A Black and Endless Sky by Matthew Lyons

I get that it’s really supposed to be an expression of how much she missed having Jonah around, but having her advocate so strongly for being a petty thug that she actively starts problems with other people, just so Jonah will be forced to fight, made her difficult to like.

I have no problem with characters having rough edges or violent tendencies, but Nell just came across like an asshole to me (pardon the profanity). Nell, however, expresses a lot of anger at her brother for leaving the take-no-shit, bar-fighting ways of their 20s behind and becoming a more peaceful person, claiming that nobody can change and instigating conflict when she has no reason to. For Jonah’s part, he was more benignly uninteresting at the start, his upturned life consuming his personal state. We spend a lot of time in the minds of Jonah and Nell Talbot, and by the end through all of their perseverance, blood, sweat, and tears they definitely did grow on me, but it was not smooth sailing getting me there. Unfortunately, this novel didn’t work for me as much as the author’s previous book did, and I feel like a lot of that had to do with the two main characters.

Unfortunately, my schedule has made it harder for me to finish reading books in a more timely manner, so I wasn’t able to get it finished closer to the release date like I wanted, but I’m happy to be putting my thoughts out about it regardless. However, the open road has more in store for them than they can fathom, as a bizarre incident at an abandoned construction site in the Nevada desert results in Nell’s body playing host to an ancient, otherworldly presence.Ībout a year and a half ago, I read and reviewed an ARC of Lyons’s previous book The Night Will Find Us, which I liked a decent amount, so when I was approached again about reviewing an ARC of his next novel I was happy to accept. Now, they hope maybe they can start mending their relationship on this road trip home. The two of them used to be inseparable but became estranged after he suddenly left town and got married all those years ago. Jonah is left with no choice but to leave California and move back home to Albuquerque, accompanied on his drive home by his sister Nell. After 12 years of marriage, the love between him and his wife has simply faded away, and the two have finalized their divorce. In it, Jonah Talbot’s life has fallen apart. A Black and Endless Sky is a recently published horror novel by Matthew Lyons.

A Black and Endless Sky by Matthew Lyons