cassiecollins 's review for:

Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon

4.5

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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I picked this up at a used book store on a whim, and I'm very glad I did! Solomon is great at using lush prose to describe the brutal and grotesque. There's certainly a lot of social commentary here, but I never felt that it reached soap-box-levels of proselytizing—just calling it as it is in relation to the narrative at hand. A lot of complex and interesting female and/or queer characters also really fleshed out the piece. The ending felt a bit too fast and abrupt, but I think it served its purpose well enough. Definitely would recommend this!