Nine Shiny Objects

by Brian Castleberry

"In this extraordinary novel, Castleberry brilliantly hopscotches from person to person, from era to era, while somehow making all this fancy footwork look effortless and essential." - Jenny Offill, author of Department of Speculation and Weather


A luminous debut novel in the tradition of DeLillo and Egan, chronicling the eerily intersecting lives of a series of American dreamers whose unforeseen links reveal the divided heart of a haunted nation—and the battered grace that might lead to its salvation

June 26, 1947. Headlines across America report the sighting of nine pulsating lights flying over the Cascade Mountains at speeds surpassing any aircraft. In Chicago, inspired by the news, Oliver Danville, a failed actor now reduced to a mediocre pool hustler, hitchhikes west in a fever-dream quest for a possible sign from above that might illuminate his true calling. A chance encounter with Saul Penrod, an Idaho farmer, and his family sets in motion the birth of “the Seekers”—a collective of outcasts, interlopers, and idealists devoted to creating a society where divisions of race, ethnicity, and sexuality are a thing of the past. When Claudette Donen, a waitress on the lam from her suffocating family, encounters the group, she is compulsively drawn to Oliver’s sister Eileen, but before she is able to join the enigmatic community, it has vanished.


Reunited across the country, the Seekers attempt to settle in the suburbs of Long Island. One night, their purpose suddenly revealed, a stranger emerges, and a horrific crime ensues. In the decades that follow, the perpetrators, survivors, and their children will be forced to face the consequences of what happened—a reckoning that will involve Charlie Ranagan, a traveling salesman; Max Felt, a dissolute late-1960s rock star; Alice Linwood, an increasingly paranoid radio host; Stanley West, a struggling African American poet; Marly Feldberg, a Greenwich Village painter; and Debbie Vasquez, a Connecticut teenager trapped by an avalanche of midnight legacies. Each will prove to be a piece of a puzzle that, when assembled, reveals a shocking truth about the clash between the optimism of those who seek inspiration from spacious skies, and the venom of others who relish the underworld—not only via conspiratorial maneuverings, but the literal unearthing of the dead. The result is one of the most exciting, and unforgettable, debut novels in recent memory, and the launch of a major career in American letters.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Science Fiction, Literary Fiction, Short Stories, Audiobook, Adult

336 pages, Hardcover

First published June 30, 2020

Reviews

[Will Byrnes · Rating 5 out of 5]

“You ever get the feeling,” she said…”that somebody else already did all this shit? That we’re, like, just watching it happen?”

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Short, thin, with narrow shoulders. The head just a little too big for that slight body, skull-like, all forehead and cheekbones, narrow as a trowel at the mouth.

First, let’s get something clear straight away. While there is a sci-fi-ish element extant in Nine Shiny Objects, this is not really a sci-fi novel. We never really get more sci-fi than a newspaper account of Kenneth Arnold’s seminal saucer sighting. The only actual extra-normal element is a bit of fantasy in the final chapter, and a bit of dream work. The novel is a linked-stories narrative of historical fiction. Just so’s ya know.

It begins in 1947. Oliver Danville had just washed out of a not very promising acting career. But, in a local drinking establishment, he got to see the curtains close on a charmer named Necky, someone Oliver feared mightily, someone to whom Oliver owed two hundred bucks, someone who was expected to take partial payment in the form of broken bones. Knowing a sign when he sees one, and now relieved of that particular debt, Oliver heads out, determines to straighten up, live an upstanding life, maybe marry a librarian. He slips into a booth at the local automat, and, over his tuna, coffee, and apple pie, reads about a pilot over the Cascades who reported seeing nine shiny objects that reminded him of tea saucers. With twenty eight bucks to his name, Oliver begins hitchhiking west, feeling a calling, (…he felt the buzzing coming on, like a drug.) and the game is afoot.

The nine shiny objects of the title refer not only to the UFO MacGuffin, but to the interlinked stories of Oliver and eight other characters. The tales cover the period from 1947 to 1987, a look at the United States over that forty-year span.

Central to all the stories is the notion of ideals, of dreaming. (Everybody’s looking for something.) Maybe American dreams, maybe just human dreams. Everyone wants something that feels, or is, wrapped up in a maybe someday. Castleberry presents us with a range of hopes. But there is a dark undercurrent as well, whether we call it a stain on the American soul, or the presence of evil in the world, light versus dark, hope versus despair, optimism versus pessimism. The challenge is there, and few hopes slip past its Argus-like gaze unaffected.

Claudette Doneo, twenty years old, had aspired to emulate her high school teacher, Mrs Garfield, and see the world. She would also love to find someone with whom she could share life’s adventure. But her aggressive boss at the greasy spoon where she is getting by in Del Mar, CA, definitely ain’t it. When she meets Eileen (Oliver’s sister), who is running a new local church from an old warehouse, some new possibilities are revealed. They are an odd lot, looking to space ships to take them up to heaven. But Eileen seems pretty nice.

Marlene Ranagan, in 1957, is living a life of suburban despair. She and her husband are a Jewish couple in a not-so-welcoming NYC suburb, one featuring covenants no deity would inspire. She yearns for something better than having to pop a mother’s little helper whenever her feelings get the better of her, and having a husband who is content to spend his free time in front of the TV watching cowboy movies and drinking beer. She is not without her interests, though, a neighbor who might become more than just that, and an education in art she had ignored to become a homemaker. A stranger comes to town looking for a war-buddy who had taken up with some crazy UFO cult, and the town does not know how to deal with him.


Brian Castleberry - image from his site

Stanley West is a struggling black writer, living in Harlem with his uncle, a professor at the City College of New York. A bit of a poser, he is trying to find himself, poet, painter, ne‘er do well. He has a very dark run-in with a suburban crowd that find him a convenient target for their misplaced fear and rage. Take one Black man. Add a dollop of Bircher-level mentality leading a fearful suburban enclave, and the results are grim.

In 1967, Skip Michaels sells Great Books subscriptions door to door, partaking of the product in hotel rooms, diminishing day by day in a soul-suck of a marriage, and tries to cope with being a northeasterner living in very southern Jacksonville. But in his heart of hearts, he always had an artistic yearning. He never got far with it, but fate has a surprise in store, in the form of a gumdrop-shaped insurance salesman, who passes on some information that sparks Skip’s long-sidelined dream anew.

Alice “Listen Up People” Linwood is a forty-eight-year-old counterculture radio personality in 1972 Phoenix. She spouts what a lot of people see as conspiracy theory folderol. But her audience is growing, particularly since she began focusing on Nixon and Watergate. Alice used to belong to a group whose motto was “Look to the Stars,” but after JFK was assassinated she cast her gaze a bit lower. The big deal impending is that her primary source is in town, on the run, with major dirt for her that can change her world.

Joan Halford still lives in Long Island’s Ridge Landing in 1977, about ten years after her bigot of a husband passed. The guy was so sweet that their son, Scott, a drummer in a band, declined to return home for the funeral. She and her husband had done some damage with their intolerance, but time and reflection have taken a toll. Joan may be ready to move past some of her boundaries and enjoy a wider vista. This was the hankie tale of the bunch for me.

If she had a choice, if she’d learned anything tonight, she would never speak to any of them again. But she knew, here, too, that this wasn’t how things would work out. She would find a way to call Stacy, and later find a way to ask Wolfboy’s forgiveness. And inside she would hate them both a little for knowing her too long, for not letting her change, not letting her find out who she really was. What she was, what she wanted to be, or what she wanted others to see in her was that song “Pretty Vacant” by the Sex Pistols, just emptied out and gone, as if someone better than Ted or Chris or anyone ever asked her, that’s what she would say and if they laughed, she would beat them to the ground like she had Wolfboy. Or she wouldn’t. Of course she wouldn’t.

1982, Debbie Vasquez is playing Ms. Pac-Man at the Crazy-Eight Arcade in Waterbury, CT. Her friend Nathan, aka Wolfboy, invites her to a party being held by Brain-Dead Ted. (She’d rather dig her eyeballs out with sporks.) But Nathan’s brother’s band will be playing at the party and she’s got it bad for them. Her father is/was a rock star, so music permeates, but he was not much of a father. She’s got issues, which manifest in her being tough-as-nails. She has very push-pull relationships with her friends. Debbie lives with her mother, and has not yet found her dream, but grows a piece over a tough night of experiencing and remembering.

I grew up in a small town in Oklahoma. In the late ’80s a mall was built in the next town over, and at its center — as far as I was concerned — was this dark arcade where I would occasionally run into people I knew from school or others of my age from nearby towns. I feel like in my pre-teen imagination the place was a kind of salon for dorks like me. Of course, I’d only have 15 or 20 minutes to roam around wasting quarters while my mom was looking at shoes or something. But it’s buried deep in there, and through that memory I discovered the character of Debbie, who is much cooler than I ever was, and much tougher. - from the Bookweb interview

In 1987, Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan were talking treaty, the former trying to hold the wolves at bay over his Perestroika and Glasnost policies, the latter contending with his Robert Bork failure and Iran-Contra scandal. Jack Penrod has troubles of his own.

Originally, he’d pictured retiring at fifty-nine to be filled with travel and projects around the house. Instead he’d spent most of his time puttering from room to room and getting on his wife’s nerves. She wasn’t used to him being around all day…what he really wanted to tell her he couldn’t put together in words. Something about how he missed her so desperately, how it seemed anymore they were strangers passing on a sidewalk, how he’d started to itch with this feeling that he’d wasted all his life doing next to nothing.

His dead brother keeps appearing to him, alive as you or me. He is not, sadly, visible to Jack’s long-suffering wife, who had thought her husband was done with this delusion years before. It seems Jack’s brother has a mission, a twelve-step-like need to make at least some amends. The late brother had not led the most exemplary life, although he did hold the family together after their parents left, when the brothers were teens. There was a particular apology he needed Jack to give for him. Road Trip! Jack speaks of the past with the partner of the apology recipient.

As she spoke about it all, he began to see it in his mind, and as it formed, he felt a warm glow at the base of his neck. Here was a dream, yes, and the two of them, connected to it only by hearsay, frolicked in its possibilities. A town was more like a family, spreading out in all directions, changing its neighboring towns like falling dominoes. The vision of this better place seemed so easy to make true, and he had to stop himself from reaching out and taking her hand in his. To his surprise they had already become friends.

There are two seminal events from which the rest emanate like shock-waves from a blast, the UFO sighting in 1947 and a Tulsa-like pogrom years later. They serve to tie the tales together, giving the hum of historical background sound a structure. Cults come in for a bi-polar look. The Seekers of the 1940s may have had some nutty canon, but they were a benign, hopeful group, forward-looking, cheerful, friendly, warm. A very different sort of cult forms around a rock star, based on hedonism and nihilism. That musician is another character who gets minimum direct screen time, but whose influence permeates the stories.

Characters are linked to each other from story to story, one or two at a time.

The image I kept in my head as I wrote and revised was of a painting with a foreground and background. In the foreground are these characters in each of their stories, but looming behind them is this shared background…this structure allowed me to create a sense of characters flowing through history, absorbed in their personal lives even though we (readers, I mean) can see and understand that history, those bigger shifts happening around and to them. - from the Vol. 1 Brooklyn interview

Castleberry has given his characters range, even if we only see them for a ninth of the book, and a smattering beyond. They question their lives, their futures, and their pasts. There is, however, a character who appears in person or by reference in most of the stories, Zelig-like, whose goal seems to be to make the most misery for the most people, to pour buckets of cold water on the fires of passion, to spark fires where the potential exists to cause a conflagration, to lie, deceive, and worse, much worse. He embodies the antithesis of hope, the line you may not cross. Castleberry gives him a human form, and banality to boot, although I wondered in reading if he may have hopped off one of those 1947 saucers, if it had come from a hostile civilization.

Overall, this is an exceptional book. The linked-stories form succeeds in offering close looks at a diverse cast of characters while still taking us through a stretch of 20th century America. Castleberry looks at hopes and dreams, the challenges they face, and how they might vary from era to era. For this first novel, we might refer to Sam Spade, in The Maltese Falcon, misquoting Shakespeare, for a suitable summary. It’s the stuff that dreams are made of.

He looked up into the deep vastness above, hoping for a shooting star to arc earthward, something he could take home as a sign. But there was only the chill in the air and the big country around him, floating loose, unmoored, starved for meaning.

Review first posted – July 10, 2020

Publication dates
----------June 30, 2020 - hardcover
----------August 17, 2021 - trade paperback


==========In the summer of 2019 GR reduced the allowable review size by 25%, from 20,000 to 15,000 characters. In order to accommodate the text beyond that I have moved it to the comments section directly below.

[Gerhard · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was … strange. And I am still unsure if it was so in a good way. Sometimes a reading experience leaves you baffled, and you wonder why you picked up that particular book in the first place. Or it simply defies your expectations and leaves you wrong-footed and frustrated.

One thing I have to say from the outset is that this is not a potboiler about a UFO encounter and its ramifications through several generations affected by such an event. Which is kind of what the marketing material for this leads one to believe.

Instead it is a deeply literary novel, illuminated by Brian Castleberry’s crystalline prose. It is gorgeously written, but I found myself admiring the writing far more than I connected with the characters or the narrative.

I think this is deliberate, to a large extent. The book begins with Oliver Danville, a failed actor who now has to resort to hustling pool to stay alive, reading about the sighting of nine shiny tea-saucer shaped objects.

He promptly begins hitchhiking west as if in search of the Holy Grail … exactly why this news has such a profound effect on him is never divulged. He certainly never reaches his final destination, because along the way he is sidetracked and either joins or begins (it is unclear which) a cult known as … the Seekers.

Oliver, however, abruptly disappears after the first chapter. There are only nine chapters, and each has a connection with the initial quest. But instead of bringing us ever closer to that central defining event, we instead move further and further away from it. It is as if we are in a car accelerating away, and are left to peer into the rear-view mirror to try and discern what has been left behind, or what it is that we are trying to escape from.

It is a curious choice on the part of Castleberry, as surely he must have known how this would alienate the reader as he or she enters such a circular mind labyrinth. Each chapter seems a discrete entity until we learn about the connection with Oliver’s story.

And then this connection is treated in such an offhand or casual manner that the reader has to actively work at keeping all of the dots together in his or her mind and not only how they join, but where they diverge (and divulge).

As the decades progress, Castleberry also seems to make some kind of vague overarching comment about the American Dream, cultism and race relations. But we never get closer to those nine shiny objects than Oliver reading about them in the opening chapter.

The book itself becomes a curiously lifeless object. Although illuminated within by Castleberry’s extraordinary writing, the reader never ever gets closer to those lights in the sky, and is left bereft at this lack of meaning and meaninglessness in the face of an indifferent universe.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars: “Nine Shiny Objects” by Brian Castleberry is a novel of nine short stories involving characters whose lives were affected by a racist attack on a community in New York. Each chapter has its own protagonist, and each chapter is in five-year intervals, beginning in 1947 and ending in 1987. Because the cast of characters are broad, taking character notes is advised to get the most out of the novel. I needed to go back to each previous chapter to see how these chapters meld. It’s a bit confusing, but worth the work.

Castleberry has an ambitious story. The heart of the story is that a man has a utopian idea of building a community where everyone is equal. Every member is judged on their goodness. This man has a vision of all races living in harmony, which in the early part of the 20th century was unheard of. This community is created and the surrounding town folk rebel, with deathly consequences.

It’s not immediately obvious how each character is related to the event. After finishing the novel, I went back and scanned the stories again, allowing the characters, dates and situations to jell in my mind. What Castleberry does brilliantly is capturing American life in those five-year increments. Remember automats? The invention of color TV? Mayonnaise versus salad dressing? The Cuban Missile Crisis?? The age of valium and other anti-anxiety mother’s helpers. Oh, and talk radio influencing government conspiracy theories.

Castleberry also shows how just a few individuals can incite badness. Although his racist event occurred in the early 1960’s, it seems like we continue to repeat ugly history. Some humans just don’t like harmony and racial progress.

I cannot say this is a novel for everyone. Its beauty is understated. The storyline is not obvious.

[Bandit · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every author (ok, I shouldn’t make generalizations, but at least most authors) dreams of writing The Great American Novel. And this guy went and did it, just like that, straight out of the gate. What an auspicious debut indeed. I selected this book quite randomly on Netgalley, I remember receiving the notification of approval and not quite knowing what the book was about or why I chose it, but once I read the first few pages…that was it, gone, transported to another time and place, completely immersed in the narrative, stolen away the way only the best books manage to do. I can sing this book’s praises for a while, but it’ll all amount to something like…awesome. Awe inspiringly terrific writing, awe inspiring cleverness of the narrative structure, awe inspiring characterizations. It’s just so good. I read tons, but it’s been a while since a literary novel has this effect on me. So this is all to tell you why the novel was great, now let’s talk about why it’s a great American one. It begins like this…in 1947 an American aviator reports seeing bright objects in the sky, a story that so beguiles a rambling tumbleweed of a Chicagoan that he sets off west following an impossible dream. Once there he establishes a community dedicated to the dream and promise of extraterrestrial life. Something of a free thinking free spirited commune or maybe something of a cult. Either way it doesn’t quite sit well with the local villagers with pitchforks and the situation ends up in tragedy. The results of this situation resonate throughout decades with a myriad of directly and tangentially involved characters all across the country. Each character is given a chapter, each chapter is set precisely five years apart. And thus we the readers get to experience the changing mentalities and shifting paradigms of the last century in the US. Through personal tragedies and private triumphs of micro and macro scale, the sociopolitical panorama of decades can be witnessed. Some of the stories are more directly connected, some read almost as standalones, but the universe remains the same and the final chapter ties it all up smartly and well, albeit disquietingly in a way. There is an underlying connection, like a current, that propels each story, each character in their individual quests, whether it’s a peace of mind or the eponymous shiny objects in the sky. Everyone’s got their own version of the famed American dream and everyone pursues it to the best of their abilities. Abilities often curtailed by personal or social or financial or romantic or otherwise limitations or, in fact, enhanced by the flip coin side of it. The stories are great, but the characters go beyond that, so much so they come to life, in all their flawed beauty, they may not be made likeable always, but the author does the tougher trick yet, he renders them understood. And so, you have some of the best character writing in recent literary fiction. And so, you have a magnificent book, a magnum opus, albeit one of a manageable page count, an epic in its own right and a terrific read all around. Recommended. Recommended. Definitely definitively recommended. Thanks Netgalley.

[Drew · Rating 3 out of 5]

This isn't so much the novel-in-stories that's implied by the copy, although it IS a novel composed of nine distinct short stories, with overlapping/recurring characters. The thing is, it still felt more like a collection of stories than a novel; the overarching 'why' of it all was lost on me, unless it was meant simply to be yet another American Novel kind of deal. I wanted, I'd hoped in fact, for more -- more focus on the cult, for one thing. Castleberry deftly inhabits wildly different people over the course of this novel, but as I got nearer to the end, I realized that so many of the cliffhangers and elisions made in the earlier stories would never be returned to and that, frankly, frustrated me.

[Allen Adams · Rating 4 out of 5]

https://www.themaineedge.com/style/th...

America has always been fertile ground for those with … unconventional ideas. That fertility ebbs and flows, to be sure, with one of the high points – perhaps THE high point – being the middle of the 20th century. The odd energy of the post-war period manifested itself in a tendency for people to search for enlightenment in new ways. And once the notion of ETs and UFOs entered the picture, well – things got weird.

People didn’t understand … and people who don’t understand can be dangerous.

That weirdness and its generational aftermath, for those inside and outside alike, serve as the foundation of Brian Castleberry’s debut novel “Nine Shiny Objects.” This novel-in-stories of sorts takes a long look at the America of the latter half of the 20th century, viewing it through the lens of a short-lived fringe group of UFO fanatics and the traumatic fallout of the years following its collapse.

By following a variety of individuals via their connections to the group, we bear witness as the booming postwar years give way to the counterculture ‘60s, the hedonistic ‘70s and the go-go ‘80s. But even with the growing generational remove, all of the people we encounter bear the psychological repercussions springing from the too-brief life of that initial collective while also dealing with a changing America.

In June of 1947, a failed actor-turned-pool hustler named Oliver Barnville is directionless in Chicago. A lost soul, casting about for something – anything – that might give his life meaning. When he first sees the sensational headlines about the sighting of nine pulsing, moving lights in the sky over the Cascade Mountains. These lights were moving with purpose and at speeds that far exceeded any known aircraft. Oliver sees this story as a sign, and immediately sticks out his thumb and (literally) heads for the hills. Along the way, he meets an Idaho farmer named Saul Penrod and his family, making what was once a solitary quest into a different sort of journey – a journey in which some would follow while others would lead.

Thus are born the Seekers, a collective of outsiders and oddballs looking for something and willing to look to the sky in order to find it. These square pegs sought to eliminate the divisions among humans, eschewing commons prejudices with regards to ethnicity or gender or race – the sort of free thinking that was viewed with considerable suspicion by mainstream America. But when the Seekers’ efforts to wade into that mainstream take a tragic turn, the fracturing moment sends ripples through the years that follow. The horrible tragedy at its center impacts the futures of those who were there and the generations thereafter.

The ones we meet over the course of the ensuing decades are a disparate group: a scholar; a waitress; a traveling salesman; a paranoid radio host; a struggling poet; a hedonistic rock star; a painter; and a troubled teenager. We meet them all as the years pass, their connections to the Seekers’ utopian beginning and violent end tethering them all to one another in ways both overt and subtle. Through their individual stories, the larger narrative of what actually happened to the Seekers – and why – is told. And as that larger narrative is assembled, we also see American evolution, the changes in societal attitudes and ideologies, the slow swing of the political pendulum – writ large.

All of it in the afterglow of nine shiny objects.

“Nine Shiny Objects” is an intriguing work of fiction. Each of these pieces offers a compelling and sometimes heartbreaking character study, a look at how the same thing can hurt different people in different ways. Each of these people carries with them proof of a fundamental societal rot (though each views that proof in their own and occasionally oppositional way); that proof colors and infects their engagement with the world around them – usually to their detriment.

It’s also a reflection of how fearfulness regarding new ideas or somehow shifting the paradigm may take different forms, but is always lurking. There will always be those with unreasonable expectations on either side of the ideological divide; in a way, this book is about the fallout when those expectations are inevitably not met.

Goldsberry shows a remarkable restraint for a debut author in his slow, quiet distribution of pieces of the larger puzzle; the primary connections our changing character perspectives and leaps forward in time are obvious, but there are myriad secondary and tertiary connections as well that are fascinating to watch unfurl.

The depth and intricacy of the plotting is really something to see, connections on connections on connections that spider out from our titular objects in a manner that cleverly evokes the sorts of red-thread connection webs that we associate with conspiracy theory. And with so many of our narrators rendered unreliable by their own connections and biases, well … the truth might be out there, but good luck figuring it out.

“Nine Shiny Objects” is a thoughtful and thought-provoking novel, a portrait of American culture’s ongoing battle between idealism and cynicism. It’s also a story of connections (the ones we see and the ones we don’t) that offers a half-century-long look at what your beliefs can bring you – and what those beliefs might ultimately cost.

[Sheila Ring · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received this book through a Goodreads giveaway.

I don't quite know what I was expecting from Nine Shiny Objects, but what I got was not what I was hoping for. The premise sounded very intriguing, but the delivery fell a bit short in my opinion. With each chapter being narrated by a new character, it got a little confusing trying to remember who fit where. Some of the chapters felt like they didn't even fit with the book at all. These storylines could have been left out entirely and it wouldn't have made a difference in the end.

Mr. Castleberry does have a beautiful writing style, and I really appreciated the flow of the stories. I just wish they wouldn't have seemed so disconnected from one another.

[Shawna Alston · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is another one of those books that taught me a lot about craft and the act of writing. The whole time I was reading this novel, I was thinking about its clever structure and indomitable arc. I was reading it for the plot, yes, but also as this sort of instruction manual on how to approach the novel as an undertaking—as a commitment. It’s a marvel of craft; it’s consistent, connected, and lean (even though it’s a bit over 300 pages).

[Bill Silva · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are the kind of reader who likes all your questions answered and everything nicely tied up at the end, then this novel-in-stories isn't for you. You'll be left scratching your head when you're finished, wondering what all that you just read means and how all the stories fit together. That being said, I found the book to be intriguing, engrossing, and--at its best--captivating in its writing, plot, and characters. Some stories work better than others, and you wonder if the author isn't being purposefully elliptical at times in order to go for the "Huh?" effect--but if you don't mind a little confusion and a few loose ends, this might be for you. It is certainly one of the most original and unique premises for a novel compared to anything I've recently read.

[BookTrib.com]

Castleberry deserves credit for tackling a story that asks big questions in an unusual and challenging structure. The book rises and falls on how invested you become in the new-but-connected characters you meet as each chapter unfolds in a new time period. The narrative strands tighten powerfully and memorably around the fates of Saul Penrod’s sons.

Read our full review here:
https://booktrib.com/2020/07/nine-shi...

[Geonn Cannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book wasn't what I was hoping it would be (UFO chasers in the Cascades, with a lesbian romance subplot) but that doesn't make it bad. It was actually quite good. And there were the requisite UFOs, there was the lesbian romance (for a bit), so I consider it worthy of having paused the book I WAS reading to jump right into this one.

[Kaitlyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book Review: Nine Shiny Objects by Brian Castleberry 🌙 ⁣
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⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5⁣
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48/50 for 2020⁣
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✨THANK YOU @williammorrowbooks for my copy of Nine Shiny Objects✨
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“June 26, 1947. Headlines across America report the sighting of nine pulsating lights flying over the Cascade Mountains at speeds surpassing any aircraft. In Chicago, inspired by the news, Oliver Danville, a failed actor now reduced to a mediocre pool hustler, hitchhikes west in a fever-dream quest for a possible sign from above that might illuminate his true calling. A chance encounter with Saul Penrod, an Idaho farmer, and his family sets in motion the birth of “the Seekers”—a collective of outcasts, interlopers, and idealists devoted to creating a society where divisions of race, ethnicity, and sexuality are a thing of the past. When Claudette Donen, a waitress on the lam from her suffocating family, encounters the group, she is compulsively drawn to Oliver’s sister Eileen, but before she is able to join the enigmatic community, it has vanished.⁣
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Reunited across the country, the Seekers attempt to settle in the suburbs of Long Island. One night, their purpose suddenly revealed, a stranger emerges, and a horrific crime ensues. In the decades that follow, the perpetrators, survivors, and their children will be forced to face the consequences of what happened.”⁣
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This book was completely different than anything I’ve read lately. I expected some kind of sci-fi based on the description but instead discovered a complicated, intricately woven character study. ⁣
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The story spans over 30 or so years, and touches upon the lives of different people as it sprawls. NSO at its heart is an examination of what it means to believe in something and how far people will go to nurture their beliefs. ⁣
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Have you ever read a book where all the elements really worked for you, but you can’t put your finger on exactly why? That’s Nine Shiny Objects.

[Tess · Rating 4 out of 5]

NINE SHINY OBJECTS begins with the promise of flying saucers and a cult devoted to Aliens, but ends up being much more about the American experience. While I was initially excited about aliens and cults, the book still was a hit for me and I really enjoyed the nine different chapters that focus on a different, yet interconnected web of characters that span from the 50s to the 90s and across the country. There is not much of an interwoven plot, but these aren't individual short stories either. Instead, they are glimpses into the lives of this random assortment of people who are thrown together due to a violent and racist act that happens a few chapters into the book, which reverberates over decades.

It is a slow, mediative read that benefits from taking your time and even going back and forth between chapters and characters to get the whole picture. Castleberry is obviously adept at wonderful uses of language and imagery to take you to the specific time and place he is describing. It's a big story, that asks big questions, but in subtle and quiet ways. Definitely a worthy debut from a great author.

[Brenda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really a 3.5 star review. Another early reviewer on Goodreads called Nine Shiny Objects the great American novel, which I wish I hadn’t seen before reading the book because I think I judged it a bit harshly holding it up to that standard. To be sure, I enjoyed the novel, but it wasn’t really what I was expecting. I’m normally fully on board for sweeping tales told from multiple perspectives over wide swaths of time but this novel didn’t give quiet enough detail in each section - I often found myself confused about what was going on, who the characters were, and how they were related to one another. This wasn’t helped by some lazy writing throughout that left me re-reading sentences and patches trying to follow the thread. As things started to come together in the second half, I found it easier to follow the story and in turn to really sink into it.

The big triumph of the narrative is the clever way the story of The Seekers plays out at the periphery of the novel, leaving the reader to fill in the details as the picture comes into focus. Cult books have been popular for the last couple of years and are often pretty formulaic so it was very refreshing to see a new approach.

Overall, I think Brian Castleberry had a great idea but the execution was maybe not exactly right; it could have used a bit more fine-tuning. Would I recommend to a friend? Yes, definitely (as long as they are unto multiple-narrator format, which not everyone is). Would I call it the great American novel? No, I would not.

Big thanks to HarperCollins and Netgalley for the opportunity to read Nine Shiny Objects in exchange for my honest opinion.

[✨Fallon Rasinski✨ · Rating 3 out of 5]

⭐️3.1/5⭐️

I honestly don’t know what to write about this book. There’s a lot I could write actually, but nothing comes to mind that would make sense.
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With the synopsis, I guess I expected the novel to go a completely different direction than it did, but I was shocked with that. Also, I never really got answers…? But, was there even a question? I’m not sure on that either. Something kept me intrigued from beginning to end, yet I don’t know what it was that was keeping me glued.
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The idea of generational perspectives was really unique, and I definitely would love to see more books with the style. The different characters were also something I hadn’t seen in while; not just the characters, but their styles, thoughts, and personalities.
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Would I read again? Yea, I think so? It was oddly interesting with no real climatic points, but somehow held all of my attention.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love a good novel told via connected short stories. It takes a special talent to do this that I admire. The author has this talent and I really enjoyed reading the book. The reason I didn’t give it more stars is that there were too many loose ends for my tastes. The talent is definitely there but I felt the short stories left out many of the answers out that were needed to complete the book. I still recommend it, though.

[Ashleigh Pressy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great concept but lost at times

I like the concept of the story. It did draw me in right at the start. 9 shiny objects spotted in the sky sets off a whole chain of events. But at times I found it hard to read and hold my interest. The chapters could be so long and confusing I could get lost. I didn't know if I was grasping any of it. But when it came together towards the end it started to make sense. Then you really begun to weave it all together. And at the end redemption was found.
I got this book through a Goodreads Giveaway! Thanks for the opportunity to expand my reading horizons!

[Julie Baker · Rating 1 out of 5]

I tried my very best but I could not get into this book. I never not finish a book but this is a very first I didn’t finish it. It was uninteresting, strangely written and just not captivating. Best of luck to anyone who picks this up to read.

[Nancy Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nine interconnected stories, each focusing on a different character, each set five years later than the previous story, starting with Oliver in 1947 and ending with Jack in 1987. The writing is superb, impressive for a first novel. I'm looking forward to reading The Californians.

[Kathleen Lewis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful writing. Each chapter was like a short story featuring a character from the bigger story. I thought this was sci-fi but it wasn’t. An enjoyable read as a Goodreads Giveaway book.

[Trey Godley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Received this book in a giveaway. Not at all what I expected. I didn’t know what was going on for half the book or more. Started to understand and appreciate the format later in the book. It’s a unique style. After finishing it I’m still not sure I fully understand.

[v · Rating 2 out of 5]

Coasting by on readability, errant images, and basic human empathy, this debut novel is also a stellar success in every painful convention of bland contemporary American writing -- conventions I won't list out in reprimand for fear of sounding mean and crotchety, except for the diegetic literary namedrops (which annoy me enough to almost demote this book to One Shiny Star).

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful writing! A wonderful and unique book. 9 short stories that are all connected. Racism, religion, hatred, love, disappointment, grief....

[Paula Ackley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nine Shiny Objects is another one of those books that I would not have been upset if I hadn't read it. This book it not a novel. It is nine separate stories with a thread that is supposed to link them together. This thread is so small and thin that several times I had to go back through several stories to make the connection. Since each story took place five years after the previous story this thread only became thinner and more obscure as the book progressed. Each story seemed to come out of nowhere and was plopped down into the book creating it's own chapter. The stories had unsatisfying endings but it wasn't like a cliffhanger where you scream No! and wait for the next book in the series to get any answers. You just got the next story five years later where there were no answers. It annoyed me at first as I went through the book and it became clear that this was the norm. At some point I realized that I was no longer bothered at all by this because sadly I was now reading just to finish the book and no longer reading it for enjoyment. Mr. Castleberry's Nine Shiny Objects did not shine very brightly for me.

[Sofia Lentine · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's a shame when a synopsis for a book does not live up to what the actual book is like and when picking up this book I thought I was going to be reading more sci-fi but this book isn't that. The book focuses on stories of nine interconnected people over 40 years all branching from the first character we meet, Oliver, who is following nine objects seen in the sky. Although I did appreciate the different stories of people whose lives were interconnected, as the book went on I just found myself more and more confused and felt myself having to go back and figure out how these people were related to other characters in the book. The interconnectedness of these characters is also sometimes so minor it was so much work trying to fit them all together. Also, I felt that it fell short of the initial point at some parts of the book, and I found myself wanting more about the group of people focused on these UFOs, not everyone else. Some of the stories I liked and others fell completely flat, overall it was just not something that came together for me.

[Jess Hagemann · Rating 5 out of 5]

I want to say this is a novel about a UFO cult. But it’s not. The development of and continued existence of the cult is secondary to the stories told here, of the people who dance around the cult’s periphery and are inexorably affected by its gravity. While I’m fascinated by cults and would have liked to read more about its inner workings, these individual character profiles are so nuanced, so compelling, more human perhaps than anything I’ve ever read put on the page, that I stand in awe of Castleberry’s prowess as a writer, his ability to inhabit the minds and convincingly of such different people and the decades in which they live. Just read it.

[MandM · Rating 4 out of 5]

Boy, this one has me thinking, in a good way.

[Ada Lavin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Let me start by saying I hate the star rating system for books. Always have. It doesn't allow you to properly rate how you do or don't like a book. I think 3 or 3 1/2 stars, I consider this book a 3 1/2 stars, an above average rating. But most sadly won't.

I really like the premise of this book. I jumped in both feet at first thinking it was going to be a sci-fi story. I haven't read a good sci-fi book in quite some time so I was excited by the prospect. As I read on I found I was a bit off the mark on my assumptions regarding this book, but in a extremely pleasant way.

The best way to describe this book is a character study. The main characters of a cult and how they found their way to each other. Some of these having their own mini cults which blended together into the larger cult. When their decision to start a small community where they can live in peace with each other turns into a sudden and horrid night with the locals that they could have never foreseen.

The locals who afraid of change and the unknown, react badly to the new comers. Their ideas, their music, their looks and their strange way of loving each other. Instead of trying to get to know and understand these new people they strike out with harshness then physical violence.

I found this book a good parallel to what is going on in our society today. Yes it's a good story of what was happening in the 1970's and I watched it happen then. Sadly I'm watching it happen to a much harsher degree today. Whether Mr. Castleberry meant to draw these parallels or not they are there.

I'd like to thank Brian Castleberry and Goodreads for a copy of this book for an honest review of this book. I wish Brian Castleberry good luck with the release of this book. I enjoyed it and it gave me a lot to think about.

[SOS · Rating 4 out of 5]

3 1/2 stars

I won’t say that this is the favorite of the books I’ve ever read. I will say the writing is skillful. It’s more of a short story collection than a novel. It’s nine stories about nine different people and their everyday lives, and to me, they all sounded pretty much the same. The nine stories are loosely tied together “nine pulsating lights flying over the Cascade Mountains” in 1947. This is not science fiction. Those nine lights propel Oliver Danville, the study in the first story, to travel from Chicago to Washington State. Once there, he forms a group called the Seekers, who are convinced that beings from outer space would come to save them. The other characters are members of that group, and the stories are set in locations throughout the US.

I thought this a very dark and depressing book. It isn’t my kind of thing. I did read it all the way through, and it took until the very last story to see how everything pulled together? Was it satisfying? Not really; not for me. I felt that it was rather a waste of my time spent reading it. I don’t feel that I came away with anything gained from that time.

I will say that despite being originally set in the 1940s, and following through into the 1980s, the themes in this book are perfectly in keeping with the news stories of today. This book includes elements of LGBTQ, race and bigotry, antisemitism, murder of a child and others, and rioting. I can’t say that any of the characters jumped out at me or that I found anything about this book compelling. None of the stories ever gave me enough to make me feel satisfied.

I won an Advanced Reader Copy of this book from Goodreads. All opinions in this review reflect my true and honest reactions to reading this book.

[Alison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nine Shiny Objects by Brian Castleberry is a heartfelt exploration of interconnected lives across decades, woven together with skill and empathy. Castleberry’s novel spans from the Cold War era to the present day, capturing the essence of American history through the eyes of diverse characters whose lives intersect in unexpected ways.

The strength of the novel lies in Castleberry’s ability to create compelling, fully realized characters. Each protagonist brings a unique perspective to the narrative, from a disillusioned CIA operative to a young girl grappling with her identity in a rapidly changing world. Their stories unfold with depth and authenticity, drawing readers into their triumphs and tribulations.

Castleberry’s prose is evocative, painting vivid scenes that resonate long after the book is finished. His exploration of themes such as identity, ambition, and the search for meaning is nuanced and thought-provoking. The novel’s structure, with its interwoven storylines and shifting perspectives, adds layers of complexity that deepen the reader’s engagement.

While the novel’s ambitious scope may occasionally lead to pacing issues or narrative tangents, Castleberry’s skillful storytelling keeps the reader invested. Ultimately, Nine Shiny Objects is a poignant reminder of the ways in which individual lives can impact and intertwine with the broader currents of history.

In summary, Nine Shiny Objects is a compelling and compassionate novel that rewards readers with its rich characterizations, evocative prose, and exploration of profound themes. It’s a testament to Castleberry’s talent and a worthy addition to contemporary American literature.