The Pallbearers Club

A Novel

By: Paul Tremblay

Narrated by: Graham Halstead, Xe Sands, Elizabeth Wiley

“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.

Intriguing concept but ultimately unfulfilled

I read a lot of books and short stories, spanning various genres and subjects. The opening of this book is engaging and the style of narration is unique. That’s really about it. The story is weak and reads as if it doesn’t know if it wants to be a character study or a suspense novel (memoir) - those who read it will get that. The plot is weak and redundant and most of the characters are quite static.

Missed the mark

I waited impatiently for the horror/psychological thriller to start...it never came. He is simultaneously pompous and pathetic, she deflects and lies about lies, and together they are infuriating. Much like her critique of his memoir/novel, this could have been really good.

Good book, but not a thriller

The way this book has been promoted did the story itself dirty. It isn't especially thrilling or suspenseful. Predictable, in fact. I don't think I would have been as disappointed with this book had it been billed as dark fiction. That's not to say it isn't horror-- or very much on brand for Tremblay. But I was carried through this book by inertia, not suspense.

Melancholy

The story was unique and interesting. I’m a fan of Tremblay’s work overall. This book conveys melancholy and the feeling of a life lived with the demons of mediocrity so effectively that your mood will be noticeably down as well while reading.
As far as narration, it’s well done, other than the multiple interjections of “ It’s a novel “ became annoying after a time.
It’s an interesting and cleaver story.

Vampirically surprised

Let's start with the positive. I LOVE a vampire. I had NO idea that this was a vampire novel. This was a very pleasant surprise for me. Not that it needed to be a surprise, I feel like a cursory browse of the tags for this book would have clued me in. But this was simply a book club pick, so I borrowed it from the library and got to it.

I love a mockumentary, and I love footnotes! This has both. But....I didn't like this. That's not entirely accurate. I DID like Mercy/Mary's editing/annotating/footnotes. They did help to sow confusion and distrust between me, the reader, and Art, the writer. But this felt...forced, I guess.

This kind of felt like he really wanted to write an ode to pop culture and literary allusion, but also wanted to make sure we knew that he "wasn't taking himself seriously." Which, ultimately, made it feel like he's taking himself way too seriously and also not owning it. Maybe it's more on the nose than I took it, but *shrug*.

I will say, other than the surprise vampire reveal, the not surprise vampire ending was my favorite part.