A review by sterlingisreading
Ohio by Stephen Markley

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Stephen Markley has quickly become one of my favorite writers. Ohio is about high school friends all accidentally colliding in their hometown ten years after graduation, but it’s so much more than that. It’s gut-wrenching; it’s a eulogy for a time and place; it’s a love letter that got lost in the mail, fated to be read once it’s too late; it’s a drunken high school bonfire that has gone wildly and dangerously out of control, inevitably consuming all who stand at the edges. The writing weaves between past and present so fluidly, bursting with detail, crafting countless deeply complicated characters who you come to know inside and out. Nobody is completely innocent, even the best of them have made mistakes. This story is about what happens to a region, or a town, that’s been forgotten, has been decaying for years, and the effect that has on the people who live there. This novel is full of so much darkness but that darkness makes the glimmers of light, of insight, of grace, shine more brightly. There’s one bible quote that his characters reference a few times and I think it sums up a lot of the novel quite well, “I loved you at your darkest.” Highly recommend this if you’re interested in layered characters with very thorough origin stories, the economic and social decline of struggling, rust covered towns, or if you like stories with interconnected narratives and mystery like climbing ivy creeping in at the edges. This one has some genuine twists, which I don’t see very often in social novels like this. Highly recommend it.