'A slow-burn mystery/thriller whose characters are drawn together by an eerie discovery ... Darnielle adeptly juggles multiple stories that collide with chaotic consequences somewhere in the middle of nowhere.' Publishers Weekly (starred review) 'Darnielle's second novel opens like a dark suspense story; his descriptions of the VHS scenes are written in a deadpan style to evoke maximum dread. But he ... Read moreultimately pursues a softer and more nuanced exploration of family and loss.' Kirkus 'A captivating exploration of the vagaries of memory and inertia in middle America ... [Universal Harvester] serves as a stellar encore after the success of [Darnielle's] debut novel, Wolf in White Van ... Beneath the eerie gauze of this book, I felt an undercurrent of humanity and hope.' The Washington Post '[S]o wonderfully strange, almost Lynchian in its juxtaposition of the banal and the creepy, that my urge to know what the hell was going on caused me to go full throttle ... [But] Darnielle hides so much beautiful commentary in the book's quieter moments that you would be remiss not to slow down.' MTV News 'A major work by an author who is quickly becoming one of the brightest stars in American fiction.' Los Angeles Times 'An eerie but lovingly detailed delineation of a landscape that, like all landscapes, is part external reality and part memory ... Darnielle understands that there are things writing can approach but must pass over in silence. He risks those silences; listen.'
Colin Barett The Guardian Show Less