Reviews

Inland by Téa Obreht

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timna_wyckoff's review against another edition

4.0

Read for bookclub; can't wait to see what others thought. I loved the sweep of Lurie's story, the details about the camels, the different voices and timelines, the ghosts (not even usually my thing!), and how the tragic end somehow also made me...smile. I really wanted to love Nora's story, and I really *appreciated* its various details, but it just didn't move me like I'd hoped.

drskaninchen's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

Content Warnings

af415's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.0

kate_in_a_book's review

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adventurous medium-paced

4.0

candacesiegle_greedyreader's review against another edition

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5.0

This mysterious and captivating novel weaves two story strands together into an unexpected and gratifying end. I'm pretty sure it's not like anything else you've read, which is a treat in itself.

One storyline revolves around Nora, living on a sun-blasted ranch during the 1892 Arizona drought. Her husband has left to buy water from the waterman in town, and her older sons have gone into town to publish their newspaper. None have returned. She's at home with her youngest son, who has had what seems to be a whale of a concussion, and their servant, a young woman who says she can occasionally speak to the dead. And her stroke-impaired, wheelchair-bound mother who mysteriously manages to move her chair to prime spots in the house.

Story two involves Lurie Mattie, which is not his real name, brought to the US as a child, lived as a street kid, and who relates his story to Burke, his camel. Lurie has two dead friends who follow him because he has absorbed their want. Where he encountered his camel you will have to read "Inland" to find out.

Anyone who follows my reviews knows how I try to avoid stories with supernatural elements, and that's because they are usually stupid. Tea Obrecht taps into the spirit of people of that time and place to create beliefs that fit. The west was haunted, and the people who came there brought their own ghosts to cohabit with the new ones they encountered.

Obrecht is a beautiful writer who captures the frying southwest and how people survive in areas where people were not really meant to live. Only Burke the camel is in the right place. What a wonderful book.