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speculativebecky 's review for:
This Town Sleeps
by Dennis E. Staples
Thank you to Counterpoint Press for reaching out and sending me a copy of this book, which has been one of my most anticipated 2020 debut novels.
This Town Sleeps is a book I gratefully went into having only skimmed the blurb, which alludes to the awakened spirit of a dead dog, the untangling of a long past murder, and a young gay Ojibwe man named Marion Lafournier as the throughline. There’s a lot going on in this slim novel, and I was immediately entranced by the writing and the exciting defiance of genre, eagerly flipping pages to put the pieces together and anxious for the next Marion chapter each time the narrative strayed away. The pacing of the many intertwined narratives was deftly handled, making this a novel I couldn’t stand to put down until I reached the end.
Hard to describe but rewarding to read, this is a book I’m so looking forward to dipping back into again and again as I read others’ reviews. The smush of genres here makes it a book I’d recommend quite broadly - fans of contemplative literary fiction, explorations of family legends and life in a stiflingly small town, or lovers of a story that dips into but doesn’t wholly linger on a murder mystery, plus anybody who likes a book with a splash of the speculative, I encourage you to add this book to your TBR!
This Town Sleeps is a book I gratefully went into having only skimmed the blurb, which alludes to the awakened spirit of a dead dog, the untangling of a long past murder, and a young gay Ojibwe man named Marion Lafournier as the throughline. There’s a lot going on in this slim novel, and I was immediately entranced by the writing and the exciting defiance of genre, eagerly flipping pages to put the pieces together and anxious for the next Marion chapter each time the narrative strayed away. The pacing of the many intertwined narratives was deftly handled, making this a novel I couldn’t stand to put down until I reached the end.
Hard to describe but rewarding to read, this is a book I’m so looking forward to dipping back into again and again as I read others’ reviews. The smush of genres here makes it a book I’d recommend quite broadly - fans of contemplative literary fiction, explorations of family legends and life in a stiflingly small town, or lovers of a story that dips into but doesn’t wholly linger on a murder mystery, plus anybody who likes a book with a splash of the speculative, I encourage you to add this book to your TBR!