Delve Into The Man From Primrose Lane: A Novel Drafted By James Renner Accessible As Paperbound
a pageturning heart pounding fun book! I classify this book under "Mr, Toad's Wild Ride". Nothing more can be said without spoilers, The was a old man who lived on Primrose Lane, he didn't leave his house, He didn't engage with the neighbors, he wore mittens every, single time that he was seen,
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Then he is found dead, He has been shot, but that's not all, His fingers were removed and pureed up in the blender,
Then we meet a author of the one hit wonder book about serial killers, Or rather one serial killer in particular, that the author David Neff proved was innocent, After the state killed him, Then he testified at the trial of the guy who was the real murderer,
David has been through the wringer, he lost his wife to suicide and is raising his son on his own, He takes a drug to help him have no feelings, This was a really good depiction of an antidepressant and the withdrawal symptoms, . but when a friend visits and tells him about the man from Primrose lane he gets David's attention,
Sounds good doesn't it And it was,
Then the second half of the book happened,
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I think I may have done this book a disservice by reading it so soon after sitelinkBlake Crouch's sitelinkDark Matter.
. because some of the little weird things sorta felt the same to me, I thought Dark Matter was the better book
This is one of those times that I think my own friends on GR are probably going to think I've bumped my head.
. because they all mostly loved it,
They don't realize.
I have the cat,
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If my fingers get put in the blender, . totally check out : sitelinkKelly's review, She loves this guy's books, She keeps telling me her husband took her new knife, . . "for ribs". Because there is nothing I can say about this story without ruining it for those who haven't read it yet and I don't trust you not to peek if I hide the spoilers don't deny it, you know you would, the only thing I can do is say this:
I LOVED this book.
I love it so much, I am, right now, thanking the author for writing it,
And I can assure you that I have never in my life felt compelled to do such a thing, But this book is truly that amazing and weird and wonderful, I can only think of one or two books that come anything close to the inventiveness of this one and I can't even say what they are because of you sneaky spoiler peekers.
Tell you what, if you're really interested, send me a note and prove to me that you've read this book, then I'll tell.
I wish I could really convey my obsession with sitelinkThe Man from Primrose Lane: A Novel, Anyone who knows me knows that probably the one thing I love more than reading is spending time with my horse I can spend HOURS at the barn.
But today, as I was brushing Remy all I could think about was how I needed to FINISH UP so I could GET HOME already and FINISH THIS BOOK!!!
Hey, Renner, guess what You've turned me into a bad horseman.
I hope you're proud of yourself,
HIGHLY recommended, and I will definitely be reading more from this author, After the second time trying the first was over a year ago I finished, The entire read was difficult but the lastpages is a conundrum in a puzzle taking place within a cyclone carnival ride,
Over the top, Women with Elizabeth's personality are no go's for me, But beyond that the fractured plotting framed in sci fi just took two off the top,
.rounded up for bizarre imagination and clever descriptive skills, But time travel needs far more up front world building and a whole lot less crude crews of side characters,
Truthfully, I had no warning that this would switch genre and nature after/rds of the book, Didn't expect the horror or woo woo aspects either, Not a fan. Too abrupt with vast departures from former lengthy character or era context, To the extent that most embedding became trashed for me, A perfect combination of genres I love thriller, murdermystery, sciencefiction, and even a dash of horror, Renner spins it all together with compelling prose that made me lose sleep rather than lose a thread, I even read sitelinkHorton Hears a Who! this afternoon because it was quoted, Worth reading twice.stars. Excellent! This book was so much fun! It's pretty much impossible to say anything about this book without it being a spoiler, The less you know about this one the better it is, Read Well, mostly. And I gave this book three, but if you read on, you will understand why I almost refused to rate it at all.
I will be presenting a SPOILER, so if you intend to read this novel, then you may want to reconsider finishing this review, . .
OK. Still with me I really liked the early portions of this book, which kept plopping down an array of mysteries that orbited the kidnapping/murder of three little girls, the disappearance of a twin, mysterious individuals who seemed determined to harm/or protect, a driven dedicated journalist trying to uncover truths and rectify injustice, etc, etc.
. . and then, even with a hint of the fantastic earlier in the book, there it came: time travel, I hate time travel. Notwithstanding the fact that I am a devoted Trekkie and even enjoyed Vonnegut, I simply hate time travel, Had I known beforehand, I probably would not have picked up this book, So I am warning you, I couldn't even finish it, and I really wanted to know what happened, I liked the main character, felt for him, wished him well in his pursuit, suffered with him as roadblocks and mental issues clouded his way, and still.
. . fucking time travel. Excuse my French. Oh, well, off to something new, . . And I ain't coming back to change this review, either, As time travelly complexy as you're likely to find in what is ostensibly a popular thriller crime novel, tells a tale similar to Predestination the recent movie adaptation of the Heinlein short story All You Zombies.
Renner grips you with an incredibly fascinating prologue and sustains the page turning readability throughpages thanks to some top quality descriptive prose and an approach to revealing information that would put Quentin Tarantino to shame.
For a popular thriller unit shifter that seemingly failed to shift units it's as good as I would ever expect, I wanted more noir, I wanted more science fiction but instead I got a vaguely metafictional, self referential attempt at literary true crime with a convoluted time travel plot that amazingly enough works.
It really works.
The opening half at least is phenomenal and that I feel let down by it is as much a product of having such a strong opening and the absurdity of time travel as a concept as it is any inherent weakness in the story.
I could easily have read anotherpages of this story though, Widowed writer David Neff is at rock bottom when his agent drops the tale of The Man From Primrose Lane into his lap, Will a new book to work on bring him out of the funk he's been in since his wife's death or will his obsession kill him
Before I get down to business, let's all be honest with one another.
Most of the books we read are of average or less quality and are just an entertaining way to pass the time, This book is not one of those, This one grabs you by the genitals and infects your thoughts while you aren't reading it,
The Man From Primrose Lane is one hell of a crazy read, The titular character is a local eccentric who was known as The Man with a Thousand Mittens to the cop who found his corpse, complete with fingers in a blender.
In life, he was always seen wearing mittens and had a closet full of them when he died Interested yet What if I told you the MFPL had a painting of David's dead wife in his basement Or that he has a notebook about another woman's daily habits that just happens to resemble David's wife
This is one of those books that I cannot divulge the plot of without ruining it.
Suffice to say, it is a cleverly written mind bender, Part detective story, part bat shit crazy, Your brain might fold in on itself like a black hole before it's finished,
What the hell else can I say without spoiling things I like how Renner uses David going through the withdrawals for his depression meds as a good way to reveal his back story using flashbacks.
I had a feeling who The Man From Primrose Lane was aboutinto the story but I had no idea how complex things really were.
That's about all I'm prepared to reveal at this time, If you like genrebending, thought provoking reads, you could do a lot worse than this, This is in the top two or three books I've read so far in, Perfect score.
Holy shit snacks! What the hell did I just read I frigging absolutely loved this book, It is such an awesome mindfuck, It's a locked Chinese box with so many secrets, It's a book that sneaks up on you with its pages and pages of normalcy and sweetness and sadness and intrigue, There's
grief and loss, mystery and murder, Then when you are least expecting it KAPOW! It pounces from the left, and bites you from the right, It punches you in the face and kicks you in the kidneys,
Bruised, battered, confused and reeling, You are in shock. Your adrenaline spikes. All the answers start to pour forth faster than your brain can deal with them, You hang on for the ride, delirious, but hungry for more answers, more revelations, just more! more! more of everything! How is this possibly going to end What a maze! Which way is out Is there even a way out
David Neff is a memorable, sympathetic main character.
I don't think any part of this teetering, layered narrative so many branches on a tree, so many ripples on a lake would have worked without normal, nice guy David and his charming, precocious four year old son Tanner.
We come to know them, like them, feel empathy and yes, even love, You root for father and son and pray for their release from the tangled and warped web in which they are ensnared,
David reminded me a lot of Jake Gyllenhaal's character in sitelinkZodiac one of my favorite movies that also deals with obsession and its damaging, lingering effects.
This is a dramatic and thrilling story that's wellconstructed and welltold, It's everything I was hoping to get from sitelinkThe Shining Girls and did not, It surprised me in many ways not just its twists, but how emotionally invested I became in the story, its characters, and its outcome.
sitelinkRead this review! It will make you want to read this book, And you should. Read this book. Yes, you most definitely should,
Ack! Stay tuned, Apparently sitelinkthere will be a movie with Bradley Cooper!
I have no idea how to write a review of James Renners novel “The Man from Primrose Lane” without giving away some spoilers, so just be forewarned: if you havent read this yet, and you plan to, you may want to skip this review.
. . But I promise I wont give away the Big Revelations and Major Plot Twists, And, yes, there are more than one,
Renner, best known for his true crime nonfiction, deftly tried his hand at writing fiction and, in, published “TMFPL”, To say that it is a great book is like saying that sex is a fun activity, Its, of course, so much more than a great book, Its mindblowing.
Seriously.
Renner pulls off something that few writers have been able to do and even fewer writers have been able to do successfully.
He makes the reader think they are reading a certain type of story and thenBAM!pulls the rug right out from under the reader by revealing that something else entirely is going on.
Not only that, but HE DOES IT TWO FUCKING TIMES!!!
Its rare to find a writer who can so deftly and cleverly bend genres the way Renner does, but to ingeniously straddle the line of breaking the fourth wall and keeping the narrative momentum flowing is pure brilliance.
Heres the deal, in a nutshell, minus any spoilers: David Neff is a famous writer living off the decent royalties of his one and only bestseller, a true crime thriller called “The Serial Killers Protege”, a book that nearly killed him in its conception.
Now, Neff is suffering from PTSD and trying to raise his young son after his wife committed suicide, His publisher thinks that getting back into writing would be good therapy, so he gives Neff a lead: the recent murder of an old man in his Akron home.
Someone shot him, let him bleed, cut off all his fingers, and then threw them into a blender, Weird, right
Oh, you have no fucking idea,
When his wifes fingerprints are found on the scene, Neff is suddenly a murder suspect,
Im going to stop there, Because to go on would mean I would have to talk about the black egg, the Loveland Frog, and the mangy cat, I so totally want to talk about them, but they would be spoilers, In fact, I probably shouldnt have even brought them up in the first place, Shit.
Anyway, if you love the weirdness of TV shows like “The XFiles” and “Fringe”, the trippy realitytwistiness of writers like Philip K.
Dick, and the hairsonthebackoftheneckgoingup creepiness of H, P. Lovecraft, you will love “The Man From Primrose Lane”,
P. S. Rumor has it that FOX has greenlit this to be a series coming soon, Lets hope its more than just a rumor,