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3.26 AVERAGE
3.26 AVERAGE
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
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
I know this didn't get super high ratings, but I enjoyed all of the character arcs and how they came together. The weird paranormal stuff was creepy, too.
dark
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
In pretty much every way, this book was just okay. The characters felt a little flat, and their motivations a little unsubstantiated. The pace was slower than I expected and none of the “twists” were surprising. My favorite part was the writing style. I just wish the content had been more engaging.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Violence
DNF at 15%. This one is just not clicking with me at all, and Malerman's latched onto certain words he repeats ad naseum. Every single character, apparently, must utter the phrase "Hell's heaven" in every conversation they have (word search shows 45 instances of this throughout the book). And if I have to be told one more time that John Moxie is an outlaw, I'm going to break my Kindle. Word search shows 150 instances of the word "outlaw" cropping up, and I just don't think I can take it. One section, at the 29% marker, even includes the following bit of dialogue:
"Hell's heaven, Carol... He's on his way here! An outlaw! Hell's heaven, Carol."
I just... I can't. Not anymore. I'm freaking bored to tears with this one, and it's giving me more aggravation than its worth. I'm also feeling like, at only 15%, a hell of a lot of words have been expended to tell very, very little story. It's frustrating. I give up.
"Hell's heaven, Carol... He's on his way here! An outlaw! Hell's heaven, Carol."
I just... I can't. Not anymore. I'm freaking bored to tears with this one, and it's giving me more aggravation than its worth. I'm also feeling like, at only 15%, a hell of a lot of words have been expended to tell very, very little story. It's frustrating. I give up.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Exciting!
It really drives me crazy when an author over uses phrases. In this book it's "shudders" (as in the characters actually SAYING that, not doing the motion) and "hell's heaven." Good lord you could turn those two into a drinking game easily with this book!
I was bored. The premise was good, but I felt as if everything of interest, was in the last 50 pages. Carol isn't even buried until the last 20 or so, yet the book is named after unburying her?? Come on...
Read this fully, because it was a book club pick, and it wasn't terrible enough to me to DNF, I just...didn't enjoy it.
I pretty much skipped most of the chapters Smoke was in, because he was terrible. As was all the jumping from character to character without even fully knowing it ahead of time.
Would not recommend.
I was bored. The premise was good, but I felt as if everything of interest, was in the last 50 pages. Carol isn't even buried until the last 20 or so, yet the book is named after unburying her?? Come on...
Read this fully, because it was a book club pick, and it wasn't terrible enough to me to DNF, I just...didn't enjoy it.
I pretty much skipped most of the chapters Smoke was in, because he was terrible. As was all the jumping from character to character without even fully knowing it ahead of time.
Would not recommend.