Jack Parker's parents die during an smallpox epidemic. So his grandfather packs up Jack and his sister Lula and is taking them to an aunt to live. Things never turn out that easy though and Grandpa is murdered (not a spoiler) and Lula is taken by a gang of bad guys. Jack is on a mission to get his sister back and enlists several helpmates for his quest; Eustace, a grave-digging black skinned man who must stay away from alcohol. Eustace's somewhat pet, Hog. (Don't laugh, Hog kicks some majo...

A month ago I was dutifully slogging through a few more of those 1001 Films You Must Watch Before Brexit Exterminates all Life in Britain and I came upon My Darling Clementine (John Ford, 1946) and Shane (George Stevens, 1953) and that’s when I gave up watching westerns. These movies were so stupid it embarrassed you to see grown up people acting in them. However, strangely, in future I will be most happy to read a western, because the books never disappoint. Modern westerns, that is, like True

4.5 stars!This book was wonderful!Granted, it had some very nasty language and racial epithets, but these rang true for the time period. Other than that and what I felt was a slightly predictable ending, this book was just fantastic and I'm sad that it's over.You can get a description of the story from every other review and the book description, so that's all you'll hear from me about that. On to the good stuff-the characters. This book is populated with such a colorful cast, all of whom I can

When his grandfather is murdered and his sister kidnapped by outlaws, young Jack Parker goes looking for vengeance. With a four gauge wielding man named Eustace, a midget sharpshooter named Shorty, and a hog named Hog, he goes hunting for Cutthroat Bill and his gang. Will he survive long enough to find his sister?I got this ARC from Netgalley. Thank you, Netgalley! Although it only took two damn months for my request to get approved...Here we are, the 36th Joe Lansdale book I've read. The Thicke...

Six Stars - Perfection! Moved to the top of my "favorite" list. If you haven't read it, beg, borrow or steal a copy but READ it.

Find all of my reviews at: http://52bookminimum.blogspot.com/My Goodreads’ buddies have been trying to get me to read The Thicket since before it even came out (because an ARC was available for request), but I resisted because . . . . . Well, partially. Also because I really am not a fan of westerns. Even though Ron 2.0 assured me this wasn’t a real westerny western and Shelby had 5-Starred it, I didn’t end up requesting this one until I became addicted to the library’s Read to Reel Challeng...

There are some great characters here! An eclectic True Grit. Reminded me of Maverick for some reason, but with a hog.

(I received a free copy of this from NetGalley.)At the tail end of the cowboy days in East Texas, sixteen year old Jack Parker and his sister Lula have a helluva bad week. After their parents die in a smallpox epidemic, their grandfather is murdered by a gang of bank robbers who kidnap Lula. The only help that Jack can find is a grave digging black man named Eustace and the tiny bounty hunter Shorty. Along with a giant hog, they set out to rescue Lula. Jack tries to hold to his Christian beliefs...

★★★★☆½Around the turn of the 20th century much of America may be on the cusp of civilization, but East Texas is still a wild, feral, and ever dangerous place—which Jack Parker’s about to learn the hard way. Our story opens to a smallpox epidemic sweeping through town, leaving sixteen-year-old Jack and his sister, Lula, orphaned. After burying the bodies, and torching the house, their grandpa packs ‘em into the wagon, and they all head north to their aunt’s farm up in Kansas. It’s not long in the...

Right now. Today. At this very moment, this is my all-time favorite novel.

“Life isn’t just black or white, here or there; it’s got some mud in it, and we’re some of the mud.”Jack Parker is having a bad run lately. His parents died of the pox, Grandpa was shot by a roving gang of nasties and his little sister Lula was taken captive. Now he has joined up with a posse of his own to get her back - Shorty, a temperamental gun toting midget, Eustace Cox a self-proclaimed tracker, and Hog the 600 pound…well…hog. They are sure to meet some more classic Lansdale characters on

A solid old west east Texas adventure novel from the Mojo Storyteller, Hisownself. THE THICKET has fun, bizarre characters who form a motley crew to seek vengeance and maybe find some hope along the trail as well. A colorful, eccentric read. Nice job, Joe! ;)

The fact that this is written by Joe R. Lansdale pretty much guarantees a good time. The fact that the first sentence contains the words "gun-shooting dwarf"...that's just icing on the cake.Jack Parker is a fine, upstanding teenager who dislikes violence, yet soon he will be hiring two brutal men to find the villains who've killed his grandfather and stolen his sister.Morally upright kids in a sudden quest for vengeance may seem a familiar theme (Yeah, yeah, I read True Grit, too), but believe m...

This was an entertaining, escapist story about a teenage Jack Parker who gathers a motley crew of unlikely heroes to help track down a gang of rough outlaws and save his kidnapped little sister. This is the first book I've read by the prolific Joe R. Lansdale, and in the vein of the classic True Grit, it's both a very enjoyable Western adventure and a great coming of age story. Is most of Lansdale's work like this? If so, I've got some more reading to do!There are many other stories similar to t...

Joe Lansdale is not an old man and yet he has published at least 45 novels and 30 short story collections, sometimes two or three books a year (!), as in 2012, according to Wikipedia. Some of these may be reprints of old favorites because it is difficult to imagine someone publishing quality fiction at that rate. But quality fiction is what I would call this 2013 novel. A young boy, his sister, and his grandad traveling north to Kansas from East Texas in the early part of the twentieth century f...

another great opening to a book:I didn't suspect the day Grandfather came out and got me and my sister, Lula, and hauled us off toward the ferry that I'd soon end up with worse things happening than had already come upon us or that I'd take up with a gun-shooting dwarf, the son of a slave, and a big angry hog, let alone find true love and kill someone, but that's exactly how it was.a great opening, but one that worried me nonetheless, seeming as it did to suffer from some of the qualities of fol...

By turns violent and hilarious, The Thicket is Joe R. Lansdale in peak form.The book is set in East Texas, early in the Twentieth century, just as the oil boom is reaching that area. Sadly, a smallpox epidemic has swept through the region, and sixteen-year-old Jack Parker and his fourteen-year-old sister, Lula have lost their parents to the disease. In the company of their grandfather, the children are leaving Texas to live with a relative in Kansas. But the journey has barely begun when a group...

Joe R. Lansdale's latest novels seem to all feature recently orphaned kids being chased by, or chasing, someone. It seems like the last few novels may have been rough drafts for this almost perfect turn-of-the-century tale that bears more than a little resemblance to True Grit. Having left their pox-plague East Texas town with their grandfather, brother and sister Jack and Lulu Parker come across baddie CutThrioat Pete and company who kill their grandfather and kidnap Lulu. Jack is left to rescu...

I'm considering this my last book of 2021 and what a book to go out on. A full review to come, but this one is something special.

With his parents falling victim to the plague, his grandfather murdered, and his 14yr old sister kidnapped by a ruthless gang of cutthroats, teenager Jack Parker faces adversity from all angles yet doesn't succumb to it. Rather, he turns his pain and sufferance into determination, embarking of a quest for vengeance and to return his sister to safety. Set in the early 1900’s, THE THICKET is near perfect contemporary fiction. The sense of time and place is enveloping, the characters and their man...