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3.26 AVERAGE
3.26 AVERAGE
I remember being really excited to read this book when it first came. A book friend had sent it to me not too long after it’s release. Then it just sat on my shelf for an eternity. I kept saving it to read specifically in October but each October came and went without me picking it up.
I think I started to become hesitant to read it due to the mixed reviews I kept stumbling across. I feel like many of my friends were a bit disappointed because they expected a horror novel. This had a few horror elements but was much more seated in the suspense/western genres. I knew this going in so my experience was a much better one. I feel like having read Josh Malerman’s books before was also instrumental when it comes to enjoyment. His books are so much more about the journey than the destination. There will be questions that won’t be answered. The ending will be open. I think it’s key to know these things going in or you may be setting yourself up for disappointment.
This story centers around a woman named Carol who goes into a coma-like state frequently but to the outside world it seems like she is dead. There are only two people who know about her “death” episodes. One is her husband who is trying to have her buried knowing she isn’t really dead. The other is a former boyfriend/outlaw who finds out what is happening and is racing against the clock to save her. That premise alone immediately drew me in. I love Malerman’s writing style. He weaves an incredibly imaginative tale that will keep you hooked all the way through. This book wasn’t perfect. There were a few word choices that I thought questionable. I enjoyed some character’s point of views more than others. However, the overall story was very compelling. I still have a few more books to read by this author and can’t wait to pick them up!
I think I started to become hesitant to read it due to the mixed reviews I kept stumbling across. I feel like many of my friends were a bit disappointed because they expected a horror novel. This had a few horror elements but was much more seated in the suspense/western genres. I knew this going in so my experience was a much better one. I feel like having read Josh Malerman’s books before was also instrumental when it comes to enjoyment. His books are so much more about the journey than the destination. There will be questions that won’t be answered. The ending will be open. I think it’s key to know these things going in or you may be setting yourself up for disappointment.
This story centers around a woman named Carol who goes into a coma-like state frequently but to the outside world it seems like she is dead. There are only two people who know about her “death” episodes. One is her husband who is trying to have her buried knowing she isn’t really dead. The other is a former boyfriend/outlaw who finds out what is happening and is racing against the clock to save her. That premise alone immediately drew me in. I love Malerman’s writing style. He weaves an incredibly imaginative tale that will keep you hooked all the way through. This book wasn’t perfect. There were a few word choices that I thought questionable. I enjoyed some character’s point of views more than others. However, the overall story was very compelling. I still have a few more books to read by this author and can’t wait to pick them up!
Welcome to the Wild Wild West everyone!
Where pig shit abounds....apparently.
There are really no surprises in store for you here. We know it is a race against time! A short amount of time to Unbury Carol.
Strangely I did like the constantly changing POV. If we had stuck with Carol and James I am sure that I would have lost interest. I have to agree with many other reviews out there that point out the entire basis of this story line is a little 'hinky'. The fateful telegram that reaches James as a result of a brief conversation Carol had with her maid just moments before she fell into her coma.
If you can get past that and go along with the ride it isn't a bad journey. There are outlaws a'plenty, schemes and near misses!
I enjoyed the audio version of this book. The narrator was easy to listen to, but I found that I missed a few key points of the story. I had to go back at the end of the book because someone turned up that I thought had died....I was mistaken. I could blame my own short attention span and the probability that my mind may have wandered at that point but I think the section in question could have been played out a bit better.
All in all a good yarn. A little suspenseful a bit creepy and lots of pig shit.
Where pig shit abounds....apparently.
There are really no surprises in store for you here. We know it is a race against time! A short amount of time to Unbury Carol.
Strangely I did like the constantly changing POV. If we had stuck with Carol and James I am sure that I would have lost interest. I have to agree with many other reviews out there that point out the entire basis of this story line is a little 'hinky'. The fateful telegram that reaches James as a result of a brief conversation Carol had with her maid just moments before she fell into her coma.
If you can get past that and go along with the ride it isn't a bad journey. There are outlaws a'plenty, schemes and near misses!
I enjoyed the audio version of this book. The narrator was easy to listen to, but I found that I missed a few key points of the story. I had to go back at the end of the book because someone turned up that I thought had died....I was mistaken. I could blame my own short attention span and the probability that my mind may have wandered at that point but I think the section in question could have been played out a bit better.
All in all a good yarn. A little suspenseful a bit creepy and lots of pig shit.
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Not the best of his books, but still pretty good. Carol and Moxie are interesting characters, though there isn't much character growth, which would be unsurprising considering the events of the book occur in a 2 day span, but the amount of backstory really should demonstrate more growth. There were some issues with the included map, which does not seem to line up with the story itself, which is strange because there really wasn't a need for the map at all. Still a good book, but Malerman definitely has better ones.
This is one of those hard to place books. It is a western (horses, guns, etc). It is a fantasy (women who goes into a coma like death frequently, magical gunfighter, etc). There are four main characters:
Carol: who drops off into a coma like sleep that mimics death for days at a time.
Dwight: her evil husband who wants to bury her before she wakes up. He slowly unravels, Tale Tell Heart style, as the book progresses.
James Moxie: a gunfighter who once was in a relationship with Carol but left because her condition scare him. Now he is riding to save her from being buried alive.
Smoke: a really weird man who has been hired to stop James from reaching Carol. His favorite method of killing someone is by fire.
The story followed these main characters as they progress towards the moment of Carol's burial. And while they are interesting, the book did drag a bit. I wish Mr. Malerman had shortened that part of the book, because I got the point, and spent it on a preface. Maybe use those pages to start the story earlier so the reader sees the normal cycle of an episode. But overall it was a very engaging read.
A copy of this book was provided by NetGalley and Random House Publishing in exchange for an honest review.
Carol: who drops off into a coma like sleep that mimics death for days at a time.
Dwight: her evil husband who wants to bury her before she wakes up. He slowly unravels, Tale Tell Heart style, as the book progresses.
James Moxie: a gunfighter who once was in a relationship with Carol but left because her condition scare him. Now he is riding to save her from being buried alive.
Smoke: a really weird man who has been hired to stop James from reaching Carol. His favorite method of killing someone is by fire.
The story followed these main characters as they progress towards the moment of Carol's burial. And while they are interesting, the book did drag a bit. I wish Mr. Malerman had shortened that part of the book, because I got the point, and spent it on a preface. Maybe use those pages to start the story earlier so the reader sees the normal cycle of an episode. But overall it was a very engaging read.
A copy of this book was provided by NetGalley and Random House Publishing in exchange for an honest review.
Unfortunately, I did not enjoy this book. I loved [b:Bird Box|18498558|Bird Box|Josh Malerman|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1383949470s/18498558.jpg|26186624], so I was really looking forward to this one. It was so different. The "wild west" setting was odd. I didn't like how the perspectives were constantly changing from one character to another. I had a hard time keeping track. Also, I felt that there were just too many characters altogether. The ending was really very predictable; but by that time I was so incredibly relieved to be done that I didn't care. I will have to give serious thought to reading Malerman again.
Didn't realize this was a Western (which I really don't enjoy) so I'm going to DNF. This was well written and had an interesting story, but there's something about Westerns that just can't hold my interest. I recommend this to other people though! It would be a good Halloween read for people that don't enjoy true horror.
Read: October 2021
Read: October 2021
*2.5 Stars
This started off really good and I was intrigued enough to keep reading/listening. I loved the premise and the western atmosphere that Malerman created with this story. And I also really enjoyed getting Carol's perspective while she is in the comatose state.
But what really brought the story down for me was that there are so many different perspectives to tell this story and normally I don't mind multiple POVs in a story, but in this case it made the plot really convoluted and hard to keep track of because we would be following the story and then we would get thrown into the perspective of a completely random character. Because of this, I found myself start to not really care about what the resolution would be at the end.
I don't think this is a horrible book, I just think the POVs could have been a little more condensed to maybe just Carol, Dwight (her husband), John Moxie and Smoke (the Hitman hired to find John).
This started off really good and I was intrigued enough to keep reading/listening. I loved the premise and the western atmosphere that Malerman created with this story. And I also really enjoyed getting Carol's perspective while she is in the comatose state.
But what really brought the story down for me was that there are so many different perspectives to tell this story and normally I don't mind multiple POVs in a story, but in this case it made the plot really convoluted and hard to keep track of because we would be following the story and then we would get thrown into the perspective of a completely random character. Because of this, I found myself start to not really care about what the resolution would be at the end.
I don't think this is a horrible book, I just think the POVs could have been a little more condensed to maybe just Carol, Dwight (her husband), John Moxie and Smoke (the Hitman hired to find John).
I didn't care much for this one. Reasons:
1. WTF is the trail and what are the monsters that lurk in the woods? I wanted to know more about that. I assume Rot is one? Was this intended to be #1 in a series that explores this more?
2. What was the whole purpose of the Illness other than to kill off her friend and have the bodies stacked up so that Dwight can't bury Carol immediately?
Don't get me wrong, I'm ok with an author not explaining everything (I love Jeff VanderMeer, for example), but those two above seem kind of important.
3. More world building would have been good. Why just these few towns along a trail? What happens if you go further north/south/east/west?
4. I listened to this on audio and to me it dragged in the middle. There seemed to be a lot of fluff, for example characters repeating each other's questions.
Also - Clyde Darrow (Clyde Barrow) and William Bunny (William Bonny) ?? Really ??
More world building, less fluff, please.
1. WTF is the trail and what are the monsters that lurk in the woods? I wanted to know more about that. I assume Rot is one? Was this intended to be #1 in a series that explores this more?
2. What was the whole purpose of the Illness other than to kill off her friend and have the bodies stacked up so that Dwight can't bury Carol immediately?
Don't get me wrong, I'm ok with an author not explaining everything (I love Jeff VanderMeer, for example), but those two above seem kind of important.
3. More world building would have been good. Why just these few towns along a trail? What happens if you go further north/south/east/west?
4. I listened to this on audio and to me it dragged in the middle. There seemed to be a lot of fluff, for example characters repeating each other's questions.
Also - Clyde Darrow (Clyde Barrow) and William Bunny (William Bonny) ?? Really ??
More world building, less fluff, please.
Carol Evers suffers from a strange condition: at times of stress, she lapses into a coma that closely resembles death, only she can hear what's going on around her. Now she's in one of her comas and her husband, Dwight, is planning on burying alive so he can get his greedy hands on her fortune. The only man that can save her is a notorious outlaw that ran from her and her condition years ago, James Moxie. The question is, will he reach her in time? Because there are other people who have an interest in seeing Carol buried alive and they will do whatever it takes to keep Moxie from ruining their plans.
What I like most about Unbury Carol is not the central story itself (which is indeed a great premise) but the world it takes place in. Malerman demonstrates that he great at crafting a world and atmosphere with Unbury Carol. I love the Trail, and the little towns it travels through, and the colorful characters that live and die along its dark and dangerous path. Additionally, the way Malerman describes Carol's condition as being caught in a place called "Howltown" is brilliant.
The horror of the novel is mainly the horror of being stuck in Carol's coma condition and the possibility that she'll be buried alive. There are supernatural elements throughout Unbury Carol, but the most frightening moments of the novel come from Carol's condition as well as the interactions between the human characters and the evil they are capable of. There are many bandits and outlaws on the Trail who wish to stop Moxie in his tracks and some are pure evil. Beside Dwight, the bandit Smoke, embodies this idea of pure evil perfectly (think Anton Chigurh from No Country For Old Men) . I won't give much away but Smoke is a killer who kills without remorse, so he's pretty much the Michael Myers of the Wild West.
Unbury Carol is a fairly breathtaking story, a weird-west fairy tale of a woman struggling to remain alive and the man who truly loves her returning to save her from ending up six feet under. This being said, the novel is not perfect. The build to the climax is amazing, but the payoff was…not disappointing, but not quite enough. I wish there was a little bit more history shown between Carol and Moxie and I wish the ended would have been a bit more explosive.
Still, this bleakly lyrical story of survival, outlaws, is a real-page turner. Check it out.
What I like most about Unbury Carol is not the central story itself (which is indeed a great premise) but the world it takes place in. Malerman demonstrates that he great at crafting a world and atmosphere with Unbury Carol. I love the Trail, and the little towns it travels through, and the colorful characters that live and die along its dark and dangerous path. Additionally, the way Malerman describes Carol's condition as being caught in a place called "Howltown" is brilliant.
The horror of the novel is mainly the horror of being stuck in Carol's coma condition and the possibility that she'll be buried alive. There are supernatural elements throughout Unbury Carol, but the most frightening moments of the novel come from Carol's condition as well as the interactions between the human characters and the evil they are capable of. There are many bandits and outlaws on the Trail who wish to stop Moxie in his tracks and some are pure evil. Beside Dwight, the bandit Smoke, embodies this idea of pure evil perfectly (think Anton Chigurh from No Country For Old Men) . I won't give much away but Smoke is a killer who kills without remorse, so he's pretty much the Michael Myers of the Wild West.
Unbury Carol is a fairly breathtaking story, a weird-west fairy tale of a woman struggling to remain alive and the man who truly loves her returning to save her from ending up six feet under. This being said, the novel is not perfect. The build to the climax is amazing, but the payoff was…not disappointing, but not quite enough. I wish there was a little bit more history shown between Carol and Moxie and I wish the ended would have been a bit more explosive.
Still, this bleakly lyrical story of survival, outlaws, is a real-page turner. Check it out.