda bland.
I picked up Unbury Carol on a whim - I impulse buy books when stressed, you see - enticed by the cover, title, and the possibility of a weird western. I didn’t even read the synopsis till I was a chapter in and that was about the only real break I took in my reading. This story moves! And not in ways I expected.
It’s the genre mashup you never knew you wanted. We got shootouts, saloons, an outlaw hero! With a healthy dose of make you squirm horror and even a smattering of steampunk. But it reads like a fairytale. I would have no problem believing the story of Carol and Moxie has been told around campfires and at bedtimes for years and years. It is Officially™ my favorite Sleeping Beauty retelling. (I never had a favorite Sleeping Beauty retelling to begin with, but…)
Honestly, knowing the female lead was going to be in a coma for a good portion of the book made me, well, morbidly curious. How do you even tell a story when the titular character is in a coma? Was I about to be duped into somebody else’s story? I was here for Carol, darnit! Turned out, Carol’s chapters - her time in Howltown - were some of the most eerie and stressful parts of the book. And that is saying something considering the character Smoke! Carol might be down but she’s not out, and her struggles to break herself free of her coma turned out to be exactly what I wanted to read.
Smoke is… A lot. And it’s a good thing! I’m not here for mollycoddled villains and I don’t think there’s any way a person in their right mind could think that way about the bounty hunter Smoke. This dude is a deliciously evil wildcard, to the point I genuinely feared Moxie would never make it to Carol in time.
Lafayette and Dwight might be slightly outshined by the nightmare fuel that is Smoke, but they were quite the pair of conspirators. Dwight’s reasons for wanting to bury Carol are understandable and he’s just the right mix of competent and incompetent to make it stressful to read. Lafayette is straight up heartless and I loved her for it. Not your typical female villain.
Moxie is the outlaw antihero I deserve. That’s it. That’s the review. No, but I love him. I love all of his doubts and worries. The guilt over Carol. If like me you have a weird soft spot for sad men trying to fix the mistakes of their past, this is probably your kind of book.
I do have mixed feelings about the ending. No spoilers, but… In ways it was even better than expected, in others it went too quick. The book starts slow, but the tension and pacing ramp up more and more with every chapter. It went by fast! Which left me wishing for more of a breath at the end.
Unbury Carol by Josh Malerman was so wonderfully weird. It’s fast pace and distinctive characters made the reading feel more like a ride down The Trail. Truly a one of a kind experience.
*yes this was my first book review ever at all in my life, thank you for bearing with me while I try to figure how to even do this.
It’s the genre mashup you never knew you wanted. We got shootouts, saloons, an outlaw hero! With a healthy dose of make you squirm horror and even a smattering of steampunk. But it reads like a fairytale. I would have no problem believing the story of Carol and Moxie has been told around campfires and at bedtimes for years and years. It is Officially™ my favorite Sleeping Beauty retelling. (I never had a favorite Sleeping Beauty retelling to begin with, but…)
Honestly, knowing the female lead was going to be in a coma for a good portion of the book made me, well, morbidly curious. How do you even tell a story when the titular character is in a coma? Was I about to be duped into somebody else’s story? I was here for Carol, darnit! Turned out, Carol’s chapters - her time in Howltown - were some of the most eerie and stressful parts of the book. And that is saying something considering the character Smoke! Carol might be down but she’s not out, and her struggles to break herself free of her coma turned out to be exactly what I wanted to read.
Smoke is… A lot. And it’s a good thing! I’m not here for mollycoddled villains and I don’t think there’s any way a person in their right mind could think that way about the bounty hunter Smoke. This dude is a deliciously evil wildcard, to the point I genuinely feared Moxie would never make it to Carol in time.
Lafayette and Dwight might be slightly outshined by the nightmare fuel that is Smoke, but they were quite the pair of conspirators. Dwight’s reasons for wanting to bury Carol are understandable and he’s just the right mix of competent and incompetent to make it stressful to read. Lafayette is straight up heartless and I loved her for it. Not your typical female villain.
Moxie is the outlaw antihero I deserve. That’s it. That’s the review. No, but I love him. I love all of his doubts and worries. The guilt over Carol. If like me you have a weird soft spot for sad men trying to fix the mistakes of their past, this is probably your kind of book.
I do have mixed feelings about the ending. No spoilers, but… In ways it was even better than expected, in others it went too quick. The book starts slow, but the tension and pacing ramp up more and more with every chapter. It went by fast! Which left me wishing for more of a breath at the end.
Unbury Carol by Josh Malerman was so wonderfully weird. It’s fast pace and distinctive characters made the reading feel more like a ride down The Trail. Truly a one of a kind experience.
*yes this was my first book review ever at all in my life, thank you for bearing with me while I try to figure how to even do this.
adventurous
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I think the fact that it reminded me so much of Disco Elysium and Pathologic that it kinda bumped it up a star for me. Otherwise, I felt the pacing was fun, but I felt the ending was way too neat and tidy for all the tension that was built up the whole book? I really liked Moxie, Carol, and Smoke, but I would have loved more development and interactions in general. I think Rot was terribly underused too, for how cool a character(?) it is.
dark
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A