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guppyur's review against another edition
3.0
This was a book club pick. I quite enjoyed it. It's set in the '50s, and the premise, as the Goodreads blurb notes, involves desecration of dead bodies in a small Southern town, but most of it is about a protagonist's desperate flight to report it to someone who will listen before he's caught and killed. Not too much more I can say plotwise without venturing into spoiler territory.
Since I didn't care for the last book club pick, I was pretty stoked to have enjoyed this one. The writing is strong; the first sentence is pretty flowery, and while I enjoyed it, I was initially worried it would make the novel too hard to read, but Gay doesn't spend the entire novel dropping descriptors on you by the shovelful and it's perfectly readable.
Since I didn't care for the last book club pick, I was pretty stoked to have enjoyed this one. The writing is strong; the first sentence is pretty flowery, and while I enjoyed it, I was initially worried it would make the novel too hard to read, but Gay doesn't spend the entire novel dropping descriptors on you by the shovelful and it's perfectly readable.
ryantlabee's review against another edition
4.0
I mean, honestly, this is probably closer to a 4.7 or something. It’s almost a perfect piece of southern gothic fiction.
jmoore43's review against another edition
dark
funny
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
liz1999's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
mazer_nickham's review against another edition
3.0
Despite being only 225 pages, it took me forever to read this book. I had the hardest time getting into it. The main problem is that it feels like an extended short story. The meat of the story is quite entertaining, and in that sense, William Gay lives up to the accolade he received from Stephen King. However, the other parts, which seem to serve as "world-builders," introducing unimportant characters who live in backwoods Tennessee and such, drag the book down. William Gay is quite a writer and provides amazing passages and descriptions of the surroundings, but these too seem long-winded. This one's tough to recommend.
leahreadsalot's review against another edition
4.0
This was wild. Not for the faint of heart. But still quite good
gothkicks's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
woltram's review against another edition
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.0
saltycorpse's review against another edition
3.0
Solid Southern Gothic with elements of folktales and fables, and prose pretty heavily influenced by Cormac McCarthy. A good read but in the long run not memorable (though it made a valiant attempt to be with the whole necrophilia thing).