Let's Talk About Books

Finished this one at work tonight, which is good since w'ere going on vacation in a few days and I wanted it done before then. 

The More They Disappear takes place in a small Kentucky town with a massive drug problem, specifically with Oxycotin. After the sherif is murdered, Deputy Harlan Dupee discovers a lot of unsavory things about his former boss on the trail to find his killer. The more he digs, the more he learns about his small town that makes him question humanity and the law all together. 

This book was okay. I wasn't blown away by it but it was an interesting read. It was also incredibly well written. I was impressed with Donaldson's skill. There were parts where I just had to pause and let what I had just read soak in because it was just so incredible. For example, when I realized the significance of the title and how it essentially referred to people being worn down/changed by adversity until who they are/were completely disappears. That was just incredible. Really, I was amazed by the book. 

The other positive to this book I was really impressed with is how unique the perspectives taken seemed to be. We don't really see a lot of books about rural "white trash" kind of towns and characters (or I haven't at least) and it gave me a glimpse into a world I hadn't really been exposed to before. Not in this way anyway. The choices in the characters were also very original and I appreciated the outside the box way Donaldson created. For example, my favorite decision of his was for the murdered sheriff, Lew, to be named as a Democrat. I've never come across a work of fiction where the corrupt politician person is a liberal. They're almost always conservative. As someone who the majority of assholes in my life have been Democrats/liberals, I really appreciated this perspective. It was definitely a breath of fresh air. 

Overall though I wasn't super pulled in with this book. I just found it kinda of meh. I kept reading and I liked the story well enough, but there was nothing about it that made me go "I can't stop reading!" It was very dense and in that way I felt like I was reading one of my old English assignments, which kinda hurt the fun of the book. It just was too dense for my liking. Which, there are people who like their literature rich and dense, so if you're that type I think you'll like the book. 

Final rating: 3 out of 5. I would love to study this book but I don't think I would read it for fun again.