Thank you to Del Rey books for giving me an arc of this book!
First of all content warning for animal death and just gruesome deaths in general for this book. This book is one of the bloodiest and most gruesome books I have ever read. It almost makes one want to go vegetarian out of fear of running into this pig named Pearl.
Characters- I think there were way too many characters in this book. If we had focused on the farmer's family and Bob Buck, I think this would have been a more solid novel. The inclusion of the teenagers I felt wasn't necessary more than a chapter or two in my opinion.
Atmosphere- The atmosphere was great in my opinion. I enjoyed the setting of the farm and the closed off feeling it gives. This was definitely a strong point for the novel.
Writing- The story did feel all over the place with the multitude of characters. Shrink the number of characters and tighten up the story.
Plot- Plot was also kind of all over the place as well with the multitude of characters and their stories. I wanted to know more about Bob Buck and his grudge against Pearl. Or we could have gone down traditional horror movie tropes by following the teenagers the entire book. Or it could have been a sort of family drama focusing on the farmer and his family.
Intrigue- I was intrigued with how this pig came to be, but that wasn't fully explained beyond the pig having a near death experience. Bob Buck was interesting too but nothing really came out of his storyline.
Logic- There wasn't enough explanation for why this pig is the way that he is or why he does the things he does.
Enjoyment- I didn't love the novel but I found it to be a strange ride. Ended up on 3 stars. There's some good concepts but in execution I felt it was lacking.

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House Publishing-Ballantine, and Josh Malerman for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was a very, very unique experience. The premise is simple. This is a book about an evil pig. It’s a clever allegory on the way we treat animals as well as where our food comes from.
Mr. Malerman is unendingly clever. His writing style is uniquely his and always enjoyable. This book is a great example of how he can do a lot with very little. I have read a few reviews that say that this book is a rerelease of one he has already published. This book, full of disturbing visuals and awful characters, was new to me. The main antagonist, Pearl the pig, is about as creepy as it gets. Pearl is not some pig, radiant, or humble. Pearl is no Wilbur. Pearl is telepathic, very intelligent, and focused on revenge. He can cause humans to commit acts of violence, not only commit them, but want to commit them. The horror in this book is visceral and relentless. It gave me the shivers and I loved every minute of it.

I am now officially, absolutely, a fan of Josh Malerman (though I still need to read Bird Box).
This story is a republication, though I couldn't find a copy of the original anywhere.
What if Charlotte's Web's Wilbur didn't need the help of a kindly spider friend to weave webs for him? What if he could do it himself?
This story grabs a hold of you and doesn't let go. In a farming community named Chowder, not far from Goblin Michigan, there lives on Kopple farm a pig named Pearl. Pearl has been waiting and learning and now he (yes, a boy pig named Pearl) is ready to take over. At first I felt that Pearl was the embodiment of evil, but as the story goes on it is a bit sad. Pearl's perspective on events are a little different than you may think. And I am glad we are given flashbacks through Pearl's eye, on events that shaped him.
Thank you to Del Rey for the invitation to request this e-ARC on Netgalley.

Pigs finally get their say in Josh Malerman's Pearl. The pigs we meet in Pearl are not like the pigs we've come to know and love in children's literature. Wilbur, Olivia and Piglet don't live on this too typical farm where cruelty prevails. The pigs vengeance comes as a welcome relief to a bacon laden society where daily we are treated to yet more ways to use and abuse the world around us. What's next, bacon toothpaste?

PEARL was an absolute delight! My favorite Malerman novel so far. This was an extremely wild ride from start to finish, with plenty of twists and turns along the way. I loved the way the story unfolded by switching between the present and past views of various characters. Once again, Malerman has taken an unbelievable topic and turned it into a believable plot. I won’t hesitate to recommend this to anyone looking for something with a bit of shock value.

This is a different type of book. I was instantly pulled into the story and found myself thinking about it after I was done. Great story!

Three stars from me, which in Goodreads lingo means, "I liked it!" When looking at others' reviews for this book, several of my fellow readers seem to be disgruntled (grunt - pigs, get it!?) readers due to Pearl being a re-release of On This, the Day of the Pig. However, I had not previously read On This, the Day of the Pig so I went into reading Pearl with a fresh pair of eyes and an open mind, and I came out on the other side unjaded. I would highly recommended Pearl and / or On This, the Day of the Pig to anyone who a) wants something that's just a bit different from their usual read and b) likes books such as Animal Farm, Babe, Charlotte's Web, etc. - essentially, any book where the pig is the protagonist.

Malerman is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors, right up there with Stephen King and Neil Gaiman (my #1 and #2, respectively). As I have written in previous reviews of Malerman's works, what attracts me the most to his writing, whether I love it, like it, or dislike it, is his unique and evolving style. When I read a Malerman, I do NOT feel like it's a one and done / once you've read one of his books, you've read them all scenario. I love that each of his stories is so very different. I will continue to request his books as I am constantly on the lookout for his latest! As always, thank you for the chance to read this in advance.

This horror novel is centered on Walter Kopple's farm and one particular pig named Pearl. The story starts with one of Walter's grandsons killing another pig on the farm and tells everyone he heard a voice telling him to kill the pig and that voice belongs to Pearl and that killing was just the first of many to come.

TW/CW: Animal death, animal abuse

This is the third Josh Malerman book I've read (others were A House at the Bottom of a Lake and Goblin - reviews linked for those) and while those were pretty creepy and a little spooky at times, I found Pearl to be pretty much straight-up horror. Malerman does not hold back - we get death and gore and terror right on the page. I can't speak for other readers, but I remember being shocked when I found out that pigs aren't the cute pink little herbivores that children's picture books make them out to be and this book really plays up that fact (other examples of pigs being used for murder/body disposal include Hannibal by Thomas Harris - as well as the 2001 movie by the same name - and season 4 episode 25 of Criminal Minds). I found the gore elements to be really visceral but not overly descriptive or drawn out so it didn't feel overdone or for pure shock value. There are also psychological and supernatural horror elements to the story which I really enjoyed although some of those elements are where I got a bit confused (and will be discussed later). There is also a really nice atmosphere of creeping dread during the lead up to the events where we see how unsettling Pearl has been to just about everyone who has ever met him. Malerman does an excellent job at showing the reader how each character is feeling about Pearl while Pearl just sits and stares at them. Pearl, initially, doesn't look like much of a threat but the reactions and feelings each person has around him are very telling and extremely well executed from a writing perspective. This is a book about a psychic/telekinetic pig who used his powers to exact revenge on the humans around him and it goes all in on that premise.

I really enjoyed the wide array of characters we followed throughout this story. I love Malerman's ability to just jump into a character and quickly catch the reader up on all the information we need to know about them. We are jumping around in between 9 (I think) different characters and while we spend more time with some characters than others, that's still a lot to juggle. I will say we don't get super deep with these characters, but we certainly get deep enough to understand their reactions to the events that unfold during the story. The majority of the story takes place over 1 day which some flashbacks as well as a little jump forward at the end so it makes sense that the reader is jumping all over the narrative to see what each of these characters are doing somewhat simultaneously. The narrative style felt very similar to when there's a big event that happens on the news and they rotate through to different reporters who each are covering one aspect of the event. I usually prefer to have one main POV character and then have the other characters be a little more secondary but in this case, I honestly don't know who I would pick to be my primary character.

The plot is, at its core, a revenge story and I was surprised at the amount of Pearl's backstory and development we got in the story. We don't really see it until the later parts of the story, so most of the time I was reading I sort of was just along for the ride and perfectly okay with not really knowing how or why Pearl developed these abilities. However, I did like the reveal of how Pearl came to be Pearl because we know how he ends up. The reader knows how the shit hits the fan so when we see the little steps that Pearl took along the way, it is really interesting how it all comes together. I also found it interesting how Pearl used his powers on his fellow animals and not just people which made the story more widely scary and makes the reader less likely to want Pearl to win. The story was giving me big Animal Farm X Carrie vibes and I do wish we got a bit more of Pearl's plans or his goals before it went completely off the rails.

Where the book lost me a bit was at about the 60% mark where we see a new side to Pearl's abilities that took me out of the story, in a way. The first half of the story we see how Pearl's abilities work in a certain way and then suddenly there's this big jump in scale that I didn't feel was well explained or really made a whole lot of sense, especially given the ending. It made Pearl's abilities feel a little too convenient for the plot (X character needs to do Y so now suddenly Pearl can do Z in order to make that happen). The ending is similarly bonkers and gives us a different side to Pearl's abilities. I re-read over the last 10% of the book a few times and still feel like something was going over my head so this might just be a me-issue and maybe not a problem for other readers. I think if we saw more of a ramping up of power for Pearl then maybe the new powers would have been easier for me to be on board with but we almost get the opposite where we see Pearl being tired and his powers being stretched thin across too many people so I just ended up a bit confused and my confusion messed with my immersion.

Overall, this was a fantastic horror read that really takes the premise and runs with it. I loved the characters, horror elements, and plot structure. I do think it goes a little too far at times and would have preferred the story to be a little more contained, but overall I think this will be a story that really sticks with me over time.

Thanks to NetGalley and Del Ray Books for the ARC in exchange for review

Expected publication date is October 12, 2021

(previously published in 2019 under the title On this, the Day of the Pig)

I really wanted to like this book, but the story was just not very well written at all. The writing was good. I always feel like Malerman has a style of writing that makes it impossible to put his work down until you've gotten to the very end and know every single detail, but with this one, I found myself very disappointed. It felt almost like, "that's it?" when I was done. I think it would have been much better off as a short story and not a novel.

Pearl was everything I love about horror. Blood, fear of the unknown, and no control. The fact that a PIG has that control made it all the more creepy. The book takes off immediately with 7th grader, Jeff heading to the pig pen with an axe. It's a roller coaster ride going forward.

I struggled midway through the book when the author took us down Pearl's history (background). . The pacing crawled along and was interruptive. At times I wondered if it was because the publisher needed the book to be over 300 pages. Officer Paul Hahn's history with Pearl at the state fair should've been completely removed and Pearl's interactions with slaughterhouse owner, Bob Buck should've been edited. the roller coaster went from careening at 65 MPG to the Flintstone family using their feet to make the plot progress. Once the plot returned to the farmhouse the pace resumed and I was a happy reader.

I also disliked an added storyline of Jeff hallucinating in the farmhouse. Malerman should've taken notes from Stephen King on descriptions of hallucinations in plotlines. Again, too slow and interruptive. Jeff's hallucinations with the pig and his "mother" in the farmhouse should've been removed.

The ending was a disappointment. We're left wondering whether Pearl is alive or dead but even the contemplation of IS PEARL DEAD had me questioning if I was reading it right. I asked myself "is this what Josh Malerman is trying to convey?". This section needed strong editing too. If Pearl is alive then make him alive. No wishy-washy maybe Jeff imagined Pearl's death or maybe he didn't. Honestly, I wanted a violent confrontation. I expected a violent confrontation. A battle of minds vs a 7th grader saving the day and instead I had to reread the section to see if I was "getting it right".

I initially thought this was new Malerman, rather than a re-release of an older work. I'm glad that he's getting more exposure and his previous works are being released to a wider audience, However after A House at the Bottom of a Lake, Goblin and now Pearl, I'm starting to feel duped whenever I pick up a Malerman book. I guess it shouldn't matter if it's new or just new to me.

The story itself is gory and as a reader who doesn't hold that against an author, I enjoyed it. At certain points I wanted it to be over and at others it read like an 80's slasher film. It helps to have an imagination, if you're just reading the words on the page rather than tapping into the Theater of the Mind you'll miss out and I found myself missing out quite a bit.

Pearl by Josh Malerman was received directly from the publisher and I chose to review it. This novella is being re-released for the mass audiences. Pearl is a pig, at least in appearance and mannerisms. Is it mean, is it psychic or even [possibly a demi god? That's what Josh leaves the reader to figure out as we go through this 1970ish creature feature/possession type book that has little to no down time, meaning those of use with short attention spans don't get lost in mind numbing "talk," This is my favorite Malerman book and I cannot recommend it enough with fall and the Halloween season approaching, certainly give it a read.

5 Stars

Josh Malerman is a on my must buy list! This book did not disappoint. Pick up your copy now, you won’t be able to stop reading! Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an arc in exchange for my honest review.

Not what I was expecting, description promised something dark and scary, this was neither. Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book

3 1/2 stars
Pearl is a huge one-eyed hog who usually sits on his haunches like a king looking over his kingdom. Your first mistake is to assume that Pearl is a dumb pig. Your second is to take his calm demeanor as ambivalence. Pearl watches and learns and is able to control the thoughts of those around him making you do things you do not want to do. This, being a horror tale, means a sea of blood and slaughter and outright terror of Pearl for the farmer, his family, and the local population. If JAWS kept you out of the water and CUJO kept you away from dogs, this will keep you away from farm animals forever. My thanks to the publisher for the advance copy.

Thank you to NetGalley for sending me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a DNF for me- which makes it very difficult to review. I didn’t finish as it became very gory and very disturbing very quickly- if you like that, then this is the book for you!

Pearl is about a telepathic pig that can control the thoughts and actions of other pigs and humans, causing them to do terrible and disgusting acts.

Malerman's Pearl (a reprint of the limited release On This, the Day of the Pig) is a unique horror story about a farm, a pig, the family that owns the farm, and the town that comes to be affected by one very dark and brutal day in which things go very wrong. No matter what you're expecting from this book by the title I'm very sure that what you find inside will be very different. At first, I wasn't sure that I was going to really like this one. It was a big departure from Goblin (the only book I'd read by the author until I opened this one) and indeed a departure from most of what Malerman is known for as a writer. Pearl is equal parts gruesome, surreal, campy, and odd, it really wouldn't be wrong to say that's its something of an odd duck for a lot of readers to take on- particularly if they're looking for a more traditional horror book or one who is put off by animals in peril- but, if you can hang in there while you're getting your feet wet you're likely to find that it manages to be an interesting splattery read all the same.

Something is on the family farm. Something that whispers and beckons and makes you do wicked things.

Pigs are among the smartest animals on Earth. Take the biblical idea of demons in swine and combine it with Josh Malerman's superb weirdness and you've got an unlikely combination of 'The Exorcist' and 'Charlotte's Web' pig named Pearl. It sounds ridiculous I know and although it is certainly original, frankly it doesn't get creepy at all until the halfway point. Had it been more focused on possession instead of pig telepathy it might've been more scary. I did like the pearly 'dead eye' and the gore. Most of the book is various characters internal dialogue. Is there such a thing as barnyard horror? Pig-apocalypse? Swinde-control? Barnageddon? It gets three stars for sheer bravado alone and one more for making me like this absurd plotline. Malerman sure knows how to sell a story. Despite "Pearl" being the more marketable title, I actually think "On This, the Day of the Pig" fits this story perfectly. I felt like I was watching a bad horror film (and I love bad old movies fyi). If you're a fan of weird books you might like this one. Stick with it through the end.

"HE'S GOING TO KILL US ALL... but how? He's only... only a pig." <dum dum dummmmm fade to black>

This is horror story at it's greatest. Who knew you should fear farm animals? Great innovative read! Horror at it's best!

QUICK TAKE: dude. this book. if i was you, i would just read it without knowing a SINGLE detail about the story...best to go in without any expectations, because...dude. this book. Did I like it? I think so? I definitely found myself turning pages, but...dude. this book.