OZARK DOGS (audiobook) by Eli Cranor

 








Published by Recorded Books in April of 2023.
Read by the author, Eli Cranor.
Duration: 7 hours, 29 minutes.
Unabridged.

I first heard  this book at an indie book store in a very hip part of the city. If you are an avid reader it is not hard to find more books than you should (or can) buy at one time - so I made a list.

This book was on the list and I really wish that it was half as good as I hoped it would be.

Synopsis:

Jeremiah Fitzjurls owns a junkyard at the edge of a dying Arkansas town. His son is in prison and he is raising his granddaughter. He is a grumpy old curmudgeon and she is an all around great kid. She works at an animal shelter. She is a cheerleader. She is smart. 

She is also sneaking away from the high school dance with the starting quarterback after homecoming...

Things don't end so well and she decides to walk back to the school rather than spend another minute with her boyfriend. That's when she is abducted by strangers...

My review:

This brooding book was a collection of regional tropes about the South,

1. Dying small town? Check.
2. The KKK? Check.
3. Meth? Check.
4. A sheriff from a family of sheriffs? Check.
5. A veteran with PTSD? Check.
6. Two families feuding? Check.
7. Family secrets that everyone in town seems to know about? Check.

Throw in an impossible number of over the top plot twists (including two at the end that were really simply TOO much) and you have a formulaic novel that seemed like it was looking for ways to keep the reader interested by including more and more plot twists. I was reminded of an improv group that I follow that said that they would kill scenes if they go too slow and were advised to add a "birth, death, or a major religious experience" to scenes to make them interesting.  That's great advice for an off-the-cuff improv scene but there's not really an excuse for that when it is a planned out book. 

The one real positive of the audiobook experience was that it was read by the author. He is very good at creating voices and putting emotion into his readings.

I rate this audiobook 2 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: OZARK DOGS by Eli Cranor.

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