A review by oldmansimms
The Wake by Paul Kingsnorth

5.0

Most of the time when I rate something 5 stars, it means it's the kind of book that I will recommend to all sorts of people. Occasionally, though, it's a book that is narrowly and specifically FOR ME. There are a lot of potential obstacles to people's enjoyment of this book -- the pseudo-old-english language, the stream of consciousness style, Buccmaster being an unrepentant asshole and delusional murderer ... but I dug all of it. The story is good, and Buccmaster is memorable in a "Patrick Bateman meets Holden Caulfield meets your uncle who's always talking about the decline of society and the good old days" kind of way, but the language is where it really shone for me. I say this as a linguistics/etymology nerd with an interest in Old English and how that intersects with modern German, so I had an easier time following the language than most people probably would. I can only really recommend this book if you happen to have the exact same set of linguistic and historical interests I do; but for anybody that describes, it's excellent.