What do you think?
Rate this book
Humpty Dumpty
A high school quarterback and his family are embroiled in an abhorrent crime and its cover-up―a bold new novel that confronts American hero-worship and its irreversible consequences.
HUMPTY-DUMPTY SAT ON A WALL . . .
Darius Rodgers is the king of Steubenville, Ohio. Invincible, a god among men. He’s the quarterback about to lead his team to their first State Championship in twenty years. And now his mom and his twin sister, Beatriz and Anna, are back from exile in Rio, trying to sew the estranged family back together. Nothing can spoil his Not love. Not loyalty. Nothing. Until he ushers in his own doom.
HUMPTY-DUMPTY HAD A GREAT FALL . . .
Anna doesn’t even want to be back in Stupidville, but she decides to make the most of it. She’s here to live free and have fun! But her secret romance with Darius’s best friend, Fleet, and the rumors it spawns make the first domino fall in a series of social detonations in one small town’s moral crime, conspiracy, silence, betrayal, hackers, incels, dereliction!
How the hell do you tell a story like this?
Hilarious, bold, and explosively original, Harold Rogers’s Humpty Dumpty is a reckoning with American rot, generational failure, and the brutal question at the heart of every Why didn’t you do anything?
HUMPTY-DUMPTY SAT ON A WALL . . .
Darius Rodgers is the king of Steubenville, Ohio. Invincible, a god among men. He’s the quarterback about to lead his team to their first State Championship in twenty years. And now his mom and his twin sister, Beatriz and Anna, are back from exile in Rio, trying to sew the estranged family back together. Nothing can spoil his Not love. Not loyalty. Nothing. Until he ushers in his own doom.
HUMPTY-DUMPTY HAD A GREAT FALL . . .
Anna doesn’t even want to be back in Stupidville, but she decides to make the most of it. She’s here to live free and have fun! But her secret romance with Darius’s best friend, Fleet, and the rumors it spawns make the first domino fall in a series of social detonations in one small town’s moral crime, conspiracy, silence, betrayal, hackers, incels, dereliction!
How the hell do you tell a story like this?
Hilarious, bold, and explosively original, Harold Rogers’s Humpty Dumpty is a reckoning with American rot, generational failure, and the brutal question at the heart of every Why didn’t you do anything?
448 pages, Hardcover
First published November 10, 2026
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
ARC for review. To be published November 10, 4.5 stars
I so enjoyed this quirky book that plays with language, has multiple points of view (and so offers many “main characters”) and often breaks the fourth wall while engaging me fully. It’s set in Steubenville, OH, a real town set solidly in the OH/PA/WV triangle. I live adjacent to this area and have spent much time there and the town absolutely comes alive in Rogers’ writing - a reader comes to know it and its people keenly, they are mostly the working lower middle class or poor, often troubled, trapped or both.
The story is centered around teenagers Darius and Anna Rodgers (note the similarity between this surname and the author’s even though I’m not sure what to make of it.). The twins are seniors and Darius is the high school’s quarterback in a football-mad town (the part of Ohio is known for their outstanding football teams and their towns’ devotion to them.
Darius is an outstanding player, already committed to Ohio Stare and he’s the toast of town, to say nothing of his Catholic high school. And the populace has pinned their hopes on him and his best friend and favorite receiver Fleet, a young Black man. Steubenville is desperate for another state championship and Darius and Fleet can get them there.
Anna has just returned to town from four years spent with her mother in her hometown country of Brazil. Anna and Beatriz fled there after her husband, the twins’ father had a one nightstand. However Beatriz has decided to give her marriage another try.
Anna’s entrance into high school life is quick and successful, she reconnects with former friend Maya, Fleet’s girlfriend and Anna becomes part of her popular crowd. However, Anna and Fleet share an instant connection and, like teenagers will l, they act on it, keeping that from both Darius and Maya.
The book isn’t all high school high jinks though and Steubenville is filled with adult drama too - old scores to be settled, reappearances, conspiracies and crime abound.
One night, at a high school party many of the kids get intoxicated and a life-altering event occurs. It will resonate through the town and ultimately leads to untold amounts of difficulty and sorrow for its residents.
The book likely isn’t for everyone. It has a distinct devil1may-care style that some may dislike; especially given the subject matter , but I thought it was a striking reflection of the futility, the absurdity of the lives of those in Steubenville.
There aren’t a lot of happy endings (but there are a few that aren’t unhappy) and that is keeping with what many Americans can expect today, especially in hardscrabble towns where, often, a successful football season is all one can reasonably hope for.
I so enjoyed this quirky book that plays with language, has multiple points of view (and so offers many “main characters”) and often breaks the fourth wall while engaging me fully. It’s set in Steubenville, OH, a real town set solidly in the OH/PA/WV triangle. I live adjacent to this area and have spent much time there and the town absolutely comes alive in Rogers’ writing - a reader comes to know it and its people keenly, they are mostly the working lower middle class or poor, often troubled, trapped or both.
The story is centered around teenagers Darius and Anna Rodgers (note the similarity between this surname and the author’s even though I’m not sure what to make of it.). The twins are seniors and Darius is the high school’s quarterback in a football-mad town (the part of Ohio is known for their outstanding football teams and their towns’ devotion to them.
Darius is an outstanding player, already committed to Ohio Stare and he’s the toast of town, to say nothing of his Catholic high school. And the populace has pinned their hopes on him and his best friend and favorite receiver Fleet, a young Black man. Steubenville is desperate for another state championship and Darius and Fleet can get them there.
Anna has just returned to town from four years spent with her mother in her hometown country of Brazil. Anna and Beatriz fled there after her husband, the twins’ father had a one nightstand. However Beatriz has decided to give her marriage another try.
Anna’s entrance into high school life is quick and successful, she reconnects with former friend Maya, Fleet’s girlfriend and Anna becomes part of her popular crowd. However, Anna and Fleet share an instant connection and, like teenagers will l, they act on it, keeping that from both Darius and Maya.
The book isn’t all high school high jinks though and Steubenville is filled with adult drama too - old scores to be settled, reappearances, conspiracies and crime abound.
One night, at a high school party many of the kids get intoxicated and a life-altering event occurs. It will resonate through the town and ultimately leads to untold amounts of difficulty and sorrow for its residents.
The book likely isn’t for everyone. It has a distinct devil1may-care style that some may dislike; especially given the subject matter , but I thought it was a striking reflection of the futility, the absurdity of the lives of those in Steubenville.
There aren’t a lot of happy endings (but there are a few that aren’t unhappy) and that is keeping with what many Americans can expect today, especially in hardscrabble towns where, often, a successful football season is all one can reasonably hope for.
July 12, 2026
ABSOLUTE CINEMA !!!
As someone who reads a lot of litfic that has a reputation for being the saddest shit you’ll ever read, I forget that reading can be FUN. The writing and the voice felt alive, from the dialogue to the footnotes that broke the fourth wall.
A whirlwind rollercoaster ride following the cast of a small town in Ohio as the Rogers family finally reunite as mother/ daughter spent the past 4 years in Brazil.
As estranged twins, Darius & Anna, embark on their senior year, we learn each member of the family has targets on their backs unbeknownst to them. Meanwhile, tension and hopes are high as the towns pride and joy, the football team, are on the road to be state champs - hopefully bringing redemption & glory to the town.
But once a crime gets committed involving the star football players, all the buried resentment, hatred, jealousy, corruption, & depravity that was boiling under the surface completely implodes the town 🔥🥲
Reader, be warned: these characters are not wholesome. They don’t feel they owe anyone anything. In fact, they feel they are owed everything while breaking, betraying, and bullying. These characters show that growing older doesn’t mean the drama ends. They have egos larger than a football field. They think the best time to do a good thing is always the next time. They have a devil-may-care attitude. They feel that if you understand their plight, you will understand why they must seek revenge and commit crimes. They do not think the best of their neighbor. In fact, they are easily tempted to rob them at gunpoint. The only people they want to save are themselves; family is a solid maybe.
The depraved and dark humor of ITS ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADEPHIA, with the morally corrupt & vengeful behavior of the men in REJECTION with a cast of characters and dynamics from EUPHORIA and the stellar storytelling reminiscent of THE SLIP & THE BEE STING with Harold’s singular voice, vocabulary and creativity etc.
HUMPTY DUMPTY will make you laugh, cringe, scoff, scream at all the ways people let revenge, pettiness, spitefulness and desire for power & admiration ruin themselves and harm others, how corrupt authorities are, how cycles repeat and how karma and luck dish out in unique ways.
Hilarious without being didactic, balancing the dark with the light and providing a snapshot at a town that reflects the darkest and shameful parts of twenty-first century life.
These characters voice their intrusive thoughts out loud, creating chaos and mayhem. It’s bold, timely, and honest. Inventive, chaotic, and crafty. I truly can’t think of another writer like Harold. (I also love his debut Tropicália and his Substack for similar reasons.)
It feels silly to say this book isn’t for everyone because what book is? But I don’t want to overlook the darker elements of the story, either. There is something important about stories that confront the darkness of human experience, and humor doesn't diminish that suffering. Nor does portraying something mean endorsing it.
I appreciate stories that reflect life's contradictions rather than flattening them into a neat box. Life can be funny, cruel, devastating, bleak, and absurd, all at the same time. I respect stories that make room for it all, reflecting the world we exist in without being prescriptive. That ability to accommodate these contradictions is what made this book so compelling to me. Because, as the back of the book asks: How the hell do you tell a story like this?
And I love Harold’s answer.
I will say, enjoy (?) your time in Steubenville, which could just as easily be any number of towns in America… where not everyone gets a happy ending.
Thank you FSG for the #gifted copy in exchange for my honest review. Will be handselling it to everyone I know (who has a sense of humor) LITERATURE IS SO BACK!!!
As someone who reads a lot of litfic that has a reputation for being the saddest shit you’ll ever read, I forget that reading can be FUN. The writing and the voice felt alive, from the dialogue to the footnotes that broke the fourth wall.
A whirlwind rollercoaster ride following the cast of a small town in Ohio as the Rogers family finally reunite as mother/ daughter spent the past 4 years in Brazil.
As estranged twins, Darius & Anna, embark on their senior year, we learn each member of the family has targets on their backs unbeknownst to them. Meanwhile, tension and hopes are high as the towns pride and joy, the football team, are on the road to be state champs - hopefully bringing redemption & glory to the town.
But once a crime gets committed involving the star football players, all the buried resentment, hatred, jealousy, corruption, & depravity that was boiling under the surface completely implodes the town 🔥🥲
Reader, be warned: these characters are not wholesome. They don’t feel they owe anyone anything. In fact, they feel they are owed everything while breaking, betraying, and bullying. These characters show that growing older doesn’t mean the drama ends. They have egos larger than a football field. They think the best time to do a good thing is always the next time. They have a devil-may-care attitude. They feel that if you understand their plight, you will understand why they must seek revenge and commit crimes. They do not think the best of their neighbor. In fact, they are easily tempted to rob them at gunpoint. The only people they want to save are themselves; family is a solid maybe.
The depraved and dark humor of ITS ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADEPHIA, with the morally corrupt & vengeful behavior of the men in REJECTION with a cast of characters and dynamics from EUPHORIA and the stellar storytelling reminiscent of THE SLIP & THE BEE STING with Harold’s singular voice, vocabulary and creativity etc.
HUMPTY DUMPTY will make you laugh, cringe, scoff, scream at all the ways people let revenge, pettiness, spitefulness and desire for power & admiration ruin themselves and harm others, how corrupt authorities are, how cycles repeat and how karma and luck dish out in unique ways.
Hilarious without being didactic, balancing the dark with the light and providing a snapshot at a town that reflects the darkest and shameful parts of twenty-first century life.
These characters voice their intrusive thoughts out loud, creating chaos and mayhem. It’s bold, timely, and honest. Inventive, chaotic, and crafty. I truly can’t think of another writer like Harold. (I also love his debut Tropicália and his Substack for similar reasons.)
It feels silly to say this book isn’t for everyone because what book is? But I don’t want to overlook the darker elements of the story, either. There is something important about stories that confront the darkness of human experience, and humor doesn't diminish that suffering. Nor does portraying something mean endorsing it.
I appreciate stories that reflect life's contradictions rather than flattening them into a neat box. Life can be funny, cruel, devastating, bleak, and absurd, all at the same time. I respect stories that make room for it all, reflecting the world we exist in without being prescriptive. That ability to accommodate these contradictions is what made this book so compelling to me. Because, as the back of the book asks: How the hell do you tell a story like this?
And I love Harold’s answer.
I will say, enjoy (?) your time in Steubenville, which could just as easily be any number of towns in America… where not everyone gets a happy ending.
Thank you FSG for the #gifted copy in exchange for my honest review. Will be handselling it to everyone I know (who has a sense of humor) LITERATURE IS SO BACK!!!
Read
October 30, 2026The premise feels like a bit of a disconnected mouthful, but I requested this all the same because satire of American rot had me all over it.
Premise - a satire featuring a high school quarterback, Darius Rodgers, who considers himself the king of Steubenville, Ohio. When his mom and twin sister, Beatriz and Anna, return from exile in Rio, his perfect life is threatened. Anna doesn't want to be back and she acts out, dating Darius's best friend, Fleet, and setting off the small two's moral apocalypse.
It's easy to fall in the trap of expecting satire to be funny, but it doesn't have to be and this one wasn't (to me, at least). It felt more like a heightened drama than a comedy, where people made outrageously dumb decisions and had outrageously bad takes, and I think I'd have been amused if I'd read this in 2015, but two terms later and post-Cornell 7, I don't know... it's a hard moment to publish American satire, because so much of the real news headlines (and real responses/nonresponses to crime) feel like they shouldn't be possible outside of satire.
I think for an American satire to land at the moment, I'd need a character I really enjoyed following around. At least for a story like this one, dealing with political issues in ways that don't *really* deviate that much from plausibility and what we're seeing all the time, I need more than 'isn't that crazy' to be into it. Unfortunately, 'isn't that crazy' is 80% of what I see online.
I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Harold Rogers. I was really impressed with the character work he did, as it's fairly rare to have an author read their own fiction work (and do a good job with it).
Thanks, NetGalley and Macmillan Audio, for the audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Premise - a satire featuring a high school quarterback, Darius Rodgers, who considers himself the king of Steubenville, Ohio. When his mom and twin sister, Beatriz and Anna, return from exile in Rio, his perfect life is threatened. Anna doesn't want to be back and she acts out, dating Darius's best friend, Fleet, and setting off the small two's moral apocalypse.
It's easy to fall in the trap of expecting satire to be funny, but it doesn't have to be and this one wasn't (to me, at least). It felt more like a heightened drama than a comedy, where people made outrageously dumb decisions and had outrageously bad takes, and I think I'd have been amused if I'd read this in 2015, but two terms later and post-Cornell 7, I don't know... it's a hard moment to publish American satire, because so much of the real news headlines (and real responses/nonresponses to crime) feel like they shouldn't be possible outside of satire.
I think for an American satire to land at the moment, I'd need a character I really enjoyed following around. At least for a story like this one, dealing with political issues in ways that don't *really* deviate that much from plausibility and what we're seeing all the time, I need more than 'isn't that crazy' to be into it. Unfortunately, 'isn't that crazy' is 80% of what I see online.
I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Harold Rogers. I was really impressed with the character work he did, as it's fairly rare to have an author read their own fiction work (and do a good job with it).
Thanks, NetGalley and Macmillan Audio, for the audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.
November 10, 2026
When you are making your end of the year best of lists I hope you find time to read the latest from Harold Rogers, Humpty Dumpty. It's easily of the smartest, funniest, well written novels of American life in the 21st C. As a father of a 15 and 18 year olds I was hiding my eyes. As a reader of a lot of novels in my lifetime I think I convinced myself that Rogers may just be one of the great American writers of our current generation. His first, Tropicalia was a beautifully told story about tamily life and its ups and downs in Brazil.
His new one is set in Steubenville, Oh. Teenage life is scary as heck here. Especially if you're not the start quarterback of the undefeated John Neumann High Saints. Told in a handful of voices Humpty Dumpty feels like a better Jonathan Franzen novel. Teenagers and adults living lives of crazy-ass tomfoolery. But after reading the book I think Rogers sounds more like a Gen Z William H. Gass. His sentences, his wordplay and really his vocabulary is way, way better than anything you are going to find on the best seller table at the local bookstore. If Harold Rogers isn't a household name by the end of the year what are we doing?
His new one is set in Steubenville, Oh. Teenage life is scary as heck here. Especially if you're not the start quarterback of the undefeated John Neumann High Saints. Told in a handful of voices Humpty Dumpty feels like a better Jonathan Franzen novel. Teenagers and adults living lives of crazy-ass tomfoolery. But after reading the book I think Rogers sounds more like a Gen Z William H. Gass. His sentences, his wordplay and really his vocabulary is way, way better than anything you are going to find on the best seller table at the local bookstore. If Harold Rogers isn't a household name by the end of the year what are we doing?
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
I let this one sit for a day and I was still thinking about it.
Darkly humorous, but also so poignant, Rogers managers to capture multiple POVs from different people, ages, and genders astoundingly. This is a RAZOR SHARP novel on small town toxic masculinity. It’s absolutely fire and I loved it and everyone should read it!
It’s somewhat of a slow burn but there’s a lingering feeling unease the entire time. The scariest kind of rage is often quiet but unrelenting. If I could bottle up everything that is wrong with toxic teenage boy-dom, it would be this book.
I effing loved it. Can we make this book of the year?
I think if you loved Dominion by Addie Citchens, you’ll love this one.
Darkly humorous, but also so poignant, Rogers managers to capture multiple POVs from different people, ages, and genders astoundingly. This is a RAZOR SHARP novel on small town toxic masculinity. It’s absolutely fire and I loved it and everyone should read it!
It’s somewhat of a slow burn but there’s a lingering feeling unease the entire time. The scariest kind of rage is often quiet but unrelenting. If I could bottle up everything that is wrong with toxic teenage boy-dom, it would be this book.
I effing loved it. Can we make this book of the year?
I think if you loved Dominion by Addie Citchens, you’ll love this one.
Review of advance copy received from Author
Equal parts erudite and comic. A strong and inspired book that belongs in the Zeitgeist. Steubenville is Rogers’s Dublin.
Straight Hoopin
Straight Hoopin
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
I will remember this book. Whether I want to or not.
Humpty Dumpty is marketed as satire, and while I understand why, I wouldn’t necessarily call it funny. It’s actually one of the bleakest, most disturbing books I’ve read this year. And yet, it’s also incredibly well written, deeply immersive, and remarkably authentic.
Set in Steubenville, Ohio, in the heart of the Rust Belt, this is a story about a community that has been left behind. My husband grew up about 30 minutes from Steubenville, so I was particularly intrigued by the setting. This is a place where industry once thrived, where high school football is practically a religion, and where poverty, addiction, and systemic failures have become so normalized that people barely recognize them anymore.
At the center of the story is a high school football star, but this is really a much bigger examination of an entire community. There’s corruption, violence, sexual assault, drugs, gambling, and a school administration more interested in protecting its reputation than protecting its students. If anything, this book is a powerful argument for investing in public education and the communities that depend on it.
And the characters? They’re often terrible people doing terrible things. But Rogers immerses us so thoroughly in their world that you begin to understand how these decisions happen. It reminded me a little of watching Succession, where you find yourself engrossed in the lives of people behaving reprehensibly. Except instead of wealthy Manhattan elites, we’re watching people in a struggling Ohio Valley town where opportunities have disappeared and dysfunction has become a way of life.
This is NOT your nostalgic, Stars Hollow, Hallmark version of small-town America.
The novel has an almost documentary-style approach, with a large cast of interconnected characters. I’ll admit that listening on audio made the beginning a little challenging. I could have used a character chart to keep everyone straight! Fortunately, things clicked relatively quickly.
Speaking of audio, Harold Rogers narrates the novel himself, and he is absolutely fantastic. His familiarity with the region comes through in every accent, cadence, and turn of phrase. There’s something special about hearing an author perform their own work when they can do it this well. I wish it happened more often.
Here’s where I struggled: At about 10–15% into this book, I genuinely thought I was listening to a five-star read. The writing was incredible, the setting felt so real, and I was completely captivated. I had absolutely no idea where the story was headed.
And I wasn’t prepared.
As the narrative grew darker, I found myself increasingly uncomfortable. The publisher’s description asks, “How the hell do you tell a story like this?” And by the final quarter of the book, I was asking myself almost exactly the same question.
I think it’s important to distinguish between appreciating a book and enjoying the experience of reading it. I absolutely appreciate what Rogers has accomplished here. But I can’t honestly say I enjoyed the experience.
Please, please check content warnings before picking this one up. There are some deeply disturbing subjects, and I firmly believe in protecting your peace. I wish I’d been more prepared.
Ultimately, I think this book will find an audience that absolutely loves it. It’s bold, unsettling, socially observant, and unlike much of what I read. As someone who reads hundreds of books a year, I forget plenty of stories, even ones I’ve enjoyed.
But this one? This one is going to stay with me.
3.5 stars.
Thank you to Macmillan Audio and the Macmillan Audio Influencer Program for providing the complimentary audiobook in exchange for my honest review.
Humpty Dumpty is marketed as satire, and while I understand why, I wouldn’t necessarily call it funny. It’s actually one of the bleakest, most disturbing books I’ve read this year. And yet, it’s also incredibly well written, deeply immersive, and remarkably authentic.
Set in Steubenville, Ohio, in the heart of the Rust Belt, this is a story about a community that has been left behind. My husband grew up about 30 minutes from Steubenville, so I was particularly intrigued by the setting. This is a place where industry once thrived, where high school football is practically a religion, and where poverty, addiction, and systemic failures have become so normalized that people barely recognize them anymore.
At the center of the story is a high school football star, but this is really a much bigger examination of an entire community. There’s corruption, violence, sexual assault, drugs, gambling, and a school administration more interested in protecting its reputation than protecting its students. If anything, this book is a powerful argument for investing in public education and the communities that depend on it.
And the characters? They’re often terrible people doing terrible things. But Rogers immerses us so thoroughly in their world that you begin to understand how these decisions happen. It reminded me a little of watching Succession, where you find yourself engrossed in the lives of people behaving reprehensibly. Except instead of wealthy Manhattan elites, we’re watching people in a struggling Ohio Valley town where opportunities have disappeared and dysfunction has become a way of life.
This is NOT your nostalgic, Stars Hollow, Hallmark version of small-town America.
The novel has an almost documentary-style approach, with a large cast of interconnected characters. I’ll admit that listening on audio made the beginning a little challenging. I could have used a character chart to keep everyone straight! Fortunately, things clicked relatively quickly.
Speaking of audio, Harold Rogers narrates the novel himself, and he is absolutely fantastic. His familiarity with the region comes through in every accent, cadence, and turn of phrase. There’s something special about hearing an author perform their own work when they can do it this well. I wish it happened more often.
Here’s where I struggled: At about 10–15% into this book, I genuinely thought I was listening to a five-star read. The writing was incredible, the setting felt so real, and I was completely captivated. I had absolutely no idea where the story was headed.
And I wasn’t prepared.
As the narrative grew darker, I found myself increasingly uncomfortable. The publisher’s description asks, “How the hell do you tell a story like this?” And by the final quarter of the book, I was asking myself almost exactly the same question.
I think it’s important to distinguish between appreciating a book and enjoying the experience of reading it. I absolutely appreciate what Rogers has accomplished here. But I can’t honestly say I enjoyed the experience.
Please, please check content warnings before picking this one up. There are some deeply disturbing subjects, and I firmly believe in protecting your peace. I wish I’d been more prepared.
Ultimately, I think this book will find an audience that absolutely loves it. It’s bold, unsettling, socially observant, and unlike much of what I read. As someone who reads hundreds of books a year, I forget plenty of stories, even ones I’ve enjoyed.
But this one? This one is going to stay with me.
3.5 stars.
Thank you to Macmillan Audio and the Macmillan Audio Influencer Program for providing the complimentary audiobook in exchange for my honest review.
Review of advance copy received from Author
All the big things, yes: it intros Harold as one of the best comic writers in the culture & language (two languages!) along those contrails of Borges, Twain, Sterne & Fitzgerald; it asks, better than any book that I can remember, if all the endless movement (journey’s birth, journey’s death) is love or dust; it asks wtf we’re supposed to do with the two and three selves of this century when we never got around to dealing with the first one (!!); it knows (and knowing is enough, but so well too) that the animal is both your grace and ne’er-solved nightmare.
But really (the majesty’s math) it is the music itself - the music the music the music the music - of which the following notes will hang on my conifer (mangueira) forever:
Ezaleel
John’s waffling between devil and angel
And what am I good at?
Mayor jimmy
Dragon.
Warren g Harding story
Red cup piss job
The whole of page 72
“He reminds me of your fucking brother”
“Where the guns?”
“All of us become failures in different ways doesn’t mean you can’t be happy”
Agenbite of inwit
Step uncle geoff
Important but ordinary roles
“Your poems are terrible”
Picture of Dallas JFK at bar (why?!!!?)
Picture of young Darius
“When did you become such an asshole”//“I can still kick your ass”
Uncle Fuckhead stealing money as bank teller
“U r cute//u r hot//u r sexy” (“he was just another man”)
Like a river, trying to erode (:()
My virginity depended on it!
You just picked up right where I left off
Columbus’s bones
“Are you talking to my fucking wife buddy?”
The whole of page 297
Interlocking system of crab barrels
40 FUCKING YEARS
8 to 20
Lenny’s we gotta go for 2
Should’ve gotten everything right
Strict when lenient and lenient when strict
Harry’s response to Darius following him into bathroom
“Shut the fuck up Lenny!”
“No that’s not what I think is going on”
Jack and Tristram
She’d imagined this scenario a million times
But I wanted a big life
John Deere trucker
Hero mom
Ines’ husband
Cathy (A clarity of judgment bereft of solipsism and condemnation)
Lashawna’s speech
I’m sorry
But really (the majesty’s math) it is the music itself - the music the music the music the music - of which the following notes will hang on my conifer (mangueira) forever:
Ezaleel
John’s waffling between devil and angel
And what am I good at?
Mayor jimmy
Dragon.
Warren g Harding story
Red cup piss job
The whole of page 72
“He reminds me of your fucking brother”
“Where the guns?”
“All of us become failures in different ways doesn’t mean you can’t be happy”
Agenbite of inwit
Step uncle geoff
Important but ordinary roles
“Your poems are terrible”
Picture of Dallas JFK at bar (why?!!!?)
Picture of young Darius
“When did you become such an asshole”//“I can still kick your ass”
Uncle Fuckhead stealing money as bank teller
“U r cute//u r hot//u r sexy” (“he was just another man”)
Like a river, trying to erode (:()
My virginity depended on it!
You just picked up right where I left off
Columbus’s bones
“Are you talking to my fucking wife buddy?”
The whole of page 297
Interlocking system of crab barrels
40 FUCKING YEARS
8 to 20
Lenny’s we gotta go for 2
Should’ve gotten everything right
Strict when lenient and lenient when strict
Harry’s response to Darius following him into bathroom
“Shut the fuck up Lenny!”
“No that’s not what I think is going on”
Jack and Tristram
She’d imagined this scenario a million times
But I wanted a big life
John Deere trucker
Hero mom
Ines’ husband
Cathy (A clarity of judgment bereft of solipsism and condemnation)
Lashawna’s speech
I’m sorry
Review of advance copy received from Edelweiss+
Lost Lambs for Boys
November 9, 2026
Happy Pub Day! Wow! I went into this without any real expectations. And I was really surprised in the best way. Harold Rogers has such a fresh, raw, and biting voice. His writing was original, angsty, sometimes crass… I really loved it.
🏈In this small Ohio town, the community is obsessed with local sports and willingly feeds into the toxic masculinity machine. Humpty Dumpty follows a couple different families and their generational stories that are complex, nuanced, and are also tangled up in other families’ histories.
These characters are not likeable. And yet, I also empathized with many of them. I think that’s kind of the point. It’s unhinged in places, will make you want to rage, but also has a sense of humor.
🇧🇷Rogers himself is Brazilian-American and I could feel his identity in these characters!
I’m not sure if this book will be for everyone, especially due to the subject matter (reach out if you want to learn more). If you’re looking for a book where there are clear and satisfying consequences and justice, you won’t find that here. But I honestly loved how Rogers addresses this!
🎧Narration Note: Umm it wasn’t until I was writing this review that I realized the author himself narrated this. Woah! What a talent. I absolutely loved his delivery of these characters. Highly recommend the audio (though I will say there are a lot of characters introduced and it was hard to follow especially in the beginning before I got my bearings).
🏈In this small Ohio town, the community is obsessed with local sports and willingly feeds into the toxic masculinity machine. Humpty Dumpty follows a couple different families and their generational stories that are complex, nuanced, and are also tangled up in other families’ histories.
These characters are not likeable. And yet, I also empathized with many of them. I think that’s kind of the point. It’s unhinged in places, will make you want to rage, but also has a sense of humor.
🇧🇷Rogers himself is Brazilian-American and I could feel his identity in these characters!
I’m not sure if this book will be for everyone, especially due to the subject matter (reach out if you want to learn more). If you’re looking for a book where there are clear and satisfying consequences and justice, you won’t find that here. But I honestly loved how Rogers addresses this!
🎧Narration Note: Umm it wasn’t until I was writing this review that I realized the author himself narrated this. Woah! What a talent. I absolutely loved his delivery of these characters. Highly recommend the audio (though I will say there are a lot of characters introduced and it was hard to follow especially in the beginning before I got my bearings).
November 8, 2026
3.5⭐️ this is one for my LitFic lovers. Ones specifically that also loved Beartown. The whole time reading this that is the book that kept coming to mind. I reallllly loved this writing style. The plot isn’t one that is typically my favorite. I tend to not love small-town crises, but I enjoyed this overall. I think this book will find its people though!
August 6, 2026
Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.
In one of those small towns in Ohio, where football is everything, Darius is the popular, starting high school quarterback. His mother Beatriz and twin sister Anna, have just returned from Rio, 4 years after Beatriz left her cheating husband who has now convinced her to return to Ohio. Ana is sneaking around with her new bestie’s boyfriend behind her back. Darius is floating through life as the star of the town without any regard to morality or consequences for his actions.
Everyone in the town idolizes the star football players and they get to walk around like celebrities. One day, Darius and a few of his teammates commit a crime that ends up blowing their worlds apart.
I liked the premise of the book, but honestly it was too long - too many side stories- I was bored a lot of the time I was reading it. I’m sure it will scratch an itch for some people though. It’s dripping in satire, and the author has a unique writing style. It just paced too slow for me and none of the characters were very likable or had many redeeming qualities- and there are a lot of characters. I did like the police guy that challenged the sheriff. But he wasn’t in the book much.
In one of those small towns in Ohio, where football is everything, Darius is the popular, starting high school quarterback. His mother Beatriz and twin sister Anna, have just returned from Rio, 4 years after Beatriz left her cheating husband who has now convinced her to return to Ohio. Ana is sneaking around with her new bestie’s boyfriend behind her back. Darius is floating through life as the star of the town without any regard to morality or consequences for his actions.
Everyone in the town idolizes the star football players and they get to walk around like celebrities. One day, Darius and a few of his teammates commit a crime that ends up blowing their worlds apart.
I liked the premise of the book, but honestly it was too long - too many side stories- I was bored a lot of the time I was reading it. I’m sure it will scratch an itch for some people though. It’s dripping in satire, and the author has a unique writing style. It just paced too slow for me and none of the characters were very likable or had many redeeming qualities- and there are a lot of characters. I did like the police guy that challenged the sheriff. But he wasn’t in the book much.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
What a chorus of voices. The three B’s: big, bold, and bawdy. My favorite sections were John’s and Beatriz’s, which glowed with quiet wisdom and singular humor. The things they didn’t say were as loud as the things they did. Harold’s Steubenville felt totally real in all its absurdity—I saw an uncomfortable amount of my own suburban hometown in it. I know so many Lenny Zemeliuses. Something I’ve thought a lot about since finishing it is the way that this fictional Steubenville exists (for so many of the characters) in contrast to the Rio beyond, as if part of what makes it such a lonely place is the knowledge that there’s another, better reality out there that these people have exiled themselves from in one way or another. I think the writing is at its best when a character is looking without flinching at the whole of their life, as Ms. C does on her way to her last graduation. There are more than a few of those deeply moving reflections. And the meditations on parenting (specifically failure in parenting) broke my fucking heart.
November 10, 2026
From Merriam-Webster: SATIRE is wit, irony, or sarcasm used to expose and discredit vice or folly (as of a person, government, or society).
I was hoping for more wit and sarcasm in this novel that features a high school football hero who could do no wrong, until he did. So there’s the irony: this all-too-familiar story is repeated all too often in the news, in small towns, suburbs, and college campuses.
When an entire town looks the other way at bad behavior, we ask about the parents. So this novel includes both generations: the kids and their parents. As a result, there were a lot of characters to remember. It’s the kind of story that could have used a cast of characters (not that it would have helped with the audiobook). There’s a lot of well-expressed teenage angst and high school antics (including by some of the parents). The writing is reasonably authentic and contemporary while the audiobook is well narrated by the author. I just would have liked more wit and sarcasm with the satire, as real life caught up with this story and made it seem more (sadly) ordinary than when it was (likely) first drafted.
My thanks to the author, publisher, @MacmillanAudio, and #NetGalley for access to the audiobook of #HumptyDumpty for review purposes. It is now available.
I was hoping for more wit and sarcasm in this novel that features a high school football hero who could do no wrong, until he did. So there’s the irony: this all-too-familiar story is repeated all too often in the news, in small towns, suburbs, and college campuses.
When an entire town looks the other way at bad behavior, we ask about the parents. So this novel includes both generations: the kids and their parents. As a result, there were a lot of characters to remember. It’s the kind of story that could have used a cast of characters (not that it would have helped with the audiobook). There’s a lot of well-expressed teenage angst and high school antics (including by some of the parents). The writing is reasonably authentic and contemporary while the audiobook is well narrated by the author. I just would have liked more wit and sarcasm with the satire, as real life caught up with this story and made it seem more (sadly) ordinary than when it was (likely) first drafted.
My thanks to the author, publisher, @MacmillanAudio, and #NetGalley for access to the audiobook of #HumptyDumpty for review purposes. It is now available.
November 10, 2026
A novel for Gen Alphas that capture all that’s messed up with keeping the sanctity of Midwest football culture pure and unscathed.
Love how the author narrated and how some of the characters were based off him and his family- I checked out his stuff and he’s funny as hell IRL - these characters in the stories seem so real and even though there’s some funny moments, it’s a heavy book with terrible people doing awful things and being overall just… atrocious.
Serious topics put together in a way that you’ll want to read it if you enjoy conversational/docu-styled books. Check your trigger warnings first with this one.
Thanks to Macmillan Audio and FSG books for both the advanced reader and listener copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own and my review is left voluntarily.
Love how the author narrated and how some of the characters were based off him and his family- I checked out his stuff and he’s funny as hell IRL - these characters in the stories seem so real and even though there’s some funny moments, it’s a heavy book with terrible people doing awful things and being overall just… atrocious.
Serious topics put together in a way that you’ll want to read it if you enjoy conversational/docu-styled books. Check your trigger warnings first with this one.
Thanks to Macmillan Audio and FSG books for both the advanced reader and listener copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own and my review is left voluntarily.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
I requested and received an eARC of
Humpty Dumpty
by Harold Rogers via NetGalley. Darius Rodgers is the king of Steubenville, Ohio. As the quarterback about to lead his team to their first State Championship, he is viewed as a teenage god among men. And now his mom and twin sister, Beatriz and Anna, are back from their self-imposed exile in Rio, read to reunite their estranged family. Nothing can take him down, until he ushers in his own doom. Anna doesn't even want to be back in Stupidville, but she decides to make the most of it. But her secret romance from Darius's best friend, Fleet, and the accompanying rumors make the first domino fall in a series of social detonations that exposes one small town's hypocrisy.
Humpty Dumpty takes inspiration from the real Steubenville High School sexual assault case from over a decade ago, but it is sadly a story that is more relevant than ever. Despite the heavy themes explored in the narrative, Rogers’ novel is an absurdly comical read. His satire is biting and isn’t afraid to cut in many directions. Darius may be at the center of the novel’s drama, but the story is entirely told from the perspective from his family and peers. Rogers does a terrific job of crafting unique voices for each member of the Rodgers clan. Anna’s sections are presented as journal entries that are convincingly written in a teenage voice. The tense friendship between her and Maya, as well as the love triangle with Fleet, were deeply entertaining to read. I was equally drawn to John and Beatriz’s sections which provided important family history as well as their own source of entertainment. Harry’s point of view was often quite chilling.
Humpty Dumpty is a deeply engaging book that draws the reader in with the promise of small town secrets and great humor, but the narrative never loses sight of what the story is about: the terrible things that men are allowed to get away. We see this play out time and time again with characters like Darius, John, Harry, Luis, the sheriff, the clergy, and the high school principal. Women, sadly, are often left with the collateral damage of their crimes. The universal theme of hypocrisy, however, is not gendered. All of Rogers’ characters are complex and fallible. We see this play out with Maya’s machinations and the secrets that Beatriz chooses to keep to herself. The pacing in the story is great, you really don’t want to put that book down as the narrative jumps through time and points of view. The prose is well-realized and is utilized to write convincing and disginguishable voices. A very solid read.
Humpty Dumpty takes inspiration from the real Steubenville High School sexual assault case from over a decade ago, but it is sadly a story that is more relevant than ever. Despite the heavy themes explored in the narrative, Rogers’ novel is an absurdly comical read. His satire is biting and isn’t afraid to cut in many directions. Darius may be at the center of the novel’s drama, but the story is entirely told from the perspective from his family and peers. Rogers does a terrific job of crafting unique voices for each member of the Rodgers clan. Anna’s sections are presented as journal entries that are convincingly written in a teenage voice. The tense friendship between her and Maya, as well as the love triangle with Fleet, were deeply entertaining to read. I was equally drawn to John and Beatriz’s sections which provided important family history as well as their own source of entertainment. Harry’s point of view was often quite chilling.
Humpty Dumpty is a deeply engaging book that draws the reader in with the promise of small town secrets and great humor, but the narrative never loses sight of what the story is about: the terrible things that men are allowed to get away. We see this play out time and time again with characters like Darius, John, Harry, Luis, the sheriff, the clergy, and the high school principal. Women, sadly, are often left with the collateral damage of their crimes. The universal theme of hypocrisy, however, is not gendered. All of Rogers’ characters are complex and fallible. We see this play out with Maya’s machinations and the secrets that Beatriz chooses to keep to herself. The pacing in the story is great, you really don’t want to put that book down as the narrative jumps through time and points of view. The prose is well-realized and is utilized to write convincing and disginguishable voices. A very solid read.
May 2, 2026
that was wild
Review of advance copy received from Author
AN IRRESISTIBLE ROMP BURSTING WITH LINGUISTIC JOY, HUMOR, & MORAL IMAGINATION. . .
AT LEAST THAT’S WHAT I TRIED TO WRITE!
(OUR BROTHER HUMPTY DUMPTY SHATTERS DAILY)
AT LEAST THAT’S WHAT I TRIED TO WRITE!
(OUR BROTHER HUMPTY DUMPTY SHATTERS DAILY)
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Thank you Macmillan audio for the ALC in exchange for my review. I thought the audiobook was done particularly well, especially considering it was single narration with so many different POVs.
Essentially, I don't think I actually liked a single character in this book. And yet, I was completely fascinated by them.
The writing style of Humpty Dumpty reminded me quite a bit of Fredrik Backman's Beartown. We're following a whole community through a rotating third-person perspective, jumping between teenagers and adults whose lives are tangled up in everything from cheating and gambling to family drama and deeply dysfunctional relationships. But while the structure felt familiar, Rogers takes a much darker, more cynical approach.
While it may not be construed as 'enjoyable,' I was fascinated with the psychology behind these characters and their decisions. Rogers gives us these incredibly flawed, often deeply unlikeable characters, and rather than asking us to sympathize with them, he gives us the opportunity to understand them. As we learn more about their pasts, their behavior in the present starts to make sense. Not that I necessarily agreed with their choices, because my god, these people are a mess. But I loved how Rogers gradually gave us the context to understand how they became the people they are.
And I think Beatriz is the best example of this.
And then there's Harry.
I don't even know how else to describe him except that he reminded me of the kid in school you are nice to because if anyone were going to shoot up the school, it would be him. I genuinely felt anxious every time his POV came around. And after learning more about his father, I can't say I was particularly surprised by how Harry turned out. Like father, like son, apparently.
I also thought the writing was quite sharp. There were several lines that made me stop and think, although I wouldn't necessarily put Rogers on the same level as Backman in that regard. Where Backman tends to find humanity and tenderness even in his most flawed characters, Rogers seems much more interested in exposing the uglier parts of human nature.
And I'm still processing how I feel about the ending. I appreciate that Rogers wanted to show us how these characters' lives unfolded beyond the events of the main story, but I'm not sure the execution worked for me. The jumps forward to reveal where everyone ended up felt a little forced, almost as though we were being given an update on each character rather than watching their stories reach a natural conclusion.
But overall, I really enjoyed this book. I loved getting inside these characters' heads, even when I wanted absolutely nothing to do with them.
And if there's one thing I took away from all of this, it's that all men are shit.
Tropes:
✨Small Town
✨Brothers Best Friend
✨Multi POV
✨Dysfunctional Families
Essentially, I don't think I actually liked a single character in this book. And yet, I was completely fascinated by them.
The writing style of Humpty Dumpty reminded me quite a bit of Fredrik Backman's Beartown. We're following a whole community through a rotating third-person perspective, jumping between teenagers and adults whose lives are tangled up in everything from cheating and gambling to family drama and deeply dysfunctional relationships. But while the structure felt familiar, Rogers takes a much darker, more cynical approach.
While it may not be construed as 'enjoyable,' I was fascinated with the psychology behind these characters and their decisions. Rogers gives us these incredibly flawed, often deeply unlikeable characters, and rather than asking us to sympathize with them, he gives us the opportunity to understand them. As we learn more about their pasts, their behavior in the present starts to make sense. Not that I necessarily agreed with their choices, because my god, these people are a mess. But I loved how Rogers gradually gave us the context to understand how they became the people they are.
And I think Beatriz is the best example of this.
And then there's Harry.
I don't even know how else to describe him except that he reminded me of the kid in school you are nice to because if anyone were going to shoot up the school, it would be him. I genuinely felt anxious every time his POV came around. And after learning more about his father, I can't say I was particularly surprised by how Harry turned out. Like father, like son, apparently.
I also thought the writing was quite sharp. There were several lines that made me stop and think, although I wouldn't necessarily put Rogers on the same level as Backman in that regard. Where Backman tends to find humanity and tenderness even in his most flawed characters, Rogers seems much more interested in exposing the uglier parts of human nature.
And I'm still processing how I feel about the ending. I appreciate that Rogers wanted to show us how these characters' lives unfolded beyond the events of the main story, but I'm not sure the execution worked for me. The jumps forward to reveal where everyone ended up felt a little forced, almost as though we were being given an update on each character rather than watching their stories reach a natural conclusion.
But overall, I really enjoyed this book. I loved getting inside these characters' heads, even when I wanted absolutely nothing to do with them.
And if there's one thing I took away from all of this, it's that all men are shit.
Tropes:
✨Small Town
✨Brothers Best Friend
✨Multi POV
✨Dysfunctional Families
Review of advance copy received from Edelweiss+
I liked this book so much that I immediately got my little mitts on Harold Rogers; first novel, Tropicalia. Humpy Dumpty surprised and delighted me--and confused me a little, from start to finish. It's a ride. Are you ready?
It took me a little while to figure out who was talking and what they were talking about, but once i got that straight we were off and away. Anna and her mother Beatriz return to Steubenville, Ohio, from Rio after a four-year separation from Beatriz's husband and Anna's twin. The fact that they are moving from Rio de Janeiro to the Ohio Valley is a big enough stretch for the imagination, but there will be more astonishing events by the time Humpty winds up. Anna's twin Darius is the high school quarterback in a town where high school football tops everything. Everybody drools over the guy, who already has a scholarship to Ohio State. He might think is future is assured but no one's is, even in this rundown town where high school is for many the pinnacle of existence.
There's a genuineness in this novel that I loved. Whether a character is in Steubenville or Rio, they're there and making it work if they can. I'm looking forward to what Harold Rogers will write next, but in the meantime I'm leafing through Humpty Dumpty again to remember what I enjoyed so much.
Many thanks to Edelweiss + and the publisher for a review copy on exchange for my honest opinions.
It took me a little while to figure out who was talking and what they were talking about, but once i got that straight we were off and away. Anna and her mother Beatriz return to Steubenville, Ohio, from Rio after a four-year separation from Beatriz's husband and Anna's twin. The fact that they are moving from Rio de Janeiro to the Ohio Valley is a big enough stretch for the imagination, but there will be more astonishing events by the time Humpty winds up. Anna's twin Darius is the high school quarterback in a town where high school football tops everything. Everybody drools over the guy, who already has a scholarship to Ohio State. He might think is future is assured but no one's is, even in this rundown town where high school is for many the pinnacle of existence.
There's a genuineness in this novel that I loved. Whether a character is in Steubenville or Rio, they're there and making it work if they can. I'm looking forward to what Harold Rogers will write next, but in the meantime I'm leafing through Humpty Dumpty again to remember what I enjoyed so much.
Many thanks to Edelweiss + and the publisher for a review copy on exchange for my honest opinions.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
TL;DR: HUMPTY DUMPTY is eggscellent!
The teenage characters and Euphoria-esque social dynamics will resonate with anyone who grew up in the 2010’s, but the interconnected family drama and preponderance of seedy small-town politics are what really give HUMPTY DUMPTY its heart. The mythic structure at play — Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall — can be seen across practically every character in Steubenville, most ominously with Darius Rodgers, the Quarterback lording over it all.
Beyond all that, HUMPTY DUMPTY is a damn fun read. Rogers writes clearly across a cacophony of voices at a breakneck pace that recalls and surpasses the strongest moments from his debut, TROPICALIA. As with that novel, HUMPTY DUMPTY pays off the promise of its salacious premise and forces readers to reckon with humanity's sordid underbelly.
But HUMPTY DUMPTY isn’t just some hard-boiled caper. The novel is absurd and hilarious. At one point, I laughed so hard that my wife got mad at me, and then I annoyed her even further with my vain attempts to wax philosophical on matters of confession and forgiveness, family and faith, and of course, how freakin sick it would be to have a giant nutcracker effigy made for me if I was the star Quarterback / God of a little town in the Ohio River Valley … Crack open HUMPTY DUMPTY to enjoy all of this and more.
The teenage characters and Euphoria-esque social dynamics will resonate with anyone who grew up in the 2010’s, but the interconnected family drama and preponderance of seedy small-town politics are what really give HUMPTY DUMPTY its heart. The mythic structure at play — Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall — can be seen across practically every character in Steubenville, most ominously with Darius Rodgers, the Quarterback lording over it all.
Beyond all that, HUMPTY DUMPTY is a damn fun read. Rogers writes clearly across a cacophony of voices at a breakneck pace that recalls and surpasses the strongest moments from his debut, TROPICALIA. As with that novel, HUMPTY DUMPTY pays off the promise of its salacious premise and forces readers to reckon with humanity's sordid underbelly.
But HUMPTY DUMPTY isn’t just some hard-boiled caper. The novel is absurd and hilarious. At one point, I laughed so hard that my wife got mad at me, and then I annoyed her even further with my vain attempts to wax philosophical on matters of confession and forgiveness, family and faith, and of course, how freakin sick it would be to have a giant nutcracker effigy made for me if I was the star Quarterback / God of a little town in the Ohio River Valley … Crack open HUMPTY DUMPTY to enjoy all of this and more.
October 30, 2026
Tells a story that is messy and unsimple and a Greek choir of voices shouting that is ungreek in that they all clamor over one another to be heard. As someone who graduated high school not too long ago (7 and a half years is longer than I think), I felt so much of that experience underlined here. We never quite had a scandal like the Steubenville one told in Humpty Dumpty, but it would be foolish to assume nothing untoward happened.
The best part about Humpty Dumpty is author Harold Rodgers’s commitment to allowing everyone to have a voice for themselves EXCEPT for Darius, the character central to the book’s “mystery” (which is no real mystery) and de facto antagonist for most of the story. But it still isn’t that simple because most of the voices we hear from LOVE(d) Darius. How does a mother, a father, a twin reckon with such a heinous act? Rodgers captures the confused, hurt, angry feelings that come with such an act from a loved one.
The only place I bump on Hump(ty) is the Euphoria of it all. It’s not necessarily a critique of the writing (though I did find the narrator to be (I’m sure intentionally) grating and overbearing at points) but my own feelings about high school-centered stories.
Anyway, good book!
The best part about Humpty Dumpty is author Harold Rodgers’s commitment to allowing everyone to have a voice for themselves EXCEPT for Darius, the character central to the book’s “mystery” (which is no real mystery) and de facto antagonist for most of the story. But it still isn’t that simple because most of the voices we hear from LOVE(d) Darius. How does a mother, a father, a twin reckon with such a heinous act? Rodgers captures the confused, hurt, angry feelings that come with such an act from a loved one.
The only place I bump on Hump(ty) is the Euphoria of it all. It’s not necessarily a critique of the writing (though I did find the narrator to be (I’m sure intentionally) grating and overbearing at points) but my own feelings about high school-centered stories.
Anyway, good book!
November 11, 2026
An impressive sophomore effort from Senhor Rogers - “Humpty Dumpty” is every bit as tightly woven and propulsive a read as its predecessor “Tropacalia”, but told in a far grander (and perhaps even more kaleidoscopic) manner. Rogers is able to breathe rare life into the quotidian goings-on of small-town America, populating his fictitious rendering of Ohio’s Steubenville with a cast of memorable, multifaceted misfits, deftly switching between registers to illuminate the complex (and often contradictory) personalities that lie at the heart of this darkly comedic tale of revenge and redemption. I would be surprised if it didn’t end up as being considered amongst the year’s best, but it’s at least clear that Rogers has assumed the mantle of “Voice of the American Interior” from Franzen.*
*(It was so good, in fact, that I read all 448 pages in one day. Your work has to have something special to get someone like me, a perpetually distracted person with the attention span of a fly, to shirk all obligations just to be able to keep reading, and this certainly did. I will admit to having had a similar experience while reading “Tropacalia”, but even that necessitated I take some breaks to engage with life away from the page; “Humpty Dumpty” did not.)
*(It was so good, in fact, that I read all 448 pages in one day. Your work has to have something special to get someone like me, a perpetually distracted person with the attention span of a fly, to shirk all obligations just to be able to keep reading, and this certainly did. I will admit to having had a similar experience while reading “Tropacalia”, but even that necessitated I take some breaks to engage with life away from the page; “Humpty Dumpty” did not.)
November 12, 2026
Review of advanced reader copy from NetGalley.
I requested and received the audio version of this book. It was narrated by the author, Harold Rogers. I enjoyed his voice and inflections throughout the story. My one criticism of the audio would be the male voice reading not only the multiple male’s POVs but also the female’s POVs. It was off-putting to hear him read things like “soon enough, I was pregnant”. With the change of characters happening fairly often, it took too long for me to know which POV I was hearing.
That being said, it was an interesting story of small-town life and its complete disfunction. It was quirky as I have seen in other descriptions and was a very satirical read. Being from small-town Texas, I certainly understand the Friday Night Lights mentality. The story revolves around a terrible crime that is committed and the cover-up, coupled with the idol worship of the football team’s intended hero. It deals with teenage relationships, parenting styles, marriage, sibling angst and first love.
I did enjoy this book enough to investigate Mr. Rogers first novel.
I requested and received the audio version of this book. It was narrated by the author, Harold Rogers. I enjoyed his voice and inflections throughout the story. My one criticism of the audio would be the male voice reading not only the multiple male’s POVs but also the female’s POVs. It was off-putting to hear him read things like “soon enough, I was pregnant”. With the change of characters happening fairly often, it took too long for me to know which POV I was hearing.
That being said, it was an interesting story of small-town life and its complete disfunction. It was quirky as I have seen in other descriptions and was a very satirical read. Being from small-town Texas, I certainly understand the Friday Night Lights mentality. The story revolves around a terrible crime that is committed and the cover-up, coupled with the idol worship of the football team’s intended hero. It deals with teenage relationships, parenting styles, marriage, sibling angst and first love.
I did enjoy this book enough to investigate Mr. Rogers first novel.
November 6, 2026
Rating: 3.5/5 ⭐️ A frank, funny look at small-town silence, with asides that keep it moving.
Darius Rodgers is the star quarterback of Steubenville, Ohio, until his estranged mother and twin sister return, and a secret romance sets off a chain of scandals in a town that would rather stay silent.
The fourth-wall asides keep the pace moving. Harold Rogers narrates his own novel (9hrs 21 mins), and his performance brought out a humorous, honest conversation about complicity and the failure to act when a crime is committed. The small-town setting, built around football, is very relatable.
The teens’ behavior was a little off-putting, with all the partying and impulsive choices. The book also packs in a lot: friendships, small-town bureaucracy, grudges and vengeance, and family dynamics, which at times felt like too much. It’s all woven into the story, and each thread circles back to the question of who stays silent.
This is for readers who enjoy sharp social criticism.
Thank you, Macmillan Audio, for my advance listening copy. All opinions are my own.
Darius Rodgers is the star quarterback of Steubenville, Ohio, until his estranged mother and twin sister return, and a secret romance sets off a chain of scandals in a town that would rather stay silent.
The fourth-wall asides keep the pace moving. Harold Rogers narrates his own novel (9hrs 21 mins), and his performance brought out a humorous, honest conversation about complicity and the failure to act when a crime is committed. The small-town setting, built around football, is very relatable.
The teens’ behavior was a little off-putting, with all the partying and impulsive choices. The book also packs in a lot: friendships, small-town bureaucracy, grudges and vengeance, and family dynamics, which at times felt like too much. It’s all woven into the story, and each thread circles back to the question of who stays silent.
This is for readers who enjoy sharp social criticism.
Thank you, Macmillan Audio, for my advance listening copy. All opinions are my own.
November 12, 2026
i was really excited about humpty dumpty because the author, harold rogers, whose substack i read on occasion, is vocally a fan and devotee of the big, messy, polyphonic novels about raw human experiences that i love. and it’s easy to see how much rogers was inspired by joyce, sterne, gaddis, faulkner, etc. (not just because he peppers the text with names from, references to, analysis of their work; and quotes them in his epigraphs). like them, rogers uses diverse and virtuosic prose stylings to convey a whirlwind of human emotion, one in which the chaos of language sapir-whorfianly induces (or maybe evokes) the tumultuous culturewar catastrophes in his fictive steubenville, oh. most importantly, at least as concerns my enjoyment, the novel directly addresses issues like toxic masculinity, american sports culture insanity, middle american driftlessness, social media, etc. without needing saintly characters against which to measure the rot. the cast of humpty dumpty are messy and complex and almost uniformly flawed, but that’s what makes great literature.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
When a horrible crime happens to a beautiful small town girl, the popular football town as a whole strives to cover it up. Darius Rodgers is the quarterback of Steubenville- untouchable, on par with God, not to be buggered with. His sister, Anna, and mother, Beatriz, are also POV's we follow. This one is so quirky and fun, taking is through generational ruin and what the biblical "Curses" look like, indeed. The brainrot trend is woven into this, too, making it so timely and hard to forget in modern litfic. The characters and age groups are split here, but the author clearly has one goal in making all these players work together to make this novel as entertaining and zany as possible. Thank you to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for the eARC. All opinions are entirely my own.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
I received a free advanced listener copy of Humpty Dumpty by Harold Rogers from NetGalley in an exchange for an honest review. Harold Rogers narrated the book it self and he was excellent. My only criticism is that I wish there were additional narrators for those who contributed primary documents. A cast of voices would give the audio experience clarity and the pacing would feel less slow/meandering. I’m not sure I had a good time listening, personally there was no spark but I do appreciate it after the fact. I will definitely give Harold’s books another shot, probably when the sun comes back out in the spring though.
November 10, 2026
Humpty Dumpty by Harold Rogers is a satirical fiction that really had me laughing and thinking! This is about the ugliness in small town America and big town America told in such a satirical fashion that you have to just laugh. I had a difficult time in the beginning, keeping track of everyone, but once I had that rhythm, I enjoyed the ride. I wound up, listening to the book again right away. And that never happens. Congratulations to Harold Rodgers. He did a fantastic job narrating the book. That was a huge undertaking and for a person who doesn't have any training. I thought he did a wonderful job. I hope this novel gets the attention it deserves.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
The synopsis of this book describes it as a story about high school students and a crime cover-up. Really, it's a story about family and relationships, but man is it crazy. I can't remember the last book I read with this strong a sense of voice. The book is written in the first person and told from the perspective of multiple characters, which keeps it interesting, but since the sections aren't labeled by character, it is not always clear initially who you are hearing from. I thought the book was original and non formulaic and found it very entertaining. Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews