The Pallbearers Club

Books | Fiction / Classics

3.5

(122)

Paul Tremblay

"Paul Tremblay delivers another mind-bending horror novel . . . The Pallbearers Club is a welcome casket of chills to shoulder." - Washington Post A cleverly voiced psychological thriller from the nationally bestselling author of The Cabin at the End of the World and Survivor Song. What if the coolest girl you've ever met decided to be your friend? Art Barbara was so not cool. He was a seventeen-year-old high school loner in the late 1980s who listened to hair metal, had to wear a monstrous back-brace at night for his scoliosis, and started an extracurricular club for volunteer pallbearers at poorly attended funerals. But his new friend thought the Pallbearers Club was cool. And she brought along her Polaroid camera to take pictures of the corpses. Okay, that part was a little weird. So was her obsessive knowledge of a notorious bit of New England folklore that involved digging up the dead. And there were other strange things - terrifying things - that happened when she was around, usually at night. But she was his friend, so it was okay, right? Decades later, Art tries to make sense of it all by writing The Pallbearers Club: A Memoir. But somehow this friend got her hands on the manuscript and, well, she has some issues with it. And now she's making cuts. Seamlessly blurring the lines between fiction and memory, the supernatural and the mundane, The Pallbearers Club is an immersive, suspenseful portrait of an unusual and disconcerting relationship.

Horror

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More Details:

Author

Paul Tremblay

Pages

288

Publisher

HarperCollins Publishers

Published Date

2022

ISBN

0063069911 9780063069916

Community ReviewsSee all

"DNF"

Sher Free✌️

"Definitely ranks lower in Paul Tremblay novels. This book is focused on 2 main characters. It isn't scary so don't be put off from horror category. The very beginning and end were great. 80% of the rest of the book is quite mediocre and gets old quickly. Would have loved if the book stuck with introductory theme. Would have been more fitting. "

Joe H

"The main character is obviously a reflection of the cool, guitar-playing, Gen X wastoid the author wants to remember being. Not exactly horror. Atmospheric, sure. I kind of regret the time I wasted waiting for it to become a horror novel instead of just accepting that this is a work of character & relationship development. And a rather contrived one at that. That being said, I enjoy his writing style, overwrought as it might be this time. If you're looking for vampires, look elsewhere."

Anne G

"Ok. To start with, parts of this book were a slog. I didn't like the main narrator, but I wonder if that was by design. I did like the secondary narrator and the stylistic choices made in combining their parts. Even when the actual reading required a push, the questions I had got me to keep at it until I got answers (or finished the book, at least). It was constantly a question of what was real. Is Art an unreliable narrator, perhaps insane or high? Is Mercy unreliable, innocent, or deceptive? Until the last chapter, you don't really know. I guess even after. I still have questions, and so this book will probably hold property in my brain for quite a while. Weird book, but I'm glad I pushed through even the dry bits."

A G

Alicia Gudge

"It was ok. Slow read because I couldn’t get into it. Very confusing at points. Loved the ending though. "

Megan Bender

"While this book is most definitely NOT a horror novel, I didn’t enjoy it any less. It can take a minute to warm up to the purposely pretentious penmanship of this book (sorry I had to), it is definitely worth it! The way it is written is so unique and creative I couldn’t put it down. This novel (as mercy will consistently remind you) is truly about two friends, their relationship, and life. This book is definitely not for everyone, especially if you’re looking for a cool 80s/90s morbid horror as it would lead you to believe, but please give it a try and enjoy the ride. 8/10 "

nick tully

"I’ve only gotten halfway through this, I picked up another read in the meantime to try to differentiate and maybe get out of the slump, but the second time was the same. The paragraphs are extremely long and hard to follow which might only be a turn off for me. But I like being able to have a good stopping point when reading and I don’t think this book gives me that. Open to input."

J G

Jen Gonzalez

"I hated the both of them but it had cool music references and she was lowkey a manic pixie dream girl so two stars ig"