This book is one of the most disappointing I have encountered on Audible. First of all, the main character was an Eastern Kentuckian, yet the narrator spoke in standard American English. Which, I suppose, was for the best, since the few times he did break into dialect, his accent bore no resemblance to Appalachian speech.
The author appears never to have been to southeastern Kentucky, but has simply written the location into the novel based on what others have heard but never experienced firsthand.
Then there’s the “plot” of this novel. Really, there was no plot. Or if there was, the one or two references to the meaning behind what was going on got lost in the unabated bloodshed of the author’s sick imagination. From beginning to end, it was just hour upon hour of guns and shooting and knives and cutting. Then when the plot turned to the most absurd nonsense of the characters returning—and I’m not kidding here—to the creation of the universe, the listener has been given no good reason why. Something about some moron saving his sick wife. But seriously, it’s never fully explained why.
The characters are among the most shallow you’ll find. And this feeling is magnified—quite literally—by the fact that there are several iterations of the same characters present in the same scenes. In one or two instances, they are easily distinguishable by age. But for the most part, they’re the same person at the same age and there’s simply no way to keep them straight. Moreover, the dialogue is ludicrous, consisting of cliché’s and movie catchphrases.
Finally, the ending tries to wrap everything up in a neat package, but since the listener has no idea how they got there in the first place, this attempt falls flat on its face. All in all, one of my worst audible experiences ever.