Mixed bag

I’m really torn on this book. I came close to quitting a few times, mostly because of the pace and the repetitive language. (Apparently in this universe, the only curses that exist are “hell’s heaven” and “pig shit” and they get said CONSTANTLY). Other than that, I found the characters and premise intriguing enough to want to finish. If you get through the first half, it does pick up a bit. ( )

Carol Evers suffers from a strange condition: at times of stress, she lapses into a coma that closely resembles death, only she can hear what's going on around her. Now she's in one of her comas and her husband, Dwight, is planning on burying alive so he can get his greedy hands on her fortune. The only man that can save her is a notorious outlaw that ran from her and her condition years ago, James Moxie. The question is, will he reach her in time? Because there are other people who have an interest in seeing Carol buried alive and they will do whatever it takes to keep Moxie from ruining their plans.

What I like most about Unbury Carol is not the central story itself (which is indeed a great premise) but the world it takes place in. Malerman demonstrates that he great at crafting a world and atmosphere with Unbury Carol. I love the Trail, and the little towns it travels through, and the colorful characters that live and die along its dark and dangerous path. Additionally, the way Malerman describes Carol's condition as being caught in a place called "Howltown" is brilliant.

The horror of the novel is mainly the horror of being stuck in Carol's coma condition and the possibility that she'll be buried alive. There are supernatural elements throughout Unbury Carol, but the most frightening moments of the novel come from Carol's condition as well as the interactions between the human characters and the evil they are capable of. There are many bandits and outlaws on the Trail who wish to stop Moxie in his tracks and some are pure evil. Beside Dwight, the bandit Smoke, embodies this idea of pure evil perfectly (think Anton Chigurh from No Country For Old Men) . I won't give much away but Smoke is a killer who kills without remorse, so he's pretty much the Michael Myers of the Wild West.

Unbury Carol is a fairly breathtaking story, a weird-west fairy tale of a woman struggling to remain alive and the man who truly loves her returning to save her from ending up six feet under. This being said, the novel is not perfect. The build to the climax is amazing, but the payoff was…not disappointing, but not quite enough. I wish there was a little bit more history shown between Carol and Moxie and I wish the ended would have been a bit more explosive.

Still, this bleakly lyrical story of survival, outlaws, is a real-page turner. Check it out. ( )

I decided to read this book because it sounded like a homage to Poe. However, I honestly had a really hard time getting through this book. I listened to the audio and kept losing focus. I'm a horror fan, but I'm not a western fan. I found that I was lost at times because there were so many characters to keep track of. I got tired of hearing the same phrases over again. I just got to the point where I didn't really care, it was like white noise. I like Josh Malerman, but I just didn't like this book. I was generous in giving it 3 stars because if you're a western reader, you'd probably like it. ( )

Buoyed by compelling characters, the book nevertheless fails to take its bizarre premise to its macabre potential, creating an overall disappointing experience. ( )

This book reminded me of Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere. Not quite sci-fi, not quite fantasy, and not quite standard fiction. Good book. ( )