librarianmillie's review against another edition
2.0
This book is so violent, and for me to say it- it's a lot.
blevins's review against another edition
3.0
Ultra-violent western that concentrates more on mood and atmosphere than on actual story as it follows the fictional Winter Family Gang from their pre-formation Civil War days to their years of criminal rampaging.
reallyrillo's review against another edition
4.0
*Note: This book was won through a Goodreads giveaway.*
I won the bound galley version. While it’s not my normal preference for reading, I was surprisingly interested in the book. Maybe, it could be my love for crime and justice that lured me in. Overall, a pretty good read.
I won the bound galley version. While it’s not my normal preference for reading, I was surprisingly interested in the book. Maybe, it could be my love for crime and justice that lured me in. Overall, a pretty good read.
thepoptimist's review against another edition
4.0
This is a Quentin Tarantino movie put to print. Kicking off during the American Civil War the Winter family is a brutal band of killers, sadists, hired guns and ex-soldiers that sow terror through the United States in the late 1800’s led by Augustus Winter.
From their exploits during the civil war, to the bloody politicking in Chicago down to Phoenix scalping Indians and up to California it’s a blood-splattered, debauched and over the top escapades involving an ever changing cast of well-formed, uniquely eccentric characters.
From their exploits during the civil war, to the bloody politicking in Chicago down to Phoenix scalping Indians and up to California it’s a blood-splattered, debauched and over the top escapades involving an ever changing cast of well-formed, uniquely eccentric characters.
briarsreviews's review against another edition
3.0
The Winter Family by Clifford Jackman
This book reminds me of Games of Thrones if it was set in a western setting. There's lots of death, and lots of interesting drama to keep you interested.
I'm not crazy into westerns, but I love reading in different genres so I don't get bored reading the same old, same old. So this read was refreshing, even if I'm not the typical "target audience".
The book's setting is around civil war time, which is not a setting I see often of (at least in the books I typically read). For me, this setting worked well within the story. I enjoyed reading all of the descriptions of the locations and people of the time and Clifford Jackman did well within this setting.
While this book is fictional, a lot of the scenarios that happen in the book (brutal, almost R rated scenarios I might add) were situations that happened to people. It was incredible to read, but it rips your heart out knowing some of this did happen to people back in this time. The history was on point despite being fiction. It's not totally Wild West fiction if my review makes you believe that, but it's a "western" style near the Civil War (not men on horses shooting everyone like those old movies).
I definitely want to see Clifford Jackman write more - I thought this book did well within it's genre and was a good read. He was skilled at writing blood and war without a hero or antihero. It was just a novel following someone's life in a dark western-esque era. It didn't knock my socks off and turn me to the western genre, but it was worthy read I'd recommend or suggest my local library pick up for other readers.
On point Clifford! Keep up the good work! I can't wait to see you grow as an author!
Three out of five stars.
I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.
This book reminds me of Games of Thrones if it was set in a western setting. There's lots of death, and lots of interesting drama to keep you interested.
I'm not crazy into westerns, but I love reading in different genres so I don't get bored reading the same old, same old. So this read was refreshing, even if I'm not the typical "target audience".
The book's setting is around civil war time, which is not a setting I see often of (at least in the books I typically read). For me, this setting worked well within the story. I enjoyed reading all of the descriptions of the locations and people of the time and Clifford Jackman did well within this setting.
While this book is fictional, a lot of the scenarios that happen in the book (brutal, almost R rated scenarios I might add) were situations that happened to people. It was incredible to read, but it rips your heart out knowing some of this did happen to people back in this time. The history was on point despite being fiction. It's not totally Wild West fiction if my review makes you believe that, but it's a "western" style near the Civil War (not men on horses shooting everyone like those old movies).
I definitely want to see Clifford Jackman write more - I thought this book did well within it's genre and was a good read. He was skilled at writing blood and war without a hero or antihero. It was just a novel following someone's life in a dark western-esque era. It didn't knock my socks off and turn me to the western genre, but it was worthy read I'd recommend or suggest my local library pick up for other readers.
On point Clifford! Keep up the good work! I can't wait to see you grow as an author!
Three out of five stars.
I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.
rubenstein's review against another edition
4.0
... as the bodies piled up, I was less concerned with just who would be next, and more concerned with The Winter Family actually having any characters around for the ending.
For the full review and more, head over to The Pretty Good Gatsby!
For the full review and more, head over to The Pretty Good Gatsby!
icameheretoread's review against another edition
4.0
I'm always looking for a Western to recommend. The question is not "is the Winter Family a Western?" the question is, "can I recommend this book to readers who just want to read Louis L'amour?" Nope, this is far too gritty. This is 3 miles past Unforgiven, and another 2 miles past Let There Be Blood (or Oil!) gritty. There are psychos killing for the fun of it in here and using the Civil War and the Wild West as a playground to do it. In fact, there are so many of them doing it for no reason that there is a wonder that there is anybody left in the area to actually homestead and farm.
I was actually stunned while reading some parts-almost wished someone else was reading it too so I could lean over and ask-- did you just read that too? Other parts were a bit repetitive. I loved Bill Bread and I can't say why. And the whole reason I picked this up was Chicago, but in this time period right after the fire the setting might as well be a pile of ashes, not the Chicago I just visited. Duh, me.
Anyway from all of this chaos is born a hero, and I loved that. This, however, is not that hero's story. It is the story of the chaos.
I was actually stunned while reading some parts-almost wished someone else was reading it too so I could lean over and ask-- did you just read that too? Other parts were a bit repetitive. I loved Bill Bread and I can't say why. And the whole reason I picked this up was Chicago, but in this time period right after the fire the setting might as well be a pile of ashes, not the Chicago I just visited. Duh, me.
Anyway from all of this chaos is born a hero, and I loved that. This, however, is not that hero's story. It is the story of the chaos.
moreadsbooks's review against another edition
3.0
“And now he was perfectly conscious that Winter’s words were inspiring in him the feeling that he, Noah, had always inspired in others: That what he had believed to be the iron laws of the universe were merely his own prejudices, a tottering shanty built of questions, a stack of assumptions all the way down. That the marketplace was a deep, dark pool of chaos, and that this man was its true apostle.
But then he shook himself, blinked, and remembered that Winter was just a murderous lunatic, brought here by his brother.”
I was expecting this to be more Wild West-y, but while the book begins in Oklahoma, its five vignettes about the Winter family take place all over the country. I hadn’t planned on Georgia after the Civil War or 1870s Chicago right before an election - the Republicans are the good guys?! - but although I struggled a bit at the beginning, Jackman can take disparate settings & make them hang together beautifully. Winter’s story is told in a series of specific events bracketed by summaries of the atrocities that he and his family commit as they range around. This device is effective inasmuch as even though at some point I realized that I hadn't seen Winter do anything more than kill one of the soldiers who tortured him in Georgia, with every page I turned I expected him to casually murder whatever character he was dealing with. Winter gets a new suit - why not kill the tailor? Winter returns to his childhood home & runs into the old couple who’d occasionally taken care of him in between beatings from his preacher father - why not kill those two? He's so effectively written as both filled with nothingness & almost mythically untouchable by the law that everyone he comes in contact with seems automatically marked by death by virtue of breathing the same air as he. Although there are abominations galore committed by every member of the family, Augustus is often on the periphery during the action, watching his henchmen darting into battle, singing ridiculous hymns and taking crack shots at the law-abiding, but for all that you rarely see him do anything worse than any of the other guys, it’s still easy to get caught up in the terror he inspires. Everyone who says, “He’s just a man,” learns their lesson soon enough.
Mildly amusing – Bill read this while I was reading The Library at Mount Char and then we switched books. I told him I was having a hard time getting into this because it was so violent & he did a double take & said, “For god’s sake, at least Auggie never roasted anyone alive in a giant barbecue grill.” Which, yeah, I suppose he’s right and TLAMC is pretty freaking violent, but it’s fantastic violence & this is much grittier & it gets to me a bit. I can read about David & the golden bull and wince, but stuff like this: “The Winter family emerged from the cornfield behind a farmhouse near the edge of town. A woman drawing water saw them. She let the bucket she was holding tumble into the well and she ran, shrieking, into the house . . . The Empire brothers and a few of the rowdier ones followed Winter inside. Charlie Empire was already unbuckling his pants as he hopped through the back door” is much more gruesome if you ask me. Anyhow, if you're into gross, gritchy westerns that don't offer a lot of redemption or closure (although the death of one particular character about 2/3rds of the way through, though it could have been a lot more drawn out in my opinion, was worth my price of admission) but are entertaining in spite of all that, you could do a lot worse than this book.
But then he shook himself, blinked, and remembered that Winter was just a murderous lunatic, brought here by his brother.”
I was expecting this to be more Wild West-y, but while the book begins in Oklahoma, its five vignettes about the Winter family take place all over the country. I hadn’t planned on Georgia after the Civil War or 1870s Chicago right before an election - the Republicans are the good guys?! - but although I struggled a bit at the beginning, Jackman can take disparate settings & make them hang together beautifully. Winter’s story is told in a series of specific events bracketed by summaries of the atrocities that he and his family commit as they range around. This device is effective inasmuch as even though at some point I realized that I hadn't seen Winter do anything more than kill one of the soldiers who tortured him in Georgia, with every page I turned I expected him to casually murder whatever character he was dealing with. Winter gets a new suit - why not kill the tailor? Winter returns to his childhood home & runs into the old couple who’d occasionally taken care of him in between beatings from his preacher father - why not kill those two? He's so effectively written as both filled with nothingness & almost mythically untouchable by the law that everyone he comes in contact with seems automatically marked by death by virtue of breathing the same air as he. Although there are abominations galore committed by every member of the family, Augustus is often on the periphery during the action, watching his henchmen darting into battle, singing ridiculous hymns and taking crack shots at the law-abiding, but for all that you rarely see him do anything worse than any of the other guys, it’s still easy to get caught up in the terror he inspires. Everyone who says, “He’s just a man,” learns their lesson soon enough.
Mildly amusing – Bill read this while I was reading The Library at Mount Char and then we switched books. I told him I was having a hard time getting into this because it was so violent & he did a double take & said, “For god’s sake, at least Auggie never roasted anyone alive in a giant barbecue grill.” Which, yeah, I suppose he’s right and TLAMC is pretty freaking violent, but it’s fantastic violence & this is much grittier & it gets to me a bit. I can read about David & the golden bull and wince, but stuff like this: “The Winter family emerged from the cornfield behind a farmhouse near the edge of town. A woman drawing water saw them. She let the bucket she was holding tumble into the well and she ran, shrieking, into the house . . . The Empire brothers and a few of the rowdier ones followed Winter inside. Charlie Empire was already unbuckling his pants as he hopped through the back door” is much more gruesome if you ask me. Anyhow, if you're into gross, gritchy westerns that don't offer a lot of redemption or closure (although the death of one particular character about 2/3rds of the way through, though it could have been a lot more drawn out in my opinion, was worth my price of admission) but are entertaining in spite of all that, you could do a lot worse than this book.