Reviews - The Auctioneer | The StoryGraph

317 reviews for:

The Auctioneer

Joan Samson, Ed Gorman

3.79 AVERAGE

spacecaits's review

3.5

dark tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

macbean221b's review against another edition

1.0

I'm kind of sorry I bothered finishing this book. The beginning felt like there were big chunks missing -- like there were things that happened out of sight and were never explained. The characters, who were all empty and flat and unlikable, reacted to things in strange ways that were never explained, either. When I got to the halfway point, I considered giving up and putting it on my "could-not-finish" shelf, but the overall concept is one that I really liked and I wanted to see if anything I was confused about would end up making more sense. None of it did, and the ending was dissatisfying. My only consolation is that I finished it in three sittings and so it didn't take up much of my time.

orla_h's review against another edition

5.0

dark emotional tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Content Warnings

ryneb's review

4.5

slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

leaton01's review against another edition

4.0

The Auctioneer is a fascinating story of the slow unraveling of a town and its people. When a charming auctioneer shows up in a small town in New Hampshire, everyone is excited as he works his skills to convince people to donate to a weekly auction and effortlessly builds up funds for the police force. But his appetite for donations continues to grow as people have less and less to give and that's when bad things start happening to people. John Moore and his family watch as they find themselves compelled and subtly threatened to give away almost everything own, piece by piece and a biting tension builds throughout the town. Samson does so well with the delivery of the story that it feels like a warm smile slowly morphing into a menacing smile and the reader, like the townsfolk, is never quite sure when that line is crossed. In many ways, the story is reminiscent of Shirley Jackson's The Lottery in the ways in which the people collectively submit, even if they collectively suffer.