Published by Little, Brown and Company Genres: Fiction, Gothic, Southern Gothic, Southern Noir
Format: ARC, eBook
Talk about southern grit! Whew! No one writes desperation like Michael Farris Smith! It’s as if he knows it deep down in his soul. He has a knack for writing about the downtrodden, about those who are down on their luck and have nothing left to give. He writes about broken people who may never be fixed or set right. He writes about desperate people, no-win choices, hope, and redemption. I found Lay Your Armor Down to be gripping, thought provoking, haunting, and intense. This book has a dark and dreary vibe throughout and feel of this book felt very much like a character as well as it carries the characters on their journey.
An old woman with dementia walks into a field in the middle of the night. She is drawn by a campfire. She is the beginning, but she is not the end. Two men have been given a mysterious job. They are to go find something precious. They only thing they are told is that “you’ll know it when you see it.”. That is not much to go on and yet, they find a girl in an abandoned church cellar. She won’t talk and yet they know, she is what/who they are looking for. Why is this child being hunted? What is to be done with or to her? It is clear to the men that there is something different about the girl. They take the girl and run. The girl is quite the mystery. There is something otherworldly about her. She is believed to have special powers….
While reading this book, I often wondered what the heck am I reading? Reading this book is like being blindfolded and sent to walk out in a field at night. It’s dark, its eerie, is harrowing, it’s unsettling, its mysterious. This book is dripping with atmosphere and tension. It sets the mood and when paired with the Mississippi setting, really nails the dark southern gothic vibe. During the book I wondered where this book was heading but enjoyed the desperation, the not quite knowing, the quest for survival, and redemption. What a thought-provoking book!
If you have not read a book by Michael Farris Smith before, you are seriously missing out!
Beautifully written, gothic, dark, and dripping with atmosphere.
Thank you to Little, Brown and Company and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.
