Duchess and Robin are the kids of a mother who seems to be spinning her wheels. Tracing their lives all the way back to a pivotal, heartbreaking event of the parents’ generation, the novel shows how events and their consequences cascade in more profound ways than any one character can perceive or intend, as the sheriff investigated a crime concerning the kids, and they themselves, especially Duchess, deals with the fallout, even as answers are few and far between, shrouded in mystery.

Loss of innocence tied to the American Justice system is really well struck here. The characters are well rendered and all have their own problems, making the plotting feel pretty organic. It’s a fairly bleak place. A tad too melodramatic for my tastes, veering into commercial fiction territory. It shows a bit too much of the buttressing, in so far as things feeling a bit too squarely tied up for something purporting to be messy and sad.

That said, I liked everything else about it. Prose work is tinged with consistent emotion and straight forward. It keeps things interesting with the cinematic approach to scenes ending, feeling edited—something I particularly like in thrillers like this. And the characters themselves are stand out; far better work in that department than average. It doesn’t feel derivative even when it’s predictable, which is a feat in this genre intersection.

Audiobook wise, the narration was better than average and can recommend it. (3.5/5)

It’s fantastic to read something properly translated from Rumi. This collection is curated to a certain aspect of his writing; the introduction makes that quite clear and is very informative. But it also necessarily means that because it’s fit to a certain theme, the imagery is repetitive. On the one hand, it’s a nice through line. On the other, it can feel like the same point attempting to be driven home.

A Vietnam vet and lack lustre diplomat and part time friend to Uncle Sam via handlers at the CIA, receives a package from an old ‘nam friend, prompting the first half of the book: A proper, fairly granular accounting of his time in Vietnam, pertaining predominately to two individuals and how he came to be recruited by the CIA in Saigon, in the first place. In the second half of the novel (roughly), the memories prompt him to sojourn out in search of a question that’s been growing in his gut the entire time he’s been alive.

This was well written, with description going into the poetic and semi melodramatic at the right times. For my taste, the Vietnam section is a bit overwritten, and I always prefer a diegetic solution to people remembering things within fiction, rather than a complete digression into some other kind of perspective and narration. If it’s his story, why the hell isn’t he telling it in his own words and his memory, when ostensibly the rest of the fiction is him doing that already, right? Anyway, just a pet peeve I have.

It’s perfectly serviceable and draws out themes around disillusionment in the things young men often have, when they go off to war and eat the party line. The contrast works quite well with the narration coming from an older age, reminiscing, and the calcification of experience and knowledge accrued in later years. Then, a kind of reckoning—a search for an answer, means for possible amends—but absolution being a more complex and difficult thing to come by in this kind of story - being literary and not genre fiction in the least. It’s slow, methodical, and quite quotable.

A low-key, emotional coming-of-age about a repressed teenage boy growing up with immense privilege, which then shifts into adulthood that nicely juxtaposes the themes introduced at the start.

I think the first part will be a bit plotless for some people, but when you get through that and the contrast becomes more apparent—just as it does to the protagonist—things click into place. It’s a very quiet novel, with no bombastic or melodramatic conflicts occurring. But it’s well constructed and hits home regardless; which I would argue takes more skill.

The audio-arc I got from Netgalley had a great narrator as well. I recommend it. He does a great job differentiating the characters’ voices without devolving into caricatures for female voices, which too often happens.

This haunted house story is such a good counterpoint to my last Gailey novel: Upright Women Wanted, that I think a contrast would be helpful, as it's likely fans of the author will be familiar with it. The audiobook narration was terrible for the UWW, this one was phenomenal; she sounds like Jean Stewart. This story also centers on a queer woman, with first-person narration. Mired in a tabloid tragedy that has haunted her throughout life; costing her work and friends and a normal upbringing. Vera is called back home by her mother, who is dying, ostensibly to take care of the house and possibly take possession after she passes. But things are a lot more complicated than that. Old nightmares resurface. Past friends come calling. And there is a slow unraveling of her memories, revealing why the house might be haunted, where her father is, just what happened to the house, her relationship with her mother, and the other small mysteries placed as easter eggs throughout the narrative.

I think an obvious comparison is Gillian Flynn. And, like Flynn, Gailey's prose has adapted to this particular genre very well. It's the strongest writing I've noticed, again a stark contrast to UWW--and prose work is generally watered down on audio, so the fact that the atmosphere is so present and the thoughts gripping is a testament to how well crafted this was. I think it could have been a hair shorter but the whole thing is wonderfully tense. I don't read in horror, occult-type intersections often, so I had a very fun time not knowing who to trust. Loyalties shifting from character to character. It is every bit the unhinged woman--and book--I was hoping it would be, and then some.

A young man has dreams of buying a house at the top of a "bad" part of Bristol, rapidly being gentrified, where he has just committed a murder, and ostensibly, just seen one the following day-- causing events, and his dreams, to spiral beyond his control.

Scenes digress into his past as he encounters members of the neighborhood, contextualizing as he moves through areas. It's great at this aspect of the story. With the premise and the arc being interesting. I also think the dialogue is particularly strong. Unfortunately, the rest of the writing style in this is too grating for me to contend with, though. If I hadn't picked this up under the context of reading Booker-eligible nominations, maybe I'd have had lower expectations too. The flow is really awkward and, worse, vaciliates often. This is also accentuated by how the paragraphs are formatted. Not enough attention is given to really quite pivotal moments, yet digresses into granular specifics for the innocuous. Smilies are really incongruent with what is occurring on the page but likened to cultural aspects of the protagonist and community. I can see why this is happening yet it takes me out of the fiction a lot of the time when compounded with the other issues. I also just did not see where this was going with the faith angle right up until the point of DNF, around 25%. That's a long time to have bible quotes and talk of pastors and lead up to, presumably, the main inciting incident (which could have been three or four other events but aren't because they're all but eschewed).

In short: it reads very well for a debut novel from a young person. It is not, I think, particularly well written for a literary book being considered against others for a prize. But I see many people really like it, so it may just be down to something as simple as taste pertaining to writing styles. I'd place it as an upmarket release--not quite literary, certainly not commercial fiction. It's got a lot of votes for Booker-eligible hopefuls, though.

The writing at a technical level was great, I just couldn't find anything to care about at all at a quarter of the way into it. I am typically fine with no, or little to no, plot novels and generally love interiority being predominate in my fiction. This, though, with the interconnectivity between our child narrator from a future self, just really didn't do anything for me. The odd moments weren't enough to have me wonder what would happen next. There are no stakes and the life of a child encountering animals is apparently not compelling to me, personally.

A small book about a large man who, during Christmas, encounters a crisis of faith and must decide whether to act on it or not. It also hits thoroughly on multiple kinds of hardship. Though, I do think the ending is extrmely. predictable, so much so it is almost perfunctory.

The subject matter put into focus most predominantly especially fits into the human experience, all while being local to Ireland. I think that’s a small feat in itself, and commendable. Quick read. Raises good questions.

Maybe the most apoplectic book I’ve read. But appropriately so. From young career to disillusioned and dirty, the book traces, America’s “war on drugs” via polyphonic means. Characters are culled and cultivated. None of them are safe. People can and do, fairly often, get killed, quite grizzly in a few cases. It condemns basically everyone. From the U.S Government operating “legally” to further its own aims (should be all old hat for most readers, aside from a few hyper specific particulars) to the intricacies of the government in Mexico being essentially owned by Narcos as the U.S is owned by corporations. Dirty cops, dirty money. Sex, death, you know the recipe.

The difference is that this narrative is specifically looking to deliver an action packed crime novel that is far more concerned with power structures and transparently showing how the system itself cannot be reformed. The people are cogs in the machine being churned. And it’s quite effective at this. Surprisingly so, in fact. The plotting is well handled, and intricate; the prose are just short of great, and tend to take on the qualities of the narrator. It shouldn’t work, but does. It takes on a simultaneously cinematic and intimate quality. A couple character arcs are absolutely perfect.

The audiobook is fan-freaking-tastic. The narrator does everyone’s voices differently and takes on the aforementioned qualities to great effect. It’s an exemplary experience.

So, why no 5 stars? It’s also got some of the melodramatic, shock factor, tropey and lazy hallmarks of this kind of fiction, and movie. Maybe it’s because I’m consuming it now and not when it first came out. But this is like the story of the “DEA” agent in Sicario mixed with, literally, Narcos. It’s more intelligent and all encompassing than those. But it doesn’t actually do anything new, and the shock factor moments can be a little too emotionally manipulative. It does nail it most of the time, though. People say Elroy is better—can’t wait to consume some of that, if true.