“He takes obvious enjoyment in sharing the culture of his home state; his excitement about each folk tale, each bit of history, shines through the narrative. And it’s contagious: It’s hard not to get swept up by his enthusiastic prose, his ebullient descriptions of the places and people in the Bluegrass State. It’s a relentlessly fun novel, the literary equivalent of a country-punk album that grabs you and refuses to let go. Wilkes has a perfect ear for the dialect of Kentucky, and his writing is so bright, you can almost see every abandoned shack, every kudzu-covered tree. Sure, it’s bizarre, and at points almost gleefully obscene, but it’s undeniably one of the smartest, most original Southern Gothic novels to come along in years.”
–Michael Schaub, NPR, March 14, 2017
Read more of Michael’s reviews here
