Reviews with content warning for Domestic abuse - The Life We Bury

OH MY GOSH. THIS IS SUCH A GOOD BOOK. I LOVE IT.

I feel like I've found my good murder mystery author. I haven't dived fully into the genre yet, and I've wanted to for a good while now. Allen Eskens writes an action-packed narrative that is FILLED TO THE BRIM with interesting characters and a compelling story. This book is so easy to read, it goes by so fast, and I really appreciate finally reading a fast-paced book for the first time in a while. Joe, despite his ordinary name, is a really diverse and interesting character that you can really connect with after hearing his past life experiences. You can understand his feelings with his psychotic mother, his autistic brother, and even his relationship with Carl.

It's so wholesome and precious, Carl helps him to appreciate life more, and Joe gives Carl peace before he dies. I ALMOST CRIED, IT'S SO SWEET.

I also love Lila Nash as a character, at first she's very stoic and just a blank slate, but then she opens up to Joe and you can understand her completely, as she's also been through a lot.

I wasn't a big fan of their relationship at first, since I didn't see a lot of chemistry between the two, but they really work well together in the investigation, and they're just so cute, since they can be so open with each other. Lila's relationship with Jeremy is also very wholesome, it's so cute how she's so sweet to him.

Carl is such a good character as well, just having undergone these horrible things in Vietnam.

,and is such a sweet guy, and everyone thinks he raped and murdered this girl. *sob* Carl needs JUSTICE for those years spent in prison. It's also a great commentary on the duality of people, since Carl isn't all good. He's killed and he's murdered people before, and his intentions have not always been honorable. But even though he doesn't believe it, he has the heart of a hero. Beautiful.

WHEN I TELL YOU FOR THE SECOND TIME IN A ROW, I FIGURED OUT EVERYTHING BUT THE ACTUAL IDENTITY OF THE KILLER. I'm so good at picking up the clues, I'm just not good at CONNECTING them. GAH.

I mean, decoding the numbers was NOT my doing, and neither was all the DJ stuff...BUT HEY, I GOT MOST OF IT. I DID predict a twist at the end, which there was, and of course it was the stepbrother. OF COURSE. The stepfather was just too obvious, although it was starting to make me believe that he was actually the killer. But no, he's just a dick. Lovely.

What I DIDN'T expect in this book was all the ACTION.

We got Joe getting KIDNAPPED and almost MURDERED, Lila almost gets raped and murdered along with Joe in the climax, at which point I was internally screaming, "NO! NOT LILA! SHE'S ALREADY TRAUMATIZED FROM THAT!" Like, I was not expecting all this ACTION.

It was a nice surprise, though.

Joe and Lila bond over their trauma :) (not that I'm romanticizing it IN ANY WAY, it's just very heartwarming and sweet how they bond).

I got nothing more to say, really. This book is PHENOMENAL and I really enjoyed it, I will definitely be trying to read more by Allen Eskens in the future. 5 STARS!!!!!!

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mostdefinitelystephanie's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

I read this for my library book club. I can't say I loved the book but I liked it good enough. It does read as the first of a series where you'll probably learn more about the characters in the next installment.
The story was interesting though predictable. It kept me engaged and I read this book in a couple days. I mostly listened to the audiobook and the narrator did a good job.
I didn't really like Joe just showing up at a nursing home thinking, "Oh I can just find an old person there." Did he not ever meet a single other person outside his family back in Austin, MN? The director of nursing and receptionist majorly broke HIPAA laws within 5 minutes of meeting him. I feel like Joe is ultimately a good guy but he's too "macho" for me to say I liked him.
I wanted more character development of Lila.

She very quickly went from uninterested neighbor to coming in the room after he was injured to randomly sleep with him and started a relationship with him. It really seemed to me that the author just wanted to put a sex scene in there.

Jeremy's character was very one dimensional as well. I almost feel like he was just used as a prop. I think many on the spectrum would have an issue with his portrayal.
However, I did like Carl. He was probably my favorite character.
Anyway, it's not a book I'll be going out of my way to recommend to others but it was an enjoyable quick read.

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fluture's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

An enjoyable book to be read if you are looking for a light mystery and thriller without plot twists. I love how intense every chapter is, the author knows how to make us feel intrigued to continue reading it in one sit. Each character was described in a way where we were expected to understand why they acted that way now. Although it has predictable plot, it is still worth the read.

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kinreadsbooks's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

Another captivating novel by Allen Eskens. I found parts of this one to be more graphic than some of the others and had a hard time pushing through those parts but still a gripping story, nonetheless. I read the third book in this series first and so going back in time was quite cool - although I really enjoyed the narration from Lila's perspective in the third book even more. Can't wait to keep reading his books.

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friends2lovers's review against another edition

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mysterious sad tense fast-paced

1.5

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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reading_binosaur's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

If I could give this book more stars I absolutely would because it was PHENOMENAL!!!!

Content Warnings

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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