erikbail's review
3.0
Was interesting. Drug a bit for the last 1/3rd. Not that the characters were unlikable but it felt scattered. I enjoyed the author's voice and night give one of his other books a shot
5elementknitr's review
2.0
When I started this book, I thought, "It's delightfully odd!"
But, the closer to the end I came, the more exhausted I felt reading this.
It's a story of two young men who meet in their senior year of high school. They come to find out they both lost a sibling to abduction - both abductions taking place in the same park in Baltimore.
It becomes an obsession for both. They move to Baltimore and try to find those siblings.
This book has a really unique formatting. Each chapter is a few pages of the actual story, followed by 3 (or more as the book progresses) vignettes describing "atrocities". Most of the atrocities are deaths; some accidental, most not. Each vignette is about a page or less and accompanied by a drawing.
For me, this book starts out with real potential and interest, but then the story never really goes anywhere. The obsession and search becomes never-ending and ends up just feeling very draining, for the characters and definitely for me as well.
But, the closer to the end I came, the more exhausted I felt reading this.
It's a story of two young men who meet in their senior year of high school. They come to find out they both lost a sibling to abduction - both abductions taking place in the same park in Baltimore.
It becomes an obsession for both. They move to Baltimore and try to find those siblings.
This book has a really unique formatting. Each chapter is a few pages of the actual story, followed by 3 (or more as the book progresses) vignettes describing "atrocities". Most of the atrocities are deaths; some accidental, most not. Each vignette is about a page or less and accompanied by a drawing.
For me, this book starts out with real potential and interest, but then the story never really goes anywhere. The obsession and search becomes never-ending and ends up just feeling very draining, for the characters and definitely for me as well.
jennyexiled's review
3.0
This is a strange little book that seems to have very little to do with the real city of Baltimore other than an impressive inclusion of neighborhood names and local landmarks. The overwhelmingly white characters lacked the diversity that pretty much defines Baltimore. I don’t know. I liked it well enough, I guess, but it could have been so much more.
loroshap's review
4.0
Probably a 3.5/4. I really enjoyed this book. The pace, the writing style, and the brief yet dark anecdotes throughout that wove the story the together.
bluemiriam's review
4.0
I really enjoyed this book, even though I had no idea what to expect going in. It was gloomy and depressing and the anecdotes between chapters had such a good balance of vaguely humorous crimes and really terrible atrocities. I felt like the book as a whole had a similar atmosphere to "Fight Club", so I was especially glad that we didn't have some sort of twist involving the two investigating characters. I liked that Woods never tried to back down or undercut the atrocities he was describing, and the atmosphere of the book was really compelling even as it was awful.
More...