Rory Docherty cares for only a few things. His Granny. His Ford. Making money as whiskey runner.

And perhaps, that dancing girl who makes hats.

Life after war has proven a tad unpredictable, but he’s been able to find solace in the whispers of the familiar mountain of his childhood. While the memories of Korea will haunt his nightmares forever; the ghosts of friends lost and the faces of his enemies permeating the very air he breathes while both awake and asleep, Rory has been able to find a semblance of peace wrapped up in that mountain and the old, creaky home that resides there.

He spends his days tinkering on Maybelline, his precious retro-fitted Ford coupe. The work is done lovingly and thoughtfully at the side of his old friend and expert mechanic; each touch put upon the Ford a caress given as lovingly as though they were lovers. The woman who watches over the two young men has a steely eye and an even sassier mouth – Granny May Docherty, a bawdy firecracker of a female. A former prostitute who sold her body for practical means, she now makes her living as a healer or as some say, a shaman or witch. The dirt of her land runs deep under her fingernails, and she can cure what ails anyone – if she so pleases to do so. Her dependence is solely upon the land, and her roots run as deep as any chestnut tree. The mountain breeze runs through her veins as well as the moonshine that saturates its valley.

Nights are spent on the road with the purring of the Ford set as the sweetest of melodies. Running liquor for his clan, Rory takes his job seriously. He’s well-known around the area, both by customers and by the law. The federal men have him firmly in their sights, jockeying for first place with the trouble he’s also having with a local boy who’s a bit too big for his britches. But Rory is focused, and he’s aware, and the steady work puts food on the table for his Granny and helps support his mother. The woman who gave birth to him but did not raise him is settled in a home for those who cannot support the mental faculties of their mind. The secrets of his mother’s emotional demise are hidden deep within the mountain, and Rory doesn’t know if he’ll ever figure them out.

The foot of the mountain has its own secrets. A brothel full of love for the night is in full view of the evangelical church across the street, and it is in the parking lot where things change for Rory. Captivated by the tangible beating pulse of the Holy Spirit and bewitched by the beautiful preacher’s daughter, Rory allows his heart to take over his head. But in the shifting of his focus all things surrounding him become blurry, leading to mistakes that have unbreakable consequences.

Taylor Brown is a critically acclaimed novelist best known for his lyrical style of writing. Gods of Howl Mountain possesses a deep richness of voice; the mountain and its valley beneath are as much a part of the character catalog as are Granny May and Rory Docherty. While the stylized writing is indeed undeniably beautiful and layered with care, I found the book to be overtaken by the descriptions of people, places, and things, leaving the plot to be almost non-existent.

It was really a shame. I was drawn in from the first few pages. A setting as humid and dark as I’ve personally known the back-woods to be. A healing woman, a purveyor of the earth and its natural tools. As a native Louisianan, I am not unfamiliar with the workings of herbalists and their particular kinds of magic. But while Brown is an master at weaving together the descriptions of both settings and characters, he equally failed at moving them forward. The book had no true meaning, no point of circumstance, and in all actuality – no point.

It is with much regret that I have to give Gods of Howl Mountain a meager 2 out of 5 star rating. The writing is beautiful and the story held so much promise, but as a reader I found myself in the same position on the final page as I was on the first one.

When I saw this on NetGalley, how could I refuse? Shades of Carolyn Chute and Sharyn McCrumb... this is possibly a bigger catnip for me than my beloved Rock Fiction. And you can ALWAYS depend on the writing to be stellar.

And, of course, when it's written by a veteran like Brown, it is. Sometimes, I would get lost in the prose, in the words and their magic. Interestingly, that also became one of the book's downfalls: I'd get lost in the words and their magic, and lose sight of the greater story.

That, then, became my other issue with this book: the greater story. What is it? Is it Rory's story? Is it Granny's? Is it the story of how life is changing on the mountain? Rory's search for the truth about his mother? His falling in love? His own personal metamorphosis?

I'm just not sure, and because of that, it felt like the book meandered--and like it took me *forever* to read it. At times, I had to force myself to pick it up. And yet, at times, it was impossible to put down and walk away from (those were the times when I was so caught up in the prose that I couldn't care about the plot).

I'll read more Taylor Brown. A LOT more. I just think this book wasn't what I was expecting and it didn't deliver in ways I'm used to looking. Reading his backlist will, I'm sure, teach me more than I want to know about the guy's writing style... and it'll also teach me a few things I can use in my own work, too.

Author Taylor Brown’s powerful novel Gods of Howl Moutain absolutely mesmerized me. Set in 1952 in the Appalachia, a world of folk medicine and healers. churchgoers and snake charmers, bootlegging and whiskey running, - a place where outsiders are held at bay and family secrets are deeply guarded. This world is explored and brought to life with beautifully written prose and characters that are raw and vibrant. Gods of Howl Mountain has all the makings of a modern literary masterpiece.

Thank you St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley for the advance digital copy!

I received a free advanced reader copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

This is the first book I’ve read by Taylor Brown, but it will not be my last. His prose is beautiful, skillfully conjuring 1950s Appalachia. The characters all have phenomenal depth and are incredibly interesting. The scene at the racetrack is so well done, that I swear I could hear the roar of the engines and smell the gasoline. My heart was in my throat, and I’m not even a NASCAR fan!

I’ve rated this 4 stars, not 5, because there were times when the narrative felt bogged down, too slow, and I wondered “what’s the point”. However, there’s a chance that is simply a case of reading this book at the wrong time, personally. The ending compensates for any lag during the middle, as does Granny May. Lord, I love that woman. She has to be one of the best characters in contemporary fiction.

This is a book that is going to stick with me. I can tell I’ll be thinking about it for awhile. The author is doing a signing near me in April. I can’t wait to buy a finished copy.

Moody, dark and a bit witchy, GODS OF HOWL MOUNTAIN carries us to eastern North Carolina right after the Korean War when moonshine and big American cars set the scene. Of course, folk medicine and internecine battles between folks running moonshine, their competitors, and the law really define this tale that the author delivers in a pitch perfect style. The characters are so alive they seem to reach out from the pages. And these characters have a lot going on, only half of which they are aware of; the other half is a work in progress. That work is the topic of the novel as the story moves forward. It’s a good tale and well worth reading. I received my copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Excellent writing: evocative and richly descriptive. The atmosphere was perfectly rendered.

This is my first read by Taylor Brown but it won't be the last. I love to read books set in somewhat local places!

From the publisher blurb:
"Taylor Brown explores a world of folk healers, whiskey-runners, and dark family secrets in the high country of 1950s North Carolina."

I would add to that war veterans, snake healers, and one kick-ass grandma. A fun read and a little look into the lawless world of Appalachia (particularly when the "law" has other motivations.) Granny May is one of the most unforgettable characters in recent reading.

There was some great sentences and paragraphs here, and then there was some that went off the point and failed to immerse me. This kind of story in strain of Daniel Woodrell I love, I liked the cover and really wanted it to work but if failed to have me engaged with the characters, a distance with the narrative formed.

"Christ's father let him die on that cross," she said. "I understand why he done it." She leaned closer, whispering, "But Christ never had no granny like me."

Rory Docherty has come home from overseas “with war in his blood”; he’s come home to the mountains of North Carolina, and home to Granny May, the local herbalist—some also say she’s the local witch. His mother Bonni is in a mental institution, which was even a worse place to have to go in the 1950s than it is now. Rory doesn’t know for sure what broke her, because she hasn’t said one word in the years between then and now; Granny May knows, and withholds this powerful secret for reasons of her own. The life of the Docherty family is seldom easy, having Bonni erased from their midst has hit them hardest of all.

I read this book free and early, thanks to Net Galley and St. Martin’s Press. I’m not permitted to share my galley with anyone else, but I can do this: I can read it as many times as I damn want to. And although I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve done that, out of the five or six hundred free novels that I’ve received in the last few years, I’ll do it with this one.

But back to Rory, to Granny May, and to Eustace, the wily, ruthless old bootlegger that owns Howl Mountain and almost everyone on it. And back to the sweet-faced preacher’s daughter that has lit a fire under Rory’s troubled heart. Granny May would have him stay away from those snake-handling holy rollers, but Rory is utterly bewitched, and when the lights are on at the storefront church, he finds himself there too.

The characters and the setting are what drive this novel, but what also drives it are the cars, most specifically Maybelline, the custom made vehicle that can outrun Federal revenue agents. I’m generally not interested in cars; if they run, that’s good, and if I will be comfortable inside them, that’s better. But Brown has some magic of his own, and the way he crafts this ride, which is the family’s main source of income and their most valuable piece of property apart from the mountain itself, is magnetic. It is almost a character itself.

The balance of power is shifting on Howl Mountain now. Rival Cooley Muldoon seeks to unseat the Docherty clan; threats to Granny May have taken ominous forms, and she waits on the porch with her pipe and her gun late into the night. She storms into the brush to find what, exactly, has made the cry like a panther on her roof.

""Death, which walked ever through these mountains, knew she would not go down easy."

This is likely the go-to novel of 2018. I cannot help but think that Rory Docherty, Eustace, and Granny May will join the ranks of beloved literary characters whose names are recognized by a wide swath of the English-speaking world.

If nothing else, Brown has taken the hillbilly stereotype that some still cling to and in its place leaves believable characters with nuance, ambiguity, and heart. It’s a showstopper, and you won’t want to miss it.

I had read “The Fallen Land” by Taylor Brown and absolutely loved it. I don’t know why I had so many problems liking this book. I did put it aside for a while and then come back to it and finish it and I’m glad that I did as the ending was a good, if very violent one.

Rory Docherty returns from the war back to Howl Mountain in North Carolina after being immersed in violent battles and losing a foot to the war. In my mind I was a little confused as to why he would come back there when there was no work, no way of making money except to sell moonshine whiskey or work in the “heat and lint and machine-gun rattle of the mills”. However as I read the story more I understood that he came back for his mother and his Granny May who raised him. His mother, Bonni, had been in an asylum since she had been in a horrible encounter where her boyfriend/lover was killed in front of her and she did not speak a word after that.

This isn’t an easy book to read. It is quite dismal and depressing with the only bright points coming from some beautiful descriptions of the mountains and some humor from some of the things that Granny May said.The novel also flashes back to the war which was as depressing as the present story. Some of the writing was just gorgeous, in speaking about the lone chestnut tree standing on top of Howl Mountain “The others of its kind, chestnuts, had once covered these mountains, the bark of their trunks deeply furrowed, age twisted like the strands of giant steel cables. Their leaves sawtoothed, golden this time of year, when the falling nuts fattened the beasts of the land, sweetening their meat . . . .Some exotic fungus had slipped in through wounds in their bark, the work of antlers or claws or penknives, victims of death black cankers that starved and toppled them.”

I love strongly character driven novels and I had trouble connecting with anyone on this mountain. I also love descriptive prose but at times in this book it just seemed like too much and I found myself flipping past some pages to get back to the plot.

If I could I would rate this book 4* for the writing alone but it was a 3* read for me and that is my honest review. I don’t think I would recommend this book to friends or book clubs, etc. I received an ARC of this novel from the publisher through NetGalley, thank you.

Review posted to Amazon on March 20, 2018

'Granny sucked her teeth, wearing the sneer she always did when forced to come down off the mountain.'

Outsiders aren’t welcome on this Howl Mountain, home to moonshiners, stock-car racing and the wood witch Maybeline “Granny May” Docherty. She keeps her secrets as close as the mountain does, some darker than others. She can get rid of the troubles girls find themselves “carrying”, cure the sick, she knows the secrets of nature and some of the locals. Yet the biggest secret remains as locked up in her daughter Bonnie’s mind as she herself is, trapped in a mental institution after a violent attack.When her grandson is besotted by the snake-handling preacher’s daughter, no good can come of it. Granny knows plants and roots, makes tinctures and potions, she has knowledge that can make you reach spiritual realms, heal wounds, or kill but none of this could stop what happened to Rory’s mother. Old now, but still strong as an ox it’s hard sometimes to believe she ever knew tender love with Anson, the man who ‘made her blood sing hot.’ What happened to her world, what good was her wisdom, her love, when she couldn’t save Bonnie? Couldn’t right the wrongs?

There is a story that haunts Rory, about his mothers delicate hands and an eye, the Gaston killing and then nothing from her but silence thereafter. She, nothing but a whore’s daughter and the Gaston’s wanting her erased. With one foot in this world, and one in the other, his mother is of a nature he cannot understand. “Girl had angel in her blood,” Granny used to say. “Where she got it, I don’t know. Not from me.” Granny is grit, carved out of hard living, fierce. Rory knows many stories about the delicate nature of his mother, but it’s the story his mother can’t tell that he longs for.

This mountain knows violence, from frontiersmen and the civil war, to the mountain men and Cherokee spilling each other’s blood. The land seems to breed blood lust, and fight is vital to survival here. Rory has returned from war but is still carrying the terrible memories, and a wooden leg. He is hellbent on bootlegging but things have changed since he’s been away at war, and the Muldoons have gotten ‘tight’ with the sheriff. There is just as much danger home as there was in Korea. Younger men challenge him, and with a missing leg, being slow can be deadly in these mountains.

Bonnie’s story escapes like a sigh throughout the novel, in short chapters we come to know her and her first bloom of love. Rory is in love too, but his is like an infection. Then there is Eustace, Granny’s sometimes lover who came back from the war in France untouched, unlike her beloved Anson. Everyone is tangled up, somehow. Between dodging the law, rivaling bootleggers, and a preacher’s daughter who dangles snakes (and Rory’s heart) something rotten is going to boil over. It may well be those closest to you, the ones you trust, that you have to look out for. Secrets will raise like the dead, and there will be a reckoning.

The novel is atmospheric, the characters are so real that you can smell whiskey on their breath and the cloud of tobacco around them. It’s hard to feel tenderness and love, because they hold their affection close to their chest, just like their trust. Everything must be earned. I loved it for that very reason, they are hard because they have to be, but don’t imagine for a moment their love and loyalty isn’t as strong as the mountain they were bred from.

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“Trees. You thought they were one shape, a tall stem snaked heavenward for sun, but you forgot what was below the surface, reaching into the dark earth. The cold earth. Reaching.”

Gods Of Howl Mountain is a dark, atmospheric novel telling the tale of a young whiskey-runner, returned home to the mountains after being wounded in the war. Set in the hills of North Carolina in the 1950’s, we are thrust into the lives of Rory and Granny May.

Rory runs whiskey for Eustace, the man who runs the mountain. A man no one would ever have crossed, or dared challenge. Times change, though, and new runners along with new federal agents make life increasingly difficult for Rory. It isn’t just the challenges, or his war injury that weigh Rory down. He won’t give up the search for the men who killed his father and knocked his mother mute, forcing her to live a life institutionalized.

“You don’t know what it took to raise this mountain against the world.”

Granny May worries for her grandson. Worries that the demons of not just his past, but his mothers and even Granny’s own will catch up with him. That he is chasing spirits that will bring nothing but bad tidings if they are caught. She wants to live simply, giving people remedies, working as a healer, living off the land. But she isn’t soft, and she won’t back down from a fight without giving it all she has.

Granny May is easily one of my favorite characters in the book. Tough, determined, full of spit and grit. She is highly observant, and brings a sharp humor with a no-nonsense attitude with her. She is vivid and alive, a character that you can fully envision standing on her porch, shotgun in hand.

“Death, which walked ever through these mountains, knew she would not go down easy.”

This is my first novel by Taylor Brown, and the writing is jaw-dropping gorgeous. It is lyrical and poetic, at times at odds with the grim subject matter he’s describing. These pages look at the underbelly of humanity. The darkness that lurks in beautiful places. It’s a haunting reminder that while we can look at a landscape and see the majestic beauty of mountains, the reality of surviving in those places is hard, unforgiving, unrelenting, and difficult. But it’s also the beauty of the writing that makes the sometimes violent, sometimes melancholic, sometimes horrifying imagery easier to stomach.

For some, this prose will be distracting. It took some time to fall into the story for me, the descriptions of the mountain and the cars so vivid, I forgot what I was reading, and had to reread sections to remind myself of the story. This is a novel, and writing style, that demands patience from the reader. You will enter a world of stark feeling and imagery while the plot unfolds at a slower pace around you. The characters taking longer to flesh out, to feel real.

“It was said that gravity was suspended at the mountain’s peak, and in the falling season the dead leaves would float upward from the ground of their own accord, purring through the woods, as if to reach again those limbs they’d left.”

If you’re looking for a novel that will sweep you away deep into what it must feel like to jump into a snapshot of the past, this novel will not disappoint. It’s an experience of the senses, rather than just an intellectual endeavor.

This sensory immersion is necessary though, to really drive you into the heart of the plot. You can’t unearth secrets and lies of the past without a sense of deep foreboding and the whisper of long buried heartbreak. Some truths unfurl slower, a poison through the veins rather than the gut punch to the stomach. And with the tragic love story at the middle of these secrets, this isn’t a story to shock, as much as it is one to feel.

“Sometimes she wondered how she had birthed a creature so beautiful and kind. So full of light. How she had failed to protect this creature from the evils of the lower world.”

Gods Of Howl Mountain isn’t a quick read. It isn’t a book you devour. This is a book you fall into. You let it sink in your mouth, a bite at a time, dissolving to become a part of you. It’s a book about grief, and heartbreak, love and loss. It’s about the violence of men, fighting wars that can’t be won and that they don’t understand. It’s about the strength of family and friendship, and what defines each. Finally, it’s a novel about trauma, tragedy, and truth.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for approving me to read and review a copy!

The writing is raw and descriptive, placing you right on that mountain full of secrets where you can hear the growl of the engine and the rattle of the viper!

What a ride! I have such mixed emotions about this book. I love that it is set right in the heart of the mountains where I grew up, just a few mountians over from Boone, North Carolina. My Great Great Granny, like Granny May, lived on The Mountain and didn't come down unless she had to. She didn't do much business with the outside world, most of it was for the same reasons as Granny May - she could help people. That's where the similarities end, my Granny was a devout Christian. Granny May says the only god she believes in is the god of the Mountain. Like Rory and Eustace, my Grandad ran Moonshine made by his gradfather through the mountains in his "hot car" in the fifties. So much of this book hit close to home for me.

The first half of the book is very slow though. It seems more like a series of snapshots - lots of very descriptive scenes strung loosely together with a bit of plot. The writing is very gritty. Everything is described in the colors of blood and bruises and wounds, and the characters really rubbed me the wrong way for the first half of the book. They're kind of crass. I understand they are backwoods tough, no sugar-coating, no mincing words, but still... at 50% I was giving this book 3 stars.

The story gets much better after the first half, and the last third is an action-packed thrill ride. From about 70% through and on I couldn't put it down. Some very unexpected twists and turns. It reminds me a lot of Matt Bondurant's Wettest County in the World. The descriptive writing finally serves its purpose in the last part of the book - you can almost feel the roar of the engines at the racetrack, almost smell the tang of fiery moonshine. The same descriptiveness that made the first half of the book drag is put to good use in the latter half effectively pulling the reader in. The last half is easily a 5 star read.

For those concerned about content, there is at least one very descriptive sex scene and descriptive references to a handful of other incidents, and a lot of suggestive references and language. Just crudeness where I don't think it was warranted. Granny May makes no apologies to anyone, and she calls it like she sees it, whether you want to hear it or not. (In fact, Rory is often found covering his ears and escaping to his car to escape Granny May's tongue)

Because this book hits so close to home, I can say I do think it is a fairly accurate historical perspective, and I really appreciated that. The characters are certainly realistic. And the plot itself, once it gets going, is well-crafted.

Growing up in the South, it was impossible not to hear the stories of secrets, bootlegging, faith healers, and the like. One look at the cover and blurb for this one and I was anxious to dive in, and dive in, I did - only to dive right back out several times. The idea for this one was certainly intriguing, and Brown does know how to paint a scene with vivid descriptions - of everything. While I do appreciate setting a scene and giving the reader a detailed picture in their mind, the gripping story I was hoping for got a bit lost in the details. The characters were rather one-dimensional and stereotypical, and while there were secrets to be discovered, without that connection to any of the characters, I was never able to immerse myself in the story. In the end, I had spent more time setting this one aside for later than reading it. Quite possibly, this just wasn't the book for me. I once heard someone say that no two people ever read the same book, and that is about as accurate as it gets, so if the description for this one appeals to you, by all means, give it a gander.

My first Taylor Brown and I had a back and forth relationship with it. The story is a good one with lots of really interesting things thrown in but the language, which is very descriptive, every single sentence, takes some getting used to and sometimes it's just too much and a bit distracting. That being said, it does fill you up with location and setting bringing the mountains to almost literal life.

I think this one will get a lot of buzz once it's out in a few days. While reading it, I definitely thought it would make a fantastic movie. The author is definitely a talented writer despite my love-hate with the descriptive writing.

I loved the folklore medicine used by Granny May, she is a wonderful character. The characters come alive and are wonderfully developed. This one will stick with me for some time.

A 1950’s Southern story that takes place in the land of tobacco, moonshine a gun-toting grandma and a snake-handling preacher in the rural hills of North Carolina. Rory is my favorite of the author’s characters, a young man who has recently come home from the Korean war carrying baggage, left with haunting nightmares and a wooden leg. He’s been raised by his folk healer, gun-toting grandma “Granny May”. Rory does his best in this world of bootlegging, stock-car racing and backwoods tradition. I was impressed by the author’s depiction of this conflicted young man, his interpretation of time and place, and his choice of characters. Very well done.
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Another expedition into the underside of the South by a writer who has a definite feel for the disenfranchised. Rory is a disabled vet who has returned home to the North Carolina mountains. He's dealing with a lot of issues not the least of which involve his family history. The story is told in alternating voices- the other being his grand mother Granny May, who holds the key to the secrets which loom large here. I suspect Brown is a love-him-or-hate-him author. His prose is fairly spare and the novels are character driven. This isn't my favorite of his books (that's Fallen Land) but it's a good introduction. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. For fans of historical fiction and Southern noir.

I really enjoyed Gods of Howl Mountain. Set in North Carolina's mountains in the 1950s, Taylor Brown explores the lives of a returning veteran of the Korean War and those making a living in the harsh mountain settings. Underlying the violence and constant conflict of the revenue men is the mystery surrounding a violent episode years earlier.

The novel draws a reader in quickly. At some point, transitions were a little choppy and I wasn't sure immediately what point of view was being told but other than this the book was well-written. Generations of trauma are exposed and untangled. Mountain culture and the culture of small communities lie at the heart of this book. I learned a lot about some of the superstitions of people in this area, and this was fascinating to me as so many insular communities have their own superstitions and beliefs.

As I mentioned, there is an underlying current of past trauma that is constantly rearing its head in the character's present day lives. As the novel progressed, I wasn't sure if this was ever to be resolved, and that added to the tension of the novel. I had a hard time putting the book down. The author did a great job of pulling everything together. There were multiple intricate story lines in play, and all of the threads were woven together by the end of the book. It's really impressive that everything was tied up, and not just in a convenient way. The ending made sense, and that is not always a common thing. I would really recommend picking up this novel.

4.5 stars

Wow!! Talk about being able to set a scene and paint a picture. I’ve never read anything by Taylor Brown before. But we are talking some serious wordsmithing here.

The North Carolina Mountains of the 1950s are their own world. It’s a world of bootleggers, snake handling preachers, racing and herbalists. Rory Docherty now sports a wooden leg from his time in the Korean War but that doesn’t stop him from running bootleg whiskey in his 1940 Ford coupe. His grandmother is an herbalist who’s been compared to a witch. She calls herself an old woman but I do the math and realize she’s younger than me. But she’s lived a hard life. “Death presided over these lands like an entity itself, a thousand shreds of the same dread spirit just looking for an opening, a wound or weakness of character. Once in, it was tough to get out.”

It’s not necessarily a fast paced book. But enough going on to keep your interest. Flashbacks to The Korean War give you Rory’s backstory. And chapters about Rory’s mother are interspersed with the more current story. And when things really wind up at the end, it’s all you can do to hang on.

My thanks to netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advance copy of this book.