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Mr. Shivers

by Robert Jackson Bennett (Goodreads Author)

3.27 of 5 stars 3.27 · rating details · 721 ratings · 148 reviews

It is the time of the Great Depression.

Thousands have left their homes looking for a better life, a new life. But Marcus Connelly is not one of them. He searches for one thing, and one thing only. Revenge.

Because out there, riding the rails, stalking the camps, is the scarred vagrant who murdered Connelly's daughter. No one knows him, but everyone knows his name: Mr. Shive...more

Hardcover, 327 pages

Published January 15th 2010 by Orbit

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Dec 25, 2012 Book Chick City rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror, book-list-2010

Mr Shivers was one of my top ten most anticipated reads of 2010. I loved the cover and the synopsis but unfortunately, Mr Shivers did not deliver. For me it was just a disappointment and rather dull to boot.

After his daughter is murdered, Michael Connelly sets out to find the scarred man, aka gray man, aka Mr Shivers, to seek his revenge. Along the way he joins forces with an unlikely band of hobos who are also out to kill Mr Shivers. Most of the book is following their journey towards finding t...more

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Feb 09, 2011 Kristal rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: dark-fiction, debut, read-in-2011

Amidst the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, Marcus Connelly is a man on a mission. While others are on the move, looking for a better life, Connelly is moving in the opposite direction, looking for revenge. Along the way he encounters a group of vagabond's who are looking for the same scarred man. Mr. Shivers', as he's known around the campfires, his name whispered out loud so as not to catch his attention.
As the gray man continues his journey deeper and deeper into the deadlands that use to...more

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Sep 30, 2012 Adair rated it 3 of 5 stars

When Marcus Connelly’s young daughter Molly is brutally murdered by a scarred man in a long grey coat, he embarks on the path of vengeance, determined to find the criminal and ‘set things right’. It’s the height of the Great Depression, and Connelly travels across a ravaged America by rail, mixing freely with the hobos of the nearby encampments. There, he encounters others who are in search of the same scarred man, known to all as Mr. Shivers. They form an unlikely band, with nothing in common b...more

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Feb 19, 2012 Charles Dee Mitchell rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: horror

Almost every review of this book mentions the reader's disappointment with the second half. I will have to join that crowd.

Bennett does a great job setting up the Depression era setting of hobo encampments, drought, and deserted towns. Connolly, his main character, rides in on the side of a cattle car. He is pursuing the badly scarred killer of his young daughter back in Memphis. Any description of the man with his facial scars prompts stories of Mr. Shivers from Connolly's fellow drifters. He...more

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Sep 14, 2011 Brina rated it 3 of 5 stars

Für Michael Conelly ist seit dem Tod seiner Tochter nichts mehr, wie es einmal war. Diese wurde brutal ermordet und in all der Trauer hat Michael Conelly nur einen Wunsch: Rache! Besessen von diesem Wunsch verlässt er seine Frau und irrt als Landstreicher durchs Land, um den Mörder, den alle nur Mr. Shivers nennen, zu finden und zu töten. Während seiner Tour durchs Land lernt er immer mehr Menschen kennen, die ebenfalls Rache an Mr. Shivers üben wollen, denn der Mord an Conellys Tochter ist nich...more Für Michael Conelly ist seit dem Tod seiner Tochter nichts mehr, wie es einmal war. Diese wurde brutal ermordet und in all der Trauer hat Michael Conelly nur einen Wunsch: Rache! Besessen von diesem Wunsch verlässt er seine Frau und irrt als Landstreicher durchs Land, um den Mörder, den alle nur Mr. Shivers nennen, zu finden und zu töten. Während seiner Tour durchs Land lernt er immer mehr Menschen kennen, die ebenfalls Rache an Mr. Shivers üben wollen, denn der Mord an Conellys Tochter ist nicht der Einzige.
Aber können die Männer ihn tatsächlich finden und es mit dem Serienkiller aufnehmen?

"Mr. Shivers" ist das Erstlingswerk von Robert Jackson Bennett.
Der Schreibstil ist flüssig, direkt und schonungslos, so sollte ein Thriller geschrieben sein. Perfekt. Obwohl der Inhalt selbst mich nicht ganz von sich überzeugen konnte, so konnte es der Autor auf jeden Fall. Seine Ideen wurden gut umgesetzt und die Thrillerelemente wurden sehr gut verpackt. Da kann man noch Großes erwarten.

Die Geschichte bleibt bis zum Schluss spannungsgeladen, allerdings gibt es auch hier seine Höhen und Tiefen. Einige Sachen waren vorhersehbar, andere haben mich dagegen absolut überrascht.

Unverständlich ist jedoch für mich, dass dieser Roman allen Stephen King Lesern empfohlen wird. Sicherlich, "Mr. Shivers" ist ein Thriller, aber die gewisse Portion Horror, die man bei King erwarten darf, wird einem hier nicht geboten. Da wäre eine Empfehlung in Richtung Dan Wells passender gewesen, da man so nicht in die Irre geführt wird und etwas anderes erwartet.

Die Gefühlswelt von Michael Conelly, der hier als Progragonist durch die Geschichte führt, ist erschreckend und nachvollziehbar zugleich. Seine Rache- und Mordgelüste gegenüber Mr. Shivers werden authentisch dargestellt und ich habe als Leserin ein gutes Bild darüber bekommen, was passieren kann, wenn man einen Menschen zu sehr hasst.

Besonders gelungen ist das Cover und die Buchgestaltung. Die verschiedenen Grüntöne und die verlassene Landschaft passen perfekt zur düsteren Stimmung. Gleichzeitig ist die Straße ein gutes Bild für den langen Weg, den Michael Conelly hier zu gehen hat.
Das Taschenbuch hat den "Rough Cut"-Look erhalten, den der Verlag besonders gerne bei seinen Thrillern anbringt (siehe auch die Serienkiller-Reihe von Dan Wells). Die durchgezackten Seitenränder kann man mögen, muss man aber nicht. Ich für meinen Teil mag diese sehr gerne.

Robert Jackson Bennett hat mit "Mr. Shivers" einen soliden Debutroman geschrieben, der für ein paar entspannte Lesestunden gesorgt hat, aber nicht lange in Erinnerung bleibt. Der Autor ist jedoch so talentiert und ideenreich, dass ich auf viele weitere Bücher von ihm gespannt bin.(less)

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Jan 01, 2011 Yolanda Sfetsos rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: horror

I was lucky enough to get an ARC of this very interesting book. From the time I read the blurb, I knew it would be a story worth reading. I'm happy to say that I was right. Robert Jackson Bennett's debut is set in a bleak world with vivid imagery.

Marcus Connelly is just like every other vagrant moving from one side of a dying country to the other. He walks or uses the train--stowing away whenever he can. However, most are looking for a better place to live, somewhere to work and find food to sat...more I was lucky enough to get an ARC of this very interesting book. From the time I read the blurb, I knew it would be a story worth reading. I'm happy to say that I was right. Robert Jackson Bennett's debut is set in a bleak world with vivid imagery.

Marcus Connelly is just like every other vagrant moving from one side of a dying country to the other. He walks or uses the train--stowing away whenever he can. However, most are looking for a better place to live, somewhere to work and find food to sate their endless hunger. Connelly only wants one thing: revenge on the scarred man who ruined his life.

The man with a scarred face killed his young daughter, which in turn destroyed his marriage by consuming his life. Revenge burns within him so bright that until he kills the man responsible, he doesn't think his life will be peaceful again. Connelly even tries to convince himself that once the deed is done, he can return to his wife and resume their life together.

Along the way, in pursuit of the scarred man, he finds a group of men also seeking him. So they decide to travel together--Connelly, Pike, Hammond and Roosevelt. The farther they go, the weirder the encounters and the more the legend of the mysterious scarred man deepens. No matter where they go, someone's seen the man pass by, which makes it very easy to follow close behind. There are also countless stories, myths, and eventually even a conspiracy surrounding the man. He seems untouchable, one wicked dude whose only purpose is destruction. Everywhere he goes, things seem to die.

I found myself totally sucked into this book from the very beginning. So much that I didn't want to put it down. The narration--in Connelly's point of view--moved at a very steady pace, slowly peeling away layers about Marcus Connelly, what he was up against, the past that shaped him into the shadow of a man he'd become, and just how quickly his descend into darkness sweeps over him. It was an interesting study of how such a dark ambition can turn the nicest and simplest of man into a warped and demented version of himself. Even the stories he hears about the scarred man show his change. At first he only accepts real stories, denying myths of the dark power he possesses, but after everything Connelly sees, his view of the world shifts into an almost supernatural view.

Mr Shivers is a haunting, atmospheric, grim story set in a ruined and rusty, dying world. The devastation and desperation of every character is so well drawn that I felt it every step of the way. And I knew pretty early on that there was no way Connelly would ever end up in a good place. So, I enjoyed the ending. I also loved that I could almost taste the dusty backdrop of an America now washed away by red dirt.

This one's a keeper! And I'll be looking out for more books by Robert Jackson Bennett.(less)

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Nov 25, 2010 Chibineko rated it 2 of 5 stars

When I read the description, I figured that this would be an interesting book. The idea of a killer stalking the rails during the Great Depression was a novel idea, made even more so by the addition of some other interesting elements. Unfortunately the book just didn't deliver the way I was hoping it would.

The plotline follows the character of Connelly as he sets out to find the man who killed his daughter. He falls in with a group of several men who are also searching for the same man. All the...more When I read the description, I figured that this would be an interesting book. The idea of a killer stalking the rails during the Great Depression was a novel idea, made even more so by the addition of some other interesting elements. Unfortunately the book just didn't deliver the way I was hoping it would.

The plotline follows the character of Connelly as he sets out to find the man who killed his daughter. He falls in with a group of several men who are also searching for the same man. All they know is that his face is heavily scarred & everyone calls him "Mr. Shivers". Those who have seen him & lived, shudder at the thought of him. With nothing to lose, these men are determined to finish him off.

The biggest flaw in the book are the characters. It's not that the idea of these characters are terrible, it's just that they aren't all that well fleshed out. It's like the author had all of these ideas & rather than select a few of them & develop them entirely, he put did a little bit of everything. There's characters who come in & out of Connelly's band of men, but they seem to be little more than just faceless people who have no other purpose but to be fodder for Mr. Shivers. They were so lacking in definition that I really didn't bother to memorize the names of anyone other than the main 4 guys. I'd rather that the author had just stuck with them rather than trot in a whole slew of extras. It really deterred from the story.

Again, the idea of the story is pretty interesting & I liked the direction it went into after the first third of the book. It's just that again, the story seemed to be marred by the author trying to cram too many ideas into one book. I think that if the author had paced himself a little more, the book would have been much improved by it. As it was, there were just so many events & so many people going in & out of the story that I just couldn't feel for the characters like I would have wanted to. When the big "TA DAH!" came & revelations occurred for several characters & situations, it just sort of fell a little flat. Like other people have mentioned, the book just felt a little shallow overall.

This isn't to say that the book is terrible, though. It's very rough, but it shows a lot of promise. I'll be interested to see what the author comes up with in future books, although I will admit that I'll probably wait for them to come to paperback first.(less)

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Feb 20, 2010 T. Edmund rated it 5 of 5 stars

Mr Shiver's has many names, most call him death.

This novel follows Connelly, a ruffian hobo, as he pursues Mr Shivers the murderer who killed his daughter. The book is set in depression age America, and very much feels like the TV series Carnivale, so if you're a fan then this book is a must read.

The initial setting of Mr Shivers is very powerful, we can almost feel the grime and desperation of the characters and the mystery of Mr Shivers is absolutely wicked.

There are a couple of shortfalls, t...more

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Dec 02, 2009 Cheryl rated it 2 of 5 stars

Connelly lost the most precious thing to him…his daughter. Three weeks ago, she was murdered by a drifter. Since that point, Connelly has been following the trail of the vagrant. Connelly won’t give up till he has met his daughter’s murder face to face. He wants to personally kill him for what this man has taken from him.

Every town that Connelly stops at, the people there who know Connelly is looking for but they don’t know much about him other than people call him Mr. Shivers. Connelly learns...more

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May 08, 2010 Maicie rated it 4 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Feb 06, 2010 Marvin rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: horror

I am vacillating between three and four stars on this one. Robert Jackson Bennett has written a thoughtful horror novel that captures the desperation of the Great Depression and explores our own ambivalence about death and misfortune. It is perhaps too thoughtful. Those looking for an action packed suspense tale may be a bit disappointed. However there is a lot to recommend this debut. My misgivings are centered mainly around character development. The main protagonist Connelly is consistent. He...more

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Mar 21, 2010 Kate rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: cannonball-read

I frequent a series of forums that I don’t mention often, mostly because I don’t want people to venture there and think terrible things about me. What’s difficult to explain to most people is that, in the tens of thousands of members of those forums, there are quite a few who produce beautiful works of art, be it visual, audio, or even in novel form. That’s what led me to Mr. Shivers , a novel by forums member Robert Jackson Bennett.

Mr. Shivers is a weird amalgam, a mixture of The Grapes of...more

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Jun 22, 2012 Mfred rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: mystery

I give Mr. Shivers a solid three stars. For the first half, the book was a four or even five star read. I was engrossed and captivated, definitely stayed up too late the first night reading it. The setting was incredible-- Depression-era hobos, Hoover towns, and railroads coming to life in a very powerful way. The dialog complemented so nicely as well. Sparse and dry, the characters always hinting at secretive depths but not revealing them just for the sake of exposition. And the plot felt good...more I give Mr. Shivers a solid three stars. For the first half, the book was a four or even five star read. I was engrossed and captivated, definitely stayed up too late the first night reading it. The setting was incredible-- Depression-era hobos, Hoover towns, and railroads coming to life in a very powerful way. The dialog complemented so nicely as well. Sparse and dry, the characters always hinting at secretive depths but not revealing them just for the sake of exposition. And the plot felt good and twisty, just the right hints of menance and violence in the beginning to make me believe I had a real thriller on my hands.

But through the middle and into the second half, it just didn't pick up for me. It got more violent, yes. Worse things happened. However, as the story became more literally visceral, the mystery became more fantastical. As more and more of the depth and brutality of Shivers was revealed to be supernatural in nature-- I disengaged.

It became apparent that the story I was reading was much more symbolic and allegorical than I expected. Allow me to be clear, Bennett didn't just throw in some dues ex machina magic as a convenience. The plot remained fairly taut throughout, although I do think the characters remained curiously flat as the story unfolded. In fact, while I was reading, I wasn't actually sure why I was so dissatisfied with how things were turning out.

Thinking about it, though, it was oddly disappointing to have so much horrific, senseless violence attributed to a supernatural cause. A supernatural, ever-repeating, cyclical cause, at that. Everyone is sort of off the moral hook, if you will-- who can be blamed, when all of the death we've been talking about is actually capital-D Death? Who is responsible, in the end, when this story is actually just one part of an ever-repeating struggle, played throughout the ages? Instead of drawing back the curtain to reveal the great unknown magic behind human history, I instead felt robbed of agency.

The fantastical elements that Bennett revealed were not new enough, or twisted around enough, to be interesting. I have read so many retold myths and fairy tales that old crones in the woods, blind fortunetellers, warning of "three" things - man, it's old hat. If you are going to re-use the symbols, you've got to do it in a way that is so powerful as to overpass the symbol's own cliched nature. I suspect that if characterization had been as strong as plot, this would not have been an issue.

Lastly, I can't escape the idea that the black characters in the story served as little more than plot devices. If Connelly, the main character, was flat, then Peachy was paper thin. The only thing necessary for Peachy was to be killed, so that Connelly would act on it. Some of the black characters were so tied to the symbolism as to be route. Their descriptions occasionally felt fetishistic. It was glaring, and sad, and disappointed me.
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Jun 24, 2011 Jack Haringa rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: horror

Robert Jackson Bennett's debut novel follows a man named Connelly as he searches for the man who killed his daughter. Connelly's quest for revenge takes him across the Dustbowl of 1930s America from his home in Memphis, forces him to adopt the hobo lifestyle that developed in earnest during the Depression, and brings him into contact--and conflict--with a series of desperate and sometimes deranged people, some of whom seek the same eponymous villain.

Bennett is a strong prose stylist, favoring th...more

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Mar 22, 2013 Nigel rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

So this is a bit like a hobo Blood Meridian with supernatural elements, at least in terms of style and tone. A grim, obsessive chase across Depression-era America, as a man searching for his daughter's killer through hobo camps and freight yards and hoovervilles finds that he is not alone, and joins up with other lost souls searching for vengeance. Their quarry is the subject of folklore and myth, but only gradually do the the hunters begin to realise that Mr Shivers may well in fact be somethin...more

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Jan 22, 2012 Puddlyduck rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, horror, action, historical-elements

Although probably not the best way to start a review, I was struck by how suitable this book was for film adaptation. The bleak setting, descriptive prose, and near perfect pacing all put me in mind of the big screen. Bennett must have done a fantastic job in making his novel so vivid to my minds-eye!

The bleak and desperate setting was another of Mr Shiver's many striking facets. I loved the way the sickness and wildness of the land was linked to the grey man's tainted presence.

The book's beginn...more

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Sep 22, 2012 Stephen Grote rated it 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this, it's the first book by this author I've read, (which is actually quite appropriate, this was apparently the authors first book)and I will look for others. It is hard to define the genre, (to it's credit) and without giving away the plot it is a far more personal story than it first suggests. It's more than a supernatural thriller, or a historical drama, or a revenge story. It's more about corruption and obession and I suppose cruelty in a more abstract sense.

It's set durin...more I really enjoyed this, it's the first book by this author I've read, (which is actually quite appropriate, this was apparently the authors first book)and I will look for others. It is hard to define the genre, (to it's credit) and without giving away the plot it is a far more personal story than it first suggests. It's more than a supernatural thriller, or a historical drama, or a revenge story. It's more about corruption and obession and I suppose cruelty in a more abstract sense.

It's set during the depression of the thirties and the dust bowl of the US. The desperation and the harsh conditions dominate the story shaping all the characters. This is in no way a romantic notion of "riding the rails" making friends and finding a shared humanity. Instead Bennet creates a vicous lawless world, where tough, broken men and women struggle to survive, where they are on the brink of starvation, shunned by towns people and assaulted or killed by police, rail roads, towns people and each other. There are no friendships beyond convenience and no safety any where. The characters shuffle from tent city to tent city chasing the elusive Mr Shiver looking to end his murderous rampage but in so doing each of them loses more and more of themselves. They move through the edges of a cruel society, ever more distanced from everything accept the violence they are looking to commit. In the final third this violence becomes central, there is one shocking murder which sets the fate of all the charecters, unimagiaginable at the beginning but unavoidable at this final stage.

There is something filmic about the book (lots of short scenes and dialogue) and the scenary is fundemental, you can feel the heat and the dust, imagine the sweeping vistas, the deserted houses, how everything is broken, rusted, abandoned, smell the sweat of the characters. It puts me in mind of the films of the seventies, a bit like Bonnie and Clyde or Ma Barker, cynical and vast. I can imagine young Deniro, Sissy Spacek, Jessica Lange, Joe Don Baker and Charles Durning starring with the vast empty back ground, sweating, scheming, all walking to their fate alone.

This not a perfect book, the pace is at odds with setting, the charecters seem to be travelling slowly but the narrative at times moves faster then they do, almost dragging the charecters along. On the one hand this demonstrates the extent to which the characters have no control, how they are swept along by the world they live in, the choices they made, but on the other it means some characters are less well drawn than others and the story arc can feel rushed as if the story must be finished at all costs by an artifical deadline, I felt the ending for the characters was fixed in an almost noirish way, but that we reached that ending too early.

In short, a modern, dark and personal novel, it's rooted in the past but is relevant to us all today. It's about fate, about how there are no good or bad men, just men and men sometimes do bad things.

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Apr 05, 2010 trickgnosis rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

This gets high marks from me for so thoroughly subverting my expectations. I expected it to be genre writing, hoped it would be enjoyable pulp with an historical angle. But it's much, much more ambitious than it's packaging would imply. It does at time wear its influences on its sleeve, but when *Blood Meridian* is one of those influences, it's going to get my attention. And while that sets the bar awfully high for a first novel, I admire him for trying. Ironically it's the deeper metaphysical,...more

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Oct 22, 2012 Blair rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2012

Only read this in the dark. I heard about this on The Readers podcast and decided I should definitely read some scary stuff for Halloween. The setting was amazingingly creepy - the scenery is a side of the Great Depression that I never really thought about. I was slightly confused by the signs on each chapter but then remembered reading something about hobo signs (because many of them were illiterate) so that was fascinating once I figured it out. Characters were great - Connelly seemed like som...more

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Nov 03, 2010 James Bennett rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The story is set in America during the Great Depression. Hordes of people have left their homes and drift west in search of work, a better life. After the death of his daughter, Marcus Connelly takes to the road seeking revenge. He pursues a man across the land, a sinister and mysterious figure known only as Mr Shivers. The hobos speak of him in whispers, and as Connelly closes on his quarry, he finds it harder to tell between myth and reality. Sacrifices have to be made. Will Connelly be willin...more

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Jul 26, 2011 Daniel Parsons rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

An engrossing, horror tinged, western edged quest/"road movie"/vengeance book. One critic quoted it as a cross between JD Salinger and Stephen King and that's better than anything I could come up with. The poetic, sparse descriptions of dusty landscapes, dangerous freight trains and bizarre characters clash perfectly with horrific, gory violence and a disturbing villain (Mr Shivers) who is rarely seen but whose aftermath is constantly encountered. Connelly's quest to find and put an end Mr Shive...more

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Mar 18, 2011 Josh rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: borrowed_books, horror, read_2011

A horror journeyman tale set in the Great Depression amongst economic downturn and drought - the protagonist Marcus Connelly embarks on a journey in search of the madman who murdered his daughter, the infamous Mr. Shivers. Accompanied by hobos seeking the same form of vengeance they travel across wastelands and wild west towns inhabited by gunslingers and thieves ever inching closer to their quarry, leaving only a trickle of blood in their wake. Bennett's debut blended crime elements with the su...more

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Mar 07, 2010 David Hebblethwaite rated it 4 of 5 stars

Now, here’s a book where I’d urge you to look beyond the synopsis – not because it doesn’t necessarily sound like much, but because no plot synopsis can capture what’s great about Robert Jackson Bennett’s Mr Shivers. It’s a novel about a man trekking across the 1930s USA in search of the mysterious scarred man who killed his daughter. This would in itself be an interesting twist on the usual fantasy quest, but the subtext turns the novel into something greater. If you’re at all interested in fan...more

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Feb 01, 2010 Cindy rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, read-in-2010

This was a disappointment in every sense of the word. While the whole Mr. Shivers character appeared to be scary and was supposed to come across that way this book was slow moving with no reason to be slow moving.

The whole depressive era wasn't really built up at all. So it wasn't like the whole time was spent on building the world or atmosphere. The characters were one sided, and dull and really easily forgettable.

The dialogue was very stilted between characters. Think bad acting but only in...more

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Apr 23, 2012 Sarah rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: arc-or-review-copy, contemporary, dark, historical, read-in-2012

It’s Bennett’s incredible descriptions and his ability to bring this very stark, lonely, every-man-for-himself period of history to life for the reader. It’s his descriptions that resonate with me long after the book was finished. His use of the Great Depression, hobo culture and the Midwest really added some incredible atmosphere to Mr. Shivers. Yes, this is a subtle book and no, Connelly isn’t the most compelling character in all of creation, but he doesn’t need to be. Mr. Shivers is a story a...more

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Dec 29, 2011 Tommy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I have to give this book 5 stars because the writing was just so damn good. I wouldn't say the plot was that original, and I figured out exactly how it was going to end about halfway through. In the hands of a lesser author it would have been very pedestrian. But Robert Jackson Bennett creates such atmosphere and character that I was enthralled. He brings depression-era America to aching, dust-blown life with powerful and succinct descriptions, and very real characters who speak with authentic v...more

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Jun 01, 2012 Julie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: dmla

I never thought I could say that I've read mythological dustbowl hobo horror, but -- now I have! Mr. Shivers is the first horror I've read in a long while, and it's appropriately skin-crawly and eerie. Its eponymous character/villain is constantly hinted at -- and pursued -- with a building mythos and word-of-mouth. I really liked the way the narrative dug into each layer of the legend, adding to it with each character's new story. The plot is very linear; Connelly experiences a sorta Odysseus-e...more I never thought I could say that I've read mythological dustbowl hobo horror, but -- now I have! Mr. Shivers is the first horror I've read in a long while, and it's appropriately skin-crawly and eerie. Its eponymous character/villain is constantly hinted at -- and pursued -- with a building mythos and word-of-mouth. I really liked the way the narrative dug into each layer of the legend, adding to it with each character's new story. The plot is very linear; Connelly experiences a sorta Odysseus-esque sequence of terrible events one after another (complete with possibly-faithful Penelope waiting for him at the end, possibly); the experiences become progressively more mythological/fantastical as the novel crawls away from realism, which especially hit me once you (briefly) meet the three 'bitches' (witches, Norns, fates, whatever you want to call them). Almost the entire cast consists of people wracked and driven to extremes by grief, so the body count rises and the novel gets progressively more grisly and harrowing. It's a very atmospheric glimpse into bleak, Depression-era America.

From the premises of all Bennett's books, I'm pretty sure I'm in love with all of his concepts -- but since this one's his debut, there are some flaws. The characterisations aren't fleshed out very much, and about halfway through, I already figured out what the ending would be. But I liked his writing, and the real gut-punching edge-of-seat-sitting emotional crux, IMO, happens 2/3 through the book when (view spoiler).

So, accordingly, I've quoted pretty much the entire end of chapter 20 below because I loved it so much.

(view spoiler)

So, in conclusion: a good mythical read, bleak and unsettling, but v. linear and predictable; I'm stoked to check out his next books.(less)

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Nov 08, 2009 J.R. rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

I'm sure this novel will be a hit for a lot of people. For me, it took a wrong turn.

What started out as an intriguing search for a killer set against the historical background of the Great Depression suddenly detoured into fantasy and the paranormal and left me disappointed.

I don’t want to come down too harsh on the novel. I genuinely liked the first half—the realistic half. And, even later, there were some lyrical passages of good writing. Most fantasy novels leave me cold. This held my interes...more

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May 30, 2010 Kimmylou rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: all my friends

Once again a good book, it kept me interested and that’s hard to do! I liked the books flow and the different characters that are in it why? Because the author gave you a just enough of a synopsis of each character and let the dialogue of each give you more and your imagination carries the rest. The flow of the story was decent in you did not get bogged down in a big crush of details, again just enough so that your imagination can carry there. I loved the story because it gave the truth in story...more

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Feb 28, 2010 Rob rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: horror

An interesting literate horror book set in the great depression in which a group of hobos follow a mysterious figure named Mr. Shivers across the wasteland in an effort to kill him for the horrific crimes he's perpetrated against members of their families. Great atmosphere and detail, but few scares, limit the horror aspect of this book, but the quality of the writing is solid enough that I enjoyed the read overall. The author's picture makes him look like a cherub and if he's close to fresh out...more

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About Robert Jackson Bennett

Robert Jackson Bennett's 2010 debut Mr. Shivers won the Shirley Jackson award as well as the Sydney J Bounds Newcomer Award. His second novel, The Company Man, is currently nominated for a Philip K. Dick Award as well as an Edgar Award. His third novel, The Troupe, arrives in stores on the 21st of February.

He lives in Austin with his wife and son. He can be found on Twitter at @robertjbennett. Sin...more

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