This is my fourth attempt to write a review A Choir of Ill Children. I enjoyed it and will read it again but finding a way to articulate my thoughts about this book is proving a challenge. I think I'l apply the infinite monkey theorem and bang on the keyboard and see what comes out.

To begin, the blurb on the back of my copy of the paperback puts it in the genre of Southern Gothic, Southern Weird not being a literary category. I would put in on the Deliverance/E. A. Poe side with a touch of Faulkner. It is darkly humorous at times, beautifully written, has tons of atmosphere, and has multiple plot lines that weave together. The setting both attracted and repelled me. Would Kingdom Come destroy me or would I be able to settle there. At its core, A Choir... is about evil, responsibility, family, and redemption.

So what do we have in this book?

It is set in a decaying southern town, Kingdom Come, surrounded by swamp.

A young(maybe) girl is found on "the flat rock" which may have been a shrine or sacrificial alter. She doesn't appear to be able to speak and is taken in by the repressed female schoolteacher.

The narrator, Thomas, inherited the mill that is the principle employer of the town. He succeeded as owner after his father committed suicide by throwing himself into mill machinery. His mother disappeared about the same time. His grandmother had been discovered dead on the school house roof, skewered by a reap hook; the murder remains unsolved. He has three brothers who are conjoined triplets joined at the frontal lobes. They have three mouths and distinct personalities despite sharing a brain. Thomas himself may have had a conjoined sister who was absorbed into his torso. As a southerner myself, I would like to point out that this isn't a typical southern family.

Several outsiders come to town including two northern filmmakers come to do a documentary about Thomas' family and a private detective from L.A. hired to find out who the young girl is. It is interesting to see how the outsiders try to deal with this very alien environment.

Someone with size 12 shoes is kicking dogs. How this gets tied in to everything was a "huh!" moment.

Torrential rains are drowning the town and Velma Coots and the granny witches attempt to avoid disaster for the town through some rather interesting means.

Thomas' best friend is the son of a black preacher, subject to fits and cryptic visions, and inclined to walk around naked.

Is there a ghost of a dead boy from the swamp hanging around Thomas' house?

The town is also the location of the monastery of The Holy Order of Flying Walendas (walking the high wire through life) where spiritualists from all over the world come to find themselves.

Oh, and there is a biker who hates fencing (the sport, not the thing that people use to enclose a space).

If the things I described above pique your interest, give A Choir of Ill Children a try. As for myself, I will be very careful to whom I recommend it.