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Harmless
Set over the course of a single day and night, Harmless is a tense, provocative, and psychologically astute first novel in the tradition of Herman Koch's The Dinner, Tom Perrotta’s Little Children, and Christos Tsiolkas’s The Slap, about a weekend reunion of old friends that takes a terrifying turn when two teenage girls go missing. At a remote farm, a group of old friends gather to catch up, sit by the fire, and forget about their overworked lives. But a long weekend in the country is not Joseph’s idea of a good time -- not when he’s promised his ex-wife he'll use the occasion to talk to their troubled fourteen-year-old daughter, and not when the farm belongs to his former lover and her husband, Alex. Once best friends, Joseph and Alex are now estranged, with much left unspoken between them. As more guests arrive and the reunion unfolds, old rivalries, new pressures, and erotic tensions surface. But things take a terrifying turn when the adults return from a nostalgic drug-fuelled bender at sundown to discover their two teenage daughters are missing. As night descends and the girls remain unfound, Joseph and Alex decide to enter the surrounding woods together in search of their daughters. What the two men encounter in the wilderness will push them to confront how far they are willing to go to protect the ones they love. By turns blackly comic, thought-provoking, and harrowing, Harmless introduces James Grainger as an unflinching observer of the way we live now, and exposes the dark impulses we conceal beneath the veneer of our modern lives.
287 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 5, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews
May 5, 2015
I was given this book in exchange for an honest review. My 3 stars is really 2.5.
What this writer is trying to do is challenging. It's a mash-up of genres. There's thriller, mixed with crime, psychological drama and literary indie press style. This book wants so hard to be an update of Deliverance, but for several reasons, misfires and strangles itself.
The writer's work on the page is stellar. The poetry and apt images spill from the pages with simplicity, honesty and beauty:
The book's concept is also timely and poignant: Over one intense night at a remote farm, old friends come together, two girls go missing and the adults search desperately, as steaming wounds of olde come screeching to the surface.
In execution, unfortunately, the book becomes a strangled chicken. How?
In a book described as "intense" and "harrowing" one might expect there to be some dramatic tension... suspense. As much as I enjoyed the opening 70 pages, the literary flourishes, character insights, the actual action is limited to guests arriving at the farm, getting drunk as they have dinner and have a fire outside.
The adults go out on a drunk and stoned walk in the woods where there's some horseplay of a few varieties. When they return, Alex says the girls are missing.
Now a key to upping the drama in a story like this is good old father time. With teenagers, there's a big difference between nine o'clock at night and midnight. But the author takes time out of the equation as the protagonist, Joseph, left his phone at home for the weekend (and doesn't seem to have the ability to ask what the time is or look at the clock on the stove).
As phone calls are made to one of the girls' cell phones from the kitchen landline, nearby places are searched, we don't know what time it is or how long they've been gone. Joseph, the unreliable father, dreams up nightmares of young girls in stranger's cars, hurt in ditches, lost. He is so stressed he strangles a chicken to death at one point. If it was two or three in the morning, maybe I could buy this. But then we learn on page 115 that it is not even eleven o'clock at night?!?
My suspension of belief fell to the floor with that. But I kept reading...
Grainger is fairly adept at keeping the omniscient point of view aloft (that is, the reader jumps from one character's head to another). But in too many instances to count, it was so confusing to figure out who was talking, who was thinking, it broke the story up.
What got me to skipping pages was the predictable rhythm of the writing. It careens forward, but in a numbing way. After a while, the beautiful words lose their shine because the direction of where the story is taking us just isn't there. It all becomes one languid mumble of intensity that just keeps going and going... like drums keeping the same time signature, repeating the same patterns.
What convinced me to start searching for what really happened to the girls (so I could give up reading), was the protagonist himself. His constant re-visioning of his relationships, particularly with his antagonist, Alex. One minute he's convinced Alex wants to kill him, the next he's convinced they're best buds, then he's certain there are ulterior motives in a suggestion Alex makes. It is exhausting rather than eccentric, repetitive rather than intriguing and insightful. He becomes a character I want to get away from, not watch with fascination.
On reflection, I also realized that we never are given much insight into the relationship these two men have with their young daughters. We never see where their caring comes from. Certainly there is the fatherly attachment, the biological one. But where does the emotional attachment come from? We don't get to know these girls at all, they are distant figures, 'typical' teenagers. Perhaps if we were shown what makes these girls special, how they are unique characters in their own right, would we understand the attachment and the great lengths these men go to to find them.
Also on reflection, what really lost me with this story is the engine of the story itself. Grainger is adept at the word smithery and images, of conjuring characters with few words. But the overall structure of the story is a blind stumble.
In the end I find fault most with the substantive editors who couldn't help the writer to find those plot points and the changes in rhythm that would have turned those stumbles into a finely crafted tale of suspense and intrigue where we can't help but keep turning the pages. With so many strong points to suggest it, I find that quite sad.
What this writer is trying to do is challenging. It's a mash-up of genres. There's thriller, mixed with crime, psychological drama and literary indie press style. This book wants so hard to be an update of Deliverance, but for several reasons, misfires and strangles itself.
The writer's work on the page is stellar. The poetry and apt images spill from the pages with simplicity, honesty and beauty:
...but he felt his own absence from the photo as if he'd been cut out with a penknife...
...the blue sky above so bright it might have been freshly painted...
...the kids tumbling down the stoop to see the new arrivals...
...she'd been strikingly beautiful once, but drugs and partying had stripped her of some vital binding element, leaving her features isolated on her face like pieces of jewellery...
...Nothing's worse than losing a child — the guilt, waking up turned inside out, all bone and gristle on the outside, frayed skin and nerves within...
The book's concept is also timely and poignant: Over one intense night at a remote farm, old friends come together, two girls go missing and the adults search desperately, as steaming wounds of olde come screeching to the surface.
In execution, unfortunately, the book becomes a strangled chicken. How?
In a book described as "intense" and "harrowing" one might expect there to be some dramatic tension... suspense. As much as I enjoyed the opening 70 pages, the literary flourishes, character insights, the actual action is limited to guests arriving at the farm, getting drunk as they have dinner and have a fire outside.
The adults go out on a drunk and stoned walk in the woods where there's some horseplay of a few varieties. When they return, Alex says the girls are missing.
Now a key to upping the drama in a story like this is good old father time. With teenagers, there's a big difference between nine o'clock at night and midnight. But the author takes time out of the equation as the protagonist, Joseph, left his phone at home for the weekend (and doesn't seem to have the ability to ask what the time is or look at the clock on the stove).
As phone calls are made to one of the girls' cell phones from the kitchen landline, nearby places are searched, we don't know what time it is or how long they've been gone. Joseph, the unreliable father, dreams up nightmares of young girls in stranger's cars, hurt in ditches, lost. He is so stressed he strangles a chicken to death at one point. If it was two or three in the morning, maybe I could buy this. But then we learn on page 115 that it is not even eleven o'clock at night?!?
My suspension of belief fell to the floor with that. But I kept reading...
Grainger is fairly adept at keeping the omniscient point of view aloft (that is, the reader jumps from one character's head to another). But in too many instances to count, it was so confusing to figure out who was talking, who was thinking, it broke the story up.
What got me to skipping pages was the predictable rhythm of the writing. It careens forward, but in a numbing way. After a while, the beautiful words lose their shine because the direction of where the story is taking us just isn't there. It all becomes one languid mumble of intensity that just keeps going and going... like drums keeping the same time signature, repeating the same patterns.
What convinced me to start searching for what really happened to the girls (so I could give up reading), was the protagonist himself. His constant re-visioning of his relationships, particularly with his antagonist, Alex. One minute he's convinced Alex wants to kill him, the next he's convinced they're best buds, then he's certain there are ulterior motives in a suggestion Alex makes. It is exhausting rather than eccentric, repetitive rather than intriguing and insightful. He becomes a character I want to get away from, not watch with fascination.
On reflection, I also realized that we never are given much insight into the relationship these two men have with their young daughters. We never see where their caring comes from. Certainly there is the fatherly attachment, the biological one. But where does the emotional attachment come from? We don't get to know these girls at all, they are distant figures, 'typical' teenagers. Perhaps if we were shown what makes these girls special, how they are unique characters in their own right, would we understand the attachment and the great lengths these men go to to find them.
Also on reflection, what really lost me with this story is the engine of the story itself. Grainger is adept at the word smithery and images, of conjuring characters with few words. But the overall structure of the story is a blind stumble.
In the end I find fault most with the substantive editors who couldn't help the writer to find those plot points and the changes in rhythm that would have turned those stumbles into a finely crafted tale of suspense and intrigue where we can't help but keep turning the pages. With so many strong points to suggest it, I find that quite sad.
May 22, 2015
You read about these personal catastrophes, relieved that your kid wasn't missing, but also secretly disappointed to have missed out on the experience, because how often in this bloodless age do you get the chance to test your mettle against the elements, against the bad guys? You imagine what you'd do in the parents' situation, how you'd act with courage, sacrifice, and resolve right up until the final scene, when your dirt-streaked child jumps into your arms, crying, “Daddy you found me!”
Harmless by James Grainger is an interesting look at what it means to be a man in this “bloodless age”; in a time when even real and pressing danger causes our hero Joseph to stop and scan his memory for appropriate reactions sourced from the action movies he has seen, because nothing from his actual life has prepared him for this. I just wish that Joseph was a more likeable or genuine character – he's about as useful in an emergency as the pricey hiking shoes he bought for the weekend based on their flashy reflective stripes.
The setup: Joseph and his moody teenage daughter Franny go for a weekend visit with old friends at a remote farmhouse. Joseph is an online journalist and arts editor (like Grainger himself), a former Party Boy, and currently, broke, divorced, and disillusioned. The owners of the farmhouse are Alex – a powerfully built man who left his city job as a documentarian for the authentic country life, where he now fashions rustic furniture with his bare hands – and his wife Jane – Joseph's former lover who wants a weekend of debauchery with her erstwhile high school friends, despite the presence of children and her disapproving husband. Two other couples attend the weekend, but they don't matter to the story. After getting wasted at the campfire, they realise that Franny, along with Alex and Jane's daughter Rebecca, have disappeared (that's on the back cover, so not really a spoiler) and their Dads must enter the never-ending woods surrounding the farm to find them. From here, the story becomes tense and dangerous, and even where the storyline strains credibility, it remains a thoughtful examination of modern masculinity.
Grainger stuffed so much into Harmless about modern life, as it affects young boys:
Bereft of ancestral lore, national myths, holy books, and rituals to bind the generations, Mike was initiating his sons in to the world of the Cool Geek, where aggressions and aspirations were channelled into superheroes, video games, movies, TV shows, and the right pop music.
And as it affects teenage girls:
They exuded self-denial and a sensual receptivity focused at the mouth, neck, and belly, their backs as rigid as aristocrats' wives in seventeenth-century portraiture. Time rushed forward and he saw each girl at eighteen, her body a map of tattooed Celtic knotwork, Chinese calligraphy, and Native American icons, a map for lovers, with piercings marking the erogenous zones.
As a modern Dad, Joseph has a mental “Father's Worst Nightmare scrapbook” based on what he assumes porn-raised boys will one day expect of his daughter, and he even worries about those (apocryphal) “Rainbow Parties”. And yet, he doesn't feel the right to intervene when his fourteen-year-old wears slutty clothes or sneaks off to smoke a joint with her friends? Repeatedly, while Franny is missing, Joseph can imagine in graphic detail what various perverts might be doing to her, yet, early on, he can't imagine how to have a long overdue heart-to-heart with his only child. As a character, I had a hard time understanding Joseph, but from what he shares of himself and his history, I really didn't like him:
As Joseph nestled the stock in a convenient hollow between his shoulder and chest he hadn't known existed, he was startled by a sense of impending climax. He stared down the barrel at a pile of boulders outside. Imagine if a man was standing in front of them. Who did he want it to be? Everyone had a list of worthy targets these days – bankers, CEOs, hedge-fund managers, career politicians, religious fundamentalists, climate-change deniers. He squeezed the trigger, wanting the room to fill with sound, smoke, and broken glass. He handed the rifle back to Alex, disoriented by a sudden feeling of weightlessness. It had felt good to hold the gun in his hands.
That's his list of “worthy targets”? Career politicians and religious fundamentalists? No child-molestors or cop-killers? And Joseph isn't even the most liberal of the men, so the intermittent politicking didn't sit well with me either.
As for the writing, Grainger is simile rich and that has varying results:
• Because it was still light out, the flaming logs looked artificial, like a video installation commenting on the cultural practice of building bonfires on summer holidays.
• Martha withdrew his hand, and the sordid history of their break-up lay on the table between them like a platter of freshly eviscerated entrails: his wavering commitment to their marriage; his refusal to ‘prostitute’ his talents and settle for a nine-to-five job; his inability to quantify what he provided in place of financial and domestic stability.
• The forest towered higher with every few steps, pulling him into its wake like a ship passing silently in the moonlight, and when the wind picked up, the rustling treetops became the silhouettes of rats running along the decks.
And yet, and...yet, I can see what Grainger was writing about here. Overall, I appreciated the meditation on modern masculinity (even if he makes sure that Joseph is clueless about modern femininity), there were some genuinely tense moments in the second half, and much of the writing was really lovely. I was not disappointed to have spent time in this world.
October 26, 2019
This book did not get very good reviews from the Goodreads audience, however, I really enjoyed it. I think what I liked most about it is was that it is different from the usual books that I read.
First of all, this thriller takes place over a single day and night. Several families are visiting their friends at a farm in the country. There's some tension between the adults; most of the adults knew each other when they were young and wild, and some of them even dated each other. The father who owns the farm was not part of this group, and doesn't seem to be too keen on socializing with the group.
At dinner, the adults get quite drunk. Later on, they end up smoking a joint that is laced with something strong, and they get quite high. Most of them go for a walk in the woods, and when they get back, they find that the two teeenage daughters are missing. They panic and all start looking for them.
The book is totally strange, and completely full of bad decisions (well, they are stoned). However, I found it to be sort of funny, and quite interesting, particularly the reactions of the deadbeat single father when his daughter is missing along with her friend.
First of all, this thriller takes place over a single day and night. Several families are visiting their friends at a farm in the country. There's some tension between the adults; most of the adults knew each other when they were young and wild, and some of them even dated each other. The father who owns the farm was not part of this group, and doesn't seem to be too keen on socializing with the group.
At dinner, the adults get quite drunk. Later on, they end up smoking a joint that is laced with something strong, and they get quite high. Most of them go for a walk in the woods, and when they get back, they find that the two teeenage daughters are missing. They panic and all start looking for them.
The book is totally strange, and completely full of bad decisions (well, they are stoned). However, I found it to be sort of funny, and quite interesting, particularly the reactions of the deadbeat single father when his daughter is missing along with her friend.
September 6, 2015
2.5 stars, rounded up to 3
This is a tough one, as this book is one of the rare instances in which there is style and quality to the writing but serious issues with the storytelling.
Grainger has a very crisp style - the metaphors are fresh and the writing is tight. He is not afraid of compound, complex sentences and the book feels far more literary than popular as a result. All good.
The problem is the plot, which is thin at best. There is nothing wrong with a simple idea but you could sum up the action in the first 100 pages in a single sentence. There is also an issue with the introduction of characters. We essentially meet them all at once (and there are a lot of them) and it was difficult to figure out the relationships - who is with who, who has a history with who etc. I spent the first fifty pages not entirely certain who anyone was. Several of the characters are interesting, as are their backstories, but somehow it never comes together quite right.
I'm not sure psychological thrillers is this author's best genre. I would certain try another by Grainger and hope that the stumbles evident here work themselves out in his future works.
This is a tough one, as this book is one of the rare instances in which there is style and quality to the writing but serious issues with the storytelling.
Grainger has a very crisp style - the metaphors are fresh and the writing is tight. He is not afraid of compound, complex sentences and the book feels far more literary than popular as a result. All good.
The problem is the plot, which is thin at best. There is nothing wrong with a simple idea but you could sum up the action in the first 100 pages in a single sentence. There is also an issue with the introduction of characters. We essentially meet them all at once (and there are a lot of them) and it was difficult to figure out the relationships - who is with who, who has a history with who etc. I spent the first fifty pages not entirely certain who anyone was. Several of the characters are interesting, as are their backstories, but somehow it never comes together quite right.
I'm not sure psychological thrillers is this author's best genre. I would certain try another by Grainger and hope that the stumbles evident here work themselves out in his future works.
July 18, 2015
I received this as a Goodreads First Reads ARC. I found it difficult to get into the book and struggled through the first part. It dragged for me and I felt the author was spending too much time setting up the rest of the novel. There were a lot of characters in the first section and I had difficulty keeping them all straight. Once the key event happened and the action started, the pace picked up and I found myself enjoying it much more.
November 18, 2021
Full disclosure - I know the author. I enjoyed this book and thought that for a first outing it was very good. It could have done with a little judicious pruning because every first time writer wants to put everything they ever thought on the page. Great for first drafts, but not so much for publication. Will be on the lookout for more of his work.
July 29, 2015
I picked up this novel because it was reviewed by another author I recently read and thoroughly enjoyed. Individual sentences were gorgeous but the overall story lacked direction and cohesion.
December 16, 2020
I read the advanced copy of this book so there were syntax problems, grammar problems, and honestly, spelling mistakes. This book takes place in Ontario and even Toronto is mentioned, so spelling words with American spelling is a no-no. I understand that it's an advanced copy, but still, I thought I should mention the issues regarding this book anyway.
Bue let's get down to the actual review. One reviewer pointed out that the title "HARMLESS" is misleading because this book is anything but harmless. But, if we're reading between the lines, I don't believe the title "harmless" refers to Joseph or Alex but to their children: Franny and Rebecca. Why? Because nothing actually happened to them. Alex and Joseph go on this wild goose chase to find their missing daughters who are safe at home when they head back. Harmless, get it? No harm was done to their daughters, but vicious harm was done to both Alex and Joseph. But you need to get some backstory for that.
The story begins with Joseph believing he is not a great father. He and Franny are staying at Alex and Jane's cottage for the weekend. Joseph used to be Jane's lover so there is tension between the two men. Joseph obviously believes that Jane is too good for Alex and probably too good for him. But, later, when everyone gets high, Jane and Joseph have sex which Alex witnesses. And given the fact that Alex and Jane are married and together, he's quite peeved about it so he creates this bogus story that Franny and Rebecca are missing when really the two girls are just at a party and will be back before dark.
As Joseph and Alex look for the girls, Joseph begins to suspect that Franny and Rebecca witnessed Jane and his sexual encounter. It's not until much later that Joseph learns the truth.
Now, what you need to understand about this book is that as the two men get deeper and deeper into the forest, Joseph goes a little bit mad. He starts suspecting that the girls aren't missing and Alex took him on this wild hunt to kill him. For me, this was the only good part of the book.
Every reader has a reason they want to finish the work and not put it down and up above is my reason. But, overall, this book was not for me. Am I happy I read it? Yes. Would I read it again? No. Would I recommend it? Nope. And that hurts because it takes place in Ontario and I like reading books that are about my province or better yet, my city: Toronto.
Bue let's get down to the actual review. One reviewer pointed out that the title "HARMLESS" is misleading because this book is anything but harmless. But, if we're reading between the lines, I don't believe the title "harmless" refers to Joseph or Alex but to their children: Franny and Rebecca. Why? Because nothing actually happened to them. Alex and Joseph go on this wild goose chase to find their missing daughters who are safe at home when they head back. Harmless, get it? No harm was done to their daughters, but vicious harm was done to both Alex and Joseph. But you need to get some backstory for that.
The story begins with Joseph believing he is not a great father. He and Franny are staying at Alex and Jane's cottage for the weekend. Joseph used to be Jane's lover so there is tension between the two men. Joseph obviously believes that Jane is too good for Alex and probably too good for him. But, later, when everyone gets high, Jane and Joseph have sex which Alex witnesses. And given the fact that Alex and Jane are married and together, he's quite peeved about it so he creates this bogus story that Franny and Rebecca are missing when really the two girls are just at a party and will be back before dark.
As Joseph and Alex look for the girls, Joseph begins to suspect that Franny and Rebecca witnessed Jane and his sexual encounter. It's not until much later that Joseph learns the truth.
Now, what you need to understand about this book is that as the two men get deeper and deeper into the forest, Joseph goes a little bit mad. He starts suspecting that the girls aren't missing and Alex took him on this wild hunt to kill him. For me, this was the only good part of the book.
Every reader has a reason they want to finish the work and not put it down and up above is my reason. But, overall, this book was not for me. Am I happy I read it? Yes. Would I read it again? No. Would I recommend it? Nope. And that hurts because it takes place in Ontario and I like reading books that are about my province or better yet, my city: Toronto.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 7, 2017
only meh. I found the writing odd how it switched between narrative styles without any indications. it also over described some things that really didn't seem to matter. the story did end somewhat entertaining. but again, only meh.
September 16, 2019
More like 3 and a half stars mostly because the writing was as luminous as the story was dark. After almost losing me with a very slow start, the tension ratcheted up quickly and effectively in the testosterone fuelled second half of the book. I found it more of a treatise on middle aged disillusionment than on toxic masculinity - but both played major roles in the plot.
I look forward to the writer's next book.
I look forward to the writer's next book.
September 6, 2017
A very, very masculine/manly story. Not my typical thing, however a great literary psychological thriller.
June 18, 2018
Found this an aimless, rather dull story. The prose itself felt self-conscious and over-wrought.
November 21, 2022
I couldn't make it past the first 30 pages because the writing was so clunky. Narrative flow is constantly interrupted with "clever" descriptions and marginally interesting asides.
June 13, 2025
didn't get it.
July 31, 2025
Disappointing. Too concerned with demonstrating its hipster credentials. Reads like a movie script concept, needing real actors to bring the missing authenticity and vulnerability.
March 4, 2016
WARNING : ANIMAL ABUSE/VIOLENCE FOR NO REASON. Oh yeah it's one of those books.
From the start I hated this book. Too many characters. Parents, kids, friends, who was related to who?? Which person WAS this?? Why was there no tree or anything showing who was connected in the beginning? Well, as it turns out it barely mattered. A lot of them were pointless.
The main character was so unlikeable. Think of one of those guys you just can't stand that seems to idolize himself but everyone else kind of knows he's below average. Yeah. That's him. For some reason he lusts after girls he thinks he has a chance with because, you know, he's gods gift apparently and in his 'glory days' totally could tap that. Vomit. Vomit everywhere. These guys are real though, so, hey, believable.
After the fluff that filled a huge sum of the beginning of the book, the story starts ! Wow, finally! I start to enjoy it! Oh shoot we have the main character for some reason popping the head off a chicken. As in he squeezes it so hard it's head literally pops off. Ugh don't we just love and root for this poor SOB. No, we don't. Was that even neccessary? No! It wasn't!! Shock value? Metaphor? I don't know what the author was going for but whatever it was - it was pointless and unnessary like the whole book *cue drums*
Well after we find out what happens I'm no longer interested because guess what it's not interesting. Don't bother with the book. Also more animal shit happens for no reason, really, other than I guess shock value? Not sure. I only gave it two stars for that brief second where I liked the book. That brief, fleeting second...
From the start I hated this book. Too many characters. Parents, kids, friends, who was related to who?? Which person WAS this?? Why was there no tree or anything showing who was connected in the beginning? Well, as it turns out it barely mattered. A lot of them were pointless.
The main character was so unlikeable. Think of one of those guys you just can't stand that seems to idolize himself but everyone else kind of knows he's below average. Yeah. That's him. For some reason he lusts after girls he thinks he has a chance with because, you know, he's gods gift apparently and in his 'glory days' totally could tap that. Vomit. Vomit everywhere. These guys are real though, so, hey, believable.
After the fluff that filled a huge sum of the beginning of the book, the story starts ! Wow, finally! I start to enjoy it! Oh shoot we have the main character for some reason popping the head off a chicken. As in he squeezes it so hard it's head literally pops off. Ugh don't we just love and root for this poor SOB. No, we don't. Was that even neccessary? No! It wasn't!! Shock value? Metaphor? I don't know what the author was going for but whatever it was - it was pointless and unnessary like the whole book *cue drums*
Well after we find out what happens I'm no longer interested because guess what it's not interesting. Don't bother with the book. Also more animal shit happens for no reason, really, other than I guess shock value? Not sure. I only gave it two stars for that brief second where I liked the book. That brief, fleeting second...
May 3, 2015
I received an ARC of Harmless by James Grainger compliments of the Goodreads Firstreads Giveaway and appreciated the opportunity.
I will start by saying that this novel did little to impress me until more than halfway through my reading. I did persist and was glad to get to the end, primarily out of curiosity, rather than desire. I cannot offer more than a 3/5 star rating.
The writing is quite disjointed and made it difficult to follow. There is much description with respect to the environment (mainly forest) in the book, but very minimal character building. I hated most all the characters in the book. To summarize: A little class reunion takes place out on the farm, adults get drunk and stoned, wander out for a walk and suddenly two of their teen daughters vanish. The two Dad's venture into the forest, a race against time and the elements to try and track them down. Throw in some violence and extreme paranoia (as per the marijuana) and as the story goes...all taking place over a 24 hour period. There were some twists and turns, fairly predictable. I became frustrated as there was not enough consistency in the writing for me to be charmed. I am left disappointed as the premise of the book sounded intriguing and held accolades from two best-selling Canadian authors. I am feeling that they must have read something that I did not... It was just "meh" for me.
I will start by saying that this novel did little to impress me until more than halfway through my reading. I did persist and was glad to get to the end, primarily out of curiosity, rather than desire. I cannot offer more than a 3/5 star rating.
The writing is quite disjointed and made it difficult to follow. There is much description with respect to the environment (mainly forest) in the book, but very minimal character building. I hated most all the characters in the book. To summarize: A little class reunion takes place out on the farm, adults get drunk and stoned, wander out for a walk and suddenly two of their teen daughters vanish. The two Dad's venture into the forest, a race against time and the elements to try and track them down. Throw in some violence and extreme paranoia (as per the marijuana) and as the story goes...all taking place over a 24 hour period. There were some twists and turns, fairly predictable. I became frustrated as there was not enough consistency in the writing for me to be charmed. I am left disappointed as the premise of the book sounded intriguing and held accolades from two best-selling Canadian authors. I am feeling that they must have read something that I did not... It was just "meh" for me.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 15, 2016
James Grainger's debut Harmleas was a good read, a good tale of grown-ups seeking fulfillment and some form of life redemption of self-proclamation. The pace could have been better - it crawled forward at a snail's pace. The character development and various plot twists were good, but often either predictable or a bit underwhelming. The premise was so promising, and it certainly started out like this would be a very solid "social drama" as I like to refer to such stories. But I felt it never delivered the goods, and its forward progress was too slow.
June 20, 2015
Wow, this book was a little weird. I did like the characters. I did like how things were described and it felt like the author was painting incredible landscapes in my imagination. The first half felt a little jumbled on occasion, and on occasion it did feel unbelievable. It wasn't what I was expecting and I'm not sue that's a good thing at the moment.
*won on GoodReads First Reads*
*won on GoodReads First Reads*
September 6, 2015
A very good, fast-paced literary thriller. It reminded me in tone of The Devil You Know by Elisabeth de Mariaffi but I was less able to find my way in to the male-protector angst than I was into Evie's perspective, perhaps naturally. Still, the fear of a parent is familiar and so too are the tensions held and released in complicated relationships. Recommended.
October 19, 2015
A rather odd book about odd people.
A group of friends gather one weekend at a farm house owned by one of the couples.. Two daughters go missing and their fathers go hunting for them.
Then the tale gets bizarre as Joseph, be of the fathers, keeps having an internal dialogue about what might have happened to his daughter. He also imagines ulterior motives for Alex's actions.
Weird.
A group of friends gather one weekend at a farm house owned by one of the couples.. Two daughters go missing and their fathers go hunting for them.
Then the tale gets bizarre as Joseph, be of the fathers, keeps having an internal dialogue about what might have happened to his daughter. He also imagines ulterior motives for Alex's actions.
Weird.
June 1, 2016
A dark and interesting read. Haunting - even after time passes, it continues to cause me to think back and review the events over the course of this one day / night in this book. Surprising and unexpected in many parts of the book.
Read Koch's The Dinner and this left the same feeling of uneasiness ...
Well done!
Read Koch's The Dinner and this left the same feeling of uneasiness ...
Well done!
July 14, 2015
This book was ok. The beginning was good, but it lost me a bit towards the end. Also, don't want to spoil anything - there was one section that seemed very unnecessary to me, an excuse to have too much graphic sexual content. Didn't work for me.
Just OK.
Just OK.
May 11, 2015
This is a fascinating book. The genre does seem to twist and turn as you read on, keeping you alert and guessing.
See my full review here - http://livinginthekitchenwithpuppies....
See my full review here - http://livinginthekitchenwithpuppies....
December 31, 2015
Set over the course of one long evening, family and old friends gather to find themselves slide into a night of tension and terror. James Grainger never lets up on the suspense while the woods and the dark consume more than the teenage girls who have gone missing. Well done debut novel!
January 18, 2016
One part psychological thriller, one part meditation on modern masculinity. Main character is an unlikeable selfish jerk but the author manages to make him sympathetic to the reader by the end. The thriller part was only mildly thrilling but the psychology part was pretty good.
April 29, 2015
I really didn't like this. The story felt very jumbled to me but maybe that was intentional as the characters were all suppose to be high.
May 6, 2015
Not what I expected, a good read, strange ending, must admit skipped parts - but just the gory stuff. Interesting cast of characters.
July 1, 2015
Awful! Misery!
July 14, 2015
Not my cup of tea. Not my anything.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews