Reviews

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

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4.0

This was wild. Not for the faint of heart. But still quite good

gothkicks's review against another edition

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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

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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

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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).

loganmedrano's review

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

3.0

Content Warnings

cwnovak's review against another edition

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dark tense

4.5

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