John Darnielle

Read this one as it is a nominee for this year’s Edgar award.

The structure is really interesting.all but one of the seven sections are broke into 7 chapters,
In keeping with the mention of devils and witches (7 being a lucky or sacred number)
It is basically a story about a true crime writer and two crimes that he writes about.
It can be a bit jarring as the author leaps from one to the other, including a full section in sort of medieval style language.

The author creates sympathy for the murderers and, to a lesser extent, the victims.
I think he is indicting the true crime genre, feeding ,as it does, off misery.

Anyway, an interesting if sometimes challenging read,
Likely, I think, to disappoint those attracted by the hunted at supernatural elements
… (meer)

This book, much like its rural Iowa setting, is at once wide and, at points, empty. Darnielle has a story to tell, but from time to time, his story is muddied by a number of postmodern writing tricks and wandering descriptions of scenery. The story reads like a mystery, at times poking at the idea of horror, but I felt that Darnielle didn't allow for the intrigue and suspense to mature to a point that had me hungry for answers. Instead, he seemed to linger too long on clever images that detracted from the novel’s pace. Overall, Darnielle has a masterful control of words, even if a focus on what are powerful sentences and even paragraphs are not enough to bring me, as a reader, the emotional response that he brought me through his debut novel or the higher points of his songwriting. "Universal Harvester" is an enjoyable read, but I don't think it has the staying power that I had hoped for when I first cracked open the cover.… (meer)