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somesortofwitch's review against another edition
5.0
This book is most likely my favorite horror read of the year, and I’ve read quite a few. The Pallbearers Club so perfectly balanced the real and the unreal, the variations of perspectives based on both time and persona, and the differences between fiction and fiction which claims to be memoir.
dotjaepeg's review against another edition
3.25
the slowest of burns to the point where the horror is only allowed to be confirmed in the very last paragraph which is cool and all it just took allll book to get there to basically just say what he thought was happening the whole time was true . like okay i guess, still had a good time with the funky mcs
ragebunnie's review
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
spang's review against another edition
Just wasn’t for me. Wasn’t interested enough to finish it.
temegill's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.0
esquared's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
reading_rainbow_with_chris's review against another edition
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
“The Pallbearer’s Club” by Paul Tremblay
Art Barbara is trying to find his place in the world when he stumbles across a new friend, Mercy, at his newly minted Pallbearer’s Club. Although the club is short lived, Mercy, and the strangeness around her that Art can’t quite explain, come to dominate Art’s search for himself in ways he never expected.
For me, this book is a lot like Art: It doesn’t quite know what it is and is trying to do too many things at once. The voice of narration is inconsistent without sufficient justification, character choices are off putting, and the rules of the supernatural here are unclear. The premise itself was pretty intriguing but nothing about this came together cohesively for me. On top of that, the narrative gimmick swung between cheesy and cringy. It was harmless enough and there were chunks of the book which were solidly enjoyable. But is that really enough? For me, not quite. I was waiting for something exceptional, some element of the novel that executed to excellence. I never found it.
I believe this is my first reading of anything from Tremblay and I will definitely try another of his works to see if this was an outlier. But for me, this was a big “meh.”
Art Barbara is trying to find his place in the world when he stumbles across a new friend, Mercy, at his newly minted Pallbearer’s Club. Although the club is short lived, Mercy, and the strangeness around her that Art can’t quite explain, come to dominate Art’s search for himself in ways he never expected.
For me, this book is a lot like Art: It doesn’t quite know what it is and is trying to do too many things at once. The voice of narration is inconsistent without sufficient justification, character choices are off putting, and the rules of the supernatural here are unclear. The premise itself was pretty intriguing but nothing about this came together cohesively for me. On top of that, the narrative gimmick swung between cheesy and cringy. It was harmless enough and there were chunks of the book which were solidly enjoyable. But is that really enough? For me, not quite. I was waiting for something exceptional, some element of the novel that executed to excellence. I never found it.
I believe this is my first reading of anything from Tremblay and I will definitely try another of his works to see if this was an outlier. But for me, this was a big “meh.”