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bamjam's review against another edition
3.0
[I received this signed copy of the book during a Goodreads giveaway. Thank you to the publisher and author for providing it.]
I read this book awhile ago so the details are a little hazy but I’ll try to recollect my thoughts on the novel as best I can. I really like the cover of this book! It looks gritty and rustic. It’s not particularly pretty but it’s perfect for the kind of story it’s telling. The title is interesting, but I don’t really understand why it is the title; probably something went over my head.
Writing and Plot
The book is quite short, and has a slow pace which is a much better combination that long and slow. I didn’t mind the slowness, though, and thought that the pace was just right. I liked the writing, but it didn’t blow me away. It conveyed what I needed to know and didn’t bog itself down with prose, which is a plus; I prefer straight-forward writing. There wasn’t much suspense until the end. I spent time trying to see if I could figure out which brother would end up killing their father, as long as they didn’t figure out about their legacy first. I didn’t like the ending; it left me feeling confused and a little frustrated.
The plot switches every so often to take us to the past, at the exact points during the Bayne family history where the killing of the father occurs, and I found that interesting and not as jarring as that technique usually is for me.
Characters
I don’t remember the characters very well but I do remember not particularly liking any of them. I thought Jordan was too typically a brooding musician type who is a total mess, and his twin Malcolm was a rather boring, ideal son type. I like to read about working-class characters (their lives tend to be far more interesting) but I didn’t really get to see that enough, except during snippets of the past. The supporting characters weren’t particularly interesting either. Elizabeth, Malcom’s fiancée, was sweet but we didn’t really see enough of her, and I honestly don’t remember a thing about their father or Leah, Jordan’s love interest. There wasn’t even a real villain in the novel (other than maybe time and the advancement of technology putting rural areas out of business).
Conclusion
Overall, I didn’t quite enjoy the book as much as I’d hoped. The “mystery” fell flat, the characters didn’t keep me invested and I honestly wish I’d gotten more out of the narrative.
I read this book awhile ago so the details are a little hazy but I’ll try to recollect my thoughts on the novel as best I can. I really like the cover of this book! It looks gritty and rustic. It’s not particularly pretty but it’s perfect for the kind of story it’s telling. The title is interesting, but I don’t really understand why it is the title; probably something went over my head.
Writing and Plot
The book is quite short, and has a slow pace which is a much better combination that long and slow. I didn’t mind the slowness, though, and thought that the pace was just right. I liked the writing, but it didn’t blow me away. It conveyed what I needed to know and didn’t bog itself down with prose, which is a plus; I prefer straight-forward writing. There wasn’t much suspense until the end. I spent time trying to see if I could figure out which brother would end up killing their father, as long as they didn’t figure out about their legacy first
Spoiler
but it didn’t really matter in the end since the curse was forced upon them by some power that was not at all clearSpoiler
I’m sure something went over my head, but Grieves wasn’t very impressive, especially considering he was on the side of the Confederates, and giving birth to twins, and somehow starting the cycle of sons killing fathers, was just bizarre and made no sense.The plot switches every so often to take us to the past, at the exact points during the Bayne family history where the killing of the father occurs, and I found that interesting and not as jarring as that technique usually is for me.
Characters
I don’t remember the characters very well but I do remember not particularly liking any of them. I thought Jordan was too typically a brooding musician type who is a total mess, and his twin Malcolm was a rather boring, ideal son type. I like to read about working-class characters (their lives tend to be far more interesting) but I didn’t really get to see that enough, except during snippets of the past. The supporting characters weren’t particularly interesting either. Elizabeth, Malcom’s fiancée, was sweet but we didn’t really see enough of her, and I honestly don’t remember a thing about their father or Leah, Jordan’s love interest. There wasn’t even a real villain in the novel (other than maybe time and the advancement of technology putting rural areas out of business)
Spoiler
I’d be hard-pressed to refer to Grieves and his accomplice as “villains” since that was never their intention even though they directly oppose the protagonistsConclusion
Overall, I didn’t quite enjoy the book as much as I’d hoped. The “mystery” fell flat, the characters didn’t keep me invested and I honestly wish I’d gotten more out of the narrative.
lucasplusbooks's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
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? Yes
3.25
Slow, arduous and full of questions. This book left me longing for more information but also confused? It was something that was hard to read at times due to extraordinary metaphors and descriptions that seemed almost used as page filler. The story was engrossing and the characters made me think I was back in Arkansas and that's what made this a good read.
sweaters_raindrops's review against another edition
3.0
[I received this signed copy of the book during a Goodreads giveaway. Thank you to the publisher and author for providing it.]
I read this book awhile ago so the details are a little hazy but I’ll try to recollect my thoughts on the novel as best I can. I really like the cover of this book! It looks gritty and rustic. It’s not particularly pretty but it’s perfect for the kind of story it’s telling. The title is interesting, but I don’t really understand why it is the title; probably something went over my head.
Writing and Plot
The book is quite short, and has a slow pace which is a much better combination that long and slow. I didn’t mind the slowness, though, and thought that the pace was just right. I liked the writing, but it didn’t blow me away. It conveyed what I needed to know and didn’t bog itself down with prose, which is a plus; I prefer straight-forward writing. There wasn’t much suspense until the end. I spent time trying to see if I could figure out which brother would end up killing their father, as long as they didn’t figure out about their legacy first. I didn’t like the ending; it left me feeling confused and a little frustrated.
The plot switches every so often to take us to the past, at the exact points during the Bayne family history where the killing of the father occurs, and I found that interesting and not as jarring as that technique usually is for me.
Characters
I don’t remember the characters very well but I do remember not particularly liking any of them. I thought Jordan was too typically a brooding musician type who is a total mess, and his twin Malcolm was a rather boring, ideal son type. I like to read about working-class characters (their lives tend to be far more interesting) but I didn’t really get to see that enough, except during snippets of the past. The supporting characters weren’t particularly interesting either. Elizabeth, Malcom’s fiancée, was sweet but we didn’t really see enough of her, and I honestly don’t remember a thing about their father or Leah, Jordan’s love interest. There wasn’t even a real villain in the novel (other than maybe time and the advancement of technology putting rural areas out of business).
Conclusion
Overall, I didn’t quite enjoy the book as much as I’d hoped. The “mystery” fell flat, the characters didn’t keep me invested and I honestly wish I’d gotten more out of the narrative.
I read this book awhile ago so the details are a little hazy but I’ll try to recollect my thoughts on the novel as best I can. I really like the cover of this book! It looks gritty and rustic. It’s not particularly pretty but it’s perfect for the kind of story it’s telling. The title is interesting, but I don’t really understand why it is the title; probably something went over my head.
Writing and Plot
The book is quite short, and has a slow pace which is a much better combination that long and slow. I didn’t mind the slowness, though, and thought that the pace was just right. I liked the writing, but it didn’t blow me away. It conveyed what I needed to know and didn’t bog itself down with prose, which is a plus; I prefer straight-forward writing. There wasn’t much suspense until the end. I spent time trying to see if I could figure out which brother would end up killing their father, as long as they didn’t figure out about their legacy first
Spoiler
but it didn’t really matter in the end since the curse was forced upon them by some power that was not at all clearSpoiler
I’m sure something went over my head, but Grieves wasn’t very impressive, especially considering he was on the side of the Confederates, and giving birth to twins, and somehow starting the cycle of sons killing fathers, was just bizarre and made no sense.The plot switches every so often to take us to the past, at the exact points during the Bayne family history where the killing of the father occurs, and I found that interesting and not as jarring as that technique usually is for me.
Characters
I don’t remember the characters very well but I do remember not particularly liking any of them. I thought Jordan was too typically a brooding musician type who is a total mess, and his twin Malcolm was a rather boring, ideal son type. I like to read about working-class characters (their lives tend to be far more interesting) but I didn’t really get to see that enough, except during snippets of the past. The supporting characters weren’t particularly interesting either. Elizabeth, Malcom’s fiancée, was sweet but we didn’t really see enough of her, and I honestly don’t remember a thing about their father or Leah, Jordan’s love interest. There wasn’t even a real villain in the novel (other than maybe time and the advancement of technology putting rural areas out of business)
Spoiler
I’d be hard-pressed to refer to Grieves and his accomplice as “villains” since that was never their intention even though they directly oppose the protagonistsConclusion
Overall, I didn’t quite enjoy the book as much as I’d hoped. The “mystery” fell flat, the characters didn’t keep me invested and I honestly wish I’d gotten more out of the narrative.
expendablemudge's review
2.0
Rating: 2.5* of five
The Publisher Says: Jordan is a country musician living in the shadow of his father, legendary bluegrass musician Walker Bayne. A lifetime of poor decisions has led him on an endless tour of San Antonio dive bars, where between sets he resumes accruing women and drinking himself to the brink of disaster.
Returning home to the Ozarks for the wedding of his twin brother, Jordan uncovers a dark vein in the Bayne family history: going back to the end of the Civil War, every generation of Bayne men have been twins--and one twin has always murdered their father.
As old tensions resurface, Jordan searches out the surreal origins of his family and a way to escape the murder that is his inheritance. Following the brothers' every move are a mysterious hill dweller and his grotesque partner, a duo that will stop at nothing to make sure the Baynes' cursed legacy lives on.
My Review: From page 195:
Oh dear.
Weakness twice. Once it decimates then it saps. Somehow his sapped decimation still allows him to fold back covers. Someone is sitting in the room looking at him and his inner-ear drum (as opposed to the outer-ear one) is pierced by ringing but he can barely hear over the sound of his own breathing and, when he flexes his jaw, the (inanimate ergo voiceless) room goes mute.
There is so, so much more of this on the other pages, this words slightly misused, this metaphors so mixed they'd break every racial purity law ever drafted, this clangorous overwrought writerly performance anxiety that I want to take the Dzanc people, heretofore in my highest esteem and most grateful graces, out to the woodshed for some serious bastinado-ing.
Gorgeous jacket, elegant text design, good-quality paper, praise from authors whose work I like and respect; and yet this is not a good book, so I can't get it up to fake a nice-person review. Not even because it was an early birthday present from a certain young man who is doing his damnedest to dig himself out of a really, really deep hole he dug for himself. It's a shame someone paid an advance for this, paid to edit it, paid to design, copyedit, proofread, print, and bind it, when it should live in the author's top drawer and another, better book now languishing in a similar top drawer should be here gladdening my heart with its aesthetic merits.
Instead, I'm ticking demerit after demerit off what was a very good idea (yes, Young Gentleman Caller, you chose well, this is my kind of story) whose promised parts...father/son musical rivalry, supernatural shenanigans foretold in an excellent dream sequence...just fail to cohere into the augured configuration.
Failure to launch.
The Publisher Says: Jordan is a country musician living in the shadow of his father, legendary bluegrass musician Walker Bayne. A lifetime of poor decisions has led him on an endless tour of San Antonio dive bars, where between sets he resumes accruing women and drinking himself to the brink of disaster.
Returning home to the Ozarks for the wedding of his twin brother, Jordan uncovers a dark vein in the Bayne family history: going back to the end of the Civil War, every generation of Bayne men have been twins--and one twin has always murdered their father.
As old tensions resurface, Jordan searches out the surreal origins of his family and a way to escape the murder that is his inheritance. Following the brothers' every move are a mysterious hill dweller and his grotesque partner, a duo that will stop at nothing to make sure the Baynes' cursed legacy lives on.
My Review: From page 195:
Andridge woke beneath the considered gaze of a young girl. Weakness decimated his attempts to move or speak. He was tucked beneath a blanket in a comfortable bed in a clean, well-kept house. Daylight glowed through the blind drawn over the only window. He folded back the covers and basked in the relief of fresh air on his skin. Regaining his senses overwhelmed him at first. Weakness sapped his muscles,
stiffness spread to the rigid tips of his toes. A high-pitched ringing pierced the drum of his inner ear,
when he flexed his jaw the room went mute. His tongue flopped foreign in his mouth, and he could still barely hear past his own breathing.
Oh dear.
Weakness twice. Once it decimates then it saps. Somehow his sapped decimation still allows him to fold back covers. Someone is sitting in the room looking at him and his inner-ear drum (as opposed to the outer-ear one) is pierced by ringing but he can barely hear over the sound of his own breathing and, when he flexes his jaw, the (inanimate ergo voiceless) room goes mute.
There is so, so much more of this on the other pages, this words slightly misused, this metaphors so mixed they'd break every racial purity law ever drafted, this clangorous overwrought writerly performance anxiety that I want to take the Dzanc people, heretofore in my highest esteem and most grateful graces, out to the woodshed for some serious bastinado-ing.
Gorgeous jacket, elegant text design, good-quality paper, praise from authors whose work I like and respect; and yet this is not a good book, so I can't get it up to fake a nice-person review. Not even because it was an early birthday present from a certain young man who is doing his damnedest to dig himself out of a really, really deep hole he dug for himself. It's a shame someone paid an advance for this, paid to edit it, paid to design, copyedit, proofread, print, and bind it, when it should live in the author's top drawer and another, better book now languishing in a similar top drawer should be here gladdening my heart with its aesthetic merits.
Instead, I'm ticking demerit after demerit off what was a very good idea (yes, Young Gentleman Caller, you chose well, this is my kind of story) whose promised parts...father/son musical rivalry, supernatural shenanigans foretold in an excellent dream sequence...just fail to cohere into the augured configuration.
Failure to launch.
bamjam's review
3.0
[I received this signed copy of the book during a Goodreads giveaway. Thank you to the publisher and author for providing it.]
I read this book awhile ago so the details are a little hazy but I’ll try to recollect my thoughts on the novel as best I can. I really like the cover of this book! It looks gritty and rustic. It’s not particularly pretty but it’s perfect for the kind of story it’s telling. The title is interesting, but I don’t really understand why it is the title; probably something went over my head.
Writing and Plot
The book is quite short, and has a slow pace which is a much better combination that long and slow. I didn’t mind the slowness, though, and thought that the pace was just right. I liked the writing, but it didn’t blow me away. It conveyed what I needed to know and didn’t bog itself down with prose, which is a plus; I prefer straight-forward writing. There wasn’t much suspense until the end. I spent time trying to see if I could figure out which brother would end up killing their father, as long as they didn’t figure out about their legacy first but it didn’t really matter in the end since the curse was forced upon them by some power that was not at all clear . I didn’t like the ending; it left me feeling confused and a little frustrated. I’m sure something went over my head, but Grieves wasn’t very impressive, especially considering he was on the side of the Confederates, and giving birth to twins, and somehow starting the cycle of sons killing fathers, was just bizarre and made no sense.
The plot switches every so often to take us to the past, at the exact points during the Bayne family history where the killing of the father occurs, and I found that interesting and not as jarring as that technique usually is for me.
Characters
I don’t remember the characters very well but I do remember not particularly liking any of them. I thought Jordan was too typically a brooding musician type who is a total mess, and his twin Malcolm was a rather boring, ideal son type. I like to read about working-class characters (their lives tend to be far more interesting) but I didn’t really get to see that enough, except during snippets of the past. The supporting characters weren’t particularly interesting either. Elizabeth, Malcom’s fiancée, was sweet but we didn’t really see enough of her, and I honestly don’t remember a thing about their father or Leah, Jordan’s love interest. There wasn’t even a real villain in the novel (other than maybe time and the advancement of technology putting rural areas out of business) I’d be hard-pressed to refer to Grieves and his accomplice as “villains” since that was never their intention even though they directly oppose the protagonists .
Conclusion
Overall, I didn’t quite enjoy the book as much as I’d hoped. The “mystery” fell flat, the characters didn’t keep me invested and I honestly wish I’d gotten more out of the narrative.
I read this book awhile ago so the details are a little hazy but I’ll try to recollect my thoughts on the novel as best I can. I really like the cover of this book! It looks gritty and rustic. It’s not particularly pretty but it’s perfect for the kind of story it’s telling. The title is interesting, but I don’t really understand why it is the title; probably something went over my head.
Writing and Plot
The book is quite short, and has a slow pace which is a much better combination that long and slow. I didn’t mind the slowness, though, and thought that the pace was just right. I liked the writing, but it didn’t blow me away. It conveyed what I needed to know and didn’t bog itself down with prose, which is a plus; I prefer straight-forward writing. There wasn’t much suspense until the end. I spent time trying to see if I could figure out which brother would end up killing their father, as long as they didn’t figure out about their legacy first
The plot switches every so often to take us to the past, at the exact points during the Bayne family history where the killing of the father occurs, and I found that interesting and not as jarring as that technique usually is for me.
Characters
I don’t remember the characters very well but I do remember not particularly liking any of them. I thought Jordan was too typically a brooding musician type who is a total mess, and his twin Malcolm was a rather boring, ideal son type. I like to read about working-class characters (their lives tend to be far more interesting) but I didn’t really get to see that enough, except during snippets of the past. The supporting characters weren’t particularly interesting either. Elizabeth, Malcom’s fiancée, was sweet but we didn’t really see enough of her, and I honestly don’t remember a thing about their father or Leah, Jordan’s love interest. There wasn’t even a real villain in the novel (other than maybe time and the advancement of technology putting rural areas out of business)
Conclusion
Overall, I didn’t quite enjoy the book as much as I’d hoped. The “mystery” fell flat, the characters didn’t keep me invested and I honestly wish I’d gotten more out of the narrative.
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