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bunnieslikediamonds's review against another edition
5.0
These are dark and violent stories about desperate people with nothing left to lose. Yet they contain at least a shred of hope and enough compassion to keep them from being relentlessly bleak. Also, they're very good. The Water Tower, This Is where The Road Ends, Saving Doll and Chicken are just some of my favorites. Mantooth is a skilled writer who, thankfully, doesn't shove his talent in your face. He keeps it simple, tells the story, rips your heart out and leaves you feeling like you just got run over by a bus. A school bus, most likely.
ladyofways's review against another edition
3.0
Fairly well-written collection of short stories; all pretty depressing and negative about the general state of humanity. I can never tell if these kinds of story collections intentionally re-use specific themes/scenes or if that's just the specific author? This author's writing apparently revolves a lot around trailers/trailer parks, violence, alcoholism, (step-)parental child abuse, and school buses getting hit by trains. It's also very Southern/Appalachian, even before getting to the one with the almost Lovecraftian "mountain people".
Favorites:
"Thirteen Scenes From Your Twenty-Fourth Year" - Excellent use of second person, plus the "scenes" and time jumps really set the tone. The last page, when he'sat his mother's deathbed , was my favorite section of the entire book, and I say that as someone who's own mother died at home due to a slow, fatal illness (which also took her ability to talk; the similarity was uncanny).
"Saving Doll" - One of the few with a female main character, and she's quite well-sketched. I enjoyed the sense of inevitability(of course Missy doesn't get to run, of course it's the Coach, of course her brother can't be trusted) , while maintaining the suspense (I was not expecting her mom to take charge) .
"Walk the Wheat" - Cool ghost(ish) story, and I thought it was the most effective at incorporating the alcoholism, violence, and child abuse.
Dislikes:
"Sucky" - Ugh, just too conceptual and emotionally muddy. Plus every time I read the word "sucky" I shuddered; maybe that was intentional, but ugh.
"James" - Also too conceptual; took me way too long to understand the jumping around and then it ended up not feeling worth the formatting.
"On the Mountain" - Reminded me eerily of Lovecraft's anti-mountain people stories, and ended really abruptly.
Favorites:
"Thirteen Scenes From Your Twenty-Fourth Year" - Excellent use of second person, plus the "scenes" and time jumps really set the tone. The last page, when he's
"Saving Doll" - One of the few with a female main character, and she's quite well-sketched. I enjoyed the sense of inevitability
"Walk the Wheat" - Cool ghost(ish) story, and I thought it was the most effective at incorporating the alcoholism, violence, and child abuse.
Dislikes:
"Sucky" - Ugh, just too conceptual and emotionally muddy. Plus every time I read the word "sucky" I shuddered; maybe that was intentional, but ugh.
"James" - Also too conceptual; took me way too long to understand the jumping around and then it ended up not feeling worth the formatting.
"On the Mountain" - Reminded me eerily of Lovecraft's anti-mountain people stories, and ended really abruptly.
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