Enter the days of prohibition and bootlegging.

Set in a small South Carolina town, Bellhaven in the 1920s this is a historical fiction with a touch of fantasy and horror.

I have to say I did find this to be a rather odd book with a mix of romance, war, religious symbolism, magic, and baseball! Touching on issues such as racism and hate crimes. A pretty eclectic range of things all wrapped up in one book where the main theme running through it being Good v Evil.

It takes place after WWI in a small town near Charleston with a mysterious chapel in the woods that people can communicate with their departed loved ones. The 'healing floor' feels like a slice of heaven to the townspeople...until it slowly starts to turn the townspeople malicious.

With some quirky characters, some not so likeable this is a compelling story bringing the characters to live and the book draws you right into Bellhaven.

Reminiscent of Stephen King's Needful Things this is a somewhat unique, mystifying read but all in all I am glad I read it!

Many thanks to the author James Markert, publishers Thomas Nelson--FICTION and NetGalley for my copy in exchange for an honest, independent review. ( )

At the outset I had a feeling of déjà vu – that I read something similar a long time ago. This similarity I thought, was to Stephen King’s Needful Things, but when I refreshed my memory of King’s book I realised the only real similarity was the house (and evil presence) on the top of the hill overlooking a township.

All Things Bright and Strange is more mystical than horror although like many of King’s books it is based around a struggle between good and evil.

There are a plethora of characters in this book - too many it seems for some readers based on their reviews but I found them interesting and their diversity integral to the storyline.
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All Things Bright and Strange by James Markert has been labeled Christian fiction, historical fiction, and Southern fiction. It is and it isn't. What I enjoy about the book is its very strong message of tolerance. This small South Carolina town is quite diverse in its ethnic, racial, and religious demographics. Yes, it is constructed to make a point, but it works for it repeats a powerful message. More unites us than divides us, and standing together, good prevails. For that, I label this book enjoyable, thought provoking fiction.

Read my complete review at http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2018/04/all-things-bright-and-strange.html

Reviewed for NetGalley ( )

I'm not going to try to knock out a synopsis of this book. There's a lot, and it's both complicated and very simple; there are holes in the plot, and predictability, but also genuine creepy horror elements and interesting characterization.

Note: If you're a Yankee like myself, it may help you in reading this book to know that Hoppin’ John is a dish made with black-eyed peas, smoked ham, and rice. Sounds good. Now that you know the details, you might end up very very hungry by the end of the story, because one character is famous for her Hoppin' John, and makes it a lot.

There's also a lot of alcohol flowing through this book, Prohibition or no Prohibition. The characters have all had to live through WWI, after all, either on the home front or the actual front, and none of the soldiers came back unscathed. It's realistic, and well-told, the alcoholism and the fight against it, or the surrender to it.

My complaint about this aspect of the book is the language used about it. "You’ve been dipping the bill in too much giggle juice"… Over and over, in deadly serious contexts, with no levity whatever, characters referred to booze as "giggle juice". I have no idea how dialectically accurate it was – but I found it irritating, especially in light of all the other little regional euphemisms that kept cropping up – "jingle-brained" was one that was perhaps over-used. When a woman's "getaway sticks" were referred to, it took me a couple of pages to figure out that that meant "legs". And the desire to go up to someone and "drygulch him in the noodle", while not as puzzling, still made me go "huh?". Even the more common language felt out of place; I don't know if the author was working to avoid curse words, but in at least one place a character was speaking angrily about something he had every reason to be angry about, but still said "darn".

So, basically, the language drove me a bit crazy (and that's not even including the one character who adopted a pseudo- manner of speaking which looked like nothing I've ever seen before). But I have to say what was said was memorable. There are images from this book that will stay with me for a while – beautiful and wondrous things, like a flock of cardinals in the form of a man, and a town with all of the trees and flowers blooming at once … and terrible, unsettling things, like a deer ramming its head into a tree, over and over, and like people – and animals – walking backwards … that made the hair stand up on my arms just typing that out.

But, as mentioned, there was a sort of tedious predictability to it all. I kept hoping the plot would take a turn and do something amazing – but while the climax of the story was overall satisfying, it could have been so much more. Everything felt like it was building up to something huge and heart-rending … and I was just left a bit flat. I felt like there were major missed opportunities.

But I finally found out why live oaks are called that: "That’s ’cause they hold on to their leaves nearly all year like an evergreen." Hey, thanks.

The usual disclaimer: I received this book via Netgalley for review. ( )

I went into this novel with absolutely no idea on how I would feel about it. I emerged from it thinking that it was quite an interesting read.

I really liked the premise of this book and the way events unfolded in this town. The story is told entirely from Ellsworth's point of view, and he is quite a character. I think the author tries really hard to make him complex, but at times, it was a bit forced. Nevertheless, I was intrigued by Ellsworth and really liked him. There were many different characters who were introduced to the story, and it could be quite confusing to keep them all straight. However, all of the characters had backstories and vices that helped the reader make a connection with them. I did think that everyone's constant positive regard for Ellsworth was a tad overbearing, but it makes sense in terms of the story.

I really liked the way that the story progressed. We start off with the emergence of this chapel, which has always been present, yet the people of this town have been unaware of it. But once they become aware, they cannot help but visit, enticed by the messages it gives them. Soon, however, it becomes apparent that this chapel is not a blessing - rather, it is curse. The frenzy that developed throughout this story was fantastic, and I really enjoyed every minute of the book.... until we got to the final climax. That's when I felt disappointment. After all this amazing build up and tension and intrigue, the climax felt lackluster.

Even though the ending was not as great as I had hoped, the story itself was interesting and I enjoyed most of it. I wasn't expecting it to make references to faith (totally missed out that it was labelled as Christian fiction) but the author made it work in the story. I would give this a 3/5 stars.

I received this novel as an advance copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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