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A review by scribepub
Universal Harvester by John Darnielle
A slow-burn mystery/thriller whose characters are drawn together by an eerie discovery … Darnielle adeptly juggles multiple stories that collide with chaotic consequences somewhere in the middle of nowhere.
Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
Darnielle’s second novel opens like a dark suspense story; his descriptions of the VHS scenes are written in a deadpan style to evoke maximum dread. But he ultimately pursues a softer and more nuanced exploration of family and loss.
Kirkus
A captivating exploration of the vagaries of memory and inertia in middle America … [Universal Harvester] serves as a stellar encore after the success of [Darnielle's] debut novel, Wolf in White Van… Beneath the eerie gauze of this book, I felt an undercurrent of humanity and hope.
The Washington Post
[S]o wonderfully strange, almost Lynchian in its juxtaposition of the banal and the creepy, that my urge to know what the hell was going on caused me to go full throttle … [But] Darnielle hides so much beautiful commentary in the book’s quieter moments that you would be remiss not to slow down.
MTV News
A major work by an author who is quickly becoming one of the brightest stars in American fiction.
Los Angeles Times
An eerie but lovingly detailed delineation of a landscape that, like all landscapes, is part external reality and part memory … Darnielle understands that there are things writing can approach but must pass over in silence. He risks those silences; listen.
Colin Barrett, The Guardian
[Darnielle’s] writing is wonderful and his storytelling is unique and compelling.
Nudge
[Universal Harvester] starts like a spooky thriller, then opens out into a moving, beautifully etched picture of America’s lost and profoundly lonely.
Kazuo Ishiguro, The Guardian
[A] strange and unsettling story … Think Don DeLillo and David Lynch teaming up to write a book inspired by the Japanese horror movie Ringu.
Darragh McManus, Irish Independent
[A] taut thriller that captures the zeitgeist of the 90s.
Culturefly
A bewitching and eerily still piece of fiction. Darnielle has a gift for domestic detail and a nimble way of capturing large feelings without dwelling on them.
Ben Jeffrey, TLS
Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
Darnielle’s second novel opens like a dark suspense story; his descriptions of the VHS scenes are written in a deadpan style to evoke maximum dread. But he ultimately pursues a softer and more nuanced exploration of family and loss.
Kirkus
A captivating exploration of the vagaries of memory and inertia in middle America … [Universal Harvester] serves as a stellar encore after the success of [Darnielle's] debut novel, Wolf in White Van… Beneath the eerie gauze of this book, I felt an undercurrent of humanity and hope.
The Washington Post
[S]o wonderfully strange, almost Lynchian in its juxtaposition of the banal and the creepy, that my urge to know what the hell was going on caused me to go full throttle … [But] Darnielle hides so much beautiful commentary in the book’s quieter moments that you would be remiss not to slow down.
MTV News
A major work by an author who is quickly becoming one of the brightest stars in American fiction.
Los Angeles Times
An eerie but lovingly detailed delineation of a landscape that, like all landscapes, is part external reality and part memory … Darnielle understands that there are things writing can approach but must pass over in silence. He risks those silences; listen.
Colin Barrett, The Guardian
[Darnielle’s] writing is wonderful and his storytelling is unique and compelling.
Nudge
[Universal Harvester] starts like a spooky thriller, then opens out into a moving, beautifully etched picture of America’s lost and profoundly lonely.
Kazuo Ishiguro, The Guardian
[A] strange and unsettling story … Think Don DeLillo and David Lynch teaming up to write a book inspired by the Japanese horror movie Ringu.
Darragh McManus, Irish Independent
[A] taut thriller that captures the zeitgeist of the 90s.
Culturefly
A bewitching and eerily still piece of fiction. Darnielle has a gift for domestic detail and a nimble way of capturing large feelings without dwelling on them.
Ben Jeffrey, TLS