Reviews

The Night We Buried Road Dog by Jack Cady

posies23's review

5.0

Reading this book, I kept wishing I had someone I could talk to about it, because I kept finding turns of phrase and ideas that were just so interesting I wanted to talk about them. Cady's name is probably unfamiliar to most readers, which is a shame. He published several books and his short stories appeared in several notable anthologies. Unfortunately, his work is tough to place into a simple category. Is it horror? It can be, but it's not horror in the traditional "scary movie" sense. Is it realism? It can be, but there's elements of fantasy, so that doesn't fit well, either. Is it magical realism? Kind of, but it's a unique brand of magical realism that doesn't fit neatly into that category, either. More than anything, Cady is a storyteller, who pulls readers in with language and characters.

In this collection Cady focuses on ghosts, but ghosts of many kinds. Supernatural ghosts, ghosts of memories, ghosts of choices not made, ghosts of nations, and ghosts of beloved cars. Again, Cady is hard to categorize. Like ghosts, the stories are slippery, and don't follow standard structures or tropes. That's part of why Cady is so fun to read, and why his work would be so good for discussion.

So . . . more people should be reading Cady. The end.

hopedecays's review

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

satan_is_back's review

informative medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0