The fun of a Paul Tremblay book is figuring out, bit by bit, exactly what kind of story you're reading. It's always SOMETHING - a ghost story, a demonic exorcism tale, an apocalypse narrative - and yet, it's also always... different. Unexpected. Because one of the many things Tremblay excels at is taking a well-worn trope or genre and then turning it, spinning it into something new.

The same is true of The Pallbearer's Club, which, it turns out, is a vampire story. But as we follow our protagonist, the pseudonymous Art Barbara, as he grows up in Massachusetts, finds a place in the punk scene of Providence, and drifts in and out of the orbit of his friend Mercy, becoming convinced that she's a variety of vampire in the process - we also come to realize that it's also a story about conformity, and nonconformity, and what we'll do - the lengths we'll go - to fit in somewhere, anywhere. To find our people.

And, crucially, it's a story where there are competing narratives: Art's, Mercy's, and - perhaps most importantly - what may have ACTUALLY happened, outside of Art's or Mercy's patently unreliable presentations of events. (I do love a good unreliable narrator, and here, we've got several.)

Fans of A Head Full of Ghosts will undoubtedly find much to love in this one. The form is unconventional, presented a memoir - Art's - that may or may not actually be a novel, and complicated by marginalia from Mercy. Tonally - and particularly when it comes to Mercy's commentary - there's a lot here that feels like it lives in the same kind of place as the blog entries in A Head Full of Ghosts. 

A Paul Tremblay book is like a Magic Eye image: There's always something else to see if you look at it the right way. And for that reason - among many, many others - The Pallbearer's Club is a joy to read.

Just prepared to be something of an emotional train wreck by the end of it.

This was not what I expected it to be. Normally, that’s fine. But this read as a literal manuscript. It needs some more edits and more plot points.

That being said, Paul Tremblay is still one of my favorite authors and I will continue to read whatever he puts out. This one just wasn’t for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for the digital advanced reader's copy.

So, I'm never not going to read the latest Paul Tremblay. You never know exactly what you're going to get, and you don't know if you're going to love it or hate it, but you know it's going to be different.

I loved A Head Full of Ghosts, a dark family drama with possible demon possession. I was deeply upset by The Cabin at the End of the World, a survival novel with possible apocalypse. I enjoyed the propulsiveness of Survivor Song, a one-night, action-packed zombie (but also not-zombie) pandemic story. And, finally, Devil's Rock, a ghost mystery, which was probably my least favorite Tremblay novel so far.

However, despite knowing that a Tremblay book is like a box of chocolates, I definitely didn't expect a slow-moving tale of toxic friendship, medical trauma, addiction, arrested development, and vampiric folklore.

Art and Mercy's lives become entangled while Art is in high school. His deep loneliness finds a refuge in Mercy's chill coolness. Together, they share a love of punk music and find a safe space from the messiness and cruelty of the world.

Things devolve, though, as their relationship becomes parasitic - each seeming to feed off the other.

Is this simply a deeply complicated friendship that spans the tragedies and struggles of thirty years, or is it supernatural? Are they literally sucking the life force out of each other?

It depends. Is Art's book a novel or a memoir?

Tremblay leaves it up to you to decide.

This is a character-driven story. The action is sporadic and rare and, often, weird as hell. This isn't the stereotypical horror novel. At times, I genuinely wondered what the point was.

However, it was dark enough and odd enough, and Art and Mercy were compelling enough to keep me reading.

While it won't ever be one of my favorites, The Pallbearer's Club will likely stick with me for some time.

*language, adult situations

This one wasn't really my jam. I was bored through most of it and not particularly interested in the characters. I may give it another chance when it is published to see the finished/fully-formatted product.

The formatting of the ARC was distracting. Love Paul Tremblay and what he does in terms of experimentation/outside the box ideas that he brings to his work. I am interested in seeing this one in it's finished/physical form.

The Pallbearers Club
by Paul Tremblay
Pub Date: July 5, 2022
William Morrow
Thanks to the author, publisher, and Netgalley for the ARC of this book.
* horror *Thriller
A cleverly voiced psychological thriller about an unforgettable—and unsettling—friendship, with blood-chilling twists, crackling wit, and a thrumming pulse in its veins—from the nationally bestselling author of The Cabin at the End of the World and Survivor Song.
I think it's important to note that this book should be read as a physical copy. The ebook version does not read the same and was actually confusing at times with the notes embedded into the text. I think it took away from my enjoyment some. This book was also very slow-moving and it takes some time for anything to occur. I liked the characters and found the narrator funny at times.
3 stars

A very original book from a great author! I have not read all of Paul Tremblay's books (yet) but the ones I have read have been fantastic and some of my favorites.

I loved the back and forth in this book, the way it was written was very unique and exciting. My only problem was with Netgalleys version, it was very slow to load on any device I downloaded it on.

I feel I didn't get the full impact of this book only because my ARC version was very slow loading and I am a fast reader.

I will be reading this again when the print version comes out.

DNF @ p.86. I'm a fan of Paul Tremblay but this book just didn't grip me. Maybe it was the format of a memoir manuscript with notes, which didn't seem to add much to the story.

I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley.

Another horror grand-slam from modern master Paul Tremblay. I devour everything he writes; this one was no exception. I absolutely loved the 80s nostalgia; the too cool for school indie/punk music theme; and the POV with both characters, "Mercy" and "Art," arguing throughout whether Art's book is a memoir (Art insists it is), or fiction (as Mercy insists). The intensity between these two -- the hip, above it all older girl, and the gawky, earnest, besotted loner guy -- is so on-the-spot high school crush. But -- then they're not teenagers anymore. And the intensity is still there; the mystery persists -- who IS Mercy? How old is she, really? Where does she come from? When they reconnect in adulthood, sinister and otherworldly things happen. Mercy takes full advantage of her charm and cool-girl bluster to dismiss Art's experiences around her as "fiction," or his being high or drunk, or too imaginative.

There is so much more I could say about this book but I'll leave it to you! Read it! YOu won't regret it.

I will say that like other reviewers I too had a hard time downloading (there's no Kindle version and the ebook wasn't available for the NetGalley app) but I got the book finally downloaded in PocketBook and it read just fine -- although Mercy's comments didn't really line up where they were supposed to in the narrative, I don't think. Also I think I may have missed some images which just didn't show up (they showed up as blank space) at the beginning of each chapter. I will def check out the print version when it is released in the summer!

Thank you so much. This was a fantastic book. I won't have any trouble selling it to horror readers as Tremblay has quite the following in my community already.

4 Stars!

I got my first exposure to Paul Tremblay with No Sleep Till Wonderland and I admit that the only reason I read that novel was by accident. I gave it a fair read, however, and enjoyed the novel so I decided to give Tremblay another try and make it an intentional one this time. The Pallbearers Club had a name and premise that grabbed my attention so I dove into this novel hoping for an entertaining read even though I was not sure what to expect.



There was nothing about Art Barbara that made him stand out in a crowd. In a good way, at least. People may notice the bulky brace he had to wear for his scoliosis but they would not notice him. Ok, so he only had to wear the brace at night, but the psychological toll it took on him bore down on him all day long. Nothing about him was cool. He decided to start an extracurricular club at school to help with his college application and maybe give him a person or two to hang out with. Even the club he formed, the pallbearers club whose members would be volunteer pallbearers at poorly attended funerals, was not cool. And then she wandered into his life, drawn by one of the fliers and bearing her Polaroid camera, and nothing would ever be the same again.



It all starts to get a bit strange when she (her name is Mercy) takes Art on a road trip to learn about a vampire legend in New England. Art begins to suspect that there is more to Mercy than meets the eye but is unable to figure out what. As the years march by, Mercy comes into and falls out of his life leaving Art a bit bewildered about what her presence means to him. He starts to write a memoir (this novel) along the way to try to sort out his thoughts. Who is Mercy? Could she be a vampire? What part does she play in his life? There are but a few of the questions Art tries to answer although it may be difficult for him to find the truth given that Mercy is his proofreader.



What exactly is The Pallbearers Club? Now that I read the book, I can honestly say that I am not entirely sure. There are many elements in the novel both traditional and decidedly non-traditional. There is a definite coming-of-age theme to the novel although with the twist that it seems as if Art will never come-of-age. There is a bit of a supernatural twist to the story although whether this is true or fantasy is never established. There are some elements of a thriller and a whole lot of twisted (misdirected) drama. And then there is the proofreader and the odd notes that are handwritten in the margins or between chapters. If one is trying to determine the true nature of and your true feelings for another, why would you let the other person essentially be your editor? That is exactly what is going on in this novel so that the story itself becomes a character in its own tale.



The Pallbearers Club is almost a sort of sad love song to a generation that may never find itself. The novel never really falls into a specific genre and much of the action, and the little of it that there is, takes place behind the scenes. It could be labelled a psychological thriller but that really misses the point. The novel is really a haunting look at the modern world that is both tragic and beautiful at the same time. Art’s world seems to be in a steady state of unravelling and yet there is enough there to keep him pushing forward even when everything seems to be set against him. It was sometimes annoying (with those distracting “notes” in the margins) and yet intriguing as well. Sometimes I wanted to see what was going to happen next and other times felt compelled to keep reading with a morbid curiosity akin to passing an accident on the road. The only certainty about The Pallbearers Club is that it will keep the reader turning the pages until the final word is read and leave the reader thinking about what happened for some time to follow. The novel is not a great novel but it is entertaining and will give the reader some food for thought.



I would like to thank William Morrow and NetGalley for this review copy. The Pallbearers Club is scheduled to be released on July 5, 2022.

Art Barbara, an awkward teen with scoliosis, is writing a memoir about his volunteer pallbearers club at school. He thinks it’ll pad his college resume. Instead, he meets Mercy, a girl who changes his life and always keeps her camera on hand - even at the funeral homes. Along with eing written as Art’s memoir, this book gets a second narrator through Mercy’s editorial notes. Why not? She was there for most of the story anyway.

I loved this book. It has compelling narrators and Paul’s signature psychologically challenging plot. My favorite part was the philosophy and commentary woven into every page. It made me think constantly. Paul Tremblay is just such a smart writer. I often caught myself thinking “oh man, this might be his best yet.” The Art-Mercy dynamic reminded me of Looking for Alaska with the loser kid and the mysterious girl that fascinates him. Getting both sides really made this story sing. I went in thinking this could be the best horror book of the year, and let me tell you, the bar has been set very high!

This book and I fundamentally disagree about how clever it is... I found it dull, predictable, pretentious, and not at all scary or creepy. I adored 'Head Full of Ghosts,' so this was certainly disappointing.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The following review is not in any way whatsoever meant to make fun of the book in question, nor is it meant to intentionally mimic one thing or another. Not in the way it may seem. The reviewer is, mildly put, just a really big dork, and though they do not think for one tiny moment that they're being clever with their review as presented, they do seem to think they're being clever in hiding just how much this book terrifies them, but they're not. They're scared. I'm scared. We are all of us scared.

(ALL OVER BUT THE SHOUTING)

A BOOK IS A COFFIN

[uh, spoiler alert? you’re giving it all away, but you’re not even aware you are, because you’re too preoccupied with trying to cram as many references as you can into your rambling, your rambling what? what are you trying to say?! show, don’t tell.]



Stories are full of bodies, yeah. Oh so many bodies. And, more so, they’re full of those bodies’ histories, their raisons d’être, as Art Barbara might say, and, if he’s saying that, he may also be saying that those bodies, some of them, the lucky ones, along with their history, they have a lingering mark, a mark left by their joie de vivre, a mark that, resting on their waxy after death faces, is sadly beautiful. And now I’m rambling like Art Barbara would, like maybe I can bring him down from the ledge, bring him back from beyond the threshold, hold his life until he’s ready for it again, until I can tell him I’m sorry somehow, we’re all sorry somehow, just please come back. One step at a time, if you must, Art, but still, still, whatever it takes, just point the way. I know you’re achin’ to be, and you don’t think you have the willpower to return and take a ride, that you think everything falls apart and you’re so beyond all shook down, standing in the rain and looking for somethin’ to do, but never quite finding it, so what’s the point, right? But I’ll help you, Art. We’ll all help you, bring you back to the swingin’ party. We’ll read your words, hear your stories, live your dreams. All this we’ll do for you. We’ll leave our books open until you’re strong enough to climb out, shake those careless nightclub jitters, and if you say you’re not strong enough, well, I don’t know what you’re talking about.


[are you even going to talk about the book? or, are you so “left of the dial” you’ve forgotten how this works? seriously, dude. right now I’m so “unsatisfied”. this is not my “favorite thing” and if you don’t get it together I’m “never talking to you again”]



A BOOK IS A VAMPIRE AFTER ALL

Some guy from a band –– I don’t remember which one, only that it’s an SST thing –– said something to the effect that even art isn’t immortal, but

Screw that. Art is forever. For each of us, anyrate, for our own personal forevers.

Stories never die. Like vampires, yeah. And they turn us, too. They never overfeed, never completely drain us, never kill us. No. They give the power back, give us that gift. And it’s always there, in our heads and in our hearts. Our magnificent hearts.

Thank you, Art. Thank you for sharing, for letting me in, for showing me another world. Yes, yes, yes. I’ll buy. Count me in. I will carry this with me. I will be a proud member of The Pallbearers Club.



[you just couldn’t resist, could you? and, are you seriously ending your “review” like that?!]



[[no, I couldn’t. and, yes, yes I am. I have coffins to carry.]]

Paul Tremblay is a master of combining the impossible with the impossibly human. I loved this more than I loved Survivor Song (which is quite a lot). Honestly I can't wait fo a few months from now when I've forgotten certain details of this book so I can reread and experience them all over again.

DNF at 40%. I can overlook the limitation of only making this available as a protected PDF, and I will not complain how slow Adobe Digital is, because I understand that is not the author/publisher's fault. I also understand about Mercy's narrative being written in red as marginalia, and how this may look different in the actual book as opposed to the e-ARC. But those are two things that I wasn't crazy about.

"The Pallbearer's Club" is billed as a supernatural metafiction. Art Barbara is writing a memoir about his last few years of high school, where he started an extracurricular club, "The Pallbearer's Club," to attend funerals of people who did not have friends and family. Mercy Brown, a college student, sees Art's flyer and joins the club. The two get up to some shenanigans, including getting high and driving around, taking Poleroid pictures, and exploring mythologies of vampires.

I think that the blended narrative format is interesting concept, but Mercy's comments often did not add much to the story, except to say "it didn't happen like that, you made this [minor detail] up." Mercy and Art sounded almost identical in their voices. In fact, Mercy actually had some valid critiques of the memoir that Art was writing, but sadly, simply acknowledging the narrative shortcomings were not enough to keep me reading. The supernatural themes were very sparse and slow-going. I appreciate the opportunity to read it, but I think some stronger character development (more dialogue/less description, for starters) would've made this read exponentially more enjoyable for me.

Book was not available in a usable format (need ePub or send-to-kindle to be able to read it, as protected PDF won't work on any of my e-ink devices). Giving it five stars because that's not the authors' fault, and there's always some jerk giving a book 1 star because of technical issues.

Sounds like it would have been a great read. I have never read a Paul Tremblay book yet but I have heard fantastic things about his works and this one definitely sounds right up my alley. Unfortunately, I am unable to access this title from NetGalley and it makes me a little sad. I have tried multiple ways and multiple days without any luck. I think I am just going to throw in the towel and instead focus something else. I look forward to hopefully checking this out upon physical release.

I gave this a four out of five star rating. I really enjoyed this book it’s different from anything I have read. I preordered the book, I can’t wait to see what the finished copy looks like. I totally recommend this, I loved the story and how it’s written. I really liked the characters as well.

I tried multiple ways to get this book but was unable. It doesn’t work with kindle so I downloaded pocketbook as directed and that got the file but wouldn’t allow it to be viewed. This is gonna be a great book from a great author but I’ll be waiting a while to get a chance to read it

Not your average vampire book, Tremblay always knows how to tap into the deepest of emotions, and this dual narrated horror thriller is at once unrelentingly creepy, as well as filled the the most bittersweet pathos of a formative, toxic, unforgettable friendship. In which one participant may or may not be a vampire. I genuinely loved this book, I loved both the unreliable voices of Art and Mercy, and I loved how it rethought and recombined what we think of when we think of vampire stories. For me, this is Tremblay's best work.

Paul Tremblay books are an automatic 4-5 stars for me! Unfortunately, The Pallbearers club from NetGalley was not formatted for my ereader and would not open on my computer with two different programs. The email from the publisher also said this book is from William Morrow, not Paul Tremblay so I’m a little confused with the interaction! I intend to buy this book when it comes out but this review will have to do for now.