“Middleton’s tale is irresistibly gothic”
–Barnes & Noble
“A novel in the Southern Gothic tradition…Darkansas looks like it will live up to its name for sure.”
–BookRiot
“An edgy, modern version of Southern Gothic, with plenty of atmosphere and action.”
–Literary Hub
"A book that deserves many readers, one I suspect will be passed around for many years. ... Middleton’s creepy, crawly sentences are laden with gothic thicket, and the atmosphere he evokes is mystical. … In a memorable and skilled novel, Middleton suggests that there are unexplained mysteries out there, and that their presence may play a heavier hand in our daily lives than we'd like to believe."
–Arkansas Times
“Darkansas is a dark, compelling novel of country noir about a family with a secret past and a curse several generations old... a novel that shares DNA not only with the best contemporary Southern Gothic and country noir authors but also with literary giants like William Faulkner and Cormac McCarthy.”
—Criminal Element
“From the get-go, Middleton grabs readers with an eerie dream about a violent death, a portent of things to come in his page-turning debut about a family’s curse...the book is elevated by Middleton’s prose, especially the rough and textured descriptions of the landscapes and environment.”
—Publishers Weekly
"A well-carved story of a family's curse, as brittle and grotesque as any works in the vein of Faulkner or O'Connor. A subversive twist on Southern myths that's surprisingly rich in its execution."
—Kirkus Reviews
“Finding the right phrase to describe Jarret Middleton’s new novel isn’t easy. It’s a tale of the tensions within a family; it’s the story of that family’s bloody history; and it’s an account of bizarre and uncanny forces heightening existing conflicts and transforming them into something horrific. Classifying this book isn’t easy, but the tense and gripping sensations that reading it sparks are undeniable.”
—Vol 1 Brooklyn
"Old grudges, regrets, jealousy and 150 years of buried secrets.... Bleak, perhaps, but Darkansas also shines with a light of empathy for a family with more than its share of bad luck to go along with its bad genes."
—Shelf Awareness
“The devil didn’t go down to Georgia, he went to Arkansas, where the Bayne family struggle against Beelzebub’s grip on their collective fates. Middleton’s ferocious debut has it all–sex, song, sadness, and a history as dark and twisted as the Ozark hollers that fill these pages. Holy hell, what a book.”
–Peter Geye, author of Wintering
“Gritty, ghostly, poetic...one of the best debuts of the year.”
–Donald Ray Pollock, author of The Heavenly Table
“A mesmerizing debut [. . .] There is a dark magic in Middleton’s prose that is impossible to resist.”
–Jonathan Evison, New York Times best-selling author of The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving
“Middleton’s lush writing creates an atmosphere both beauitful and horrific. A grand debut that pushes the limits of ‘Southern Gothic’ and delivers an engrossing story of family, love, and fate.”
–Kathi Kirby, Powell’s Books, Portland, OR
“Middleton’s brilliant debut is a vivid, haunting page-turner in the American gothic tradition.”
–Garth Stein, New York Times best-selling author of The Art of Racing in the Rain
“A slow burn [. . .] Before you know it you can’t put it down. A barbed meditation on fear, family, and the monstrousness of fate.”
–Brian Evenson, author of Last Days
“A delicious blend of the gritty reality inherent in dysfunctional family relationships and the magical realism of small towns in the mythic ‘deep south’ [. . .] You can practically hear Ry Cooder’s guitar licks playing in the background.”
–Paul Hanson, Village Books, Bellingham, WA
“Reminiscent of the works of Larry Brown and Rick Bass; richly drawn, refreshing, and authentic [. . .] An innovative literary voice that I look forward to following for decades to come.”
–Nickolas Butler, author of The Hearts of Men
10/15/2017
In this urgently written, dark-lit novel from Pharos editor Middleton, country musician Jordan has been living raggedly on the road, avoiding his family while trying to live up to the reputation of his famed bluegrass musician father, Walker Bayne. When he finally returns home to Arkansas for the wedding of his twin brother, Malcolm, the family both embraces him and castigates him for his long absence. Jordan's the black sheep, trying to explain to his brother at an out-of-control bachelor party that there's something dark calling him, something much worse than drink. Indeed, as he starts looking at the mementoes from his father's career, he realizes that his father and his long-lost uncle Jake were actually twins, and as he investigates the family history, he discovers a singular curse: every generation of Bayne men from the Civil War has included twins, and one twin always ends up killing his father. That touch of magic realism might interest some readers, but it really isn't necessary; Middleton's atmospheric work, set in a world little visited, captures both individual and family struggle in sharp-edged if occasionally messy language as it investigates how we constantly come up against fate. VERDICT Appealing reading, not just for the country music and rural crowd.
