Take a photo of a barcode or cover
brennanlafaro 's review for:
Spungunion
by John Boden
“Sleep will not come but maybe a little rest”
Bless John Boden for giving us a phonetic pronunciation for the title of this book(Spun-gun-yun), lest I spend the whole experience calling it “Sponge Onion”. Also bless John Boden for pouring his entire heart and soul into every story he puts to page. One imagines that when he’s finished, he must need a cool down period, to let the gears and pistons settle before embarking on another journey.
And this book is a journey, make no mistake. We meet and instantly love Deke, a lifelong trucker who found a perfect woman to settle down with, only to have her life stolen while he’s on the road. Don’t worry, that’s not so much a spoiler as the back-cover synopsis. Deke sets out on a journey (there’s that word again) to find the person responsible for her death and hold her responsible.
This is where the magic happens. Deke must follow a series of clues to help point toward the murderer. The characters who assist him along the way are fantastic. Not meaning just great, though they are that, but fantastic as in, larger-than-life, bordering on mythic. The story takes on something of a bizarro-Tolkien quality in its’ second half.
John Boden is an absolute master of the novella, at least in my experience. Walk the Darkness Down, Out Behind the Barn (written with Chad Lutzke), and Spungunion all fit magnificently into this length. The stories are complete, and although I may have wanted to stay longer, I’ve never once felt like I needed to spend more time to get the full intended impact. The characters are always fully fleshed out, and we’re invested in their outcomes within pages of beginning their course.
My apologies for allowing a review of Spungunion to turn into a review of John Boden, but the point is I will be picking up his other titles because I know I can trust him to tell a phenomenal story with vibrant characters in a world I can lose myself in, if only for an afternoon.
Spungunion is out January 15, 2020.
I received an e-book from the author for review consideration.
Bless John Boden for giving us a phonetic pronunciation for the title of this book(Spun-gun-yun), lest I spend the whole experience calling it “Sponge Onion”. Also bless John Boden for pouring his entire heart and soul into every story he puts to page. One imagines that when he’s finished, he must need a cool down period, to let the gears and pistons settle before embarking on another journey.
And this book is a journey, make no mistake. We meet and instantly love Deke, a lifelong trucker who found a perfect woman to settle down with, only to have her life stolen while he’s on the road. Don’t worry, that’s not so much a spoiler as the back-cover synopsis. Deke sets out on a journey (there’s that word again) to find the person responsible for her death and hold her responsible.
This is where the magic happens. Deke must follow a series of clues to help point toward the murderer. The characters who assist him along the way are fantastic. Not meaning just great, though they are that, but fantastic as in, larger-than-life, bordering on mythic. The story takes on something of a bizarro-Tolkien quality in its’ second half.
John Boden is an absolute master of the novella, at least in my experience. Walk the Darkness Down, Out Behind the Barn (written with Chad Lutzke), and Spungunion all fit magnificently into this length. The stories are complete, and although I may have wanted to stay longer, I’ve never once felt like I needed to spend more time to get the full intended impact. The characters are always fully fleshed out, and we’re invested in their outcomes within pages of beginning their course.
My apologies for allowing a review of Spungunion to turn into a review of John Boden, but the point is I will be picking up his other titles because I know I can trust him to tell a phenomenal story with vibrant characters in a world I can lose myself in, if only for an afternoon.
Spungunion is out January 15, 2020.
I received an e-book from the author for review consideration.