Bull Mountain by Brian Panowich - 1 star (Subdue)

[Joy D]

Bull Mountain by Brian Panowich - 1* - My Review

I do not recall exactly how this book got on my list to read. It is certainly not my type of book. It is southern noir set in northern Georgia, near the titular Bull Mountain, where a family with a criminal history (murder, moonshine, drugs, guns) has lived for generations. One family member, Clayton Burroughs, has rebelled and become a sheriff. The plot follows the sheriff attempting to intervene with his brother to stop the flow of drugs to the region at the prompting of a federal agent.

The main problem, for me, is that the dialogue reads like the author telling readers what he wants them to know – lots of explanatory discourse that sounds completely unnatural. Each chapter jumps back and forth to a different part of the timeline, hitting every decade from 1949 to 2015. This piecemeal approach does not add anything and seems overly disjointed, getting in the way of character development. The characters are mostly southern stereotypes.

It is brutally violent and vulgar, not the type of content I prefer to read. There are a few very large plot-holes, especially at the end, where we find the usual “twists and turns.” I dislike these because they are solely there to fool the reader and they make the rest of the book seem ridiculous. I read it for a challenge, or I would not have finished. If you regularly read action-packed thrillers, you may like it more than I did.

On a more positive note, if you enjoy southern noir, skip this one and read: Gods of Howl Mountain or Country Dark. These may have a little less action, but they are immersive reads with deeply drawn characters and a strong sense of place.

Content warnings: (view spoiler)[Multiple rapes, murder, burning a person alive, torture, gun violence, drug usage, and I'm probably forgetting a few or blocking them out. (hide spoiler)]