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A review by natyweiss
Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon
4.0
-ARC provided by publisher in exchange for honest review-
Vern is 7 months pregnant and living in the woods. She is a black albino 15 years old girl that managed to escape the Church of Cain, a cult led by black people for black people attempting to fight against white supremacy. They live in a close compound without contact with the exterior world. Vern was forced to marry the leader of the cainites and from that union she conceived twins. But before they were born, she left the compound, following the steps of her childhood friend, Lucy.
Vern is special. Her albinism affected her visual acuity but she is extremely intuitive and has the ability of magically healing herself. She is also stubborn and is determined to raise her kids far from Blessed Acres.
But while living in the woods, her body starts to change in a very strange way. Some kind of fungus is growing in her body and she is also experimenting what she calls "hauntings". Hallucinations? Hidden memories? Encrypted messages? She doesn't know. What she does know is that they are extremely disturbing and vivid.
As Vern and her children move further and further away from Blessed Acres, the threat and the fear of being caught by the fiend, a multiform demon sent by the church, grows within Vern, as also grows the realization, an epiphany, of the unbearable truth.
Told from Vern's POV, the story is a wonderful and heartbreaking reminder of how black bodies are treated in this country.
The writing is magnificent and poetic; even in the most disturbing scenes you get a sense of beauty. Lots of natural and supernatural elements that makes the book difficult to categorize genre-wise. Gothic, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Erotica, Philosophical Fiction. It has it all.
.
The last quarter of the book was a little bit too slow paced for my taste, but that didn't change my general perception of the book.
It was a wonderful journey.
I'm giving it 4 Stars out of 5
Vern is 7 months pregnant and living in the woods. She is a black albino 15 years old girl that managed to escape the Church of Cain, a cult led by black people for black people attempting to fight against white supremacy. They live in a close compound without contact with the exterior world. Vern was forced to marry the leader of the cainites and from that union she conceived twins. But before they were born, she left the compound, following the steps of her childhood friend, Lucy.
Vern is special. Her albinism affected her visual acuity but she is extremely intuitive and has the ability of magically healing herself. She is also stubborn and is determined to raise her kids far from Blessed Acres.
But while living in the woods, her body starts to change in a very strange way. Some kind of fungus is growing in her body and she is also experimenting what she calls "hauntings". Hallucinations? Hidden memories? Encrypted messages? She doesn't know. What she does know is that they are extremely disturbing and vivid.
As Vern and her children move further and further away from Blessed Acres, the threat and the fear of being caught by the fiend, a multiform demon sent by the church, grows within Vern, as also grows the realization, an epiphany, of the unbearable truth.
Told from Vern's POV, the story is a wonderful and heartbreaking reminder of how black bodies are treated in this country.
The writing is magnificent and poetic; even in the most disturbing scenes you get a sense of beauty. Lots of natural and supernatural elements that makes the book difficult to categorize genre-wise. Gothic, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Erotica, Philosophical Fiction. It has it all.
.
The last quarter of the book was a little bit too slow paced for my taste, but that didn't change my general perception of the book.
It was a wonderful journey.
I'm giving it 4 Stars out of 5