A review by aleffert
Palimpsest by Catherynne M. Valente

5.0

This book claims to be about sex, but it is really about drugs. And it is really really about the struggle in that moment when you feel like you should drag yourself out of bed in the morning, but you're only half awake and the thing you want most in the world is to just lie cozy and unconscious and as long as you do that there's absolutely nothing the world can do to hurt you. It is about how in those moments the world can still hurt you.

This is a book about a sexually transmitted city. It is strange and dreamy and beautiful. If that is not enough to compel you to seek out this book then it is not for you. Also, I am not sure we should be friends.

This is not a perfect book. It is weird and warty. There is not much plot. The characters are not particularly sympathetic. It works though. It carries itself on sheer literary fireworks.