Read One, Skip One: Never Leave Your Dead and Listen to Me

I’m a bit shocked at which books ended up in which slots for this installment of Read One, Skip One. I picked up Never Leave Your Dead thinking I’d take a peek, but probably not end up reading the whole thing. And, I really expected to love Listen to Me based on my feelings about Hannah Pittard’s last book, Reunion.

Never Leave Your Dead, Diane CameronNever Leave Your Dead by Diane Cameron
Nonfiction – War (Released June 7, 2016)
176 Pages
Bottom Line: Read it.
Affiliate Link: Buy from Amazon
Source: Publisher (Central Recovery Press)

Plot Summary: The true story of Donald Watkins, a WWII veteran (and the author’s stepfather) who murdered his first wife and mother-in-law long after returning from the China theatre.

My Thoughts: I have to be honest…this book was a total surprise for me. The story sounded interesting, but I had no idea truly how interesting it would turn out to be. I could not stop reading (despite the tiny print of my PDF-formatted ARC) and I ended up taking so much away from these compact 176 pages! Though the writing and story-telling is a bit choppy, the story of Donald Watkins blew my mind. He likely suffered from PTSD 40 years before it was acknowledged by the military and received years of counter-productive treatments. In telling Donald’s story, Cameron explores the history of mental illness as it relates to the military, conditions at an infamous mental hospital (St. Elizabeth’s), and a little known part of WWII (the American pre-Pearl Harbor presence in China and POW Camp Palawan).

I was almost equally enthralled with the story of Cameron discovering and pursuing Donald’s story. The book is structured in the order in which Cameron learned each new piece of Donald’s background, giving the reader a sense of her emotional journey. Never Leave Me Dead is quite an eye-opening read if you’re at all interested in trauma and recovery, PTSD (particularly in returning soldiers), less well-known parts of WWII, and/or the history of mental illness treatment. It’s going on my 2016 Summer Reading, Great Books Under 300 Pages, and Books for Guys lists.

Listen to Me, Hannah PittardListen to Me by Hannah Pittard
Fiction (Released July 5, 2016)
192 Pages
Bottom Line: Skip it.
Affiliate Link: Amazon
Source: Publisher (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) via NetGalley

Plot Summary: Married couple Mark and Maggie reflect on the state of their marriage and Maggie’s recovery from a recent mugging during a cross-country road trip with their dog, Gerome.

My Thoughts: I’m surprised to be writing this type of review for a Hannah Pittard book, as I loved her last novel, Reunion. Her latest effort is one of those books with a vague (but appealing to me) publisher’s blurb headline: “A modern gothic about a marriage and road trip gone hauntingly awry.” But, I now realize the vagueness probably has more to do with the central premise being fairly unclear. 

Even after finishing the book, I’m still unsure what it was truly about. It’s somewhat about the small resentments and slights of a marriage that accumulate to become big and intolerable and somewhat about recovering from trauma within a marriage…with Mark’s odd obsessions with the environment and the Internet destroying society running through it. These last bits felt like they were included to make some broader points about the world, but they didn’t fit the story.

A meandering book like this can work for me, but the writing needs to sparkle. And this writing was good, but not sparkling. In my June 13 reading update, I said about the prospect of digging into Listen to Me: “I’m hoping she tackles marriage with the same irreverence she applied to death and family in Reunion!” Maybe this is a case of having inaccurate expectations, but I really missed that irreverent tone here.

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21 Comments

  1. Wow, you’ve made Never Leave Your Dead sound very appealing.

    Posted 7.7.16 Reply
    • Sarah Dickinson wrote:

      It’s not perfect, but the story itself is pretty hard to stop reading!

      Posted 7.7.16 Reply
  2. Ugh… to bad about Listen to Me.

    Posted 7.7.16 Reply
    • of course I mean *too* bad 😉

      Posted 7.7.16 Reply
    • Sarah Dickinson wrote:

      I know…I was sad about that one. And I know you meant “too” 🙂

      Posted 7.7.16 Reply
  3. Michelle wrote:

    I think by its very description with the word “Gothic”, Listen to Me was never going to be irreverent. As you already noted, I enjoyed this much more than you did, and I also never limited its premise to just their marriage and the strains it is under. To me, this always was about victimization – internal and external and the roles the Internet has played in that. Plus, I believe the ending – and Mark’s revelation – are just stellar and another important reminder about jumping to conclusions.

    Posted 7.7.16 Reply
    • Sarah Dickinson wrote:

      You’re probably right…I should have paid better attention to the blurb! I love how people can have such different takes on the main points of the same book…what makes talking about books so interesting!

      Posted 7.7.16 Reply
  4. Carmen wrote:

    Never Leave Your Dead sounds intriguing as much for the human aspect of war as from the mental illness angle. Too bad about Listen to Me, but maybe Reunion set the bar too high even for herself.

    Posted 7.7.16 Reply
    • Sarah Dickinson wrote:

      I totally enjoyed both angles. And it goes into how the brain processes trauma in general, not just war trauma.

      Posted 7.7.16 Reply
  5. Shaina wrote:

    It’s too bad that the second book didn’t work out for you, especially since you were so looking forward to it!

    Never Leave Your Dead sounds very much up my alley—I’ll keep an eye out for it!

    Posted 7.7.16 Reply
    • Sarah Dickinson wrote:

      It’s out already…it’s not perfect in its structure and writing, but it was extremely hard to look away from the story itself. I hope you give it a shot!

      Posted 7.7.16 Reply
  6. Amanda wrote:

    I hadn’t heard of Never Leave your Dead before you were reading it. I’m totally intrigued. Military PTSD is something I’m watching first hand which is awful. I need to get this on my library list.

    Posted 7.7.16 Reply
    • Sarah Dickinson wrote:

      Oh no – I’m so sorry to hear you’re watching military PTSD first hand. Based on what I’ve read, it sure does sound awful. Another book on that topic that really affected me was Thank You For Your Service by David Finkel if you’re interested.

      Posted 7.7.16 Reply
  7. I really enjoy this feature of yours! It’s fun to see your opinion on which one to skip because so many reviews out there (mine included) are usually glowing, and I like to see which titles you couldn’t get into, and the biggie– why! I have that Pittard title on my wishlist. Not so sure anymore. Maybe only if I snag a library copy of it.

    Posted 7.7.16 Reply
    • Sarah Dickinson wrote:

      Thank you! I know many bloggers choose not to review books they didn’t like, but I just think it’s helpful to readers to have opposing viewpoints out there, so I choose to review books I didn’t like as well.

      And – I think it’s definitely worth a try from the library, as two other bloggers I trust did like it. So it could just be that I was expecting something more similar to Reunion in tone and didn’t get it.

      Posted 7.7.16 Reply
  8. I haven’t heard of Never Leave Your Dead, but you have me sold on picking it up! Sounds fascinating!

    Posted 7.7.16 Reply
  9. Julianne wrote:

    I saw an ARC of Never Leave Your Dead at the bookstore and didn’t look twice at it. Maybe I shouldn’t be so quick to judge!! And this is a bummer to hear about Listen to Me. It kind of sounded appealing in an Eileen sort of way.

    Posted 7.7.16 Reply
    • Sarah Dickinson wrote:

      I’m still conflicted about Listen to Me. Some others like it..so maybe still give it a shot? Never Leave Your Dead is not the best written thing in the world, but the story itself had me completely engrossed.

      Posted 7.11.16 Reply
  10. I remember you mentioning Never Leave Your Dead before, and I really think I’d like it. It appeals to me, anyway. It’s always a big let down when you finish a book and have no clue what it was about or what you just read. Been there, done that too many times.

    Posted 7.8.16 Reply
    • Sarah Dickinson wrote:

      Definitely try Never Leave Your Dead – it’s so short – you can read it in a few hours!

      Posted 7.11.16 Reply
  11. Isn’t it funny what books we end up loving? Never Leave Your Dead sounds interesting! I just finished Chris Cleve’s new one, and I didn’t expect to love it, after his disappointing story about the runners, Gold. But wow! What a great read!

    Posted 7.8.16 Reply

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