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3.26 AVERAGE
3.26 AVERAGE
What can I say about Unbury Carol? This book was certainly a slog for me and if I hadn't been given a digital ARC through Netgalley I probably wouldn't have finished it. Overall this one just didn't grab me. I felt no motivation to pick it up even during times I would usually be reading. But it wasn't all bad. It did have some promising aspects that I wish had been explored in greater depth. I'll break it down like this (possible spoilers ahead!):
What I Liked:
--The world was unique. The Trail sounds like a fascinating place and was certainly spooky. I liked the idea of outlaws wandering a creepy supernatural forest and getting into trouble.
--Some characters were interesting. Mostly side and background people unfortunately--the other outlaws, the trail watchers, etc. I wanted to know more about those people and explore their lives in more detail.
What I Didn't Like
--So many plot holes and generally weak plotting. I'll buy the Carol falls into these deathlike comas, but why is it a secret? Why doesn't her husband just smother her? Seems easier than his guilt trip into madness worrying if she's going to wake up. Basically the whole book could have been avoided with a few simple decisions on our villain's part and the reasons for them not happening were pretty lame.
--Our bad guy was really lame in the end. For most of the book we follow both James Moxie and the outlaw Smoke who was hired to kill Moxie before he could rescue Carol. We spend SO MUCH TIME with him. Probable more than with Moxie honestly. And granted he was interesting! I wanted to know more about him (he was certainly more interesting than Moxie). But when it comes down to it, he did basically nothing. So why all the chapters about him?
--Our heroes are sketchy at best. After reading this book I could not tell you ONE thing about Carol that is not on the back of the book. She is a woman. She falls into deathlike comas. That's it. Supposedly everyone likes her, but they never explain why or what she does in town other than be rich. Same with Moxie--he's an outlaw who feels guilty about leaving Carol when they were young. He's possibly magical, but it's never clear. If I'm supposed to be rooting for these people I need to know why.
--Random demon thing? What was the point of that? And why does it even care about Carol? Again the explanation for Rot's motivation was sketchy at best.
--The deus ex machina of an ending that basically rendered every page of this book pointless and unnecessary. Seriously, it's existence wasn't even a surprise to Carol so I have no idea what the point of this book even was. It just sucked any tension that may have existed in the narrative right out.
In my opinion it's worth reading only if you're a huge fan of the author or feel compelled to read every weird western that's published. The world building is interesting and the only thing that saves this from being a 1 star.
What I Liked:
--The world was unique. The Trail sounds like a fascinating place and was certainly spooky. I liked the idea of outlaws wandering a creepy supernatural forest and getting into trouble.
--Some characters were interesting. Mostly side and background people unfortunately--the other outlaws, the trail watchers, etc. I wanted to know more about those people and explore their lives in more detail.
What I Didn't Like
--So many plot holes and generally weak plotting. I'll buy the Carol falls into these deathlike comas, but why is it a secret? Why doesn't her husband just smother her? Seems easier than his guilt trip into madness worrying if she's going to wake up. Basically the whole book could have been avoided with a few simple decisions on our villain's part and the reasons for them not happening were pretty lame.
--Our bad guy was really lame in the end. For most of the book we follow both James Moxie and the outlaw Smoke who was hired to kill Moxie before he could rescue Carol. We spend SO MUCH TIME with him. Probable more than with Moxie honestly. And granted he was interesting! I wanted to know more about him (he was certainly more interesting than Moxie). But when it comes down to it, he did basically nothing. So why all the chapters about him?
--Our heroes are sketchy at best. After reading this book I could not tell you ONE thing about Carol that is not on the back of the book. She is a woman. She falls into deathlike comas. That's it. Supposedly everyone likes her, but they never explain why or what she does in town other than be rich. Same with Moxie--he's an outlaw who feels guilty about leaving Carol when they were young. He's possibly magical, but it's never clear. If I'm supposed to be rooting for these people I need to know why.
--Random demon thing? What was the point of that? And why does it even care about Carol? Again the explanation for Rot's motivation was sketchy at best.
--The deus ex machina of an ending that basically rendered every page of this book pointless and unnecessary. Seriously, it's existence wasn't even a surprise to Carol so I have no idea what the point of this book even was. It just sucked any tension that may have existed in the narrative right out.
In my opinion it's worth reading only if you're a huge fan of the author or feel compelled to read every weird western that's published. The world building is interesting and the only thing that saves this from being a 1 star.
Hell’s heaven! Unbury Carol was an okay read but, I did have some issues with the novel. Malerman is a great storyteller but I feel that this was entirely too repetitive and droned on at a snail’s pace in places. I get that Carol was in Howltown so obviously there wasn’t much “going on” there but I felt those scenes were super boring because of it, even with the character Rot. Smoke and Moxie’s back and forth was interesting but it got stale for a bit for me. The most interesting aspect of the book was Dwight’s mental unraveling as he continued to lie. With this being said, the events in the story just moved too slow for me. Even with characters that weren’t in a coma-like state most of them seemed to live inside their heads instead of DOING things, and when they did it was predictably mild and boring. While I liked the initial story line I would have appreciated it much more if there were more actual events instead of inner dialogue. Overall I feel that this would have been more interesting if the story had some more “meat” or was made a bit shorter. In some portions of the book I felt that it was literally previous chapters being reprinted, verbatim, because they all sounded the same! I also expected a little more horror from this book but Malerman seemed to focus more on “The Trail” and the Wild West style enemies in the book. The ending also was extremely predictable and it’s almost like Malerman wrote it to so the reader predicts the ending correctly and then sets the book up so that the reader clearly sees that outcome and the steps it takes to get there. Ultimately, this was a fun read but it wasn’t something that hooked me and drew me in. It would have if it were shorter or more eventful.
adventurous
dark
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
slow-paced
4.5/5
If you go into it not expecting a straight-up horror novel, you should love it.
If you go into it not expecting a straight-up horror novel, you should love it.
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is my fourth josh malerman book to read, definitely my least liked. I have found that his books are classified as horror however it is a very LIGHT horror. He takes topics that one would find disturbing and then dances around the disturbing factors. In this story we follow a woman named Carol who has a condition that causes her to slip into comas that present her as being deceased. Her current hisband has some trickery planned up his sleeve, and her old lover is a sharp shooting outlaw on his way to come rescue her. I was excited when they introduced the outlaw's character but that is where the excitement ended. Think of james moxie as a retired outlaw, who seems to have a one track mind of only saving his past lover. I would have loved to see his character and history be delved into more. As for the main character Carol.. She has this condition that can lead her to become burried alive, yet apparently over her years of aging this fear is no longer a concern for her... I found her characters story to be a bit unbelieveable and the over all fear of her situation to be very downplayed.
This book i felt could have been much stronger with more character development and less story telling tangents. However, bird box, malorie, and a house at the bottom of a lake are in my favorite books list so i will definitely be picking up more books by this author.
This book i felt could have been much stronger with more character development and less story telling tangents. However, bird box, malorie, and a house at the bottom of a lake are in my favorite books list so i will definitely be picking up more books by this author.
I grabbed this beat-up ARC at work (Indigo Books, one of the many book-related perks of the job) and have been waiting for the most opportune moment to start. As you can see, the release date was April 10th so I’ve been holding onto this bad boy for a while. I am really glad I waited just because not only is this an amazing novel in its own right, I feel like its power is amplified during the autumn season…even though this book isn’t about autumn.
This story is about Carol Evers, who suffers from a rare condition that manifests as periodic death-like comas. To the outside world, Carol looks dead but inside her body, she is trapped in Howltown where she is unable to move but can hear everything going on around her in the world. Her husband, Dwight, sick of his strong-willed wife, decides to take advantage of her condition in order to inherit a sizable fortune. The only other living person who knows about Carol’s condition is the outlaw of the Trail, James Moxie and upon hearing word of Carol’s supposed death, decides to race back to Harrow to stop Dwight from burying Carol alive, all the while being a target of a death plot himself.
Judging from the synopsis on the back (a wee different from the ones I always write for my reviews), I was initially worried that the story would drag because it would be told completely from the perspective of Carol in the coma. I’ve read books before told from a similar perspective and while there is the interesting stream of consciousness or memory content in the plot, the location is pretty bound and not much actual “action” happens. This is totally not the case with Unbury Carol, however. Each chapter features a different limited omniscient perspective, jumping from Carol to Dwight to James Moxie, and even some minor characters. This keeps things interesting and fresh, while also exploring character motivations.
There are also a couple of great stylistic elements throughout this book that I thought really added to the story. I’m just going to quickly mention them here so I don’t let this post get out of control. Let’s start with motifs:
Magic: is a constant theme, insofar as crafty characters are able to outwit their foes. Most notably, known for performing a life-and-death trick in Abbestown, James Moxie has been made a legend because no one can figure out how he escaped. Some think the magic is real and others are more skeptical, but Moxie has never shared his secret. Can his abilities help him once again, this time against enemies who wield actual magic? Malerman teases us with little bits of information about some of these tricks, but enough to keep you invested the whole way through.
Rot: in any ordinary novel would usually be a theme or maybe a recurring action but only in Unbury Carol would rot also appear as a character. There is symbolic and literal rot throughout, folks, don’t you worry, but it also seems that rot plays a hand in guiding fate and organizing death-related issues. I am definitely not explaining this well, but if you are at all interested, just give this book a try.
The Trail: is what I would call a limited setting, only describing a few nearby towns and the dark road that links them together. I thought that it was really effective to provide such limited physical information since that would historically be the only information worth sharing for those living in the western expansion. Even if characters had known more about the geography of the region, travel and business would be Trail-centric so it makes sense that this novel is Trail-centric too.
Usually in my reviews, even the five-star ones, I like to include one CON because I believe that no book is truly perfect but I had a reaallllyyyy tough time with this one because there was nothing that I didn’t like. I have never read Josh Malerman before and now I know why he is a Bram Stoker award-winning author. This type of horror is literary and beautiful and mysterious. I can’t wait to read something else from him in the future!
Read if you like: Vermillion, the Premature Burial, The Prestige
This story is about Carol Evers, who suffers from a rare condition that manifests as periodic death-like comas. To the outside world, Carol looks dead but inside her body, she is trapped in Howltown where she is unable to move but can hear everything going on around her in the world. Her husband, Dwight, sick of his strong-willed wife, decides to take advantage of her condition in order to inherit a sizable fortune. The only other living person who knows about Carol’s condition is the outlaw of the Trail, James Moxie and upon hearing word of Carol’s supposed death, decides to race back to Harrow to stop Dwight from burying Carol alive, all the while being a target of a death plot himself.
Judging from the synopsis on the back (a wee different from the ones I always write for my reviews), I was initially worried that the story would drag because it would be told completely from the perspective of Carol in the coma. I’ve read books before told from a similar perspective and while there is the interesting stream of consciousness or memory content in the plot, the location is pretty bound and not much actual “action” happens. This is totally not the case with Unbury Carol, however. Each chapter features a different limited omniscient perspective, jumping from Carol to Dwight to James Moxie, and even some minor characters. This keeps things interesting and fresh, while also exploring character motivations.
There are also a couple of great stylistic elements throughout this book that I thought really added to the story. I’m just going to quickly mention them here so I don’t let this post get out of control. Let’s start with motifs:
Magic: is a constant theme, insofar as crafty characters are able to outwit their foes. Most notably, known for performing a life-and-death trick in Abbestown, James Moxie has been made a legend because no one can figure out how he escaped. Some think the magic is real and others are more skeptical, but Moxie has never shared his secret. Can his abilities help him once again, this time against enemies who wield actual magic? Malerman teases us with little bits of information about some of these tricks, but enough to keep you invested the whole way through.
Rot: in any ordinary novel would usually be a theme or maybe a recurring action but only in Unbury Carol would rot also appear as a character. There is symbolic and literal rot throughout, folks, don’t you worry, but it also seems that rot plays a hand in guiding fate and organizing death-related issues. I am definitely not explaining this well, but if you are at all interested, just give this book a try.
The Trail: is what I would call a limited setting, only describing a few nearby towns and the dark road that links them together. I thought that it was really effective to provide such limited physical information since that would historically be the only information worth sharing for those living in the western expansion. Even if characters had known more about the geography of the region, travel and business would be Trail-centric so it makes sense that this novel is Trail-centric too.
Usually in my reviews, even the five-star ones, I like to include one CON because I believe that no book is truly perfect but I had a reaallllyyyy tough time with this one because there was nothing that I didn’t like. I have never read Josh Malerman before and now I know why he is a Bram Stoker award-winning author. This type of horror is literary and beautiful and mysterious. I can’t wait to read something else from him in the future!
Read if you like: Vermillion, the Premature Burial, The Prestige
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book was strange, a lot of side characters I didn’t really understand the relevance of. Very “tell tale heart” vibes. Also their favorite phrase is “pig sh*t” and they say it about 50 times so it gets old real fast.