*ugh* Chapters 5-10 were tough to get through because of boredom.
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It was alright but way too long for what it offered.
It falls in the mystery genre IMO.

I have come across quite a few of her short stories so wanted to try a novel by her. Too bad it wasn't a hit for me. ( )

I have nothing good to say about this book. Just "eh". ( )

Let me start by saying that this book really wasn't that scary. I'm not quite sure it deserves the "horror" epithet. It's really more of a thriller. That isn't to say, though, that it's an awful book. It's an OK read, it's just that any prospective reader should be forewarned that the book isn't exactly what the back cover bills it to be.

The story centers around a small town in the hills of the Appalachian mountains somewhere in Virginia or West Virgina, I'm not quite sure. The town has an old spooky religion that centers around a "Sineater," a societal outcast whose job it is to ceremonially consume the sins of the dead by eating food from the chest of the corpse. The concept stems from a tradition in parts of England and Scotland, and since the Virginia and West Virginia mountains were settled primarily by folks of English and Scotch-Irish descent, it is a plausible idea if not necessarily accurate. The main character is Joel, the pre-pubescent son of the Sineater. And because he is the son of the Sineater, he and his entire family are also societal outcasts. A series of assaults and murders begin to take place in town and in the surrounding mountains, all of which are attributed to the Sineater. Caught in the middle, Joel attempts to prove that it isn't the Sineater's doing all while battling his own long-standing religious indoctrination and fear of his father.

While the story itself was pretty good, I found myself annoyed to no end by the profundity of "plot-stupid" characters--characters that make stupid assumptions and decisions not because it is the most logical thing for them to do given their situation and characterization, but because it is important that they remain dumb as a rock so that the plot will work. And while perpetual stupidity may mirror some people in reality, it makes (at least for this reader) for a frustrating reading experience.

That being said, Massie did an excellent job depicting rural Appalachian culture. I especially appreciated how she fleshed out their backwoods religion with certain details such as feet washing, details culled from the real-life backwoods religion of the Primitive Baptists. There are a lot of practitioners up in the hills of Virginia where my family is from, so I'm well acquainted with some of their traditions, and it was interesting to see some of it co-opted into the book's plot. And since I've spent a lot of time in that part of the country, I can tell you that Massie's eerie depictions of the region, both in setting, are spot on.

Overall it was a good story, but it never really gripped me. Perhaps it was because it just wasn't scary, or perhaps it was because the characters drove me up the freakin' wall, or maybe it was a combination of the two. But given all that, I'm afraid I have to give it 2 and a half stars. It's not an awful book, it's just not a great one either. ( )

review soon ( )