Book description
Like the tentacles of an octopus, the tracks of the railroad reached out across California, as if to grasp everything of value in the state Based on an actual, bloody dispute between wheat farmers and the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1880, The Octopus is a stunning novel of the waning…
- Coming soon!
Why read it?
1 author picked The Octopus as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
Accurately described as melodramatic, the book is sensational and dramatic; it has exciting events and physical action (which Norris handles masterfully); it appeals to the emotions; and its plot is compelling. However, it also has vivid, well-developed characters.
Some may quibble with passages seen as “purple prose”. Maybe it is just the style of the era in which it was written (1901). But I was so taken with the many characters, the situations, and the overall story and plot that I had to forgive Norris’s use of such florid text. He did title the unfinished trilogy (of which this is…
If you love The Octopus...
December on 5C4
Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!
On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…
Want books like The Octopus?
Our community of 13,000+ authors has personally recommended 2 books like The Octopus.
📚 If you like The Octopus, you might also like...
Child of Vanris
At five years old, Kasiel was found with the pointed ends of his ears cut off. Despite that brutal start, he’s lived twelve peaceful years with the man who took him in. Keeping his hair long over his mutilated ears helps him hide the fact that he is Vanrian, a…
Almost Home
Almost Home is a fictional retelling of the last great tragedy of the Civil War.
In late April 1865, almost 2,000 newly freed Union prisoners of war are packed onto the steamer Sultana, in poor repair and with a listed capacity of 376 passengers. Among them are four Indiana soldiers…