A review by lyrrael
American Elsewhere by Robert Jackson Bennett
4.0
Under a pink moon, there is a perfect little town not found on any map, and in that little town are quiet streets lined with pretty houses that conceal the strangest things. Ex-cop Mona Bright inherits her long-dead mother’s home in Wink, New Mexico, and when she gets there, she finds that the people of Wink are very, very different.
Woo. Lovecraftian horror. This really reminded me of the podcast Welcome to Night Vale, which, if you haven’t listened to before, you really ought to. I loved Mona -- she’s pragmatic, realistic, cynical, even in the face of some really weird shit going down. And while I get that Bennett is more literary than a lot of authors out there, I sort of wished that this book had been trimmed down a little -- I was really experiencing book fatigue by about page 500, but I knew if I put it down, I’d never pick it back up. This is not to say that the book isn’t fantastic -- it really is, and it may make it onto my favorites shelf. It was definitely a joyride.
Woo. Lovecraftian horror. This really reminded me of the podcast Welcome to Night Vale, which, if you haven’t listened to before, you really ought to. I loved Mona -- she’s pragmatic, realistic, cynical, even in the face of some really weird shit going down. And while I get that Bennett is more literary than a lot of authors out there, I sort of wished that this book had been trimmed down a little -- I was really experiencing book fatigue by about page 500, but I knew if I put it down, I’d never pick it back up. This is not to say that the book isn’t fantastic -- it really is, and it may make it onto my favorites shelf. It was definitely a joyride.