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bookboy_troy 's review for:
The Bright Lands
by John Fram
There were a lot of unexpected twists and turns with this one. It was a decent book, just personally not my favorite kind of book. I'm gonna write this review with VERY few plot spoilers because I think it's important to go into this story not knowing much about it, but know that it is horrific and gay in the best way and that is marvelous for this cannon. I was thinking this was more of a mystery when I started it but quickly found that it incorporates a lot of the supernatural, horror, and thriller genres.
The protagonist, Joel Whitley, left his small southern repressive town ten years ago to live his best successful gay life but returns when he gets into contact with his younger brother Dylan when there are signs of trouble for Dylan. The story starts off as a clear "whodunnit" type of narrative but quickly escalates into something much more sinister as several different plot threads are introduced to you. The story is told in the third person limited but pivots points of view in different chapters with multiple characters. I appreciated this and it kept the story interesting.
Ultimately, it was a well-formulated horror/southern gothic set in a repressive community with a great concept and very important queer themes and representation to boot, but the supernatural elements were personally not for me (unfortunately I'm one of those readers firmly rooted in reality). Also, the number of characters to remember and why they were important to the plot made my head spin for a lot of the story. 3.75 stars.
The protagonist, Joel Whitley, left his small southern repressive town ten years ago to live his best successful gay life but returns when he gets into contact with his younger brother Dylan when there are signs of trouble for Dylan. The story starts off as a clear "whodunnit" type of narrative but quickly escalates into something much more sinister as several different plot threads are introduced to you. The story is told in the third person limited but pivots points of view in different chapters with multiple characters. I appreciated this and it kept the story interesting.
Ultimately, it was a well-formulated horror/southern gothic set in a repressive community with a great concept and very important queer themes and representation to boot, but the supernatural elements were personally not for me (unfortunately I'm one of those readers firmly rooted in reality). Also, the number of characters to remember and why they were important to the plot made my head spin for a lot of the story. 3.75 stars.