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A review by reading_rainbow_with_chris
The Pallbearers Club by Paul Tremblay
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
“The Pallbearer’s Club” by Paul Tremblay
Art Barbara is trying to find his place in the world when he stumbles across a new friend, Mercy, at his newly minted Pallbearer’s Club. Although the club is short lived, Mercy, and the strangeness around her that Art can’t quite explain, come to dominate Art’s search for himself in ways he never expected.
For me, this book is a lot like Art: It doesn’t quite know what it is and is trying to do too many things at once. The voice of narration is inconsistent without sufficient justification, character choices are off putting, and the rules of the supernatural here are unclear. The premise itself was pretty intriguing but nothing about this came together cohesively for me. On top of that, the narrative gimmick swung between cheesy and cringy. It was harmless enough and there were chunks of the book which were solidly enjoyable. But is that really enough? For me, not quite. I was waiting for something exceptional, some element of the novel that executed to excellence. I never found it.
I believe this is my first reading of anything from Tremblay and I will definitely try another of his works to see if this was an outlier. But for me, this was a big “meh.”
Art Barbara is trying to find his place in the world when he stumbles across a new friend, Mercy, at his newly minted Pallbearer’s Club. Although the club is short lived, Mercy, and the strangeness around her that Art can’t quite explain, come to dominate Art’s search for himself in ways he never expected.
For me, this book is a lot like Art: It doesn’t quite know what it is and is trying to do too many things at once. The voice of narration is inconsistent without sufficient justification, character choices are off putting, and the rules of the supernatural here are unclear. The premise itself was pretty intriguing but nothing about this came together cohesively for me. On top of that, the narrative gimmick swung between cheesy and cringy. It was harmless enough and there were chunks of the book which were solidly enjoyable. But is that really enough? For me, not quite. I was waiting for something exceptional, some element of the novel that executed to excellence. I never found it.
I believe this is my first reading of anything from Tremblay and I will definitely try another of his works to see if this was an outlier. But for me, this was a big “meh.”