Pool Man by Dan McDowell
TITLE INFORMATION
Pool Man
Dan McDowell
Black Rose Writing, 187 pages
9781684339990, 7.21..22
Overall Rating = 4.08
Storyline & Concept = 3.5
Writing & Delivery = 4
Editorial = 4.75
Pool Man, the third in the Riverton series, begins in 1991 with a dead body in a pool. From there, the life of the protagonist, Greg Preakle, goes from bad to worse. Along with his existing struggle as an amputee, he loses his job and resorts to participating in a strange, violent game show in order to pay the bills. What appears to be good fortune lands in his lap when he is offered another job, but matters grow exponentially worse with each incident that unfolds as the days go by.
This manuscript, billed as a horror novel, has gruesome elements and a lot of dark humor, but is less likely to scare you than it is to keep you in suspense. There is little that happens to the main character that isn’t bizarre and unusual, and the author works in a lot of twists, turns, and surprises to lead us down a merry path. The story is told in a first-person narrative, giving us a well-developed view into Preakle’s character. His relationships with the other characters often veer in different directions at different times, which sometimes makes it hard to follow his reasoning, but those characters are also more than a little strange. This novel held my interest and made me curious to find out what would happen next. For those who love weird and twisty plots, this is the book for you.
Sublime Line: “Pool Man has a weird and wacky plot, filled with twists, turns, dark humor, and plenty of suspense.”
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