Unbury Carol

October 9, 2017
Malerman’s fantasy gothic is a grinding of gears moving inexorably towards one another, sometimes so slowly that it seems they will never meet. Carol Evers has a uniquely horrific problem: she occasionally dies, but only for two to four days before waking again, and while dead she hears everything around her. Her husband thinks no one besides him knows her secret, and he plans to quickly bury her the next time she dies so he can claim her enormous fortune. But outlaw James Moxie, Carol’s guilt-ridden former lover, rides to save her. While Carol fights to awaken, she is hounded by the insidious personification of Rot, who wants to claim her, and James is pursued by both Rot and a ruthless arsonist assassin hired by Dwight. A few of the side stories feel like distractions, but those of Carol and James, especially their fights against dark beings and metaphorical inner demons, will win this morbid tale some fans. Agent: Kristin Nelson, Nelson Literary.

February 1, 2018
In a surreal, Wild West take on Sleeping Beauty, storied outlaw James Moxie must save his one-time lover Carol Evers from being buried alive.Only a few people aside from Carol's shifty husband, Dwight, know that she suffers from a condition that periodically sends her spiraling into a coma resembling death and a place she calls Howltown. "Unable to shoulder the burden of caring for a woman who died so often," Moxie disappeared from her life 20 years ago. Her close friend John Bowie, in whom she also confided, has just died. Fearing that should Dwight die when she's in a coma, no one will know not to bury her, she entrusts her secret to a young maid. But it's Dwight who proves to be her greatest threat. Having had it with her freakish condition and wanting to freely lay hands on her money, he decides to make her latest "death" permanent by burying her alive. To get to her first, Moxie, who is drawn back into Carol's life by an odd funeral announcement dispatched by the maid, must elude a ruthless killer with tin legs named Smoke--a man "as monstrous as anything local folklore had invented." Other evil forces, as well as good, abound. Though the book sometimes recalls Neil Gaiman's American Gods, Malerman is too fierce an original to allow anyone else's vision to intrude on his. Where other novelists, including Gaiman, would lighten things with humor, Malerman achieves his narrative intensity with a dead seriousness. As with his other novels, this one haunts for reasons you can't quite put your finger on. With another fascinating novel that traffics in strange and transporting states of being, Malerman (Black Mad Wheel, 2017, etc.) again defies categories and comparisons with other writers.

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Starred review from February 1, 2018
Carol is prone to falling into comas that mimic death for days at a time. Only her husband, Dwight, and her friend John Bowie, whose burial opens the novel, know her secret. With Bowie gone for Carol's next spell, Dwight fakes her death and attempts to bury her alive. So begins this retelling of Sleeping Beauty as a tale that mixes suspense, dark fantasy, and the spaghetti western, holding the reader hostage in its magical and sinister thrall. The major players take their turns narrating the story, including but not limited to dastardly Dwight; Carol's long lost, outlaw love, Moxie; and Smoke, the perfectly rendered villain. The most interesting narrator is Carol, trapped in her coma, frantically struggling to save herself. Malerman (Bird Box, 2014) seamlessly blends strong world building, a steadily escalating pace, and a tone that is breathtaking and menacing. This is an intricately plotted, lyrical page turner about love, betrayal, revenge, and the primal fear of being buried alive. Start by suggesting it to fans of atmospheric, supernatural suspense that is both thought-provoking and terrifying, like Keith Donohue's The Motion of Puppets (2016) or Kevin Brockmeier's The Brief History of the Dead (2006), but hand it out freely to anyone looking for a good read.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

Starred review from January 1, 2018

Bram Stoker Award nominee Malerman (Black Mad Wheel) explores a mythical--and mystical--Old West's deceptively quiet landscape, where denizens maintain social facades masking fears common to those living in the wild. After the loss of a beloved friend, Carol and Dwight Evers wonder who now might be trusted with Carol's chilling secret: unpredictable death-like comas lasting several days. She dreads lapsing into the condition if her husband suffers some deadly accident and leaves her vulnerable to live burial. They must tell someone. But before Carol can do this, she's once more taken to Howltown (her term for her coma). Aware of Carol's past love James Moxie, the Evers' maid telegrams him the sad news of her employer's "death." Unknown to Dwight, who plans burying Carol as quickly as possible in order to abscond with her great fortune, James is not only an outlaw, but he genuinely loves Carol--and knows her secret (which prompted his abandoning her). But James is pursued by more than guilt. Also on his trail is a hired assassin, himself stalked by an otherworldly manifestation of death also hungering for Carol. VERDICT Admirers of the bleakly lyrical a la Cormac McCarthy and Flannery O'Connor's gothic grotesque will find this appealing. [See Prepub Alert, 10/22/17.]--William Grabowski, McMechen, WV

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 15, 2017

Carol Evers periodically falls into a coma she calls the Black Place, looking as if she were dead, and this time husband Dwight greedily plans for her funeral. But former lover James Moxie, once an outlaw of awesome repute, gallops into town to save his sleeping beauty. From the author of the Bram Stoker Award-nominated Bird Box, about to become a film, which appears to be the fate of this book, too.

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2018

Bram Stoker Award nominee Malerman (Black Mad Wheel) explores a mythical--and mystical--Old West's deceptively quiet landscape, where denizens maintain social facades masking fears common to those living in the wild. After the loss of a beloved friend, Carol and Dwight Evers wonder who now might be trusted with Carol's chilling secret: unpredictable death-like comas lasting several days. She dreads lapsing into the condition if her husband suffers some deadly accident and leaves her vulnerable to live burial. They must tell someone. But before Carol can do this, she's once more taken to Howltown (her term for her coma). Aware of Carol's past love James Moxie, the Evers' maid telegrams him the sad news of her employer's "death." Unknown to Dwight, who plans burying Carol as quickly as possible in order to abscond with her great fortune, James is not only an outlaw, but he genuinely loves Carol--and knows her secret (which prompted his abandoning her). But James is pursued by more than guilt. Also on his trail is a hired assassin, himself stalked by an otherworldly manifestation of death also hungering for Carol. VERDICT Admirers of the bleakly lyrical a la Cormac McCarthy and Flannery O'Connor's gothic grotesque will find this appealing. [See Prepub Alert, 10/22/17.]--William Grabowski, McMechen, WV

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.