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3.54 AVERAGE
3.54 AVERAGE
Many thanks to Harper Audio for the free audiobook in exchange for an honest review
There are many who pretend to despise and belittle that which is beyond their reach.
-Aesop
For the third time in my reviewing career, I am leaving a book unrated because there are no ratings that feel fair to this book. I originally decided four stars but then went down to three stars and then all the way down to two stars but after drafting this review, I realized that I didn't stand by any of those ratings.
So, what's this book about?
The town of Bentley holds two things dear: its football, and its secrets. But when star quarterback Dylan Whitley goes missing, an unremitting fear grips this remote corner of Texas.
Joel Whitley was shamed out of conservative Bentley ten years ago, and while he’s finally made a life for himself as a gay man in New York, his younger brother’s disappearance soon brings him back to a place he thought he’d escaped for good. Meanwhile, Sheriff’s Deputy Starsha Clark stayed in Bentley; Joel’s return brings back painful memories—not to mention questions—about her own missing brother. And in the high school hallways, Dylan’s friends begin to suspect that their classmates know far more than they’re telling the police. Together, these unlikely allies will stir up secrets their town has long tried to ignore, drawing the attention of dangerous men who will stop at nothing to see that their crimes stay buried.
But no one is quite prepared to face the darkness that’s begun to haunt their nightmares, whispering about a place long thought to be nothing but an urban legend: an empty night, a flicker of light on the horizon—The Bright Lands
This book wasn't bad. It was creepy, gay, and well-written. For a few reasons, it didn't work for me. I cannot stress enough that I am not saying this book is bad. I just didn't enjoy it. Does that make sense?
The first problem wasn't the author's fault. I requested the audio file from HarperAudio. Some publishers will send a file you can download and listen to via a media plyer app. This was the case with Bright Lands. Unfortunately, Apple is super annoying and it took me hours to figure out how to properly play the files. Even after figuring it out, I was so worried that the files were out of order so I kept worrying all the way until I finished the book.
I also felt a detachment from all the characters. I never got a look inside their heads. This story was told mostly without internal thoughts of the characters (aka 3rd person objective) which made the book feel more like a long list of events that happened. Kind of lacking in emotion.
Because of my previously mentioned worrying, I was having a hard time paying attention to the plot. It was mostly enjoyable but towards the end, I started to get a little lost in the weeds. I was able to sort out most of it but there were a few things I had to get clarified after finishing.
There were a LOT of characters and I think that most of them were necessary to the plot but I just... struggled to keep track of all the roles.
All that said, there were quite a few great things that I did enjoy.
This book was so creepy. It gave me Stephen King vibes. The magical realism and horror elements were mixed into the plot in an amazing way that was subtle and unsettling.
I loved the small-town mystery, too. It had a slow build-up but it was excellently written and had a really cool ending.
I loved the gay themes. I won't go into specifics because I feel like I'd be spoiling but the quote I have in the beginning kind of hints at what happens and I loved it, in spite of the fact that it was kind of weird.
I also liked the narrator. He did a great job with voice acting the many (many!) characters and working with tone to make the characters sound different from each other which I really appreciated.
Overall, this book is a great book but due to things no one could control, I didn't really enjoy it. If you're a fan of Stephen King or anything gay (or both), I highly recommend this book!
Bottom Line:
No Rating
Age Rating - [ R ]
Content Screening (Mild Spoilers)
Positive Messages (1/5) - [Leaving toxic communities if needed]
Violence (4/5) - [Gore, Murder, Rape, Fights, Guns, Knives, Stabbing]
Sex (4/5) - [Rape, Sexual Assult, Sexual themes]
Language (3/5) - [F**k, Sh*t, D*ck, F*gg*t]
Drinking/Drugs (3/5) - [Drug misuse, Alcohol consumption]
Content and Trigger Warnings - Explicit sexual themes, Sexual abuse, Nudity, Violence, Homophobia, Death, Loss of a loved one, Horror
Publication Date: July 4th, 2020
Publisher: Hanover Square Press (an imprint of HarperCollins)
Genre: LGBT/Horror
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I waffled back and forth over this rating all night... but I feel like it's fair. The quality of this book was 5 stars but my enjoyment of this book was honestly 2(ish) maybe 3 stars.... soooo
3 stars
review to come
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welp, i am officially a stalker because i've watched about 5 of this author's live streams and i also just found out this is 11/10 on the gay level and if i don't get this book now, i will literally implode
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well, the author described himself as "Stephen Queen" so you know...
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Tense, brutal and graphic. Not for the faint of heart.
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
This must be the gayest small town in Texas and I loved it. He really gave us EVERY POV but it really worked and kept me hooked. The characters were definitely not loveable but at least I wasn't actively rooting against them, except Joel who really was terrible at investigating. Honestly a great, fast-paced story, it only got 0.25 taken off because I'm still somewhat unclear on the ending.
This was a good book. A good debut novel. I do look forward to Mr. Fram’s next book. But, this one was missing a little something for me to go full five-stars. I think the cast of characters was a bit too much. I kept straining my brain to remember who was who and how they knew each other. And the amount of narrators seemed excessive too. I liked the short chapters a lot. Kept me invested. Oh how I dislike long loooooong chapters. The supernatural element was not my favorite. It rarely is in a book tho, so that’s definitely my shortcoming. Loved the LGBTQ+ aspect a lot. Especially set around Texas high school football. The relative coming back to their hometown that they hate etc has been done a million times, but that’s ok. Just overall it’s a four-star read. Really good. Just some stuff that wasn’t my favorite.
dark
mysterious
tense
the first ~300 pgs of this were a really engaging thriller/mystery, but it took off in a very unexpected (and for me, unenjoyable) direction. although, I did really enjoy the writing, I just was not a fan of the how the plot played out
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This book was crazy, especially the end. The beginning of the story and the end actually seem like two completely different books. That wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it definitely took turns I was not expecting. We are reading from multiple points of view, but we mainly follow Joel who left his conservative home town in Texas 10 years ago to move to New York. He ends up returning to this place when his younger brother, the star quarterback of the high school, goes missing. I thought this was just going to be a straight forward mystery, but it had elements of horror and thriller. Some parts were legitimately creepy and it builds up to this moment toward the end where all hell breaks loose. I thought the characterization was a little lacking as was the organization of the story-line. The writing overall wasn’t bad, but I didn’t care much for the dialogue. What was done best was conveying that claustrophobic, all white, judgmental, small town vibe
WOW! I am truly blown away that a debut author such as Fram could string together such a Masterpiece. The Bright Lands had me gripped from the second I finished the first chapter, and kept me on the hook until the last sentence. I would regard this as a modern queer novel, that CANNOT be missed. I see why there are so many comparisons to Stephen King, however I do feel at the same time Fram manages to tell a story that is familiar, but also highly distinct and new.
On a sidenote, without spoiling too much... The actual Bright Lands within the book is TERRIFYING! The concept, the descriptions, I just can't even! And it's scary because I could see it being an actual place!
I would regard the mystery element more enjoyable than the horror, and I say horror mildly as it doesn't encompass the entire story, but rather the final section of the novel. I would like a little more personal focus on the character Dylan, we only really see him from third party perspectives and I would have enjoyed to get to know him more as a character. And character is a slight weak point, I felt like the book could be very clustered at times with soooo many characters, but once I got into the swing of things it became less of an obstacle, but be warned there are a lot of names to remember.
Overall really enjoyed my experience reading this book, and can't wait to see what else Fram produces!
On a sidenote, without spoiling too much... The actual Bright Lands within the book is TERRIFYING! The concept, the descriptions, I just can't even! And it's scary because I could see it being an actual place!
I would regard the mystery element more enjoyable than the horror, and I say horror mildly as it doesn't encompass the entire story, but rather the final section of the novel. I would like a little more personal focus on the character Dylan, we only really see him from third party perspectives and I would have enjoyed to get to know him more as a character. And character is a slight weak point, I felt like the book could be very clustered at times with soooo many characters, but once I got into the swing of things it became less of an obstacle, but be warned there are a lot of names to remember.
Overall really enjoyed my experience reading this book, and can't wait to see what else Fram produces!
I loved most of this. The mystery and the feels of a football obsessed small town. I set this book down for a week and couldn’t get as into it towards the end, and I think it’s because of the amount of characters. I couldn’t keep all of them straight and who was who and by the end I just kept reading to finish.
I finished this book at 2 a.m., less than 24 hours after starting it, then stared into space for a good five minutes afterwards. This book was a ride.