Reviews

The Ruin Season by Kristopher Triana

locket1981's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes

4.0

This was one of those that you have to keep reading a lot of it got home bipolar is such a horrible illness. It was a whole rollercoaster of how life can change so quickly and our decisions have a dramatic effect, especially those made when not of a clear mind.

paulataua's review against another edition

3.0

Jake lives alone in the rural south. He breaks horses and trains dogs. He is bipolar, but seems to have it under control. Two women in his life are going to make that difficult for him. This is my fourth Triana novel. All of them are totally different and the only consistency is the excellent writing. This one, however, really didn’t grab me at all. I really couldn’t get behind the Jake character, and less so behind the two women in the story, and so the novel just dragged for me. I contemplated giving up on several occasions, but just about managed to reach the end. I oscillated between two and three stars finally giving it the benefit of my doubt.

lee_readsbooks's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

4.0

charm_city_sinner's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

mikekaz's review against another edition

• Strong character development? Yes

5.0

Before I get started on this one, a couple shout-outs to Charles Kahlenberg. I listened to THE RUIN SEASON as an Audiobook narrated by Charles Kahlenberg. His voice fit the story perfectly. I am so pleased that I heard it this way because the style, the mood, the emotions all rolled from his voice perfectly! Now, onto the story itself. As I was listening to it, the story reminded me a lot of Joe R. Lansdale's stories. Or maybe a Lansdale world. I could very easily picture the events from this book as occurring in the same world as Hap & Leonard or countless other of his books. Something where I start reading for the story but realize quickly that the characters are so much more engrossing that the already good story.

In this case, despite the protagonist's desire for a simple life, he has a lot happening. Jake Leonard is close to forty. He's divorced due to his bipolar disorder. He's dating the sheriff's 19-year-old daughter. And drugs, alcohol, and death (all happening to others) are going to make Jake's life hard.

The story description will tell you more but I'm not. That was enough to get me engaged and as I mentioned, it took me nothing to become engrossed with the events happening. Unfortunately I could tell about halfway through that the ending was not going to be happy. The impending doom kept stalking forward and I hoped that somehow it wasn't going to be as bad as I thought. Suspense was only part of it; I knew that the emotional impact of this good guy hitting some sort of bottom was going to hurt. And that is when you know that you are reading a really good book!