Arkansas

Perfect description of the dread that infects American life today, but not for the faint of heart. You won't come away from this feeling optimistic at all. In fact, you would have been staring evil in the face.

I was turned on to this book by a couple of Brandon's relatives that I met while on vacation. This is probably the most original and unique book I have ever read (considering the subject matter). It's profoundly weird, and I wondered where in the world the story was going for about the first half of the book. But I can see how they made a movie out of it, and like any good book, it captured my attention and my imagination while I read and finished it. It's worth reading.

I don't often write reviews. I was assigned 'Citrus County' by John Brandon earlier this year for a contemporary literature class and was almost immediately enamored. Being a usual fan of genre fiction, I was surprised at how drawn into his writing I was.'Arkansas' is a book about drug runners, sure. Others have labeled it noire-esque, but I don't see it that way. To me this book, and what else I've read of Brandon's work, is exemplary of the intro/retrospection that comes out in the wash whenever we reach the bottom of the laundry hamper. These characters? They haven't lived glamorous lives. Not every story has a hero that you are rooting for. If that's what you're looking for, stick to pacifiers and books published by Tor or Penguin.Brandon's writing is visceral, morose, and real. The feelings he imbues upon the reader are as fair and bedrock as every problem you've ever created for yourself.Read John Brandon.

It's difficult for me to write a succinct review for this story I enjoyed so much, immediately following the final pages of the book. Not to mention, I wouldn't write one normally, but with so few reviews for such a refreshingly odd story, I feel obliged to recommend this to any and all other dark comedy fiction fans out there.In short, a brutally funny, quick and thoroughly enjoyable read. And so, support the author and celebrate the darkly mundane with the rest of us!

From the get-go you know this story won’t end well which is ok, but if you already depressed, it won’t help. On the plus side, the homicides are very inventive and gruesome.

Loved this book. A great American tale of crime at the lower levels. I highly recommend this book and will read more from this author.

I really enjoyed this novel. I could picture the Coen brothers making a great movie version out of it. Fun stuff.

And plenty of memorable lines. I bought this on a whim and liked it way more than I thought I would.

Watched the movie, read the reviews, found the book. Believably random and engaging. Ozarks with more colour and character. Could be a series. I'd read a sequel.

O livro é muito bom, constantemente em movimento, os personagens parecem vivos. A trama é muito bem contada, amarrada e fechada.Um detalhe é que infelizmente a minha edição (que é primeira impressão) veio com alguns erros ortográficos e de digitação, mas nada que atrapalhe realmente a experiencia.Fora que o envio da amazon é extremamente rápido, fiz o pedido na terça feira a noite, na sexta a tarde da mesma semana o pedido já estava em minha casa.

Kyle, a young man and a drifter, gets involved in crime early on, stealing, petty crime, and then moves on to become a drug mule for someone called Frog. Swin, another young man aimlessly moving through life, becomes Kyle's partner and the two drive drugs around the state of Arkansas. When a deal goes wrong resulting in the death of their boss, a park ranger called Bright, they hide the body and try not to let Frog know. Swin then gets involved with a young woman called Johnna and people start wondering where Bright is. Kyle and Swin realise their time is coming to an end but can they make it out of Arkansas alive?I came across Brandon's writing in McSweeney's 26 and was thoroughly impressed. It's an exciting and interesting tale of modern day adventure taking in rural Arkansas, disturbing and fascinating characters, all told with a strong sense of storytelling. The writing is of a very high standard with the dialogue sounding genuine. The story moves along at a cracking pace and is never boring. He even writes action well, while the mysterious Frog character's true identity is a great reveal in the end.I highly recommend this book to all fiction loving readers out there and only lament how little known such a talented and interesting writer John Brandon is when so many poor writers are so well known (you know the ones). Here's hoping he finishes a second book soon and achieves recognition.