My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

He glanced at the fifth of Maker’s Mark propped up in the passenger seat, reached for it, had himself a snort. That’s how he described it to himself: a snort. It sounded vaguely cowboy, decidedly western. When he drank alone he sometimes entertained himself via self-mocking role-play.

The harsh malignance— the venom— in the man’s voice took Sam aback. This was worse somehow than the message. Live, he didn’t sound like an actor pretending to be a criminal in a movie, which was Sam’s only reference. He sounded like a person who habitually hurt other people, who liked doing it, whose life had been defined by his willingness and ability to hurt others. The vast majority of people weren’t like that. Certainly no one Sam had ever known was like that. He felt childish and naïve, stripped naked, even over the phone.

Sam’s butterflies had been slowly morphing into nauseous abdominal pit bulls…

Summer liked the museums. She said they were like funnels concentrating human endeavor and knowledge in one place where you could soak up a lot at once.

Darwin was unsure whether to believe him, didn’t want to believe him, but kind of did believe him and disliked the implications.

My Review:

 

This was a thoughtfully written and complicated tale with multiple timelines and multiple plotlines that slowly converged. The intense storylines were well populated with bizarre, oddly unique, complex, and well-textured characters that often weren’t all that likable yet tugged at my curiosity.

I was deeply invested and intrigued by the storytelling and deeply perceptive and absorbing writing style that slotted me into each scene, so much so that I often had the urge to bathe while the characters were camping for extended periods or living rough.

I was planning to give a 5-star rating until I came to the last chapter and an ending that has left me quite aggrieved. But I know I am rather ridiculous about such things.