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4.02 AVERAGE
4.02 AVERAGE
The prose of this book had me pausing and being amazed so often. It was brutal and beautiful at once. This is the kind of sci-fi fantasy gothic horror that makes me like sci-fi fantasy gothic horror. Based on a real world events but taken to terrible conclusion.
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
"All this time she'd thought death was coming for her, but perhaps it was she who was death coming for everyone else."
This was a very unique and horrifying story, both in the way of body horror and in the way of mistreatment of black people in the US. I found myself really rooting for Vern as she found herself throughout the course of this book, and the fungus-taking-over aspect was equally scary and intriguing. This is my first of Rivers Solomon's books, but I'll definitely be on the lookout for more from now on.
This was a very unique and horrifying story, both in the way of body horror and in the way of mistreatment of black people in the US. I found myself really rooting for Vern as she found herself throughout the course of this book, and the fungus-taking-over aspect was equally scary and intriguing. This is my first of Rivers Solomon's books, but I'll definitely be on the lookout for more from now on.
adventurous
dark
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
We’re just a mere 19 days into this 2021 malarkey but I may already have found one of my best reads of the year. Rivers Solomon: take a bow. Thank you to Net Galley for letting me get out here ahead of the pack and say: pre-order this stunner now!
Having read and savoured both of Solomon’s previous speculative genre pieces- the exquisitely named and front-covered ‘An Unkindness of Ghosts’ and ‘The Deep’, an afrofuturist tale of merpeople, adapted from an experimental rap song, I was ALL IN for whatever literary genius they wrote next. What I wasn’t necessarily expecting was to see just how much their craft has grown in ‘Sorrowland’: this is masterful storytelling of the absolute highest order.
Imagine if Toni Morrison wrote a woke afrofuturist version of “The Handmaid’s Tale” spliced with “Mexican Gothic” and you’d be....somewhere nearby, but not altogether in the ballpark occupied by River Solomon’s wholly original masterpiece. Divided into three genre-shifting sections that- as will become appropriate- shift and metamorphose into something incredibly bold and powerful, Solomon’s story is the gift that keeps on giving. What seems like a (relatively!) simple tale of a Black albino girl escaping from her sermonising husband and the sinister cult he leads, running into the woods to birth her twins and lead a feral life of survival, warps into a profoundly thrilling and thrillingly profound journey of: self-discovery; of queer love and desire; of wildness; of filial duty; of co-opted rebellion; of fighting back against the forces that continue to bruise, maim and destroy the black body with their barbarism.
America’s dark legacy of racialised violence is laid bare in brutal, fierce ways here, as Vern, our protagonist, is quite literally haunted by her nation’s brutality. Embracing her own metamorphosis into queer womanhood, into motherhood, into something terrifying and unfathomably powerful, Vern must confront generations of suffering in order to transform into the mother/lover/citizen/person she deserves to be.
The novel’s range is phenomenal: it is fantastical, dense with the language of the woodlands and the supernatural, but it is also achingly familiar and prescient in its social commentary, so utterly vibrant in its representation of queer love and gender, offering up scenes of the most frightening, most visceral horror I’ve read in ever, whilst also being tender, heartbreaking, funny and exciting: it is a shimmering, pulsating beast of contradictions. It is brilliant.
‘Sorrowland’ is a wildly imaginative, dazzlingly executed work of fiction that will be amongst the best books of 2021, I’m telling you now.
Having read and savoured both of Solomon’s previous speculative genre pieces- the exquisitely named and front-covered ‘An Unkindness of Ghosts’ and ‘The Deep’, an afrofuturist tale of merpeople, adapted from an experimental rap song, I was ALL IN for whatever literary genius they wrote next. What I wasn’t necessarily expecting was to see just how much their craft has grown in ‘Sorrowland’: this is masterful storytelling of the absolute highest order.
Imagine if Toni Morrison wrote a woke afrofuturist version of “The Handmaid’s Tale” spliced with “Mexican Gothic” and you’d be....somewhere nearby, but not altogether in the ballpark occupied by River Solomon’s wholly original masterpiece. Divided into three genre-shifting sections that- as will become appropriate- shift and metamorphose into something incredibly bold and powerful, Solomon’s story is the gift that keeps on giving. What seems like a (relatively!) simple tale of a Black albino girl escaping from her sermonising husband and the sinister cult he leads, running into the woods to birth her twins and lead a feral life of survival, warps into a profoundly thrilling and thrillingly profound journey of: self-discovery; of queer love and desire; of wildness; of filial duty; of co-opted rebellion; of fighting back against the forces that continue to bruise, maim and destroy the black body with their barbarism.
America’s dark legacy of racialised violence is laid bare in brutal, fierce ways here, as Vern, our protagonist, is quite literally haunted by her nation’s brutality. Embracing her own metamorphosis into queer womanhood, into motherhood, into something terrifying and unfathomably powerful, Vern must confront generations of suffering in order to transform into the mother/lover/citizen/person she deserves to be.
The novel’s range is phenomenal: it is fantastical, dense with the language of the woodlands and the supernatural, but it is also achingly familiar and prescient in its social commentary, so utterly vibrant in its representation of queer love and gender, offering up scenes of the most frightening, most visceral horror I’ve read in ever, whilst also being tender, heartbreaking, funny and exciting: it is a shimmering, pulsating beast of contradictions. It is brilliant.
‘Sorrowland’ is a wildly imaginative, dazzlingly executed work of fiction that will be amongst the best books of 2021, I’m telling you now.
This was good, but weird... but mostly very good.
“Better not to belong at all than belong in a cage.”
There is no doubt that this book includes dark topics. That is what makes this novel beautiful. The discussion and instances of racism, misogyny, self-harm, suicidality, homophobia, explicit violence, and references to sexual violence have all taken place off the page. This story delves into the pain the world witnesses and endures; Through this novel, one might see the joy, triumph, and humor of those who resist the cruelty of others. I hope you find in this book whatever it is you need right this moment.
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes