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3.54 AVERAGE
3.54 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Loveable characters:
Yes
really compelling mystery, i was scratching my head
Joel Whitley left his small, conservative hometown as fast as he could after being outed as gay in one of the most revealing ways possible. He feels guilty though that he's hardly kept in contact with his much younger brother, Dylan, who is now the star quarterback of his high school's football team. Out of the blue, Joel receives strange texts from Dylan saying that he doesn't want to play football anymore and that he doesn't want to "go to the bright lands anymore." Joel drops everything to rescue his brother from the same town he was burned by, but before he can talk to him, Dylan has already disappeared.
This was an interesting one. I never knew when I turned the page what could be coming, or what type of horror/thriller this would end up being. For most intents and purposes, I think this should be marketed as a thriller, as it resembled many crime thriller movies and shows I've enjoyed (in fact, I think this would make a cool miniseries). What did I like about this book? I thought that the short chapters and seeing things from tons of different perspectives of people in the town was a great way to present this story in particular. This angle of a queer-in-a-small-town story isn't something I've seen a lot of, so I appreciated that. I thought Fram also nailed the suffocating small town atmosphere, of neighbors breathing down your neck and not being allowed to be different. I thought the ending action was really well done. While the "answers" didn't necessarily go where I was guessing they would, I thought they played well into the themes. What was I less a fan of? I thought that the pacing was a little strange, partially because landmark events happened either much sooner or later than I would have anticipated for this type of story. Also, I feel like I'm unclear as to how speculative this story was. Lastly, I'm a bit on the fence as to what the themes are meant to be. On one hand, I can see the discussions of how younger queer people are taken advantage of, but there are some narrative choices that almost seem to punish queerness(?), so I'm a bit lost.
Overall, this was a thriller that gave me strong bingeable-small-town-crime-show vibes, and I appreciated seeing a queer voice in the thriller/horror community. I'd definitely be interested in picking up future books by this author.
This was an interesting one. I never knew when I turned the page what could be coming, or what type of horror/thriller this would end up being. For most intents and purposes, I think this should be marketed as a thriller, as it resembled many crime thriller movies and shows I've enjoyed (in fact, I think this would make a cool miniseries). What did I like about this book? I thought that the short chapters and seeing things from tons of different perspectives of people in the town was a great way to present this story in particular. This angle of a queer-in-a-small-town story isn't something I've seen a lot of, so I appreciated that. I thought Fram also nailed the suffocating small town atmosphere, of neighbors breathing down your neck and not being allowed to be different. I thought the ending action was really well done. While the "answers" didn't necessarily go where I was guessing they would, I thought they played well into the themes. What was I less a fan of? I thought that the pacing was a little strange, partially because landmark events happened either much sooner or later than I would have anticipated for this type of story. Also, I feel like I'm unclear as to how speculative this story was. Lastly, I'm a bit on the fence as to what the themes are meant to be. On one hand, I can see the discussions of how younger queer people are taken advantage of, but there are some narrative choices that almost seem to punish queerness(?), so I'm a bit lost.
Overall, this was a thriller that gave me strong bingeable-small-town-crime-show vibes, and I appreciated seeing a queer voice in the thriller/horror community. I'd definitely be interested in picking up future books by this author.
Very interesting book with an incredibly unique plot! There aren’t enough LGBTQ+ thrillers, and I’m glad John Fram is at the forefront to change that. Overall, I found the book gripping, exciting, and oh so original. It’s definitely worth the read. My only issues were rather small. First, there were a few awkward phrases and sayings that occasionally jarred me while reading, also, there are parts of this book that will leave a peculiar taste in your mouth, and I didn’t feel necessary to the plot. Finally my biggest issue was the narrative seemed to stretch out the big “reveal” waaaaay too long, and I found myself around the 70-80% point just wanting to see the big bad. I was not disappointed when it happened however! I appreciate how Fram dropped little nuggets which weaves into the narrative further on in the story. I love when writers do this! Dan Simons is great at it, as is Fram. Overall a solid 4/5 and I definitely recommend!
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Ten years ago, back when he would meet Troy here, he had always seen the First Baptist Church's steeple in his rearview mirror, watching him from back in town. Now, with the church gone, there was nothing on the horizon but the football field's tall halogen field lights. They seemed to follow him wherever he went.
Joel wondered if they might not have been the steeples of this town's true religion all along.
Have you ever watched a gymnast go through an awesome uneven bars routine and then when it came time for the dismount they just faceplanted into the mat and didn't get up? That's what this book felt like to me.
Don't get me wrong, I was having a blast... with the first 90% of this book. Basically the set up is that an out-and-proud gay guy living in NYC comes back home to his bigoted small Texan town for the first time in a decade to visit his younger brother who's a senior in high school and the quarterback for the football team. This younger brother is basically a local celebrity and the town reveres the sport to the point of being an unhealthy obsession. There is unease and tension and a foreboding sense of "something fucking weird is going on around here," right from the get-go, and I was all about it. It also was a little too good at depicting high school culture and brought up some of my own memories from that era (doubly so because the main character graduated from high school himself back in '07, same as me).
The story turns into a murder mystery that may or may not be related to a similar disappearance a decade earlier, and there are tons of satisfying twists and turns that kept pulling me in deeper. There's also strange hints of something maybe supernatural happening in the background, but there's always just enough plausible deniability that allowed the characters experiencing this weird shit to hand-waive it away in a way that didn't feel cheap.
And then there's the big reveal.
The reveal wherein the reader discovers what and where 'The Bright Lands' really are. And I just... have not been disappointed in a book like this in quite some time. Without giving anything away, it wasn't that it was too mundane or too far beyond my suspension of disbelief to accept, but rather it just felt like something that didn't even make sense within the fiction. It felt like an inconsistent tone shift that came from a completely different book. It might have benefited from leaning even harder into the supernatural elements rather than just flirting with it.
Also one of the overall messages I came away with was that if you're a closeted queer kid in a homophobic town, things actually don't get better if you manage to escape because your life just becomes materialistic and empty because gay men can't form lasting relationships? Which is absurd and demonstrably untrue. I believe there was also an attempt at a message on the importance of family, but that didn't really work either when the mother of the two brothers is largely a non-character for the majority of the book.
Still, the first, I don't know, three quarters of the book is good. If you decide to pick this one up, I recommend taking notes because between the football team, all of their girlfriends, all the parents, and the entire police department there are honest to god about 30 named characters in this book that are all plot relevant at one point or another. I committed myself to reading a good chunk of this in one day (again, I was having fun up until the end), and even then I was struggling to remember who was who. If I was just treating it as maybe a chapter or two a night, I would've gotten confused trying to remember all these names floating around.
Joel wondered if they might not have been the steeples of this town's true religion all along.
Have you ever watched a gymnast go through an awesome uneven bars routine and then when it came time for the dismount they just faceplanted into the mat and didn't get up? That's what this book felt like to me.
Don't get me wrong, I was having a blast... with the first 90% of this book. Basically the set up is that an out-and-proud gay guy living in NYC comes back home to his bigoted small Texan town for the first time in a decade to visit his younger brother who's a senior in high school and the quarterback for the football team. This younger brother is basically a local celebrity and the town reveres the sport to the point of being an unhealthy obsession. There is unease and tension and a foreboding sense of "something fucking weird is going on around here," right from the get-go, and I was all about it. It also was a little too good at depicting high school culture and brought up some of my own memories from that era (doubly so because the main character graduated from high school himself back in '07, same as me).
The story turns into a murder mystery that may or may not be related to a similar disappearance a decade earlier, and there are tons of satisfying twists and turns that kept pulling me in deeper. There's also strange hints of something maybe supernatural happening in the background, but there's always just enough plausible deniability that allowed the characters experiencing this weird shit to hand-waive it away in a way that didn't feel cheap.
And then there's the big reveal.
The reveal wherein the reader discovers what and where 'The Bright Lands' really are. And I just... have not been disappointed in a book like this in quite some time. Without giving anything away, it wasn't that it was too mundane or too far beyond my suspension of disbelief to accept, but rather it just felt like something that didn't even make sense within the fiction. It felt like an inconsistent tone shift that came from a completely different book. It might have benefited from leaning even harder into the supernatural elements rather than just flirting with it.
Also one of the overall messages I came away with was that if you're a closeted queer kid in a homophobic town, things actually don't get better if you manage to escape because your life just becomes materialistic and empty because gay men can't form lasting relationships? Which is absurd and demonstrably untrue. I believe there was also an attempt at a message on the importance of family, but that didn't really work either when the mother of the two brothers is largely a non-character for the majority of the book.
Still, the first, I don't know, three quarters of the book is good. If you decide to pick this one up, I recommend taking notes because between the football team, all of their girlfriends, all the parents, and the entire police department there are honest to god about 30 named characters in this book that are all plot relevant at one point or another. I committed myself to reading a good chunk of this in one day (again, I was having fun up until the end), and even then I was struggling to remember who was who. If I was just treating it as maybe a chapter or two a night, I would've gotten confused trying to remember all these names floating around.
dark
emotional
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
4&1/2 Stars
Man I just loved this to pieces.
I’ll write more later, but I’ve gotta process my emotions
Man I just loved this to pieces.
I’ll write more later, but I’ve gotta process my emotions
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-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