 Hello everybody, E here. Welcome back to another book review. Today I do not have a physical book to hold, so you'll be getting an image right there. And this is Bear Skins by James A. McLaughlin. And that's gonna go away. It took me forever to read this book, not because the book is bad. The book was actually really, really good, and that's the only reason that I finished it at all is because it was so exceptional. I hate, hate, loathe. There's not a strong enough word for how I feel about ebooks. The actual reading of ebooks. I can't stand it. It bothers me. I feel encumbered carrying around a tablet or a phone or whatever. It just doesn't feel the same way. I don't care how many page flip technology or whatever they put in ebooks. It just never feels like a book. It doesn't have the same, there's no audio sensation of hearing the page turn or the physicality of being able to bend it a little bit, the giveability. It doesn't have the same smell even. And I'm one of those people who love the smell of books. Most book readers, most readers do love the smell of books. I just don't like, I don't like the format. So with that being said, the only reason I finished it in that format is because the book was so good. I got the book. It was on, I kept on hearing it all over Twitter and Goodreads. Everybody's talking about, you know, it's a fine example of Hick Lit and that's country fiction, kind of the Southern vernacular fiction Hick, you know, as a country person, a Hick literature, Hick Lit. I kept seeing that pop up in that and I am a fan of the genre when it's done right too many times. They fall back on the ease of the grammar because you can screw things up with that grammar and be all right in that type of setting because, you know, those, the country people talk with a broken vernacular, you know, as it is. But with this one, it was so much more, it did not simplify the country living ideal. It did not make the country people seem like, you know, idiots. It also did not go the full extremist side of things, which, you know, like all, all people who live out in the country are extremists, extreme religion, extreme gun nut, you know, any of those things. It didn't take any sides and I appreciated that. That can be a problem with the, with the genre also because, you know, kind of like the farming and outdoorsy kind of thing. For some odd reason has this stigma probably because most of them are, but it's a far right kind of extremism. But that didn't happen with this book. The writing was exceptional. I love the fact that the writer had an appreciation for the area he was in and you could feel that you could read the love. You could read into the text and find his love for the area that he was discussing. One of my favorite parts of the book is the very last scene of the book. The very last paragraph of the book is just beautiful. The way he ends it, the way he, the very last image he leaves in the reader's mind is amazing. Now, going into, if you're worried about spoilers, this is a whole new thing here. But I was talking to my friendly Aertes about this and he wanted to, he wanted me to go into spoiler territory maybe at the end of my videos, talk about things that I liked and didn't like in depth. So if you were, if you've already read the book or you do not care about spoilers, continue on. But if you do care about being spoiled, then please go ahead and click away. I'll miss y'all. I really will. Anywho, so spoiler territory. There's a scene in here in chapter 48, I believe it is. I'm pretty sure because I noticed it around chapter 15. There's two chapters back. So chapter 48, there's a scene. The very last paragraph of chapter 48 is brilliant and I don't use that word lightly. The way he built up the tension of the entire scene leading up to that final paragraph of chapter 48 was amazing. I have not felt that much tension and suspense in a book since I want to say The Silence of the Lands when I read that right around when the movie came out because I read the book going into the movie. And I remember, I hope I'm remembering that correctly. It might be Mandela effect. I may not have been old enough, but I remember reading the book just before watching the movie whether or not that was in theaters or not. I don't know. But The Silence of the Lands, there was a scene in a basement toward the end of the book that was great. The only book I've seen come close to that scene is this one. It's another one where darkness plays a key role. There's night vision involved. And I don't know if it was a throwback to The Silence of the Lands or not. But instead of being confined to this basement setting, they're out in the middle of the woods. And there's a cabin anyways. But this scene is really terrific. And it's when the main character Rice kills the Mexican hitman who's come to take him out. I really appreciated that scene for everything that happened. It didn't feel like there was any excess verbiage. There was nothing superfluous in that scene. It felt like everything was needed. While in earlier chapters, there was a lot of maybe flowery prose, flowery writing, not modeling, but a little too much. Maybe, for me, it was perfect. But for the average reader, Sarah Frost, if you're watching this, it's probably gonna be a little too much for you. He goes into very eloquent detail. And I know you don't like a whole lot of that in your books. You just want them to get to the point. And of course, there's nothing wrong with that. But I got a wasp in here. Anywho, you stay over there, fella. But the attention to detail was a big plus for me because you don't normally get that in these types of books. You get a very sparse prose. And it's not the kind of simplistic prose where there's a lot under the surface either. It's just very simplistic. Almost like a Philip Marlowe novel, you know, that kind of thing. But I really enjoyed everything this book did. I especially liked the floating away scene at the end. And if this is gonna be a series, I'm telling you, I am all for it. He set up a bunch of stuff here at the end with the dog and the connections and whatnot. I am there for this series. And I usually don't say that. Usually when authors set up a series, I'm like, oh, damn it, not another series. But this one might set up another one. I am there for it. As long as the writing is just as good, as long as the stories don't get played out and the setting doesn't get played out, I'm there for it. But have you read Bear Skins by James A. McLaughlin? If you have, let me know if you liked it or didn't like it down there in the doobly-doo. Please don't say it shocked or it was amazing. Let's talk about why it was great. Let's talk about why you think it was bad. Let's have a discussion down there in the doobly-doo. But until next time, I have been E, you have been U. This has been another book review. I'll talk to you guys later. Bye-bye!