The Great Recession, wars and political unrest left scars on the town of New Canaan, an unremarkable and stagnant town trapped in a gridlock of apathy and economic loss. New Canaan became a living ghost town, its inhabitants shells of empty potential.

Four former classmates will come together once again, each with their own baggage, heartaches, shortcomings and histories of time spent away from their hometown. Their stories are chaotic, dark and their souls are lost in disillusionment. (Did they expect that life owed them something for existing?)

OHIO by Stephen Markley is by far one of the darkest and most depressing tales of a slice of America’s life as I have ever read. The writing is fabulous, but I found myself so caught up in the atmosphere, that my skin was crawling one minute and the next, I was almost overpowered by the depressing state of affairs.

Did I like the characters, um, only a couple of them. I admit, I struggled to continue at some points, but always the turmoil would suck me back until the emotional toilets were flushed and overflowing.

All in all, a read that one will love or hate with very few caught straddling the fence, especially if you find that relatable hook to your own memories and confusions or disillusionments about what you thought life would hold for you.

I received a complimentary ARC edition from Simon & Schuster!

Publisher: Simon & Schuster (August 21, 2018)
Publication Date: August 21, 2018
Genre: Fiction | Mystery
Print Length: 496 pages
Available from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble
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This is an amazing debut novel with mesmerizing prose. Markley portrays life in a small town encompassing both the beauty and the tragedy. An honest narrative of an American's daily life with all the trials and problems that can occur and do, which are not always discussed or depicted so realistically in fiction. This is the story of five twenty-somethings return to their small town for the funeral of one of their classmates killed in Iraq and how the economy has affected each of them and their small community life as well. This was a huge reality check with nothing sugar-coated. Amazing book to read! Highly recommend this one!

At times a three and at times a five, I settled on four. I had quite a hard time getting into this, but it eventually dragged me under with it. Not until about a quarter through the second vignette though. If you are not willing to do the thinking and put in the work and swallow the angst, this book is not for you.

Dark and sad with some really poetic lines I kept wanting to take snapshots of.

Free copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a different read than I usually choose to enjoy. It is the book I'd have carried around in my bag, I never had a purse, to read on the bus, or the subway, or while waiting in line. This is the type of book that fills you up while reading

I feel so conflicted about Ohio. On the one hand I rated this four stars and immensely enjoyed it. On the other, though, it look me a great deal of the book (honestly, nearly two-thirds) to get to a point where I was remotely interested in what was going on.

For the majority of the book, I just could not get into it. It was wordy and, frankly, terribly boring. Once the novel picked up for me, some time in the section on Dan Eaton, the story picked up steam and was able to manage a strong ending for me. I can't pinpoint a reason as to why the story picked up for me, but it think the last chunk of the book the story felt different. It was if the author had truly found his voice and the story found its grove.

While Goodreads says Ohio is both a murder mystery and social critique (and both are true), I couldn't agree more with it being a social critique. Ohio is a realistic character study. Each character's section provides a deep insight into who they really are. It was impressive to read each section, gather more information about each character, and see how so interwoven their lives were. The level of detail the author was able to maintain throughout the book was pretty awesome.

Though I feel Ohio had its flaws, I was still left having really enjoyed the book. I feel like this book won't be for everyone, but the ones that like it will do so intensely. Trigger warnings abound, there are disturbing and intense scenes throughout the book.

I wanted to like this book, the plot sounded very interesting. However, the writing style was not very good. I don't know if this is Mr. Markley's style or if this is because it is his first novel, but he is trying way too hard. The writing is clunky and quite comical at times. His use of metaphors are quite distracting. I can kind of understand the hype because of the topics this novel tries to tackle, but it just doesn't work. Also, his writing when involving female characters is sophomoric at best and something you would find from some high school boy in a creative writing class. I would not not recommend this book, as the themes and plot are somewhat interesting and others may not be distract, as I was, over the clunky writing. Looking forward to his future writing.

Does a dysfunctional town make for dysfunctional residents? Or do dysfunctional people make a dysfunctional town? The characters in this novel easily fit the "basket of deplorable's" category.

This is a gritty, harsh novel filled with irredeemable characters. It was a difficult book to read and the further I got into it the less I liked the way the novel was heading.

Set in New Canaan, Ohio around a group of people who went to school together and now, years after graduation - they have left and returned, and none of them have improved. The chapters are long and sometimes rambling, it could have been edited a bit to make this painful read go a bit quicker.

The ending is a bit far fetched, I won't give away any of the details, but it is not plausible.

I would have given this book 2-stars, but I think it is the perfect view of what's happening in America today... which makes it all the more horrifying.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for this ARC in return for my honest review.

Ohio follows four high school classmates who cross paths in their hometown on a random night 10 years after graduation. The book is told from multiple points of view, and rather than using frequent point-of-view shifts, Markley gives each character a long section of the book. Details surface and resurface to form a clear picture by the end.

I found much of this book uncomfortable. Most of the characters aren’t successful by typical standards. Many were successful — i.e. attractive and popular — in high school but now lead lives no one would envy. Many people who grew up in small towns will relate. Ohio captures the nostalgia, regression, and sometimes depression that comes with a visit to one’s hometown and high school friends.

Markley could’ve gone all-in on this aspect of the story: the characters’ journeys, and the effects this town had on those trajectories. Instead, the book is billed — and at least partially written — as a political statement about towns like New Canaan, Ohio in the year 2018. The subtle power of this statement is lost when Markley uses his fiction, especially character monologues, as political essay.

At the end, I felt bummed to leave New Canaan and its characters behind. The plot wanders here and there. Markley indulges in long tangents to explore issues more relevant to the current point-of-view character than the plot as a whole. To read this book is to spy on its characters’ lives more than it is to experience a cohesive story. The end crept up on me.

Despite its length, Ohio hooked me in more and more as I read it. Each character’s section felt unique and genuine. I appreciated that not all the primary characters received their own point of view on the page. This gave me time to get to know the point of view characters more intimately, and thus get invested in their lives.

So -- to read or not to read? Ohio is long, especially for a debut novel. It can also get very wordy and overwritten at times. Not all the characters are likeable. Some do terrible things on purpose, others by accident. If you’re looking for quick or plot-heavy read, this is not for you. If you’re seeking literary fiction with challenging characters, this is one to read.

Thank you Net Gallery and Simon Shuster for allowing me to read Ohio by Stephen Markley. Mr. Markley did a fantastic job with this one and I believe this is his first book. Please write more.

This is a story about friends Bill, Tina, Stacey, and Dan. In this book the story jumps back n forth from high school to present day. As they meet up they learn fates of high school friends, some who died in Afghanistan, some who survived, some who went crazy, deaths, you get the idea.

I loved this book other than the graphic sex and horror of war. This is well written with lovable characters in New Canaan, Ohio. This whole body of this novel is so good, so interesting whether haunting, funny, shocking. Some of the friends click and some are out for revenge. This book talks a lot about war, drugs, love lost and revenge. I recommend this mystery with as in the synopsis a shocking climax. I'm so glad I requested Ohio from Net Gallery. This may be a long book but it's oh oh oh so gooooooood. You will be turning these pages.

Thanks again Cherie'

This is a big book- maybe too big. There is a back story and reunion and an unveiling of long held secrets. It is both a great description of life in a small town, but sometimes more description than moving the story along.
I liked it and didn't like it, it took a while to really get going with it, but there were some satisfying parts.
Try it.

This new millennium has been a rough one for America. Just one year in and a few men with boxcutters wounded us. We realized the oceans did not make us invulnerable. Our reaction was malpractice and we have not recovered. The most powerful and costly military in human history is mired in an endless war with impoverished people using improvised weapons. Unable to win a clear victory, our impotence is exposed. Our once vibrant economy has been hollowed out along with our institutions and infrastructure. The recession erased the accumulated wealth of generations of middle-class families. Corporate control of government has left ordinary Americans struggling and disillusioned. Ridden with anxiety they self-medicate with meth, crack, and heroin. The bonds of community have been eroded by the cults of the prosperity gospel and self-help–atomizing doctrines of alienation and anomie. Those of us who came of age before 2000 remember a very different country. In Ohio, Stephen Markley composes a literary symphony to the generation who came of age as America began to fail.

Ohio begins with a parade to honor Rick Brinklan, the local hero who died in the war. This short prelude is a poetic introduction to the town of New Canaan (The Cane) and its people. It reminded me of “The Things They Carried,” the incomparable short story by Tim O’Brien with the short sentences propulsively driving the details of the people and the place. In the prelude, Markley warns us his story will take us for a ride, “It’s hard to say where any of this ends or how it ever began, because what you eventually learn is that there is no such thing as linear.”

The heart of the Ohio symphony is the four long narrative movements that tell the stories of Bill Ashcroft, the disillusioned activist silencing his demons with alcohol and pills; Stacey Moore, the lesbian fundamentalist apostate longing for her first love Lisa Han whose passion for life runs deep through the book; Dan Eaton, the romantic wounded by endless war and lost love; and Tina Ross, a struggling WalMart worker tortured by memories of the past. They weave memories of high school with the present as they travel to New Canaan from their individual exile.

Their coming home is not a reunion, it’s a syzygy, a conjunction of three or more celestial bodies in orbit of New Canaan. They scattered after graduation and while their lives still orbit New Canaan from very different distances, it’s just synchronicity that brings them into alignment. But what beautiful synchronicity.

Ohio ends with a coda that expands on a motif that appeared in every movement, the local folklore, a legend they all discount. It all brings us to “that eternal moment the prophets all gossip about: when you see the whole span of yourself, how astonishing and alive you were.” It is a devasting conclusion to this great opus.

I read 200 or more good books a year and I am confident Ohio will be the best book I read this year. I am pretty sure it will fit comfortably into the list of the 100 best books in my lifetime and I read 200 or more books a year. Markley captures the zeitgeist of America, the fears and hopes, the diverging passions, and the dramatic cultural changes in his characters’ narratives. It is one of those sprawling books that takes us everywhere and brings us back home, exhausted and devastated by the pain and loss–the diminishment of hope, but also invigorated by the love, strength, and humanity.

I was initially drawn to Ohio by its cover. The lighting reminded me of Edward Hopper’s “Nighthawks” which signaled a humane sensibility and at its core, Ohio is humane, filled with compassion for its people. Or as Stacey Moore realized, “How quickly contempt can dissipate when faced with the pathetic humanness of another person. You see inside them for even the briefest moment and suddenly empathy blows through. A dark sky cleared by a hard rain.”

Ohio is beautifully written. I suppose some people will think it is over-written. Sometimes the words come together with such deliberate care that I stopped simply to savor the composition. I am one of those who is happy to be interrupted in my progress through a story to savor how its words come together. If you have ever lived where snow lasted for months, the descriptive perfection of “scabs of melting snow” will ring true. The writing is often visually beautiful, “He could see for a hundred miles in every direction, from the burlap plains to the peaks and ridges that looked like bones breaking through the skin of the earth.” More than anything, though, Markley’s writing is muscular. It is active with strong and specific verbs. I love how he uses verbs as in when Ashcroft recalls his high school friends and “what a web of truly vexing remembrance these aging boys had constellated within him.” Wow!

There is this sweet sadness when I finish a book as powerful as Ohio. The pleasure of reading is tempered by the knowledge I will never discover it for the first time again. That moment of surprise that feels like I have struck a vein of pure gold is replaced by remembrance. I envy those who will soon be reading Ohio and their thrill of discovery.

Ohio will be released August 21st. I received advance reading copies from the publisher through NetGalley and Shelf Awareness. Why both? I entered the Shelf Awareness, but thought I was unlikely to win, so I requested at NetGalley and I was lucky because this book is going to be on my all-time favorites list for a long time.

Ohio at Simon & Schuster
Stephen Markley author site
Walter Benjamin on “The Concept of History” (The essay Dan Eaton quotes.”

I was given an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review.

I took turns enjoying and hating this book. It really does a wonderful job of evoking how miserable small towns can be and what happens to people who stick around past the expiration date. However it would just wallow in this intense dudeliness, where there would be passages describing the bodies and sexualities of young girls from a completely male-gaze perspective with intermittent attempts to writefrom the girls point of you in the ways that just seems completely flat and dehumanized. Many male writers struggle to capture the interiors of women, this guy doesn’t even try. The women in this book our intern the hot evil blonde, the hot sex-mad Asian girl, the popular blonde turned lesbian, and the hot Christian girl who has been filmed being assaulted by friends of the male protagonists- The main protagonist lack of emotion towards this is meant to steam artistically jaded, but it just comes off as sleazy. I don’t think the writer fully understands that he is describing rape- It’s not that the narrators are unreliable – I really don’t think that the writer understands that part fully. This attempt to capture methed-out midwestern Gothic really is just a unknowing testament to all the problems of the #metoo era. Depressing. Makes me not want to talk to dudes for a good long time

A sprawling storyline, covering numerous characters over a couple of decades. There are mysteries and secrets here, and some satisfying and unexpected resolutions.

At times the digressions felt too forced and a bit too long--the present-day story was compelling, and that's what I wanted to return to sooner. An impressive debut.

The biggest problem I had with this book was that it started off so slow and uninteresting that it sold itself short. The prelude is hard to follow, and the full weight and ideas behind it don't reveal themselves until a hundred or so pages later; and then Bill's section (really its own novella, as each character's section is) is confusing and boring, featuring the least likeable of the four narrators to get things going. Sure, his ideas about his hometown and his politics and his aimlessness and his struggles are setting the foundation for everyone else we are introduced to, but I was put off by the style and characterization right away, so much so that I almost stopped reading. Thankfully, I didn't, because Stacey's section and those that followed were much stronger, with better, more concise writing and even some semblance of a plot.

Overall, I ended up really liking about half this book.

Ohio by Stephen Markley was such an unexpected read. .This is a book that I have already started to read again. During the first chapter I was thinking i would never complete this story but once i committed to it I was hooked. These characters are all so real and likable even at their worst moments. These people are bound together in friendships that are dysfunctional, loving, real and tragic. A work of fiction, this could actually be any town USA and any people from the past or present. Teenage lives are so inexplicable these days and the author sheds some light onto some of the problems kids face. Where is the line between reality and fantasy? I feel as though it blurs more every decade. Couple the world events of the last decade with teenage idealism throw in some politics and you touch the surface of what this novel is about but it is also so much more. I think it would be so amazing to hear high school age reader respective's on this novel.

Between Little Fires Everywhere, The Comedown, and Ohio, I'm on a streak of reading books set in Ohio. This is a debut novel and the premise grabbed me: former classmates come back to their hometown in northeastern Ohio, each with their own demons. This novel is dark. There's a bit of a mystery layered under social commentary, and I did enjoy the author's viewpoint. The setting really came to life- and it made me understand how tempting yet difficult it might be to walk away from ones' hometown. I thought the characters were so believable, and perhaps, this might be what made it not such a joy to read. I hate to admit it, but sometimes I have trouble with books that are too dark and that bring me too far into reality. Still, this book was incredibly authentic and well done, and the characters will stick with me. I just wouldn't say that I'd like to visit them again.

I was given an advanced copy of this title in exchange for an honest review. This book was so very well written. It captivated me the entire time!

I didn't finish this book, and that's very rare for me.

From the beginning, reading this book was difficult. The author uses very descriptive language, with some sentences going on for half a page or more. Despite the style, I kept reading, hoping the storyline or characters would be engaging, even though the writing style was not.

Unfortunately, none of the characters are likable, and I just couldn't continue in this book that seemed mostly about drugs and sex and reminiscing about high school and "better days".

Real. Dark but so real. The generation depicted in this novel have truly inherited an evil, dark land. War, recession, opiates, suicide, addiction, anxiety, social media, it all contributes. This book should be required reading. It's not a novel, my mistake, it's literature.

This book is not for the faint of heart. It is gritty and, at times, disturbing. Despite this, the author also captures the beauty and value of life. The structure allows the reader to follow four different lives, and then deftly intertwines them in an ending that surprises, even when you see what's coming.