Welcome to Litsy!

I was drawn to this because I grew up in Ohio. The simple title of the novel had me feeling nostalgic and intrigued. This is a book I struggled to connect with in the beginning and as I neared the end, I knew I was going go miss these characters. It‘s a heavy read with a lot of graphic descriptors that convey the shocking realities for these four traumatized characters. Markley is an incredible writer.

Full review at https://abookandadog.com

An Ohio town ravaged by drugs, despair, and NAFTA becomes an emotional hellscape for four adults on one bitterly cathartic night in 2013. Markley‘s ambitious debut aims for greatness and almost gets there. Nimble jumps between high school/present day and beautiful, fluid writing make up for distracting polemics and a Hollywood plot-heavy climax. In this dark midwest fever dream, unhealed high school wounds linger on and the losses just pile up.

Just realized that I‘m currently reading two books set in Ohio and also just finished Winesburg, Ohio… I previously read very few books set in Ohio, so I‘m not sure why Ohio is having such a moment in my reading life right now! 😱

Holy shit this book was good. It was long, and dealt with a lot of dark stuff, but I loved it. The only part I didn‘t like was how unbelievable some of the stuff these high schoolers got into was. Already want to read it again!
⭐️: 4.5/5

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Best read in two or three long sittings. I started this book reading just a few pages every morning & found the whole experience frustrating because there are so many characters & events to keep track of. However, once I had the time (i.e. long weekend) to devour the last half in one go, I found I enjoyed the whole book much more. Beautifully written, horribly depressing & I didn‘t totally see the end coming. #weekendreads #read50states

How could I have forgotten to post in honor of #NationalCoffeeDay? Here‘s the latest #dailydunkin and before school read.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ ½ • While I do think this book is good, it‘s really too long and it has significant pacing problems. The length takes away from the plot and there are lots of characters to keep track of. It takes on a lot of heavy topics but not as well as I‘d hoped. While it was a slow burn, it really picked up at the end. If the whole book had the end‘s pacing I would have loved it.

Aaaaand now the final quarter of #booked2019!!! Thank you to our wonderful hosts who challenge me to read outside my comfort zone 🤗
Book about Addiction- Ohio
Soldier Story- William, an Englishman
New in 2019- The Mother-in-law
POC MC Paranormal- The Water Dancer
Public Domain- Cherie
Political Intrigue- The Sisters

I loved all of this quarters picks, including Water Dancer, which I never would have read if not for this challenge ❤️

The first section was annoying, the second and third were promising (if gory), the fourth was just ridiculous, and the coda was unnecessary. I'm perhaps a little sensitive about people dumping on Ohio (it's like how no one's allowed to pick on your siblings except you), but if you're going to do it, at least make the story believable (or so fanciful it becomes magical realism, which could still be emotionally believable).

The depressing book about Ohio that I'm listening to just mentioned the college I went to for undergrad. I'm not sure whether to woohoo or to cringe.

Audiowalked during my kids' P.E. class, listening to a book about Ohio in a decidedly non-Ohio landscape. I spotted a scrub-jay, some found art, and a camera-shy bunny (not pictured) while circling round and round (and round) the playing fields. The green of the grass belies the desert climate and the Santa Ana wind set to arrive later this week.

Well, that was horribly depressing. 😳

A pick, but with the warning that there is a ton of graphic language, sex, and violence in here.

I was gonna start one of these but got side-tracked and bumped up The Gifted School on my list - and @MicheleinPhilly started reading it so now I have FOMO on reading about jerk parenting - and now I‘m not sure...🤔😂

How the recession, war, drugs, alcohol, mental illness, xenophobia & religion shapes/devastates a group friends, is at times so hard to read. It's desperately sad & poignantly written. Sometimes a little too heavy, emotionally & I felt less may have been more effective. The book has a cracking sense of place – not of one geographical spot necessarily- but of a specific time and context that is sadly relatable in many, many places.

I‘ve had so little reading time in the last few days it‘s ridiculous! Which means I‘ve just been reading a few pages here and there.... not my preference! So today.... I‘m settling in and treating myself to a long chunk of reading time!

What are you reading now?

Inspired by my wonderful #bfc team champions I‘m stopping for lunch today (Quiche and salad) and squeezing in the first few pages of a new book. Happy lunchtime folks.
@chrissyreadit @erinsuegreads @itchyfeetreader @microbemom @phatsallylee @blaire @sudi

Oh thank you so much @AmyG what a wonderful surprise package to come home to tonight. I really loved the sound of this book - a gritty urban saga and the photographer in my loooves the cover! Thank you for thinking of me wonderful friend. Happy travels. #LitsyLove

Reading with sleepyhead Hilly. This is an excellent book with such sad characters. 😪

#Booked2019 #Fall #Soldiersstory

I'm not so sure this is working for me. I really think it is the narration that I dislike. I'm wondering if I could get into it more if I read it in print. I think this one may be a bail. #homestate #audiobook #audible #bail #dnf

Incredible book. Unemployment, War, Meth & Oxycodone, toxic masculinity. The American dream. Seriously good, best read this year for me. So dark at the end. Brilliant.

Sadly, #mygeneration and my state have a drug-abuse problem. Planning on reading this one for #booked2019 #bookaboutaddiction
#anglophileapril

I took a mental health day on Friday and have spent ALL weekend with this. I understand the criticism that he tried to do too much but this pushed all of my buttons. It‘s a high school novel, it‘s a 10 years out of high school novel, it‘s a socio-political novel, it‘s a murder mystery novel, etc. It reminded me of Richard Russo or really good John Irving. 4🌟👇🏼

Messy shelfie for hour 12 #24in48

Finally starting this today, been saving it as my first read for 2019! With all the hype I‘ve been hearing, I‘m insanely excited to start it!

“Rumors are immaculately fucked things in small towns.”

I tried REALLY hard to get into this one, but it just wasn‘t there for me. I was super excited to read a book set in my home state of Ohio but I just couldn‘t do it. Perhaps in another place and time, I‘ll be better able to read/listen to it. Sad face. 🙁 #ohio #dnf

This book is the real thing. A debut thats takes a stab at the Great American Novel. Really impressive.

This is probably a good book, but it‘s not good for me. I made it halfway through, but I‘m having trouble keeping the characters and the web of their relationships straight. I think that‘s more a reflection of my medical situation than the author. 🤷🏻‍♀️ But I just don‘t want to read it. I‘m going to stick with nonfiction for now. ✌🏻

Well, my goal was 12 hours, and I managed to read 14, so I‘m proud of myself. 👍🏻 I finished two books and made great progress in two more. Plus I listened to over three hours of an audiobook.

I hope everyone else who participated in @DeweysReadathon had fun too! Congratulations to you! ⭐️🎊👏🏻🎉

Years after leaving high school, a few people come back to the dying town they were from. There are drugs, secrets, and possibly an old murder. Atmospheric and slow, this book does a great job of scene setting.

🤷🏽‍♀️ I still don‘t get the obsession with people from high school. And the mystery was weak. I felt like he threw everything he could into this book. Every crisis of the 21st century was crammed in. A strange book for me.

I‘m a fourth of the way into this one. I‘m not sure how I feel about it. Did high school profoundly shape you guys? It didn‘t for me. I‘m having a little trouble connecting. I am the same age as the characters as well ( if they were real 😆)

4 people return to their depressed hometown about ten years after graduation. Their stories interweave as we learn about their high school relationships that haunt them as well as the personal tragedies that occur after school. The book is beautifully written but can be difficult to follow at times. The last quarter of the book feels forced and the ending is bleh. The first three quarters of the book are haunting though. Definitely worth a read!

I‘m only about 130 pages in this book but it‘s definitely something special. I‘m about the age of the characters in the book and I‘m from a small nowhere kind of town. I can feel the isolation and despair of these characters. It‘s actually difficult to read because it touches on something so real.

My husband was #bitinthebullet yesterday when he bought me this book I‘ve been eyeing for a while now 😜

#octoberxfiles

Book review for Ohio by Stephen Markley
http://www.athinsliceofanxiety.com/2018/09/review-ohio.html?m=1
#athinsliceofanxiety #ohio #read #stephenmarkley #fiction

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟best book I‘ve read so far in 2018!

Waiting for bae to get outta work isn‘t so bad!

You guys. You gotta pick up this book... I feel like it‘s about my hometown in MI....

Antibiotics have officially kicked in, but I‘m posted up here for the long haul on this Sunday! 😍🤒🤷🏼‍♀️

It‘s a Chinatown/City Lights kind of day.

Stuck at the drs office with a probable ear infection... at least I have this awesome book with me! #ohio #hourandfifteenandcounting #idontfeelgood

I received this from NetGalley in exchange for my review. This ambitious novel tries to capture the struggles of a generation in a small Ohio town as they grow into adulthood following 9/11. Some situations and dialog, however, felt forced in order to make a political or cultural comment. Some sections were also hard to follow due to frequent flashback sequences. Overall, though, this is a good look at small town America over the last few years.

Set in a small town in northeastern Ohio where four friends return home in 2013 and find there are ongoing ripples and consequences from their schooldays. The author gets small town midwestern culture right and writes deeply about the individual characters. This could practically be a quartet of character study novels. The book came out 21 August 2018 but took me a while to read. 🌟🌟🌟🌟1/2

There are 4 sections of this chunky novel based in my home state about a group of people 10 years out of high school. Post 9/11, the opioid epidemic, sexual abuse, guilt, secrets, poverty, small town America and more are all explored through the portraits of 4 young adults as they are currently (2013 I think) and as they were in high school. Epic and depressing but worth the read. I related to the setting and being 10 years out of school.

Oh my gosh....I FINALLY finished this book....it was a rough one but in a good way. Very, very bleak and dark, and so tragic for so many of the characters. The writing was poetic and the setting, a small town in recession-hit Ohio, was a character in and of itself. Gritty, raw and harsh are all adjectives that come to mind when describing this book. But, I like such books...call me crazy!⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ /5. Thanks to #netgalley for the ARC! #Ohio

Here are my favorite new releases from August (well, at least of the ones I‘ve read 😜)

https://wellreadneck.wordpress.com/2018/09/01/ohio-stephen-markley/

New Fiction Thursday
#athinsliceofanxiety #stephenmarkley #sycamorelibrary #ohio

This didn't work for me for a few reasons, but I will admit that I didn't give it much of a chance. One of the things that bothered me was the vague location of the fictional town it's set in, plus I feel like the book's description isn't accurate about the location. I was raised in NE Ohio & currently live in central Ohio. The book's description says NE and"rust belt" so I was expecting something in the vicinity of Akron or Youngstown but ?

There are moments of brilliance in here, but it could have used a little editing down. Very grim novel about high school friends 10 years later -- it was a rare day when any of them made a good choice.