Reviews with content warning for Cancer - The Life We Bury

I'm trying to read more of my owned books in 2023 and this is one of many audiobooks I've had in my Audible library for years and never listened to. When I was scrolling through my audible app, the wintery cover caught my eye, and that's pretty much how I came to finally listen to this. Mysteries and thrillers are not usually my genre, so I'm not sure why I bought this in the first place. Maybe it was a daily deal? Anyway, I did like the narrator, Zach Villa. He kind of sounded like a young Armie Hammer. The story was decent, but a little predictable. I didn't connect with any of the characters enough to want to read more of Esken's novels, which are apparently all set in the same Minnesota town. Overall, it was okay/fine. Mostly I'm just glad to finally mark this as read and move on to another book.

Series: On his website, Esken says, "My books are not a series, but rather character arcs that revolve around a small community."

Genres: Mystery, Thriller

Tags: winter, amateur detective, college-age MC

Setting: Minnesota, in late fall and early winter

Protagonist: Joe Talbert

Point-of-View: 1st person, past tense

Length: 8h 24m, 333 pages, 90k words (novel)

Format: audiobook from Audible

Narrator: Zach Villa

Read Date: 08 Jan 2023

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richhomiebi's review

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funny reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

wow. just wow. i was on the edge of my seat. the characters are so charming, i found myself falling in love with them all. i cried. a lot. i’m a sap.

it had a fair amount of funny moments too, among all the darkness that is the murder they unravel.

so glad this was recommended to me, i would recommend it too.

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debimorton's review

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.5

College student, Convicted murderer, autistic brother, terrible mother, neighbor girl. Convict dying of cancer in nursing home. First person narrative. Joe, Lila, Carl, Jeremy

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shibaunited's review

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dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

Great story, engaging writing and narration. There are a few weird sexist comments and some racial comments which are intentional. But overall the story is good.

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lostinthelibrary's review against another edition

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dark tense fast-paced

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

2.75

This book had an interesting premise and started well. I really liked the protagonist especially his relationship with his brother. I was hoping for a dark book that would look at how people are judged and whose version of events we could really trust and I did get glimpses of that at first.

However, the last third of the book (general spoiler, not specific)

devolved into a generic crime thriller plot with a cartoonish villain and 'action' scenes

. Very disappointing, I wanted more than surface level.

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in_love_with_bookish's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes

3.5

A Buddy-Read with Warda

3.5 Stars

As mysteries go, This book isn’t anything I haven’t read before. But there’s something deeply human about the story that hooked me and made me invested from the start.

What if I was wrong? What if there was no other side. What if, in all the eons of eternity, this was the one and only time that I would be alive. How would I live my life if that were the case?

The story revolves around Joe Talbert, a college student with the task of interviewing a complete stranger and writing a brief biography for his English class. Even though Joe is already going through a lot with his life, everything will be even harder for him when he meets Carl Iverson, A Vietnam veteran dying of Cancer and a convicted murderer.

As Joe grows to know Carl more, He can’t believe that he’s capable of committing the crime he’s been convicted for. The history of Carl as a Veteran and his story as the murderer of a 16-year-old girl clash together in Joe's mind and soon he finds himself digging into what actually happened in the past trying to uncover the truth.

He was a quiet man who could command attention with a simple glance or nod, a man who possessed equal part strength and gentleness and wore them, not in layers, but blended like fine leather.

Now When it comes to the mystery, I enjoyed it more in the first half of the book because I really thought it wasn’t going the predictable route but when everything started to click for the characters, I knew what was going to happen and that predictability took away from the appeal.

But the way the author wrote the mystery and how he executed the investigation kept the whole thing grounded in reality and made it really believable so I appreciate that strongly.

No matter how hard you try, there are some things you just can't run away from.

Now the best thing about the book is the characters and the different dynamics that exist between them. I couldn’t help but root for Joe, our protagonist and I was really invested in his story and especially his relationship with his brother versus his relationship with his mother. His struggles as a big brother and as a son are written really well and gave so much depth to his character. He was written so vividly, I just felt everything he was going through and I completely understood why he did everything he did.

The story is emotional and sad and it’s equally character and plot-driven. I really admire how efficient the author’s way of balancing the progression of the mystery with the more intimate personal struggles of the characters. The story tackles a lot of issues and they’re all really hard-hitting and the author almost does everything justice, almost.

We do have control of how much of our soul we leave behind in this mess. Don't ever forget that. We do still have some choices.

Now, I felt the depiction of parental neglect and abuse to be done really well. The author demonstrates honestly how draining and heartbreaking it is for children to be abused and mistreated by the people who are supposed to protect them.

But unfortunately, I didn’t like the way the subject of rape was handled in this book. Every time the author was trying to paint a male character as despicable, he used rape as a way to convey that and I didn’t like that at all. I think the issue needed to be written in a more sensitive way.

The Life We Bury was equally surprising and predictable to me. I really enjoyed the character work done in this book but the mystery was not mind-blowing. The book has a lot of dark moments but it also was touching and delicate at times. I’m really curious about the next books in the series. I’ll definitely be picking up the next one as soon as possible.

I drew in a breath of crisp December air and stood perfectly still, savoring the feel, the sound, and the smell of the world around me, sensations that would have passed by me unnoticed had I never met Carl Iverson.

Content Warnings

the_write_to_cry's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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