What does it mean to like a book? Does it mean you find it compelling and want to keep reading it when you put it down? Does it mean you think it's well-written? Does it mean that you connect with the characters and care about what happens to them? Does it mean you don't want it to end? Does it mean you want to read it again? Or is it just something ineffable, unquantifiable, that marks the dividing line between "liked it" and "didn't like it"? I can't remember a book before Mr. Splitfoot that has so challenged me to think about what I mean when I say that I "like" a book. I'm still not sure, months after it's been filed away as "read" on Goodreads, whether or not I liked it (I write the first draft of my review very quickly after finishing a book, but I do come back to make revisions a few times before anything officially goes up). That rating? Not a result of any sort of thought process besides that a six seemed too low, and an eight too high.

Mr. Splitfoot is structured as dual narratives that come together at the end. The first, earlier-in-time part of the story follows Ruth and Nat, two of many abandoned children at a state-funded, religiously-motivated facility in upstate New York that cares for them, sort of, until they turn 18. Ruth's older sister Elinor has aged out, so she and Nat declare themselves sisters and bond to each other as their chosen family. As children, they start playing at summoning ghosts with the other kids, and once they reach their late teens, a traveling con man named Mr. Bell takes them and their act on the road. The second, later-in-time part of the story focuses on Cora, Ruth's niece, in the present day. At 25, she's living with her mother, working a dead-end job at an insurance company, and has just been knocked up by older man named Lord who's still married to the wife that was institutionalized after she tried to kill him. Cora only met Ruth (and Nat) once, but that one visit stuck with the then-teenage Cora for life. When Ruth suddenly reappears, after Cora's revelation of her pregnancy to Lord doesn't go well, Cora is just about over everything in her life enough to follow the now-mute Ruth on a journey. Where they're going, and why, and how Ruth came to be mute, are revealed only gradually over the course of the stories as they move forward.

I think, ultimately, that I liked Mr. Splitfoot. I LOVED the language. I highlighted what feels like a quarter of the book in my Kindle and agonized for quite a while over which quote to publish as a part of this post. I've put more Samantha Hunt in my Amazon wishlist, because her way with words is incredible. It reminded me of how Jeffrey Eugenides writes, and Eugenides is one of my all-time favorite authors. And I found the book compelling, both because of its powerful language and because I wanted to see how the mysteries presented by the story were going to be wrapped up. And when they do wrap up, at the end, it makes for a big and satisfying emotional punch. But I thought it moved too slowly, with not enough revelations along the way...instead of whetting my appetite for more, I just kept getting frustrated by not knowing what was going on or where it was headed. And characterization, which is big for me in my enjoyment of a book, was thin. It was hard to understand what motivated the characters to act the way they did. Was it worth reading? Yes, for the wordsmithing alone. But did I enjoy the experience of reading it? Only sort of and sometimes. I did appreciate it by the end, and it stuck with me for a long time. ( )

Like a sandwich with the finest meats, cheeses, and spread, on moldy, stale bread. Started off boring and childish, picked up steam and had me on ghe edge of my seat, and then had the laziest of endings. ( )

This was a fun, quirky, sometimes confusing, rather dark little book. I enjoyed the narrative structure and found the characters well-developed and interesting. "Gothic" is certainly an apt description. I would also add spooky and surreal. Carl Bell was my favorite character. ( )

What the heck did I just read? Strange yet amazing! ( )

I almost purchased Mr Splitfoot by Samantha Hunt at Barnes and Noble because they had a signed copy for sale and I had a discount coupon. I knew nothing about the book, except the small blurb on the inside of the cover. I decided against it and purchased a group of buy 2 get 1 free books.

The very next day, Bookriot, sent an email stating the ebook copy was only $2.99 at Amazon (as of the writing of this, it still is). I thought it was an omen, so I picked it up.

The premise sounded great! Two orphan children meet with a professional con man and one of the children talks to the dead. Sounds like a no brainer! This had to be read.

The funny thing is that I could understand if someone decided not to finish this book after starting it. That seems an odd thing to write in a review that will be positive.

The beginning of this book, while Ruth and Nat are in the orphanage is so bizarre that it could potentially turn people off. I write that because that is almost what happened to me. This is a quirky tale, but I am glad I stuck with it because once one falls into the writer's groove, it is such a fun book.

As written earlier, it is the story of Ruth, who has a scarred face, and Nat, who declare themselves sisters after Ruth's older sister El ages out of the orphanage. Ruth and Nat are inseparable and have a bond that can never be broken. Nat can talk to the dead, a skill he hones, when the two meet up with Mr Bell, a con man who helps them earn money using Nat's skill.

This is also a road trip story of Ruth and Cora, Ruth's pregnant niece, and takes place in the future in Ruth's timeline. Ruth cannot speak and comes to Cora in the middle of the night insisting that Cora must follow her. Cora has no idea where they are going and is also anxious because they are going to walk the whole trip.

The two narratives trade off alternatively chapter by chapter. The wonderful thing is the further into the book one goes, the closer the two narratives become. Hunt has a wonderful way of storytelling in that sense.

This is a book about relationships ultimately and what one would do for love. From Nat's ability and the desire for his rubes to believe what he is doing simply to be reassured their deceased is ok to the complex relationship of Ruth and Nat to sex without love attached in Cora's pregnancy. How far will one go for love?

As stated earlier, this will not be a book for everybody as it is very strange and simply weird, but by the end of the book it is worth the journey and the questions that accompany it. There are moments of danger in both tales, huge questions in both, and one is thrown off on purpose. The book itself is a con of sorts in that sense. One has to question what is real and what isn't. What is truth and what is a lie? If you can stick with it, the book keeps getting better. All in all, I rated it 3.5 stars simply because it took a bit to get into. ( )