The End Games, by T. Michael Martin

The End Games by T. Michael Martin

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Even though at first glance it may look like your standard YA zombie novel, The End Games, at its heart, is a story of the lies we tell ourselves just to get from one day, one trial, to the next. All of the characters have one, from the 5 year old who needs his big brother to lead him to the cult leader who needs hope to survive a horrible loss. It was only after I finished the book that the thread among all the characters became apparent.

Being from WV, the setting was especially evocative. Because, let's face it, most former coal towns look like the apocalypse hit. How could you tell the difference between a community that hasn't seen new jobs in 20 years where anyone with any sort of spark left the day after high school graduation, and one where 9/10 of the residents died gruesome deaths and the rest are holed up with shotguns behind boarded up windows?

I'm already looking forward to Martin's next work.




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Salvation on Sand Mountain

Salvation on Sand Mountain: Snake-Handling and Redemption in Southern Appalachia by Dennis Covington

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


As a child in a fundamentalist, independent Baptist church in West Virginia, snake handling churches were given as a cautionary tale about misinterpreting the Word of God and worship being too theatrical. (At the other end of the Continuum of Batshit was the Catholic church, for their pomp and circumstance, idols, Mary worship, and infant baptism.) So, I was very curious about this inside look at the snake handling culture. And what an inside look it was -- Covington became almost a de facto member of the community, and indeed handled snakes himself during worship services. Nonetheless, he remained seemingly objective about the foibles of his subjects, although that may have been a result of writing retrospectively after those ties were broken. Worth the read if you're interested in the Protestant sects of the U.S.



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