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The Evening Hour: A Novel
Most of the wealth in Dove Creek, West Virginia, is in the earth-in the coal seams that have provided generations with a way of life. Born and raised here, twenty-seven-year-old Cole Freeman has sidestepped work as a miner to become an aide in a nursing home. He's got a shock of bleached blond hair and a gentle touch well suited to the job. He's also a drug dealer, reselling the prescription drugs his older patients give him to a younger crowd looking for different kinds of escape.
In this economically depressed, shifting landscape, Cole is floundering. The mining corporation is angling to buy the Freeman family's property, and Cole's protests only feel like stalling. Although he has often dreamed of leaving, he has a sense of duty to this land, especially after the death of his grandfather. His grandfather is not the only Cole's one close friend, Terry Rose, has also slipped away from him, first to marriage, then to drugs. While Cole alternately attempts romance with two troubled women, he spends most of his time with the elderly patients at the home, desperately trying to ignore the decay of everything and everyone around him. Only when a disaster befalls these mountains is Cole forced to confront his fears and, finally, take decisive action-if not to save his world, to at least save himself.
The Evening Hour marks the powerful debut of a writer who brings originality, nuance, and an incredible talent for character to an iconic American landscape in the throes of change.
In this economically depressed, shifting landscape, Cole is floundering. The mining corporation is angling to buy the Freeman family's property, and Cole's protests only feel like stalling. Although he has often dreamed of leaving, he has a sense of duty to this land, especially after the death of his grandfather. His grandfather is not the only Cole's one close friend, Terry Rose, has also slipped away from him, first to marriage, then to drugs. While Cole alternately attempts romance with two troubled women, he spends most of his time with the elderly patients at the home, desperately trying to ignore the decay of everything and everyone around him. Only when a disaster befalls these mountains is Cole forced to confront his fears and, finally, take decisive action-if not to save his world, to at least save himself.
The Evening Hour marks the powerful debut of a writer who brings originality, nuance, and an incredible talent for character to an iconic American landscape in the throes of change.
337 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 17, 2012
20 people are currently reading
995 people want to read
About the author
Carter Sickels
7 books238 followersCarter Sickels is the author of THE PRETTIEST STAR (Hub City Press, 2020) and THE EVENING HOUR (Bloomsbury 2012), an Oregon Book Award finalist and a Lambda Literary Award finalist. His essays and fiction have appeared or are forthcoming in various publications, including Guernica, Bellevue Literary Review, Green Mountains Review, and BuzzFeed. Carter is the recipient of the 2013 Lambda Literary Emerging Writer Award.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 84 reviews
January 22, 2012
Review contains some discussion that might be considered spoilers. But its essential for the review.
Maybe I shouldn't have tried to read this book. I might be too close to the subject matter. But that's exactly what drew me to The Evening Hour. I keep waiting for that book that gets Appalachia, that understands the complicated relationship we have with coal. My mother works in mine permitting, consulting coal companies, climbing mountains and mapping streams. She's worked directly for coal companies in the past. So I've been raised around the industry and I know more than your average reader.
This book is trying to be gritty and realistic. Only it tries too hard. Appalachia has a whole score of issues. One book cannot possibly tackle it all. But this book tries to bring in homosexuality, coal, the drug epidemic and even snake handling churches (which is one stereotype too many in my opinion).
If the book had been realistic it would've worked much better. But the book seems to be stuck in the past without a real understanding of the modern coal industry. Regardless of how you feel about coal it's highly regulated. Permits are a huge expensive hassle. Coal companies are no longer allowed to do whatever they want.
From everything I know (and consulting with a professional aka my mom) the diaster that is the climax of the book isn't even possible on such a large scale. It's based on what happened in 1972, nearly 40 years ago. To write a book set in modern times but to not acknowledge the way the industry has changed just doesn't make sense to me. According to my expert, sludge ponds are built to maintain a 100 year rain event. Terraces lead up to them and they are surveyed every month. Any movement would be detected. None of this science seemed to be taken into account for this novel.
This book also refuses to acknowledge that most of Appalachians are pro-coal. Here in Kentucky we see tons of "Friends of Coal" and "Coal Keeps the Lights On" signs everywhere. This book completely ignored that. To me that is the most glaring omission. Any character who spoke about coal opposed it, which simply is not true in Appalachia. If you're going to write a realistic contemporary fiction you can't change the whole region to fit your worldview.
Sadly this book just fell short in too many ways for me. It panders to what outsiders thinks of coal and Appalachia. Its preachy and tries to tell people what to think. Rather than delve into the the truly complicated relationship, it just tells people who oppose coal exactly what they want to hear. Never mind that it's inaccurate because nobody except us Appalachians will know the difference and nobody ever pays attention to us anyways.
I'm not stating an opinion on the coal industry with this review. I'm just stating what I see, travelling 22 counties in Eastern Kentucky and living with the industry in my home. This book is too full of stereotypes and too unrealistic for my tastes.
Spoilerish links
Apparently the author researched this diaster 12 years ago, which was on a much smaller scale than the one in the novel with no fatalities. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_C...
This is the one in 1972 that most closely sounds like the events of the novel. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_...
Maybe I shouldn't have tried to read this book. I might be too close to the subject matter. But that's exactly what drew me to The Evening Hour. I keep waiting for that book that gets Appalachia, that understands the complicated relationship we have with coal. My mother works in mine permitting, consulting coal companies, climbing mountains and mapping streams. She's worked directly for coal companies in the past. So I've been raised around the industry and I know more than your average reader.
This book is trying to be gritty and realistic. Only it tries too hard. Appalachia has a whole score of issues. One book cannot possibly tackle it all. But this book tries to bring in homosexuality, coal, the drug epidemic and even snake handling churches (which is one stereotype too many in my opinion).
If the book had been realistic it would've worked much better. But the book seems to be stuck in the past without a real understanding of the modern coal industry. Regardless of how you feel about coal it's highly regulated. Permits are a huge expensive hassle. Coal companies are no longer allowed to do whatever they want.
From everything I know (and consulting with a professional aka my mom) the diaster that is the climax of the book isn't even possible on such a large scale. It's based on what happened in 1972, nearly 40 years ago. To write a book set in modern times but to not acknowledge the way the industry has changed just doesn't make sense to me. According to my expert, sludge ponds are built to maintain a 100 year rain event. Terraces lead up to them and they are surveyed every month. Any movement would be detected. None of this science seemed to be taken into account for this novel.
This book also refuses to acknowledge that most of Appalachians are pro-coal. Here in Kentucky we see tons of "Friends of Coal" and "Coal Keeps the Lights On" signs everywhere. This book completely ignored that. To me that is the most glaring omission. Any character who spoke about coal opposed it, which simply is not true in Appalachia. If you're going to write a realistic contemporary fiction you can't change the whole region to fit your worldview.
Sadly this book just fell short in too many ways for me. It panders to what outsiders thinks of coal and Appalachia. Its preachy and tries to tell people what to think. Rather than delve into the the truly complicated relationship, it just tells people who oppose coal exactly what they want to hear. Never mind that it's inaccurate because nobody except us Appalachians will know the difference and nobody ever pays attention to us anyways.
I'm not stating an opinion on the coal industry with this review. I'm just stating what I see, travelling 22 counties in Eastern Kentucky and living with the industry in my home. This book is too full of stereotypes and too unrealistic for my tastes.
Spoilerish links
Apparently the author researched this diaster 12 years ago, which was on a much smaller scale than the one in the novel with no fatalities. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_C...
This is the one in 1972 that most closely sounds like the events of the novel. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_...
December 12, 2012
Cole Freeman is a wonderfully textured character: a nursing home aide that tenderly cares for the elderly while stealing from them and selling drugs on the side; abandoned by his mom; raised by his grandparents in the fire of his granddad's harsh sermons. Cole's hunger and restlessness drive the book with a really solid throb: "What do I have? he thought. Pain pills, stashed cash, and jewelry he'd stolen from old doddering ladies. A stack of postcards. And a thousand useless Bible verses" (78).
There's a wonderful strand about speaking in the book: Cole stutters, his grandfather preached fire and brimstone, Cole and his mother hardly speak, the people either speak out against the mining practices of Heritage or keep silent. One of my favorite scenes shows Cole speaking out, and there's an energy among all these strands: "It was almost like being in church, the people encouraging him, 'That's right, tell him!' and he wondered if this was what his grandfather had experienced, if this was what the anointing felt like, a voice running through him, a feeling of wholeness" (256).
The book shows the gritty courage of people (and their pain) in the face of mountaintop-removal mining without forcing a flat heroic characterization. A beautiful read that left me nodding at, Cole, "Yes, yes that's what you need to do." And I don't think it necessarily spoils the ending to say that it reminded me of Alyosha kissing the ground in THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV, the mystical surrender, but of course Cole's ground is the gutted ground of coal mine country.
There's a wonderful strand about speaking in the book: Cole stutters, his grandfather preached fire and brimstone, Cole and his mother hardly speak, the people either speak out against the mining practices of Heritage or keep silent. One of my favorite scenes shows Cole speaking out, and there's an energy among all these strands: "It was almost like being in church, the people encouraging him, 'That's right, tell him!' and he wondered if this was what his grandfather had experienced, if this was what the anointing felt like, a voice running through him, a feeling of wholeness" (256).
The book shows the gritty courage of people (and their pain) in the face of mountaintop-removal mining without forcing a flat heroic characterization. A beautiful read that left me nodding at, Cole, "Yes, yes that's what you need to do." And I don't think it necessarily spoils the ending to say that it reminded me of Alyosha kissing the ground in THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV, the mystical surrender, but of course Cole's ground is the gutted ground of coal mine country.
August 26, 2025
Gorgeous prose and super compelling story. Super gassed that I picked this at random from the library.
December 13, 2019
I read this book about 5 years ago when I was working on my MFA degree. I'm a native West Virginian, and I am always fascinated by how both people and place are explored in regional fiction. It seems no matter what, a narrative about Appalachia stirs debate. And that's a good thing. What strikes me when I look back at my notes about The Evening Hour is how at the time I had almost no concern about the technical veracity of depictions of the coal industry. I never thought Carter Sickels was trying to write that book.
The compelling element to me was the mystery of Cole's old friend, Terry Rose. One can read this looking for industry details, or, as I strongly recommend, one can read this book for character details. Who are these people? What are the stresses they feel, and what is the truth they perceive? Why are some conversations not had, and what are they avoiding? I think the industrial corrosion and pending disaster elements are objective correlatives to character development, and Sickels uses them masterfully.
I think one thing most of us from the region will not debate, the land is part of who we are. If you accept that and read The Evening Hour with that in mind, some things will fall into place that may not if you are seeking a documentary about the coal industry. The toxicity and escapism that frames these characters is symbolic. It's a solid, mysterious story willing to explore the unspoken. From my notes, avoiding spoilers: Only after (specific event) can Cole actually see the mountain top removal that has been eating away at his home place for years. Sickels implies that this turning point is a place where, while not a happy ending, Cole may be able to move forward and leave behind the people and places that have weighed on him and kept him without resolution to his life’s biggest questions: Who am I? Who do I love? Where is my home?
The compelling element to me was the mystery of Cole's old friend, Terry Rose. One can read this looking for industry details, or, as I strongly recommend, one can read this book for character details. Who are these people? What are the stresses they feel, and what is the truth they perceive? Why are some conversations not had, and what are they avoiding? I think the industrial corrosion and pending disaster elements are objective correlatives to character development, and Sickels uses them masterfully.
I think one thing most of us from the region will not debate, the land is part of who we are. If you accept that and read The Evening Hour with that in mind, some things will fall into place that may not if you are seeking a documentary about the coal industry. The toxicity and escapism that frames these characters is symbolic. It's a solid, mysterious story willing to explore the unspoken. From my notes, avoiding spoilers: Only after (specific event) can Cole actually see the mountain top removal that has been eating away at his home place for years. Sickels implies that this turning point is a place where, while not a happy ending, Cole may be able to move forward and leave behind the people and places that have weighed on him and kept him without resolution to his life’s biggest questions: Who am I? Who do I love? Where is my home?
February 17, 2012
Carter Sickels sets this contemporary novel in a West Virginia community where a multimillion dollar mining coming is removing the tops of mountains and extracting the remaining coal from the earth. The characters are the real Americans; they are not attractive, smart, rich, educated or worldly. They live within the confines of a small community with little opportunity and few dreams. The central character is Cole Freeman. He is 27 years old and works as an aide in a nursing home. In addition Cole buys prescription drugs from the poor residents of the community and resells them at a profit. The Heritage Coal Company provides the skeleton for the novel. The actions of the company and its impact on the community provide the motivation for many of the novel’s key shifts. Cole’s family and friends are richly detailed and extremely believable. Lacy, the single mother working two jobs to support her 11 year old daughter, Terry, his childhood friend who is a manager at the local Wal-Mart and Ruby, his mother he has not seen in over a decade all have a profound impact on Cole.
May 29, 2013
Setting, setting, setting: A well-written portrayal of life in the backwoods and hollers of today's Appalachia. Cole Freeman (ha! get it?) lives in Dove Creek, West Virginia, in the heart of coal-mining country, where the beauty of the land and the way of life of the people are being devastated by the corporate coal-mining companies. In the face of overwhelming and soul-crushing poverty, people are selling their ancestral homes and land to the mining companies that are scraping the tops off the mountains to get at the coal veins inside and pushing the chemically poisoned debris into poorly-dammed-up slurry ponds that threaten watersheds and homes in the valleys below. Cole dreams of getting away from his dead-end job as a nursing home aide, while he steals from his patients and sells drugs to make money to support his elderly grandparents who have refused to sell out - his runaway mother returns and complicates his life even more. His only friends are burned-out druggies and people who are even more stuck in the mud than he is. The author doesn't hold out much hope for a return to a normal way of life for the people in this black-heart area of the country.
August 7, 2023
Recently, I watched the film based on this novel and after doing so, decided to read the 2012 novel that has been on my TBR pile for some time.
I simply find it hard to believe I overlooked this novel for so long.
Both the novel and film follow a young man named Cole. Cole is a nurse's aide in an elderly care facility in a small Appalachian town and to supplement his income he buys unused prescription drugs from area residents and then sells the drugs to those in need.
Cole's life becomes more difficult when his childhood friend returns to town, and in seeking his own fortunes, encroaches upon the territory of another, but more violent drug dealer, slowly pulling Cole into his own turmoil-filled orbit.
The novel also explores Cole's upbringing by his grandparents and the influence upon him by his Baptist preacher grandfather.
The Evening Hour also explores an already struggling community that is being further devoured by a predatory mining company and the people within the region.
More could be written about the novel, but allowing the novel to tell the story is the most enjoyable way to read The Evening Hour. The film is just as compelling and on an interesting note, the makers of the film captured the writing and characterizations within the novel so very well, and even though the film leaves out important elements within the novel.
Both are highly recommend to those that enjoy rural noir and wonderfully descriptive Southern writing.
I simply find it hard to believe I overlooked this novel for so long.
Both the novel and film follow a young man named Cole. Cole is a nurse's aide in an elderly care facility in a small Appalachian town and to supplement his income he buys unused prescription drugs from area residents and then sells the drugs to those in need.
Cole's life becomes more difficult when his childhood friend returns to town, and in seeking his own fortunes, encroaches upon the territory of another, but more violent drug dealer, slowly pulling Cole into his own turmoil-filled orbit.
The novel also explores Cole's upbringing by his grandparents and the influence upon him by his Baptist preacher grandfather.
The Evening Hour also explores an already struggling community that is being further devoured by a predatory mining company and the people within the region.
More could be written about the novel, but allowing the novel to tell the story is the most enjoyable way to read The Evening Hour. The film is just as compelling and on an interesting note, the makers of the film captured the writing and characterizations within the novel so very well, and even though the film leaves out important elements within the novel.
Both are highly recommend to those that enjoy rural noir and wonderfully descriptive Southern writing.
June 22, 2023
Cole is a young man who feels trapped in his dying town in West Virginia coal country. He works as an aid at a nursing home but supplements his income by stealing meds from his patients and reselling them to the many opioid and meth addicted people in the town. The coal company most of the townspeople work for seems to ignore regulation and destroys whole mountain tops and forests around the homes of those who refuse to sell. Cole tries to ignore the decaying situation in the community but events spiral out of control leading to disaster all around. I have no personal experience with this part of the country, but this book has given me thoughts about it.
September 24, 2025
3.5 (for the writing)
April 5, 2012
Most of us have met and cared about a Cole Freeman. He is the guy you root for even though the deck is stacked against him. Burdened with responsibility and an EPIC lack of self-confidence/worth, Cole seems helpless to change his circumstances. Poverty, a low paying job, and too much responsibility for others have Cole feeling like there is no way out.
And yet, every once in awhile he has a moment of clarity and you just HOPE FOR HIM. In the end, this is his story and everything else is just noise.
And yet, every once in awhile he has a moment of clarity and you just HOPE FOR HIM. In the end, this is his story and everything else is just noise.
December 21, 2012
This novel will take you on a very personal journey where you will admire a character in one sentence and despise that same character by the end of that same paragraph. A raw and honest voice guides the trip and keeps things moving along. I found myself uncomfortably examining the "what if" situations of the life's of my own and my loved ones in so many instances. Sickles has made a great addition not only to rough South, or grit lit, or whatever you want to tag this novel, but also just a dang good read!
March 21, 2012
I read this book for book group. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood for such a depressing story, but I was hard pressed to give this 2 stars. It was an easy read and I was curious about what would happen to the main character, but overall I thought it was poorly written. I just wasn't in the mood to read about a lot of druggies, small town poverty,and their pathetic lives while Spring has sprung in NH and the weather here is beautiful!
June 30, 2013
If you know what's good, go read this gripping, sad, beautiful novel about a young guy living in a West Virginia mountain town devastated by Big Coal.
Sickels taught the very first creative writing class I ever took, at Gotham in NYC back in 2000; he was incredibly kind then and I see that generosity now towards his characters, who include a drug-dealing nurse's aide, a mean preacher-grandpa, a wayward mother, various environmentalists and meth-heads, and a tough country queen.
Sickels taught the very first creative writing class I ever took, at Gotham in NYC back in 2000; he was incredibly kind then and I see that generosity now towards his characters, who include a drug-dealing nurse's aide, a mean preacher-grandpa, a wayward mother, various environmentalists and meth-heads, and a tough country queen.
Read
August 17, 2012Not a pretty view of West Virginia coal mining towns. The very likeable protagonists steals prescription drugs from his nursing home patients to resell to the desperate residents of his small town, which is washed away in a Buffalo Creek-like disaster. Salvation comes from leaving town. Still, and engaging and slightly hopeful read in spite of the unhappy setting.
August 29, 2012
Compelling novel set in West Virginia. A story of transformation, redemption of sorts, and making peace; rich with elements of Appalachian culture/beliefs. I really felt I was back in Appalachia...This novel felt real and true. Excellent story that winds religion, environmentalism, drug addiction, poverty, despair, and transformation together.
March 27, 2017
Maybe it's because I'm from WV and my Grandfather worked in the mines, but I loved this book. Depicts the current state of affairs in the old communities. I still go back and I still love it there. The people are real. The struggles are real. Their lives are surreal. Well written. Dialect was true without being overdone to the point of being unreadable.
March 21, 2012
This man has got WV dialect pegged. That he lives in my fair city of Portland is just a bonus. I loved this book. Makes me homesick and yet glad I am gone.
January 10, 2018
When I picked this book up I didnt really know what it was about. As it went on it went from not deep at all, about drugs and using people and stealing and then I got deeper into his grandfathers death and into a flash flood that killed all these people, and onto his relationships with all these people on how he was dealing with them. It talks about his mother and how she leaves him and then just shows up and has a life I’m expectedly and how he doesn’t really understand that.The book was about God which I was not expecting at all. At the end of the book he finds himself and what he likes to call the gates of hell because this coal mining company has taken all this land from him minutes turned into this horrible horrible place. I think this book is easy and really hard at the same time for people to relate to because everybody has bad experiences and relationships with family members, but at the same time he is just so messed up and has done so many bad things and there’s a lot of disturbing bad things in this book.I wouldn’t really recommend this book it is only well right in at the very end with lots of figurative language except the rest of the book is jumbled and there’s lots of plot twists that don’t really make sense or are needed.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 5, 2020
💊💊💊💊
I don’t know when — sometime after “Winter’s Bone” and about the time of “Justified” — I started saying ‘white trash is the new black’.
“The Evening Hour”, Carter Sickel’s first novel, falls smack dab in the middle of this genre, and it’s a very lovely read. Trailer parks, unemployment and homophobia run as rampant in Dove Creek, West Virginia as do crushed-up lines of Oxy. Cole, our anti-hero, is a drug-dealing nursing home aide who steals from his patients (that might hit a little too close to home). But , he means well —at least he thinks he does — and nobody looks after their grandma like he does. His ailing grandpa, who raised him, was a snake-handling preacher. His mom lives only in the memories of his extended family, and his surroundings are being destroyed the big business of coal mining — the kind that just takes the tops right off of the mountains.
It’s not quite the Appalachian noir of Daniel Woodrell.. It lacks the hopeful compassion Wiley Cash’s “A Land More Kind than Home” (❤️💔❤️💔❤️). It’s nowhere near as grim as Lee Clay Johnson’s “Nitro Mountain”.
The author’s next novel, “The Prettiest Star”, comes out soon and I’m really looking forward to it. It won’t be cheery, but it will be beautiful.
I don’t know when — sometime after “Winter’s Bone” and about the time of “Justified” — I started saying ‘white trash is the new black’.
“The Evening Hour”, Carter Sickel’s first novel, falls smack dab in the middle of this genre, and it’s a very lovely read. Trailer parks, unemployment and homophobia run as rampant in Dove Creek, West Virginia as do crushed-up lines of Oxy. Cole, our anti-hero, is a drug-dealing nursing home aide who steals from his patients (that might hit a little too close to home). But , he means well —at least he thinks he does — and nobody looks after their grandma like he does. His ailing grandpa, who raised him, was a snake-handling preacher. His mom lives only in the memories of his extended family, and his surroundings are being destroyed the big business of coal mining — the kind that just takes the tops right off of the mountains.
It’s not quite the Appalachian noir of Daniel Woodrell.. It lacks the hopeful compassion Wiley Cash’s “A Land More Kind than Home” (❤️💔❤️💔❤️). It’s nowhere near as grim as Lee Clay Johnson’s “Nitro Mountain”.
The author’s next novel, “The Prettiest Star”, comes out soon and I’m really looking forward to it. It won’t be cheery, but it will be beautiful.
June 22, 2020
4.5* (tentative rating, subject to change.)
After reading Carter Sickels's short story in 'The Collection' anthology, I knew I needed to get this novel of his. The characters he creates feel so very real, giving a strong sense of verisimilitude to his stories, and his descriptions of the surroundings leap out, colouring and shading the images in your mind. In this tale, I felt a real bond with Cole, the protagonist who we are in the head of, as he moves about the fringes of his town, a town under the grip of mining companies blasting mountaintops into smithereens. This is a town mired in the Rust Belt, where people turn to drugs, illicit operations, fleeting relationships, and God, all just to get by and survive. I recently read, 'Ohio,' by Stephen Markley, set over the border, with characters that could have been in this story, and who knows, they may have been. The only issue I had was with some of the writing, short sharp sentences that frayed the rhythm at times, a bit like a bad note played at a piano. But the story was so vivid, the characters so real, you can forgive that. This is one of those stories, much like 'Ohio,' that will bubble away in my mind for a long time to come.
After reading Carter Sickels's short story in 'The Collection' anthology, I knew I needed to get this novel of his. The characters he creates feel so very real, giving a strong sense of verisimilitude to his stories, and his descriptions of the surroundings leap out, colouring and shading the images in your mind. In this tale, I felt a real bond with Cole, the protagonist who we are in the head of, as he moves about the fringes of his town, a town under the grip of mining companies blasting mountaintops into smithereens. This is a town mired in the Rust Belt, where people turn to drugs, illicit operations, fleeting relationships, and God, all just to get by and survive. I recently read, 'Ohio,' by Stephen Markley, set over the border, with characters that could have been in this story, and who knows, they may have been. The only issue I had was with some of the writing, short sharp sentences that frayed the rhythm at times, a bit like a bad note played at a piano. But the story was so vivid, the characters so real, you can forgive that. This is one of those stories, much like 'Ohio,' that will bubble away in my mind for a long time to come.
February 4, 2020
I read this book because I thought I might review the film version (which previewed last week at Sundance) for Science magazine. The film wasn't right for a review, but it was affecting. Both the book and the movie juggle too many plot threads, characters, and themes, but the screenplay avoids a big event in the book that I found too predictable and over the top (no pun intended). Both of them capture the beauty and devastation that sit side by side in Appalachia. The novel presents the characters, especially Cole (Philip Ettinger) and his mother Ruby (the always amazing Lili Taylor), with greater nuance and more rough edges, which seems real to me as someone who grew up in hills and hollows like those in this story. Yet the movie did more with male intimacy while being a little less direct, partly because we get to see and hear more of Terry Rose (Cosmo Jarvis) and Reese Campbell (Michael Trotter) interacting with Cole, and because Jarvis, Trotter, and Ettinger all gave outstanding performances. Both the book and the film ultimately beautifully capture Cole's awakening, the main arc of this story.
November 3, 2023
The conflicting portrayals of masculinity were what stood out to me the most about this novel. As far as the drugs go, this does go into far greater detail than a book like Winter’s Bone. The mining company, and the town’s residents’ opinions about it, well, I can’t comment on whether or not that’s accurate (like other reviews have).
What I enjoyed most was how the different ideas about what it means to “be a man” interacted with each other. Reese, Cole’s grandfather, Denny’s grandfather, Terry Rose, they’re all different types of men who go hard and flame out in one way or another. Cole sits awkwardly on the fence between these different types, and waiting to see his direction was one of the big things that kept the pages turning for me.
Sickels’s writing is vivid: he knows how to build scenes and characters. I am looking forward to reading his other novel, The Prettiest Star.
What I enjoyed most was how the different ideas about what it means to “be a man” interacted with each other. Reese, Cole’s grandfather, Denny’s grandfather, Terry Rose, they’re all different types of men who go hard and flame out in one way or another. Cole sits awkwardly on the fence between these different types, and waiting to see his direction was one of the big things that kept the pages turning for me.
Sickels’s writing is vivid: he knows how to build scenes and characters. I am looking forward to reading his other novel, The Prettiest Star.
May 8, 2020
This is a powerfully good book!
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this moving novel. The author has a beautiful way of writing, and I loved the layers of depth woven into this story. I thought Cole's character was nuanced and well-written. As a resident of Appalachia who has watched the lives of family members whom I love be destroyed by opioids, that story-line hit especially hard. My favorite part about this book was the way the author wove Cole's history with religion into every part of the book. I felt like Sickels did this with exceptional skill, and I really appreciated it. This book is powerful and well worth your time.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this moving novel. The author has a beautiful way of writing, and I loved the layers of depth woven into this story. I thought Cole's character was nuanced and well-written. As a resident of Appalachia who has watched the lives of family members whom I love be destroyed by opioids, that story-line hit especially hard. My favorite part about this book was the way the author wove Cole's history with religion into every part of the book. I felt like Sickels did this with exceptional skill, and I really appreciated it. This book is powerful and well worth your time.
March 12, 2023
Life in the rural mountains of West Virginia is harsh in the early 21st century. Coal companies' mining practices are destroying the landscape and poisoning the environment. Opioid addiction is rampant. Navigating his way through is 30 something Cole Freeman. He works as a nurse's aid in a nursing home and helps his aging grandparents financially. He also steals from the patients and deals drugs. This moral paradox is the heart of this novel. Carter Sickels does an excellent job of chronicling the experience of the difficulties of life in contemporary Appalachia.
May 25, 2019
Written with such raw honesty - powerful story of broken people holding on to the love of land that lives deep in their souls. I struggled to hold back my disgust for most of the characters but finally found some hope at the end. Sickels beautifully captures the heartbeat of this region, the devastation of coal mining country, and describes a perfect example of the "waste people." (Those who suffer and are discarded for the prosperity of others.) Emotional and deeply moving.
February 9, 2020
I made it through, but wasn't particularly enthralled. I didn't find any of the characters particularly engaging, and the late novel revelations involving Cole's relationship with his mother and his relationship with Terry Jones felt contrived and thrown in. The author's beautiful descriptions of the setting and some of the high drama moments were absolute page turners, but were the small bright spots in the book.
January 14, 2019
Well written and impressive narrative control (on the author’s part). Really develops ‘tis West Virginia town and mining conflict. Minimal queer content-Reese. Beautiful last chapter. Feels like main character got off a little easy though.
August 31, 2020
I don't really know how I felt about this novel - everything seemed obvious when it happened. The main character, Cole (as in coal country), is likeable, but lacks depth (the storytelling, not the character).
May 23, 2022
The Evening Hour is a beautiful story of a young Appalachian Robin Hood coming to awareness of himself in his particular environment. The last two paragraphs are among the loveliest prose I’ve ever read.
February 7, 2025
What an emotional punch! The Evening Hour is tender, raw, and aching in its beauty. Carter Sickels takes such care with the characters--including the land itself. After you read this (which you should), go watch Appalshop's "Buffalo Creek Flood: An Act of Man" (Mimi Pickering, 1975) on YouTube.
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