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A review by fern_mollett
Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon
3.0
CW/TW: cults, abuse (physical, sexual, emotional, spiritual) of minors and adults, animal killings, dead bodies, natural disasters (fire, floods), self harm, murder, childbirth, sex scenes (between an adult and a minor, between consenting adults, and between consenting adults and consenting recently-dead/ghosts!)
Rivers Solomon (who uses they/them pronouns) writes characters who are complex, intriguing, not always likeable, and strong. Characters remain in charge even when their autonomy is taken. Like Solomons other works, the story isn't necessarily plot-driven, rather working with complex characters and strong themes that mirror current issues, their books feel like "capital-L" Literature.
I'm not entirely sure that I could tell you the plot of this one if you asked. So far as I can map it, Part 1 is about Vern raising her children in the woods. Part 2 is about leaving the woods and living with new friends, slowly dealing with the changes in her body. Part 3 is where all the action happens and where we get all the answers (and annoyingly not enough answers). There doesn't seem to be a easily definable goal. The main plot (dealing with the cult) is sometimes lost or put on the back-burner in exchange for deep-dives into the characters themselves.
Because of this, it felt just kinda slow for me. I don't have to have constant action, but inbetween flashbacks, sex scenes, lovers quarrels, hauntings, and simply surviving, there wasn't a lot of room to explore the cult (which represents the main antagonist). Instead of a history of Vern's mother, I think I would have preferred some history on the cult. I would have loved a deep dive into where everything went wrong with the original Black commune (CLAW), when & why did the government get involved, or were they heavily involved from the beginning? Why were they doing these experiments, especially after 50 yrs of failure? I just have so many questions about the cult that I assumed were gonna be answered. There's also an annoying lack of science behind how or why the fungus works or doesn't work. Obviously, it functions like fungus but isn't your regular old fungi.
Speaking of which, here's another book that encorporates fungal horror. I like how we are starting to rebuild this genre of horror.
Rivers Solomon (who uses they/them pronouns) writes characters who are complex, intriguing, not always likeable, and strong. Characters remain in charge even when their autonomy is taken. Like Solomons other works, the story isn't necessarily plot-driven, rather working with complex characters and strong themes that mirror current issues, their books feel like "capital-L" Literature.
I'm not entirely sure that I could tell you the plot of this one if you asked. So far as I can map it, Part 1 is about Vern raising her children in the woods. Part 2 is about leaving the woods and living with new friends, slowly dealing with the changes in her body. Part 3 is where all the action happens and where we get all the answers (and annoyingly not enough answers). There doesn't seem to be a easily definable goal. The main plot (dealing with the cult) is sometimes lost or put on the back-burner in exchange for deep-dives into the characters themselves.
Because of this, it felt just kinda slow for me. I don't have to have constant action, but inbetween flashbacks, sex scenes, lovers quarrels, hauntings, and simply surviving, there wasn't a lot of room to explore the cult (which represents the main antagonist). Instead of a history of Vern's mother, I think I would have preferred some history on the cult. I would have loved a deep dive into where everything went wrong with the original Black commune (CLAW), when & why did the government get involved, or were they heavily involved from the beginning? Why were they doing these experiments, especially after 50 yrs of failure? I just have so many questions about the cult that I assumed were gonna be answered. There's also an annoying lack of science behind how or why the fungus works or doesn't work. Obviously, it functions like fungus but isn't your regular old fungi.
Speaking of which, here's another book that encorporates fungal horror. I like how we are starting to rebuild this genre of horror.