Tom's Crossing
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Our view
“Tom’s Crossing” is an ambitious, sprawling quest novel from the author of “House of Leaves”. Mark Z. Danielewski follows two friends out of Orvop, Utah, in the autumn of 1982, to save a pair of horses bound for slaughter. Some readers admire how the ending pulls everything together after a winding, epic telling rich in allusions to art, myth and Danielewski’s other books. It rewards a taste for digression.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
Hard to figure how so much awful horror could've started out with just them two horses and not a one yet named... From the bestselling author of House of Leaves comes a magisterial novel about two friends determined to rescue a pair of horses set for slaughter. While folks still like to focus on the crimes that shocked the small city of Orvop, Utah, back in the fall of 1982, not to mention the trials that followed, far more remember the adventure that took place beyond municipal lines. For sure no one expected the dead to rise, but they did. No one expected the mountain to fall either, but it did. No one expected an act of courage so great, and likewise so appalling, that it still staggers the heart and mind of anyone who knows anything about the Katanogos massif, to say nothing of Pillars Meadow. As one Orvop high school teacher described that extraordinary feat just days before she died, Fer sure no one expected Kalin March to look Old Porch in the eye and tell him: You get what you deserve when you ride with cowards.
Where the score comes from
The sources average 9.1 across 25 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 15% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Rankings average of 7.8. That is how 8.1 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hardcover | 9.1 | 25 | 100% |
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.