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This book is what you get when you cross-breed religious mania, predatory predilections, desperation, and corruption in southern Ohio and West Virginia during the 1960's. It's an ugly, brutal, violent mess. It's mostly the darker side of humanity, but there are occasional glimpses of tenderness, kindness, and innocence.

I don't know that I can point to a good reason why I knocked off one star, except that I just didn't love dwelling in the deep darkness of this plot as long as I did. It is masterfully written, even if you can likely guess how the books different story lines will more or less converge. The comparisons to Flannery O'Connor seem right, my mind did go to Wise Blood more than once while reading. The characters are largely well-developed and I think you can even come to some semblance of understanding for some of the darker characters, if not sympathy. Pollock paints using a dark grey pallet that can sometimes look all pitch-black.