Unbury Carol

‘’To someone outside the coma [....] I appear...dead. Hardly a heartbeat. Far from fogging a mirror. And a pulse as slow as a slug. There’s no light in there, John. I can hear the world around me, but I can’t move. And the wind in there...it howls. So...Howltown.’’

I’m certain that the people sitting opposite me in the Tube during my commute were absolutely amused, watching my face while I was reading. Shock, anxiety. Heart racing, eyes staring in surprise and disbelief...Because this book by Josh Malerman gave me all the feels. And yes, I’m sounding like a cliché Twitter meme but you will forgive me because Unbury Carol was quite a reading experience. I loved Bird Box but this novel...Jesus, I adored it! Definitely one show more of the best books of the year. Atmospheric, haunting, lively, full of wonderful characters.

Carol is suffering from a shocking affliction. She falls into days-long comas that resemble little deaths. And yet, she is completely aware of her surroundings during her ‘’sleep’’. Her husband knows of her condition. But there is also another man who knows the truth. An outlaw, a fascinating man who loved Carol, who was loved by her and yet, she left her alone, under the burden of her condition. When Carol faces the ultimate danger, Moxie will have to face a series of threats in order to save her.

‘’There’s a difference between bad and evil [...] Bad is when you ignore the one you love. But evil is when you know exactly what that person wants, what means most to them, and you figure out how to take it away.’’

Malerman places his outstanding story in a dark version of the Wild West and my God, what a scenery he has created! Vivid descriptions of the treacherous Trail, brilliant dialogue, scenes and sequences that send hearts racing. He mixes Magical Realism and Historical Fiction to create a fable of the Sleeping Beauty that is haunting and powerful, full of secrets and questions. Those of us who read Bird Box praised Malerman’s ability to create tension and dread through the presence of the unknown. Well, Unbury Carol is a deeply humane story that deals with our greatest fear: Death.

I have a confession to make. I never trusted people who said ‘’I’m not afraid of death’’. I don’t know, I am probably wrong but it just doesn’t seem right to me. It sounds like a phrase of pretentious bravery, of surrender and despair and I accept none of them. Even the notion of sacrificing your life for a ‘’greater good’’ seems strange to me but this is my cold heart talking. In any case and back to our novel, Death becomes a tangible, dreary, mystic presence. He gambles, trying to win more and more souls to condemn them to rot and be forgotten. But who gives Death the means to do so? If you thought of the word ‘’humans’’, you’d guess correctly. It is the dangerous combination of secrets, fear and guilt that provides Death with the weapon of despair and retreat. And vanity. Carol falls victim of a vain, cruel man and it is up to her mind and soul to find a way out. Literally.

The writing is gloriously good. The atmosphere of the era, the depiction of the Wild West, the interactions of the characters are worthy of an immensely talented writer that knows how to engage the readers without resorting to cheap tricks and mass-market cliches. Malerman creates a Western fairytale of the finest quality, using a dark fable and an array of extraordinary characters.

‘’You let her rot, James. You broke her heart and a better man came and held her ‘cause she was sick...sick, James…’’

This is a rather sinister fellowship. Carol, a brave young woman who gave in to despair by choosing a completely inadequate man. Moxie, an outlaw, a man of secrets and follies, a man who seems to have sprung out of the finest old Western films, a man you cannot help but fall in love with. Opal, a brave protector of the law. Farrah, a faithful, clever companion to Carol. Hattie, Carol’s mother, who taught her to be a survivor. Evans, the devil incarnate. Smoke, a terrifying, hypnotizing, cult figure. And Rot. A presence that will haunt your sleep.

It cannot get any better than that. It really can’t. This novel aimed at my heart (ridiculously bad pun intended) and won it from the very first pages. If you want to read a book that is a fine example of Mystery, Historical Fiction and Magical Realism with questions about the darkness of the human nature, a book free from the awful stereotypes that are smothering the Literature of our times, then Unbury Carol is waiting.

[..] how these days have circled back, like the Trail, in a way, from north to south and then back north again, all a bundle of shadows and unknowns, places without sun, places where things might hide…’’

My reviews can also be found on https://theopinionatedreaderblog.wordpress.com show less

Carol Evers suffers from a strange condition: at times of stress, she lapses into a coma that closely resembles death, only she can hear what's going on around her. Now she's in one of her comas and her husband, Dwight, is planning on burying alive so he can get his greedy hands on her fortune. The only man that can save her is a notorious outlaw that ran from her and her condition years ago, James Moxie. The question is, will he reach her in time? Because there are other people who have an interest in seeing Carol buried alive and they will do whatever it takes to keep Moxie from ruining their plans.

What I like most about Unbury Carol is not the central story itself (which is indeed a great premise) but the world it takes place in. show more Malerman demonstrates that he great at crafting a world and atmosphere with Unbury Carol. I love the Trail, and the little towns it travels through, and the colorful characters that live and die along its dark and dangerous path. Additionally, the way Malerman describes Carol's condition as being caught in a place called "Howltown" is brilliant.

The horror of the novel is mainly the horror of being stuck in Carol's coma condition and the possibility that she'll be buried alive. There are supernatural elements throughout Unbury Carol, but the most frightening moments of the novel come from Carol's condition as well as the interactions between the human characters and the evil they are capable of. There are many bandits and outlaws on the Trail who wish to stop Moxie in his tracks and some are pure evil. Beside Dwight, the bandit Smoke, embodies this idea of pure evil perfectly (think Anton Chigurh from No Country For Old Men) . I won't give much away but Smoke is a killer who kills without remorse, so he's pretty much the Michael Myers of the Wild West.

Unbury Carol is a fairly breathtaking story, a weird-west fairy tale of a woman struggling to remain alive and the man who truly loves her returning to save her from ending up six feet under. This being said, the novel is not perfect. The build to the climax is amazing, but the payoff was…not disappointing, but not quite enough. I wish there was a little bit more history shown between Carol and Moxie and I wish the ended would have been a bit more explosive.

Still, this bleakly lyrical story of survival, outlaws, is a real-page turner. Check it out. show less

I’ve never been a fan of Westerns. With the exception of the odd episode of "Bonanza" when I was a kid (and we only had one TV), I’ve never watched a cowboy series or film and I’ve certainly never cracked the spine on a Zane Grey novel. But the premise of Josh Malerman’s Unbury Carol seemed so unique I really couldn’t pass it up.

Billed by the publisher as a “twisted take on Sleeping Beauty,” and compared by some critics to Cormac McCarthy, this is an ambitious and unusual amalgamation of several genres – classic old West tale, supernatural thriller, horror and police procedural. It’s the story of a wealthy woman who suffers from a form of narcolepsy that causes her to immediately fall into a death-like coma. Her show more heartbeat and breathing slow to the point of being undetectable, despite the fact that she remains completely aware of all that is going on around her. When the only remaining person who knows her secret (other than her husband, Dwight) succumbs to a flu-like malady that has afflicted their town, Dwight decides he’s tired of living in her shadow and schemes to declare her dead and bury her alive when the next coma strikes. Once that happens, the story becomes a race against the clock as her former lover, an outlaw named James Moxie, rides back into town to save her.

Almost at once I could see the parallels between this novel and Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men, as Moxie is tracked across the county by Smoke, a legless hitman who delights in dispensing oil from his hollow metal prosthetic legs for the purpose of setting folks on fire. Definite shades of Anton Chigurh here. But to balance out the sheer evil of Dwight and Smoke, there are also deeply moral and upright characters like Manders, the overworked funeral director, calm and resolute Sheriff Opal, sweet-natured Farrah, Carol’s loyal ladies maid and Farrah’s husband Clyde, a big-hearted boozer, all who follow their instincts and doggedly pursue Carol’s ne’er do well husband as he rushes to commit Carol’s body to the ground.

It took me a while to get into this one, but once the story gets going, it’s addictively suspenseful. I found myself turning pages avidly to find out how it would end. The biggest surprise was the bizarre supernatural element that runs throughout. An evil entity plagues Carol in “Howltown” (her name for the coma state), as well as the three men at war over her fate – Dwight, Moxie and Smoke. At times, it seemed merely a demonic figment borne of a guilty conscious but there were other times I was convinced it was the devil himself. Malerman’s past experience as a Bram Stoker award-nominated horror writer lends itself nicely to these segments, which are deeply creepy and chilling. Even at the story’s close, there are several eerie mysteries that the author deliberately leaves unresolved and open to the reader’s interpretation.

But at its heart, this is a contemporary revisionist fairy tale – it’s a woman’s empowerment story. While the reader anxiously awaits Moxie’s arrival on the scene to save his former lover in the nick of time, Carol is overcoming her fears and all the obstacles of Howltown in order to engineer her own escape. Despite myself, I liked this book quite a bit and highly recommend it, particularly to the many fans of modern thrillers who might be seeking something a little different. show less

You know that nightmare where you're buried alive, in a coffin, the dirt just being piled on top, and you try and claw your way out, the air just gradually disappearing? Or how about the one where you're stuck in a coma, but you're still aware of everything around you, and everyone around you just carries on as if you're already dead, although you're screaming inside that you're still alive but you can't move and do a thing? This is that book.

Carol Evers has an illness where she falls into death-like comas, something she has kept secret, save for just a special few, and her malicious husband, Dwight Evers has had enough of her having the limelight (because she’s a wonderful person) and passes her off for really being dead this final show more time. And so begins a gruesome tale set in the Old West that is ripe with myth, and is basically a story of long-lost love, crossed with a tale of planned murder. In 'Unbury Carol', Josh Malerman craftily brings nightmares of being trapped in a waking coma, and being possibly buried alive, onto the page, because Carol Evers lives that horror at just one heartbeat a minute.

But a couple of outlaws ride along the Trail to try and make it back to Harrows to face off against each other and they are the infamous James Moxie, who left Carol once before, and a horrific character called Smoke, who thinks nothing of pouring oil down people's throats and lighting a match. This is the man who Dwight has sent for, to stop Moxie from waking and saving our Western Sleeping Beauty. Moxie, however, is known along the Trail for the 'Trick' and has his own magic, but is haunted by haven't left Carol all those years ago, and has lived with years of regret.
All this time Carol waits on a stone slab in the cellar, she isn't asleep or even dead inside; she knows and sees what her cruel husband is doing and while Moxie rides the trail, she's desperately trying to move even an eyelid, just an inch. She's not done.

This tale takes a while to get into; the language seems otherworldly, and will immediately strike you as a book that you can't just skim though. The writing won't allow you to, as the prose is too filled with poetic language, the sort that would have been been heard well over a century ago. But it’s not just that; Malerman has written with a pace that builds tension and makes you wonder if Moxie will get to Carol in time, and suits the time period wherein everything was slower. I enjoyed how the chapters are descriptive of what’s happening within them, and not numbered, as though they had their own little story to tell within the whole. The characters are all so brilliantly crafted and written as well; especially Smoke, the villain, such a gruesome and horrific figure to imagine.
By just tapping into a common nightmare and fear of being buried alive, and being ‘awake’ in a coma with no way to communicate or move, Malerman has tapped into something so primal and frightening, and to put it into a landscape that is so unique is genius. Along with a tale of spousal murder (well, planned), and long-lost love in the Old Wild West, this is a something to behold in terms of horror literary fiction.

And a MASSIVE thank you to the MAN himself, Josh Malerman, for signing my ARC of ‘Unbury Carol’ and my copy of ‘Bird Box’ at the Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle in March, and having a chat with me. You made my day! I DID enjoy my time on the Trail!

*I received free books from Penguin Random House in exchange for this review. Thank you! show less

he fear of being buried alive is one of the most spine-chilling phobias that I can think of and it is a fear shared by many to the extent that people have gone to great expense to make sure that it doesn’t happen to them or their loved ones. There are songs about it, movies about it, magic acts about it, and, of course, books about it. Josh Malerman, best known for his excellent dystopian thriller, Bird Box, not only capitalizes on that fear in his newest novel but takes it one step further. Carol Evers has an unusual condition. She had died many times, or at least that is what observers unfamiliar with her medical history would think. For days at a time, Carol falls into a catatonic state, her breathing and heartrates slowing to an show more almost imperceptible level. Of course, all Carol needs to do to avoid being buried alive is to tell someone about her condition. That would solve her problem, right?

But what if the only person who knows wants her dead? Not only does the reader have the horror of being buried alive to contend with, there is also the almost equally terrifying situation of being able to see an impending disaster and being unable to do anything about it.

The setting for Unbury Carol is a somewhat fantastical 19th century weird west area known only as The Trail, complete with outlaws, whiskey, gunfights and vicious killers. It also has the unusual honor of including more references to pig-shit in it that in just about all other books I have read combined. There may be reason for this but I surely don’t know what it is.

Bottom line: Malerman is a great author with an excellent imagination. I also really enjoyed this very unusual tale. I did some aspects of the plot somewhat implausible, though. Even so, I like the way he writes and look forward to seeing what he comes up with next.

* The review was based on an advanced reading copy obtained at no cost from the publisher in exchange for an unbiased review. While this does take any ‘not worth what I paid for it’ statements out of my review, it otherwise has no impact on the content of my review.

FYI: On a 5-point scale I assign stars based on my assessment of what the book needs in the way of improvements:
*5 Stars – Nothing at all. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
*4 Stars – It could stand for a few tweaks here and there but it’s pretty good as it is.
*3 Stars – A solid C grade. Some serious rewriting would be needed in order for this book to be considered great or memorable.
*2 Stars – This book needs a lot of work. A good start would be to change the plot, the character development, the writing style and the ending.
*1 Star – The only thing that would improve this book is a good bonfire. show less

“The Trail did this to troubled men. Tangled them like unseen strings on a magician’s stage.”

I have heard a lot about Josh Malerman’s writing, but this was the first title I’ve read by him. I went in with very few, if any, expectations since I didn’t bother to read the synopsis. The book was recommended to me, I liked the cover, and so I jumped right in.

Loosely, the story is about a woman who has a very unique condition - from time to time she goes into a deep coma where she appears dead to the untrained eye. Naturally, her emasculated husband sees this as his golden opportunity to step out from under her perceived shadow by burying her alive. Unfortunately for him, she has an ex in her little black book that’s a legendary show more outlaw. He happens to know of her condition and rushes back to save her - but nothing is that simple on The Trail.

A fun mix of storytelling genres, this book manages to be insightful, amusing, and absolutely terrifying. The writing style is interesting and unique. I will be reading more of Malermans work now. I think fans of Chuck Palahniuk would enjoy this title. show less

I found this one unsatisfying. For one thing, the world building is sloppy. It's an alternate reality so doesn't have to conform to actual history, but it should have some internal logic to it. And Malerman makes the weird and ineffective choice to leave out the most important scene. So, unsatisfying.