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sophieguillas's review
2.0
I liked the concept and ambiance of this one but I wish more happened. I found it hard to find a thread to follow here.
mcloonejack's review against another edition
5.0
“That’s what pictures are for, after all: to stand in place of things that weren’t left behind, to bear witness to people and places and things that might otherwise go unnoticed.”
Before going any further, the usual complain for John Darnielle: it’s not fair that he’s this good of an author considering how good he is as a songwriter and musician. Anyway…
This is a tight book that manages to be about a lot of things all at once, despite clocking in at only just over 200 pages. Darnielle specifically cites it being about mothers (and who am I to argue), but it’s also about the way we use visual media and to what end, the way a family grieves, the way small disruptions to your daily life can feel inordinately huge, how we deal with gaps in our knowledge, and the paradox of the claustrophobia and freedom of small town middle America. Like I said, he covers a lot of ground, and I’m not even touching on another major point due to spoilers.
Darnielle writes relationships with the best of them, particularly between parents and their children, and Jeremy and Steven is maybe his best so far. But the other parents relationships all feel distinct and real, maturing in clear ways and with a deft hand weaving both perceived and actual interaction.
This balance of external action and internal reflection is handled deftly throughout Universal Harvester in way that again emphasizes Darnielle as truly one of the more gifted fiction writers doing it right now.
It’s truly hard to write a review of this book. I’d put it alongside Piranesi by Susanna Clarke in the sense that the lees you know about it going in the better the experience is. And like Piranesi, accept that this will be confusing and just to keep reading. The ending is surprising and rewarding and while not neat and tidy, it’s fitting and great.
Before going any further, the usual complain for John Darnielle: it’s not fair that he’s this good of an author considering how good he is as a songwriter and musician. Anyway…
This is a tight book that manages to be about a lot of things all at once, despite clocking in at only just over 200 pages. Darnielle specifically cites it being about mothers (and who am I to argue), but it’s also about the way we use visual media and to what end, the way a family grieves, the way small disruptions to your daily life can feel inordinately huge, how we deal with gaps in our knowledge, and the paradox of the claustrophobia and freedom of small town middle America. Like I said, he covers a lot of ground, and I’m not even touching on another major point due to spoilers.
Darnielle writes relationships with the best of them, particularly between parents and their children, and Jeremy and Steven is maybe his best so far. But the other parents relationships all feel distinct and real, maturing in clear ways and with a deft hand weaving both perceived and actual interaction.
This balance of external action and internal reflection is handled deftly throughout Universal Harvester in way that again emphasizes Darnielle as truly one of the more gifted fiction writers doing it right now.
It’s truly hard to write a review of this book. I’d put it alongside Piranesi by Susanna Clarke in the sense that the lees you know about it going in the better the experience is. And like Piranesi, accept that this will be confusing and just to keep reading. The ending is surprising and rewarding and while not neat and tidy, it’s fitting and great.
alren99's review
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
todallyanika's review
4.0
Make no mistake, this is not a horror novel. It’s an unsettling novel, but it keeps you on the edge the entire time, never facing a jump scare or real climax of fear. It is, however, an incredibly lyrical novel that kept my attention the entire time. For a certain section of the population, Mountain Goats fans and Iowegians mostly, this is enough to make the novel well worth the read. As a member of one and a half of these groups (Iowegian-adjacent), I found this novel depressingly relatable and enjoyed little tMG easter eggs (West Covina anyone?) throughout. If you go in expecting an unsettling story set in the Midwest involving a video rental store and a cult, you’ll be pleased. Perhaps, if you go in expecting nothing at all (or you’re just a fan of anything John Darnielle puts out) you may enjoy it as well. Just don’t go in expecting horror in the traditional sense, you’ll be sorely disappointed.
trin's review
2.0
I quite enjoyed the opening section of this novel, much as I enjoyed Darnielle's previous book, [b:Wolf in White Van|20575425|Wolf in White Van|John Darnielle|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1393646533s/20575425.jpg|39843433]: it's creepy, lazily suspenseful, atmospheric. But the deeper into this book I got, the more convoluted and obtuse it became, and the less I cared. I would maybe even be giving this one star were it not for the strength of Darnielle's prose and how much I liked that opening section.
coleman_matt's review
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
vitaminbillwebb's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
njdarkish's review
4.0
The prose is beautiful and at times terrifying, but it gets a little tricky to bridge the gap between the stories to make sense to the context of what is actually on the tapes. It's there, but was vague to the point that it took away from some of the horror and narrative cohesion. This could have been a five star book if it tied the threads together a little more tightly.