Dogs traces the fallout of one catastrophic night in the lives of five high school wrestlers, asking what can survive in the blast radius of latent trauma and violence.
Aorta-smashing ... The tale of how Dylan came to own the car, which opens the novel, is worth the price of admission alone ... Mallon’s prose is masterly—equal parts muscular and brutal, while also tender and mournful. Deep hurt and intensity stand poetically alongside magnificent descriptions of mall parking lots and cigarette-consuming small-town life ... Harrowing, yet enviably lean ... Every page of this tight-fist-of-a-novel is filled with...sneaky, staccato brilliance ... Every thought Hal has flows seamlessly into the next, and Mallon’s writing follows suit ... Some might quibble with the cascading traumas and violent misunderstandings packed into the latter half of the narrative ... I am so glad I took the time to consume and be consumed by Dogs, one of the most intense—and often enjoyable—reading experiences I’ve had this year.
[A] visceral gut punch ... Mallon’s prose is clean and spare, skillfully traversing dark psychological terrain while registering tonal shifts between Hal’s perceived isolation and the book’s escalating tension. Mallon’s characters are intensely nuanced, rendered in turn poetic and dark, ruined and hopeful.
