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" "Lyrical, propulsive, dark and compelling. Joy knows well the grit and gravel of his world, the soul and blemishes of the place."--Daniel Woodrell. In the country-noir tradition of Winter's Bone meets 'Breaking Bad,' a savage and beautiful story of a young man seeking redemption. The area surrounding Cashiers, North Carolina, is home to people of all kinds, but the world that Jacob McNeely lives in is crueler than most. His father runs a methodically organized meth ring, with local authorities on the dime to turn a blind eye to his dealings. Having dropped out of high school and cut himself off from his peers, Jacob has been working for this father for years, all on the promise that his payday will come eventually. The only joy he finds comes from reuniting with Maggie, his first love, and a girl clearly bound for bigger and better things than their hardscrabble town. Jacob has always been resigned to play the cards that were dealt him, but when a fatal mistake changes everything, he's faced with a choice: stay and appease his father, or leave the mountains with the girl he loves. In a place where blood is thicker than water and hope takes a back seat to fate, Jacob wonders if he can muster the strength to rise above the only life he's ever known"-- "Set in North Carolina's Appalachian Mountains, eighteen-year-old Jacob McNeely is torn between appeasing his meth-dealing kingpin father and leaving the mountains forever with the girl he loves"--… (more)
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I like dark books, but I have trouble with violence and cruelty, and this one was
Written in first person, protagonist Jacob knows he has to follow his father's footsteps, where law is something to be bought and lawlessness is the traditional way of life. And he loves his childhood friend, Maggie, but also knows she is destined for better things, to get away from the community that sucks humanity out of those who stay. Despite his poor decisions and his fatalistic attitude, I liked Jacob and wanted good things for him.
“The life I was born into seemed set in stone from the moment my last name was scribbled across my birth certificate. But in a lot of ways I'd come to terms with it. There comes a time when you are so worn that you can't fight that [….] any longer, and so you just surrender.”
”Hope and faith are loaded guns.”
Reflecting on his father's treatment of his drug-addled mother, Jacob thinks, “Loved her too much to give her nothing, but giving her anything at all squared things so he'd never have to love her again.
This is not a fluffy, feel-good type of book, but it is beautiful in its own way, in its look into the darkness that can live in human souls.
I was given an advance readers copy of this book for review, and the quotes may have changed in the published edition.
There is one scene with Jacob and his temporarily sober mother which shines out from all the violence and ugliness - but one passage does not make a novel.
I wish I could recommend more highly, but maybe next time David Joy will write more nuanced characters and more palatable situations.
The more Jacob learns about his father and his merciless ways, the more Jacob knows he's not cut out to follow in his father's footsteps. When he gets another chance to win the girl he loves, Jacob finally sees a way out of the life that is expected of him. Unfortunately, walking away might be harder than even he could ever imagine.
Where All Light Tends to Go should have been a huge hit with me. I'm fresh from a binge watching of Justified, so backwoods Appalachian criminals are right up my alley. Instead, I found myself disappointed with the book. Joy is a capable writer, but Where All Light Tends to Go seems just a bit disingenuous. Except for a few token country boyisms, if you will, Jacob's narration is almost too well spoken and even a little wooden. When Jacob does stumble into some local vernacular, it smacks of Joy trying too hard to get his character to be a little more down home. It would actually seem more genuine if Jacob referred to pants as pants every once in a great while instead of as britches, and not every police officer has to be referred to as a "bull."
Jacob faces some considerable struggle in the pages of this book, but for me, Joy missed the mark when it came to garnering my sympathies. Instead, I felt as if I was still watching this narrator from a distance instead of being truly involved in his story, despite the first person narration. All in all, Where All the Light Tends to Go is a competent debut that didn't quite find its voice.
Overall, the book is incredibly bleak, no hope to be found anywhere. There are very few characters with any redeeming qualities, hillbilly meth dealers, crooked cops in on the action, even the "good
I like Southern-Lit, but this one definitely didn't live up to the billing.
"Winter's Bone, Breaking Bad, Cormac McCarthy fans will devour this dark debut novel," the sticky note declared.
Well, I'd never heard of "Winter's Bone" (which has now made it onto my TBR pile), and I'd never watched an episode of "Breaking Bad." However, I HAD read Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" and enjoyed it immensely. I stepped a little bit closer, only to discover that the book jacket looked...kind of like home - bleak, run down, with an abandoned house with a sagging roof and a rusted old pickup truck. Hmm. I flipped open the book. And then I was lost.
Set in Appalachia (HOME! :) ) - Cashiers, North Carolina, to be specific - Jacob McNeely is the son of the local meth dealer and a junkie. Just his last name marks him, and he knows that he'll never get out of Cashiers. His childhood was crap, with the one bright spot being his best friend and first love, Maggie. But Maggie is destined for bigger and better things - college, a career, and a home far away from Cashiers - and Jacob can't offer that. Instead, he gets caught up in a murder set up by his father and his father's henchmen, and it looks like he'll never leave Cashiers free - or alive.
First off, I loved, loved, loved the writing style of David Joy. It's sparse and just reeks of...home. I mean, I can hear people talking like this in my memories - hell, I talk like this sometimes. So you can really tell that he lives in the area and is familiar with it. And he really draws you into the characters' heads and lives. Even the Cabe brothers, who come across as rather vile, have a "softer" side when the reader learns that they keep dozens of cats - cats that they probably have a difficult time affording to feed.
There's also a sense of dread just permeating the entire book. Although Jacob desperately wants to get away from his fate, it seems that nothing goes right for him.
I will definitely be picking up more from this author once he writes it!
Where I grew up, in the Blue Ridge
I won't recommend it to folks who don't care for foul language - there's plenty - but I think it was used in character, not frivolously. I think the author just might know these people.
A few things got to me: our hero is his fther's son, he can't get out, he has no choice - said over & over. I don't believe this, but again, true to character and hey, it's fiction. AND his first - hope he writes more! Meantime, I'll look into some of his local wrinting/non-fiction.
So this was a debut novel. While I could see hints of what he'd be able to write just a book later, here the story is simplistic and the characters stay carefully within their assigned stereo-types, from the perfect, pure girlfriend to the slimy lawyer. Jacob had a few moments along the way where Joy seems to be pointing out the naivety of an eighteen-year-old boy's ego and the story itself was certainly fast-paced, but this is clearly the work of someone still learning their craft. Joy will be a writer to watch, but this book is not a strong one.
Book Copy Gratis Amazon Vine
Oh what a tragedy! This book really got to me. Small town life surrounded by drugs, so believable and so sad. Just wow. Talk about going out in a blaze of glory. . . If you want a HEA this isn't for you.
4—4.5 stars
Oh what a tragedy! This book really got to me. Small town life surrounded by drugs, so believable and so sad. Just wow. Talk about going out in a blaze of glory. . . If you want a HEA this isn't for you.
4—4.5 stars
I did enjoy the descriptions of the area. I know Cashiers well and if the author had not I would not have fooled me. The plot pacing was good and I thought the author did a good job with showing how violence can seep into the very pores of someone.
There's certain novels I read and they make me jealous. They go beyond the standard level of entertainment, or thought provocation, and they sweep you up with a level of writing, a level of insight, that you normally don't get.
And while my thoughts are still provoked, while I am
David Joy has written one of those novels.
Although Jacob left school and turned his back on his peers to work for his father, he is in love with Maggie, who has been in his life since they were very young. It’s through Maggie that he hopes to find redemption. She is going to be leaving soon, heading toward University and a new life and wants Jacob to go with her. The only thing standing in their way is money, and money is one of the things that his father has withheld from him.
I found Where All Light Tends to Go a moving account of one young man’s desire for a new life set against the brutal reality of what he currently has. With a father who is a killer and a mother who is an addict, Jacob has never had any choice in who or what he would become. This is the author’s first book and I have previously read his second, The Weight of the World, so I know that this is an author who can deliver a dark and gritty story along with beautiful descriptive writing. I am looking forward to book number three.