In fact, Darnielle’s narrative threatens to take one of many turn-offs as it unfolds, before veering away onto a different road entirely. And so begins a strange and ominous story in which Jeremy tries to figure out the nature of the disturbing footage that has been spliced into some of the store’s VHS tapes.Įven reading that super concise summary, you might already be forming ideas on what sort of novel this might be. “There’s something on this one”, she says. A customer returns a copy of the Boris Karloff movie Targets with concerns that something’s not quite right. But, perhaps predictably, this rhythm doesn’t last long. His days are quiet and predictable, the gentle rhythm of counting cash in the register, of reshelving slot returns, of waiting for the 5:30 rush as people get off work and drop in to grab their night’s entertainment.

Set in 90s small-town Iowa, the novel centres on Jeremy Heldt, a young man who works at the counter of the local video store. Now, Darnielle is back with a second novel, Universal Harvester.

His first novel, Wolf In White Van, was a complexly emotional extension of his songwriting, what we described as “a story about reality and imagination and how both can be beautiful and both can be scary and both need to be treated with care”. Not content with indie rock stardom, Darnielle is also an author. You probably know John Darnielle as the man behind The Mountain Goats, one of the most consistent and affecting songwriters of the last 20+ years.

Universal harvester review