The nix

Locations
Call Number: Fiction / Hill, Nathan, Adult Book / Fiction / General / Hill, Nathan
On Shelf At: Downtown Library, Pittsfield Branch

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Fiction / Hill, Nathan	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Fiction / Hill, Nathan	4-week checkout	Due 12-29-2025
Pittsfield Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / General / Hill, Nathan	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Malletts Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / General / Hill, Nathan	4-week checkout	Due 12-28-2025
Traverwood Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / General / Hill, Nathan	4-week checkout	Due 01-03-2026

"An epic novel about a son, the mother who left him as a child, and how his search to uncover the secrets of her life leads him to reclaim his own"-- Provided by publisher.

REVIEWS & SUMMARIES

Library Journal Review
Booklist Review
Publishers Weekly Review
Summary / Annotation
Fiction Profile
Excerpt
Author Notes

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Great, meaningful read submitted by emjane on June 17, 2017, 9:26am Thought provoking, funny, moving -- this book has it all. Don't let the length turn you off-- it's a book you can't put down once you start reading.

Things I loved, others not so much submitted by Susan4Pax -prev. sueij- on July 27, 2019, 4:59pm 3/5 stars. Right down the middle for me, by which I mean: there were things that drew me in in The Nix, and things that bored me enormously. I think the overarching idea of the book is that things aren't always what they seem, and that what we see at any one time is really only a part of the whole. Since this was presented with a half-page story before the preface in the fable of the blind men exploring an elephant, I was actually reading the book with an eye toward that view. With each of the multitude of characters (Samuel the narrator, Faye his mother, the twins he knew as a kid, Bethany as his adult love interest, Pwnage his gaming buddy, Laura the college student, his publisher, and others), what was the one aspect we knew ("an elephant is a snake") and what did we not know?

But in the end, the whole thing needed editing. It just moved... slowly. If an author wants to keep my interest in that many characters over that much time and space, the story needs to be tight. There were interesting revelations at the end (some obvious, a few not quite so much), but not enough to make reading a 600+ page book worthwhile.

Solid interweaving storytelling submitted by ECoccia on July 22, 2025, 1:44pm An engaging, fairly quick (especially given the length) read, weaving together generations of a family and the characters whose lives have intersected with theirs in ways that made a world of difference. There are moments where the writing is truly beautiful, and throughout the narrative is well-crafted and engaging even when it spins in unexpected directions. Without spoiling anything, portions of the novel’s ending were surprising (and delightfully so) revelations, others felt well-earned but expected, and one felt a little overly neat and tidy but not so much that it undid the craft of the novel.

Also if you’ve spent quite a bit of time in the Midwest, there are a lot of fun moments to go “oh! I’ve been there!”