(I received a free copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.)

The year is 1953. Disgraced in the psychiatric hospital where he’d practiced for nearly thirty years, Dr. Walter Freeman has taken to traversing the country and proselyting about a very new kind of salvation: the transorbitol lobotomy.
With an ice pick and a hammer, Freeman promises to cure depression and catatonia, delusions and psychosis, with a procedure as simple and safe as curing a toothache.
When he enters the backwater Oklahoma town of Burnwood, however, his own sanity will be tested. Around him swirls a degenerate and delusional cast of characters—a preacher who believes his son to be the Messiah, a demented and violent young prostitute, and a trio of machete-wielding brothers—all weaved into a grotesque narrative that reveals how blind faith in anything can lead to destruction.

*2.5 stars*

This is a hard review for me. One of the biggest things I love about reading are the characters. I like to cheer for them, or hate them with a passion. I want them to succeed, or fail...

...rarely do I just wish they would all just die.

And, for me, that is my biggest issue with this book. The characters are just plain annoying. There doesn't appear to be a redemptive story among either of the three main characters, nor do any of them seem to fulfil a journey across the length of the book.

As for the rest...well, the plot hooked me early but by the time I got mid-way, I was starting to count the pages. It seemed to take the foot of the pedal so it could paint yet another depressing, moody picture that really did nothing to move the story. I guess what I am saying is - I just didn't see the point of this book.

And that makes me kind of sad...I wanted to love it!


Paul
ARH