booooooooooooooooook (3)

I read "Universal Harvester" by John 'guy from the mountain goats' Darnielle. I liked it mostly! I can definitely say it was a worthwhile read. Here's a little review if you like

It had an extremely strong start and a really fascinating hook, and I liked a lot of the story and characters! But the writing style annoyed me a bit; it would switch from third-person to first-person mid-chapter without any real indicator and it made me feel really super disoriented. I'm not fully sure if that was the intention, but it doesn't really read like it. Like

I wonder what you see in your mind’s eye when I ask you to remember the house in Nevada where Jeremy Heldt used to live. Wood? Brick? Vinyl siding? High windows? A fireplace? Try to remember whether Steve Heldt had a garage to park his car in: Did he? How many cars did it have room for? What kind of cars? Was there a door leading into the house from the garage, as at the Sample house in Crescent, or did the outbuilding stand free, with a little grassy alley between its outer wall and the house’s west-facing side? Did the street out front have a sidewalk, or was it one of those more recent developments, a neighborhood planned to keep the riff-raff out: no public thoroughfare, streetlights kept on all night, awkward traffic islands at the four-way stops? If you’re able to imagine Steve Heldt grown older now, answering the door, do you hear an accent—something homey, something quasi-Southern?

There are a few paragraphs like this; and it seriously took me out. Not because of how it's written; I think it's really cool! But because of how out of place it feels with everything else that's happening.

this isn't really a negative review. if you're a substance over style person (i mostly am!) i think if the premise of surreal and mysterious found footage over tapes interests you enough ,you should check it out.

Katooooooo🌲

@saturns

🌲☕️🪩🐟

booooooooooooooooook (3)