There is a brutality to this book that I struggle to stomach. Additionally, the writing format is so reader unfriendly; I felt dizzy. I am a highly sensitive reader, so while I could recommend this to some, I would not recommend it to readers similar to me.

This is going to be an unpopular opinion and I usually don't mind trauma heavy reads. In fact, I loved A Little Life but what was lacking for me here was a storyline. I felt like this was just trauma without a cause. It came across as 'how much trauma can we cram into 200 pages?' I also felt the prose was trying to hard to compensate for that. There just wasn't enough depth and substance here to support whatever it was the author was trying to convey. I didn't feel connected to any of these characters on an emotional level to have any empathy and just wanted it to be over.

I was immediately engrossed by this book's prose, which feels emotive and singular to this author's voice. The story is a devastating portrait of a tight-knit pack of teens relying on each other for survival while barreling down a path of self-destruction. It's compelling and unforgettable and I'll definitely keep an eye out for whatever C. Mallon writes next.

This book was sent to me with two packs of tissue, and I think that needed to be at least doubled. I am WRECKED! Well done, C. Mallon.

C. Mallon created an atmospheric bleakness to 'Dogs' that felt raw and exhaustingly real. The emotional and trauma filled experiences that we follow really drew me in and made this such a quick read. Unfortunately, the formatting on this one detracted from the overall enjoyment - not sure if it was stylistic or a weird formatting issue on my kindle as can be common with ebook arcs.

Thank you NetGalley and Scribner for the arc.

I gave this book 3 stars. It was a tough read and tragic but very well done. My biggest complaint would be the format of the writing it felt like there weren't breaks in the paragraphs or sentences. But the writing was beautiful!

A visceral stream of consciousness that redefines bleak, #dogs gets the “little life” award for book you most need to take a Karen Silkwood shower after reading. Now perhaps I’m not in the head space to read about more young people doing drugs and behaving badly, after finishing Clune’s “Pan” right before. And look, I like bleak, I can even revel in it. Hell, I was one of the original Willem and Jude fan boys. But Hal, in C. Mallon’s debut, in less than one hundred pages, began to push the limits for a series of unfortunate events that are brick upon brick, and left me just hollowed out and sad. Mallon writes the book without chapters or even paragraphs occasionally breaking the momentum with a space on the page dropping you into Hal’s world, his raw emotion, his violent temper and his aching heart.

The first person narrative is written with an almost detached removal that to its credit gets easier to follow as this group of friends and their relationship to Hal begins to gel. There might be a benefit for reading this in one go, but I struggled a lot with it at first and found myself only able to read 25-30 pages at a clip. I can say definitively the writing is stunning which made me ponder the idea of admiring the craft while sitting in discomfort. I just wasn’t ready for eloquently written trauma.

This is a very raw novel, which is both its strength and its weakness. The writing is powerful but uneven, at times exhausting. When it does hit the mark, it hits it hard with a lot of emotion and compassion, but other times it feels like it’s just spinning its wheels.

This is the best new book I have read this year. The masculinity presented in this title is written so well. I could not look away. I never annotate and I was highlighting like crazy.

Be careful dipping your toes into this one because you’ll quickly find yourself fully immersed in a brutal yet tender story of one catastrophic day in the lives of five teenage wrestlers. This was a quick read, under 200 pages, but there is so much raw beauty and pain packed into these pages that I found myself alternating between rereading passages in awe of the writing but also desperately wanting to look away. This book is not going to be for the most sensitive readers, but I found it to be a truly unique perspective that was not gratuitous in its dark subject matter.

Thank you to NetGalley and Scribner for the opportunity to be an early reader of this title!

Thank you NetGalley and Scribner for the ARC!

I think Dogs will work for a lot of readers, but it just didn’t for me. The story is emotional and trauma-heavy, but the formatting made it nearly impossible to stay engaged, pages and pages of unbroken text with barely any punctuation or spacing. I understand it was an artistic choice, but it pulled me out constantly.

On top of that, the “catastrophic night” takes so long to arrive that when it finally does, it feels underwhelming. A shame, because the core story is excellent.

Thank you to #NetGalley and #Scribner for the opportunity to read and review #Dogs by C. Mallon. I crushed this novel over the course of two days and it, in turn, crushed me right back. I knew that I was in for an emotional ride based on the synopsis but felt emotionally and somewhat mentally altered after finishing it. That said, I'm glad I did.

The book, in its presentation, is written as prose poetry - full of imagery and metaphors.. Memorable lines like "Choking on horror. He sat in the dirt and he wept" and "I wanted everything red all the time. I wanted my own bright, terminal planet of October." are notable enough to quote and I love this type of writing. Readers who have known deep pain will relate to lines like "He was coming down and he was mad about it, face fixed and dark as a stormcloud. His body was quivering. He looked like a glitch in a videogame. He looked like a serious problem." Powerful and effective.

But there is no happiness, and little joy, in this book. It vibrates with hurt people hurting other people and was therefore tough to consume. I have a professional/personal background in a number of the dynamics inherent in the novel and it made my heart break for the main character but also for practically every other character in the book. Even the non-metaphorical dogs are strangely beautiful but deeply flawed outsiders. I also had to remind myself, repeatedly, that this was all a first-person narrative of a young man who had, in one profound statement, "been saying goodbye for a long time."

The lesson within Dogs is that nobody can save another person if they do not want to be saved.

There is a concept in the mental health field that a person steeped in shame and self-destruction must acknowledge and eventually understand (usually with the help and care of others) that while they are the source of mistakes made, damages done, and pains caused, that they, themselves, are not inherently "THE mistake." Resilience is built by walking through really hard and disturbing things and the person must eventually feel worthy of love and forgiveness. Unfortunately, Hal has not been able to truly receive (and feel) the intermittent goodness of others and this novel is his stream of consciousness (his self-destruction) while reflecting on a particular before and after moment involving a motor vehicle accident. This is a deeply felt and effectively delivered account of trauma.

Hal ultimately could not demonstrate what many trauma=based protagonists do: that nobody is beyond redemption. The idea that "hurt" people "hurt other people" while living in chaos and acting out in self-destruction harms others is present throughout.

This novel will appeal to and resonate with many readers. And I believe the people with whom it will resonate (as shown by the reviews) will find what they were looking for.

Utterly devastating and tragic. I was not prepared! 5/5 stars and I am looking forward to other books by this author in the future!

An emotional story that gets a bit bogged down by the style. I think a lot of readers could love this one, but I don't know that the way it's told is going to be appealing to the majority. It's definitely heavy on the trauma, so go in prepared.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

I desperately needed punctuation and spacing. I understand an artistic choice but it distracted so much from the story, which was truly excellent.

I'm part of the minority, I guess. But I think it's a valid reason to stop reading when the book has no paragraphs at all, just pages and pages of words, sentence until suddenly there's a break, then it goes back to being like that again. I even thought maybe it was a reading format issue, but it wasn’t. It’s such a shame. If this is ever revised, maybe I’ll continue reading. But for now, it’s a DNF. Please consider editing the formatting of this book.

An interesting, beautifully written story about how one night can change everything. I found the pacing a little off at times but I was completely taken with the story regardless.

I hate to be in the minority, but Dogs was a disappointing read for me. Going in, all I knew was that it “traces the fallout of one catastrophic night” which sounded promising and full of emotional depth. However, the execution fell short. The entire story was laced with an almost overwhelming sense of foreboding, where even the smallest actions—like running a stop sign or lighting a cigarette—were written with such weight that I kept anticipating a life-altering event around every corner. Instead, most of the night felt routine and unremarkable, making the eventual “catastrophic” moment, which doesn’t occur until nearly three-quarters of the way through, feel underwhelming and emotionally flat. Despite the slow burn and carefully crafted tension, I found myself disconnected from the characters and unmoved by the climax. I can see how others might find value in its subtlety or realism, but unfortunately, it just wasn’t my cup of tea. For that reason, I’m giving it 2 stars.

I hate to be in the minority but I really did not enjoy Dogs. All I knew going into it was that “Dogs traces the fallout of one catastrophic night in the lives of five high school wrestlers.” Every little moment set me on edge waiting for the night to turn “catastrophic.” From running a stop sign, to just the act of smoking a cigarette in a car that seemed like it was written to explode. But the night also seemed like a typical one for these kids.

I was fine with all of this and the writing style, until I came upon a sentence that started “Laminar flow set to foam on the tarmac…” This really annoyed since it was being poetic and cinematic for the sake of it and is clearly just the wrong use of laminar flow (I am a fluid dynamic physicist).

I really don’t understand why authors use words they don’t understand the meaning of. This sentence was emblematic of the book as a whole. He could have still been poetic and written something along the lines of, “Runoff foamed on the tarmac, sloughed down through the storm drain, and breached the low creek bed.” Why use terms you don’t know the meaning of?

I love this style, but it felt forced due to misuse of words, such as when he compared the flavor of a drink to both saltwater and heavy cream. Well which is it?! Those taste nothing alike!!

The “catastrophic” event finally happened at 73% of the way in, and I couldn’t have cared less.

I am sorry that this was not my cup of tea. I also did not mind that the dialogue was never technically spoken, but the constant “he said” or this person “said” got frustrating. Isn’t there another word for “said?” Maybe “uttered” or “exclaimed?” Anything?

Thank you to C. Mallon, NetGalley, Scribner, and Simon & Schuster for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

emotional from start to finish and filled with some really effective writing. would definitely recommend. 5 stars. tysm for the arc.