I love historical fiction, so I was excited about this book because I find WWI and the great depression to be very interesting time periods. I loved that this book had an interesting twist that was staring me right in the face and I missed it! I did have a hard time keeping track of all the characters and sometimes found myself going back to figure out who was who. I would've liked a little more in depth knowledge of the woods, and how things happened to be the way they were. This was an enjoyable read, and it kept me interested in finding out where it was going.

I received this from netgalley.com in exchange for a review.

Ellsworth Newberry is the unofficial leader of a small, southern town of Bellhaven, South Carolina. But having returned from war disabled, he just wants to hide in his house and forget the world. Then they find a mysterious chapel in the woods and evil 'comes in all forms'.

The story was all over the place, choppy and difficult to follow. I couldn't get a grasp on any of the characters.

2.5 ☆

James Markert serenaded me with the vernacular of country folk of the Deep South. Post World War 1. Enter the days of prohibition and bootlegging. Words danced off their lips with a Southern Charm that filled me with a longing for the times. The prose flowed across the pages like a gentle stream. It held me mesmerized. I was alive and kickin' in the quiet town of Bellhaven, South Carolina. Kindly pass the bowl of hoppin' John. Mighty glad to be there. From the outset, the characters were exquisitely drawn in striking detail. What an uplifting pleasure.

World War 1 veteran Ellsworth Newberry returned to his hometown. Bellhaven. Anyway, most of him did. His left leg remained in France complements of a German mortar round. As if things weren't bad enough, his wife Eliza had perished in a fire just before his departure for the war. At the time, it seemed like the patriotic thing to do. Now, not so much. Bitter and broken, Ellsworth struggles through life from day to day. All his reasons to live - gone. Kept a pistol close at hand. Only needed one bullet.

Word got around about a hidden Chapel in the woods. Within walking distance nestled just outside of town. Everyone was inescapably drawn to it. Moths to the light. Townsfolk claimed it held some kind of mystical, spiritual power. Everyone who entered came under its entrancing spell one way or another. Some could get in touch with loved ones long deceased. Others would find a healing inner peace. A different experience for everyone. Many visited the site everyday. Might this have been too much of a good thing? Change was in the air. Not the kind anyone could possibly prepare for.

My thanks to NetGalley and Thomas Nelson--FICTION for this ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

A good and charming book that starts slowly and grows on the reader. Once you get involved you have to go on reading til the end.
More magic realism than fantasy, its characters are described in depth and really interesting.
Recommended!
Four stars because of the really slow beginning, it is good to build the tension but it was a bit too much
Many thanks to Thomas Nelson and Netgalley

The blurb for this novel sounded really interesting, but somehow it fell flat for me. I really liked the first part of the book where the tension slowly builds up (it actually reminded me little of "Needful Things") but during the second part it just kind of fell apart for me. The big finale was underwhelming after all the great build up in the first half of the novel and the revelation about the main characters just didn't engage me, to be honest.

Overall, this novel has a great setup but only a mediocre followthrough.

All Thing Bright and Strange, a novel by James Market, lives up to its title. This apocryphal tale takes the reader to the Deep South at the end of World War 1. Ellsworth Newberry has the end of his life all figured out, a single bullet to his head should do the trick. He went to war when he lost his beloved wife, and lost his leg in the war. Now he has nothing left to live for.

Until he notices a cardinal on his windowsill. The captivating characters of Bellhaven, South Carolina help being Ellsworth out of his depression as they turn to him to find answers to the strange happenings around town. Flowers blooming out of season, flocks of birds hovering and forming shapes in the sky, and a mysterious chapel with a healing floor that appears to bring healing to the townsfolk.

While a good tale, I struggled with the conceit of who the characters represent. As I read, I felt as if the author had Eric Bazilion’s song "What if God Was One of Us" playing on repeat in the background as he wrote. I found the characters’ daily actions disturbing.

The author paints the line between natural and supernatural, good and evil with giant strokes. On the other hand, he makes some great points about humanity’s propensity to take a good idea to excess without questioning the possible consequences.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free digital ARC of this book. This book is true to its title description. The reader won't be disappointed when reading this book.

I'm usually a fan of good fantasy but this one didn't do it for me. The basic premise is good but I wasn't attached to any of the characters and as a result didn't invest enough attention in the story.

I wanted to like this book but I could just not get in to it. It seems very choppy in the writing style.
I definitely think there was possibility in the story line but it was lacking for me.

I chose this book because I liked the look of the cover, I thought the title was clever and the story sounded a little bit different.

All Things Bright and Strange opens in 1917. Despite the differences in race and religion, the people of Bellhaven have always got along with each other. But then a group of men wearing white robes and carrying flaming torches track a young black boy, Raphael, to the town and set fire to the town hall. Several people are killed, including Eliza Newberry, the wife of Michael Elsworth Newberry.

Three years later and Elsworth is still grieving for Eliza. He lost his leg during the war, along with his best friend, and is still suffering from PTSD. He's considering suicide when a cardinal (American bird) crashes into his window, distracting him. While he's been holed up at home, strange things have been happening in the town. Trees and flowers are blossoming at the same time, the cardinals are everywhere, and what about that strange old chapel in the woods, where it's rumoured you can speak to the dead...

The strength of this story is definitely in the brilliant characters and I loved the way they interacted with each other, their old friendships shining through. The story is told by Elsworth, who has an entertaining, dry sense of humour, but I also loved Raphael, Gabriel and Anna Belle. The setting is very atmospheric and the mystery surrounding that sinister chapel kept me gripped too - until 1.00 am in the morning!

However, about halfway through the book the viewpoint switches to that of several townspeople, one after the other, revealing the grudges they feel towards their neighbours, and their plans to get their own back. This went on a bit too long and I'm afraid I ended up skipping it. And the shoot-out scene didn't seem to go with the magic realism style. Apart from that, I really did enjoy this unusual story and would give it 4.5 stars, rounded up to 5.

All Things Bright and Strange would appeal to fans of Stephen King (Needful Things) and Neil Gaiman (American Gods).


I was lucky enough to receive an advance copy of this book, which will be published on 30th January 2017.

Thank you to James Markert, Thomas Nelson, and Netgalley for my copy of this book, which I received in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was really interested in this book because I saw that many compared it to Stephen King's Needful Things and I am a big fan. But this book was extremely slow and dull for me. I almost DNF but I sat it aside for a bit and started on another book and came back to it and slowly finished it. There were bits and pieces of the book that I enjoyed but it was really rough for me. Stephen King it is NOT.

All Things Bright and Strange is a fun and inspiring read about loss and finding magic in daily life. There are many characters from the town we meet, but Ellsworth is the most endearing. He is grieving the recent loss of his wife. In the beginning of the story, he feels as though he has nothing to live for and is ready to end it all. However, lucky for us, he continues on in this little town. Then, strange things start happening in town and we see things are not as they seem. The book is richly inspiring and filled with tragedy and perseverance.

I was interested in reading this book but it had a very slow start. Once I got further into the book it just couldn't hold my attention so this was a DNF for me. The writing itself is lovely but the story just didn't hold my attention.

I initially struggled with this due to a slow beginning, but it finally caught my interest and held it. This mysterious Southern town was creepy in just the right ways. Recommend for someone who likes a touch of creepiness, but no slasher, horror bits.

Received an ARC for an honest review. I originally suspected a long, drawn-out story that seemed to devolve into a YA novel, but the characters and time-period made it hard to get off that easy as a genre-type. I was surprised to see a very descriptive development of the characters and their respective roles in the story as it went on. The length may be deceiving for a book with this plot, but when finished, realize why the author kept its length as-is.

The characters are rich and involved throughout the entire story and the ending didn’t leave me saying, “I figured.” Although the story follows a hoped-for path for the reader, it does a great job of showing the interactions between adults and humanity when facing an existential and theological crisis/Armageddon. This book makes for a very entertaining read, and worth the time investment for a feel-good plot and outcome.

Elsworth Michael Newbury has nothing to live for. Nonetheless he keeps cheating death, even as those around him die. He has returned from the war to his small hometown in the South, and is trying to fade away. But Elsworth is special. He is the key to solving the mystery of strange happenings in his town. Magic, redemption, love, religion and justice are all woven into the tapestry of the town and its varied inhabitants.
This novel is well-paced and beautifully written. It's humorous at times and tragic, often both at the same time. Well worth a read.

This clearly was not for me. Though objectively I can appreciate the writing, the story started off way too slow and I got bogged down. I left it, started again, but it still didn't resonate. I must be me because I can see many other readers did like it. I could see where it was going and could to a certain extent sympathize with the loss of the main character, but it ended up too far out for me.

Um, definitely not what I was expecting from this book at all. All Things Bright and Strange feels like it has a thousand characters and about the same number of elaborated back-stories. That is why I feel this book was struggling to reach cohesion and well-rounded message. Is it a mystery? A thriller? A religious, mythical satire? I don't know and I really didn't care in the end. I didn't feel like there was any point to the story and don't get me started on the ending.

People of a little town, conveniently called Bellhaven, discover a chapel in the woods. This “little piece of heaven” is healing and bringing peace to everyone who goes there, but at a price. They are losing control over themselves and they become addicted to this serene feeling of happiness and connection to their lost ones. I went into this book expecting a meaningful tale about the power and deception of religion, how dangerous it can be and so on. I got an action-packed disconnected plot.

Our main character Ellsworth Newberry, was depicted as a dominant and guiding figure, unofficial sheriff of Bellhaven, and he was the one who discovered the bad ways of church-goers. He lost a leg in the war, his wife passed away, so it's no wonder he is grumpy and negative. But there is a difference between a likeable grumpy old man (like Ove from now popular The Man Called Ove and just plane Mr. Know-it-all who is rude and unkind. I didn't really buy his savior figure.

Looking back over the time I spent reading this book, I get an intense feeling of dissatisfaction. Unimportant plot points; many long, slow parts where nothing happens, and even the more action-filled parts were not particularly interesting. Also, there was a confusing, probably symbolic-like number of birds that were mentioned, but I didn't feel like thinking about it.

This book has had such a slow and uninspiring start that I have not been compelled to finish the story....I will give it three stars because maybe it could have gotten better but I do not know because I haven't finished it.

This book got off to a slow start. A really slow one. So slow I almost forgot to keep reading. But then things start happening and being a bit strange. The relationships get deeper. The dialog becomes more real. And before you know it they are battling for not only their safety but their souls.

Parts near the end were a bit of a stretch and many times the plot felt very heavy handed. However, this period book gave more than enough chills and creepy thoughts to finish it.