Universal Harvester

Universal Harvester by John Darnielle, 214 pages

Universal Harvester brings us back to late 90s in small town Iowa where VHS was the standard format and very few people had cell phones. Jeremy lives a simple life. He is 22 years old, works at a locally owned video rental store, lives with his father, and is in no hurry to do anything else. His life was put on hold when his mother dies in a car accident six years prior. His comfortable, though limited, life is disrupted when a customer complains that a violent scene has been spliced into a film. He and his manager find themselves pulled into a decades-old mystery as they find more movies with scenes spliced in.

This is not my typical genre. I probably wouldn’t have given it a second glance if it was written by any other author. But I am a die-hard fan of his band, The Mountain Goats, and would read the ingredients list on a shampoo bottle if he wrote it. I am glad I did!  

For those who like audiobooks, it is read by the author. I have read the book and listened to the audio and preferred the audio.