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A review by swivelhead
Universal Harvester by John Darnielle
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
I went back and read this after LOVING Darnielle's most recent book Devil House, and was pretty disappointed by Universal Harvester. The premise is interesting, but I doubt I could effectively describe to another person anything about the book past that. The main through-line seems to be yearning for family and the memories of family, especially in small Midwestern communities where the lineage of everyone's movements is endlessly discussed and documented.
The saving grace for me is that the writing and prose in this can be efficiently evocative, saying a lot with a little - particularly with the scenery and the relationships between characters.
But it's disappointing that it's all in service of a muddled mystery. You start getting some answers (not all of them satisfying) near the end with a final perspective switch, and then the book just sort of abruptly ends as it finally starts to feel like it's getting somewhere. Maybe the disappointment is the takeaway?
The saving grace for me is that the writing and prose in this can be efficiently evocative, saying a lot with a little - particularly with the scenery and the relationships between characters.
But it's disappointing that it's all in service of a muddled mystery. You start getting some answers (not all of them satisfying) near the end with a final perspective switch, and then the book just sort of abruptly ends as it finally starts to feel like it's getting somewhere. Maybe the disappointment is the takeaway?