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A review by ultramarine316
Unbury Carol by Josh Malerman
3.0
This book would have been so much better if it were shorter! It starts off great; the premise is thrilling and well drawn characters are quickly established and set on their course...but then the middle is just mush.
Short chapters switch between Carol, Dwight (her duplicitous husband), Moxie (the gunman riding to save her), Smoke (the sadistic bounty hunter sent to stop Moxie from reaching her in time), plus the local sheriff and some side characters who are suspicious of the husband's behavior, but this cycle repeats far too many times without advancing the plot or raising the tension. It gets to the point where the obstacles that crop up to slow down most of the characters can only be attributed to their own stupid decisions to the point where you loose interest in them.
Moxie gets arrested because he strolls into a town and uses his real name despite being wanted. Smoke does nothing but dick around the entire time; his schtick is that he likes to coat trapped/sleeping/immobilized people in oil and burn them alive and he keeps stopping to do this to characters we have only just met and do not care about. And if you're thinking "but how does that work against a gun fighter?" It does not. And I'll buy that Dwight wanting to bury Carol alive at first because he's too spiteful but at the same time milk-toast to just smother her, but then as she starts to show signs of life and this whole unnecessary subplot with the sheriff investigating him unfurls, it becomes stupid and unbelievable that he wouldn't just put a pillow over her face.
Short chapters switch between Carol, Dwight (her duplicitous husband), Moxie (the gunman riding to save her), Smoke (the sadistic bounty hunter sent to stop Moxie from reaching her in time), plus the local sheriff and some side characters who are suspicious of the husband's behavior, but this cycle repeats far too many times without advancing the plot or raising the tension. It gets to the point where the obstacles that crop up to slow down most of the characters can only be attributed to their own stupid decisions to the point where you loose interest in them.
Spoiler
Moxie gets arrested because he strolls into a town and uses his real name despite being wanted. Smoke does nothing but dick around the entire time; his schtick is that he likes to coat trapped/sleeping/immobilized people in oil and burn them alive and he keeps stopping to do this to characters we have only just met and do not care about. And if you're thinking "but how does that work against a gun fighter?" It does not. And I'll buy that Dwight wanting to bury Carol alive at first because he's too spiteful but at the same time milk-toast to just smother her, but then as she starts to show signs of life and this whole unnecessary subplot with the sheriff investigating him unfurls, it becomes stupid and unbelievable that he wouldn't just put a pillow over her face.