dtdcrank 's review for:

Universal Harvester by John Darnielle

DID NOT FINISH: 49%

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Call me a simpleton, but Universal Harvester’s distinct lack of traditional plot structure was enough to drive me damn near crazy. The book hooked me almost immediately, it’s premise engaging and interesting (clues to a mystery taped over rental VHS cassettes in rural America) but it’s inability to tell us anything important whatsoever was grating and hard to bear. I desperately grasped for any information on our mystery, only to be led down a path of uninteresting relationships and lacking dialogue. If there is anything to be found in this book, it’s certainly found after the first 100 pages, a crime when you’re presented with an interesting premise and story-telling device early on. It’s a shame that I have to leave this one a DNF, at least until someone gives me a good enough reason to finish it.