A review by jan_coco_day
Swim Home to the Vanished by Brendan Shay Basham

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

As a work of literary fiction about grief, transformation, and a mythological journey to a remote land inhabited by vengeful witches, this book should be my jam. But I couldn't get into this one. That is entirely due to a personal character trait that I brought to the book as a reader, not to the book itself. 

The writing is gorgeous, and the book leans into emotion, eschewing narrative structure at times in favor of haunting atmospheres of what it feels like to swim/drown in a sea/river of mourning.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Alcoholism, Animal death, Death, Toxic relationship, and Grief

Moderate: Medical trauma

Minor: Suicide and Self harm