A review by jayisreading
Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

4.0

"How come white folks were always telling Black people to get over slavery because it was 150 or so years ago but they couldn't get over their Christ who died 1,830 years before that?"

If that isn't the million dollar question, I don't know what is, hah. Sorrowland was a tough book to read. It was hard in the sense that there were a lot of intertwining heavy topics, and it's not for the faint of heart (major content warning for body horror). They presented the United States' dark history and the treatment of Black people (and, to no one's surprise, it's violent). Solomon also briefly touched on this country's position as colonizers, reminding us of the violence that Black and Indigenous peoples have faced.

However, another hard aspect of this book for me was getting invested in the story. Solomon is a phenomenal storyteller, and they presented a well-developed and deeply disturbing world through the eyes of their protagonist, Vern. I can't quite place my finger on what it was that failed to pull me into the story, though. I'm inclined to say that it was awkward pacing and a sometimes vague plot. There were instances when I couldn't quite tell where Solomon wanted to take the reader, though maybe that was the purpose.
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