2/5 stars
How’d I find it? You know what’s the best part about the remainders section at Politics and Prose? Sometimes I will have forgotten about a book I want to read, then squeal in delight to find it unexpectedly among the shelves.
Why not 3 or more stars? John Darnielle gives me literary blue balls. His stories are unsettling, run through with dread, and always reserved in their telling, so much so that you wonder whether he’s keeping something from you. The two teenagers who take the game too far, the event that destroyed Sean’s face, a reconnection with an old flame, Chris Haynes—none of it amounts to much. Like The Universal Harvester, Darnielle’s second novel, the central mystery isn’t to be solved. While I can respect the journey being the point, Wolf in White Van doesn’t lead the reader anywhere satisfying. I, for one, read the last line, shrugged, and set the book aside.