Bibliophile [a land more kind than home]

I think (hope) this is one not too many of you have read yet. I feel like I get pretty mainstream with my choices, so perhaps this is a great read in a similar genre but with less exposure.

A Land More Kind than Home, Wiley Cash

Alright friends, here's your blurb:

A stunning debut reminiscent of the beloved novels of John Hart and Tom Franklin, A Land More Kind Than Home is a mesmerizing literary thriller about the bond between two brothers and the evil they face in a small western North Carolina town. For a curious boy like Jess Hall, growing up in Marshall means trouble when your mother catches you spying on grown-ups. Adventurous and precocious, Jess is enormously protective of his older brother, Christopher, a mute whom everyone calls Stump. Though their mother has warned them not to snoop, Stump can't help sneaking a look at something he's not supposed to—an act that will have catastrophic repercussions, shattering both his world and Jess's. It's a wrenching event that thrusts Jess into an adulthood for which he's not prepared. While there is much about the world that still confuses him, he now knows that a new understanding can bring not only a growing danger and evil—but also the possibility of freedom and deliverance as well.


Ooooh I'm excited all over again.

I love reading the first novels of new authors- it feels like starting a relationship with them, like you knew them way back when (even though they're already a published novelist, which is not exactly "way back when", but you know what I'm getting at). I really enjoyed this story, and finished it quick- I read it on a round-trip Amtrak from DC to NYC, though you should know I Acela-expressed that shit so it's less than 3 hours one way. I know a lot of people gravitate towards shorter novels, and this is a great choice if you're trying to get back into reading- it has a quick pace, but there's not so much going on that you have to read consistently, the characters are pretty black and white so you don't feel too angsty about loving and hating them at the same time, and it's an exciting topic: crazy preacher in the back woods trying to be God kinda stuff (the blurb doesn't give you too much about the meat of the story). Check this one out for sure!