Unbury Carol

I loved Malerman’s Bird Box, and I was very excited for his new book. However, I just don’t think this was my cup of tea.

Carol Evers is beloved and wealthy woman in her small western town, but she has a secret. Sometimes she goes into a death-like coma, but she always wakes up a few days later. Fearful of what others might think or do to her, Carol only shares her secret with her husband and close friend. After her friend dies, Carol suddenly goes into another coma. Now that he is the only one who knows Carol is alive, her husband arranges for her funeral. He plans to bury Carol while she is comatose, and take all of her money. However, there is one more person who knows about Carol’s condition, but he is a famous outlaw that loved Carol 20 years ago. Can he get to Carol in time? Does he still care enough to save her?

I truly wanted to love this book. It sounded very interesting and unique, but the characters were bland and hard to connect with. The plot was basically the wild west damsel in distress trope with a few supernatural elements thrown in. Some things just weren’t explained well. It felt like I was thrust into a story that had already been going on for a few chapters. Suddenly I am supposed to care about all these characters when one is dead in chapter one and another goes into a coma soon after? For the most part, I was just bored. I think many people will love this novel, and I do tip my hat to Malerman’s imagination, but it just was not the right book for me. Despite all this, I would not be opposed to trying it again at a later date.

Unbury Carol is expected to be published April, 2018.
Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.