đŸ—ģ 🏕️ 🛩️ "These Nameless Things" (2020) 🛩️ 🏕️ đŸ—ģ - Book Review



MY REVIEW

Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: Revell (June 30, 2020)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0800735307
ISBN-13: 978-0800735302
Click Picture for Purchase Information

Before Dan opened his door to find a wounded woman who had escaped from the tormentors in the mountain, his life had become rather quiet. He and the eight other people in the mostly abandoned town had become friends. They spent peaceful evenings around the campfire and even made vague plans to journey east one day and leave the ominous mountain behind.

But the woman's arrival changes everything. 

Who is she? How does she know so much about Dan's brother, who is still held captive in the mountain? Why are long-forgotten memories rising to the surface? And why does Dan feel so compelled to keep her presence in his house a secret?

Thank you in advance to the publisher, Revell, for providing a complimentary review copy through the Revell Reads Blogger Program. A positive review was not required or requested and all words are my own.

I had heard good things about Shawn Smucker’s “The Light From Distant Stars”, but, I have not yet read it. This is the first book I’ve read from the author.

The premise was interesting – Dan being held captive, his escape, leaving his brother, hoping his brother escapes, and the arrival of a mystery woman. I honestly wanted to see where this was coming from and where it was going. Yet, that’s what I spent most of the time reading the novel wondering about – what were the nameless things and where was this novel going to end up? Where were we going on how were we going to get there?

Let me just state this – this is a very well written, descriptive novel given the topic being dealt with.

Since it is a Revell title, immediately I knew it’d be a clean read and also thought there would be some Christian/Faith themes in it. It is more of a “magical realism” read though. For someone who has read a lot of Christian Fiction, this doesn’t seem to cover anything in that genre. There are no scriptures, church references, or even mentions of God.

The cover is absolutely stunning, yet haunting and surreal. It makes the reader wonder what the correlation is to the title and premise.

I didn’t seem to connect with any of the characters. They seemed like, outside of the situation they were in, they could be great people. But, they also seemed flat and empty. They were just “there” so to speak – people for Dan to converse with or to move the story along. Dan was obsessed with waiting for his brother to leave or be released. The story is told entirely from Dan’s POV in first person.

The other people’s voices were the stories they told him or his interactions with them. They didn’t seem to have much of a background and noticeably there were no concerned and/or connected family members. No jobs, no real source of income. So, this should’ve been a hint to me as to what I was reading about.

It was hard to connect with these people as I had virtually no clue what was going on. The author states this book has a “connection” to Dante’s Inferno, a book I’ve never read.

By chapter six (6), I was beginning to have a lot of questions – what were these people doing on the mountain, what place did they escape from, what were they running from, what were they doing there, how did they even get to where they were coming from? Jobs? Family? Where are they?

What was with the “leaving” ceremony?

This was a grand ceremony as the people there weren’t made to stay forever. It was an “in between” space – from the mountain to the place “East”. It involves a bonfire with people burning their possessions, even books. And, I honestly couldn’t get into this.

One woman, Mary, was able to leave.

Admittedly, I wanted to just stop at this point. I honestly felt lost reading it. Still, I kept going. I didn’t know what to make of it. I really wanted to like this book and tried to see where the author was going. What was he trying to tell us?

Most of the memories at the close of part one (1) seemed to revolve around Dan’s brother and a plane crash (Adam was the pilot) that occurred –

Circe – lost a daughter
Mrs. B – lost her husband
Misha – first responder
Miho – lost her mother
Po – lost his wife

We find these people have also been waiting for Dan’s brother (Adam) to leave the mountain. It was a freak storm that brought the memories. It was also a storm that seemed to have caused the events prior to the novel.

In part two (2), Dan goes back to the mountain to rescue his brother. This is spurned on by a woman (Kathy) who arrives in the village – actually, there are two (Kathy and Lucia). There is also a fire in the village that causes everyone to want to leave immediately despite an unspoken agreement to stay there and wait. And, another question emerges – more actually.

We then learn in part two (2) that there is no rescuing someone from “the mountain” – they can only leave of their own free will and by grace. They are held there by guilt. Yet another question pops up.

It is in this part that Dan fully recalls the events surrounding the plane crash – the reason for the existence of the people in this story, the reason his brother is “missing”. Dan is also responsible for the crash as well.

It is after this that the journey to bring Dan’s brother out really begins and the reader begins to have suspicions as to what is represented by the mountain, village, and the “moving East” part.

However, what isn’t explained is the people prior to Circe, Mrs. B, Mar (the one who left), Misha, Miho, and Po. There were others there that escaped the mountain, stayed in the village, and left. Again, more questions.

The ending is not something I can explain without giving it away. And, even right at the end, I didn’t know what I was supposed to be seeing or feeling. I didn’t know what was being accomplished.

I couldn’t figure out was Abe’s part in this story. That is never really explained. There were no real references for me as to who he was, how he got there, why he was there, and why he was seemingly the leader. More questions.

It had; for me; a dark, eerie, foreboding type of tone. It wasn’t a feel good read at all. I was still left with many questions. It is at times a slow-burn read and a rapid pace read.
Very seldom does a Revell title leave me this confused or “down”. If I had known what the tone of this was and the message – I probably wouldn’t have requested it, or read it. I am glad I got to read it, but not sure I would re-read it.

Fans of the genre and/or author might be interested in this book.  



RATING:

3 ⭐⭐⭐/5⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐  – Goodreads

3 ⭐⭐⭐/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ – Bookbub

3 ⭐⭐⭐/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ – Personal Rating (see rating explanation in this blog: https://readingexcursions.blogspot.com/2020/01/rating-system-2020-changes.html)






ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  


Shawn Smucker is the award-winning author of Light from Distant Stars, the young adult novels The Day the Angels Fell and The Edge of Over There, and the memoir Once We Were Strangers. He lives with his wife and six children in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. You can find him online at www.shawnsmucker.com.


You can follow him on the following social media accounts:





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