Reviews

Shotgun Lovesongs by Nickolas Butler

libbyraebelle's review against another edition

5.0

I have one criticism of this book - there is not a single town in Wisconsin with only one bar - no matter how small, all Wisco towns have a minimum of 3 bars. That's truly my only criticism of this book - it is stunningly beautiful, I could have read 400 more pages of these characters and the town of Little Wing. Perfect.

emckeon1002's review against another edition

4.0

A bit of a rant before the review. I've come to admit that I like a book with a story that carries me, characters who act like you would expect real humans to act, and one that elicits an emotional response. And I want it written well. As an English major four decades ago, I read lots of book which rebelled against plot, character, sentimentality. It was all about intellectual stimulation. I think I understood and was challenged by a lot of Joyce, but I loved Dickens. Nothing wrong with intellectual stimulation, of course, but fancy language, tortured sentence structure, slavery to style (or breaking style), and the need to prove that a work is intellectually and artistically stimulating, in the end, just bores the hell out of me. I close those books and put them down now. Of course, there are books that are written beautifully, plotted well, with strong characters and lovely use of language, that are intellectually stimulating, and that's the best of all worlds. This is a damned good book. It's got a great plot and characters. Written well, with straightforward American English. And it touched me. I picked it up because Butler lives in the town in Wisconsin where Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) wrote For Emma, Forever Ago. There's a character in the book who was obviously inspired by Vernon. The idea of reading about a long-suffering musician who finds fame after holing up in his old hometown, and then returning a star, seemed an intriguing read. It is. It's about friendship, family, love and love of place. I liked it.

enml's review against another edition

5.0

Probably closer to a 4.5 - I binged the audio version and loved it, but part of the ending lost me a bit which is why the actual 4.5 rating

lindseysparks's review against another edition

1.0

I got about 60 pages in before getting too annoyed to go on. The first chapter was great and had me hooked, but then the narrator switched. I like stories with multiple narrators, but not when they all sound exactly the same. I kept going but then I got to Ronny's chapter, who is clearly portrayed in the previous chapters as being a bit slow due to a rodeo accident and was never very bright to begin with, and he sounds exactly the same as the rock star and educated Chicago finance guy. That drives me crazy. Just go with third person or one narrator if you can't make each one sound different. The story didn't interest me enough to continue after that.

bandrh's review against another edition

hopeful slow-paced

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

3.5

britmw's review against another edition

4.0

Nice quick read - I enjoyed seeing each character's perspective.

amycrea's review against another edition

3.0

There were parts of this book that I liked, but I think overall the book would have been better served told in the third person. There are 5 first-person narrators in this book, and after a while, they all sounded the same. Some of the plot was overly predictable, and a couple of plot points toward the end seemed to serve no purpose whatsoever.

mihiks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

htsmusicmaven's review against another edition

4.0

Notes: If possible I would've given this a 3.75. I enjoyed the multiple narrators quite a bit and I bet this would be a great book to listen to while on a road trip. Something about the music aspect, the descriptions, and the lifelong friendships seem like they would be the perfect accompaniment to the open road of the highway.

As for the story, the characters are well developed and I liked the multiple viewpoints and the way it jump back and forth in time. It kept a relatively "untwisty" story a bit more interesting.

jeffmauch's review against another edition

5.0

Once in a while a book just hits you hard at the right time and place in your life, this is one of those books. I knew 30 pages in that I would devour this one and love it, so much so that I tried to spread the reading out a bit. This book does an incredible job of giving a sense of place. It takes place in a small town just outside of Eau Claire, WI and feels familiar to me on a level that I don't ever remember a book doing before. The characters are incredibly relatable and feel like I could walk out my front door here and meet them. This book is mostly a telling of how friendships and relationships within a group wax, wane, and change over the years, especially how they go from being effortless in our carefree adolescence to much more complex and at times challenging as adults. This is a really good one, and just went into the Favorites pile, check it out.