A review by sol_journal
Thirst by Marina Yuszczuk

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Thank you Isabel DaSilva for reaching out with this arc! All thoughts on this read are entirely my own!
Posted to: NetGalley, Goodreads, and The Storygraph 
Posted on: 6 December 2023 
 
4 out of 5 stars. 
 
Yuszczuk is an author I haven’t heard of before. I was honestly quite surprised when I got an email from Isabel DaSilva inviting me to check out ‘Thirst’, but I decided to give it a chance since I was waiting to hear back from other ARCs at the time, and this one did not disappoint. Told in two different points of views of women who knew different eras of the same city, ‘Thirst’ invokes a sort of self-reflection through its words. Often, I found myself contemplating what it meant to live and what it was to exist- and while I’m not sure if that was one of the main points of this novel, it certainly made relating to the characters a bit easier as they go through similar pangs. 
I think what I enjoyed most about this read is how achingly human the characters are. I’m not too deep into women’s fiction reads or more adult genres in general if I’m honest (a glance through my recent reads will show a lot of YA sci-fi and fantasy, and just fairly recently some adult sci-fi and fantasy) so it was a bit different to read about the pains of being a women, a mother, a monster in times where all these expectations and desires are painted upon the female figure. But ‘Thirst’ shows how desperate these two women are to live, to heal, to love themselves and to pick themselves up when it seems like nobody is in their corner to help them. It was different to see more mature characters handling life and desires (and depression and sorrow) and I think that just really stuck out to me in a way that made this book a heavy hitter. 
 
‘Thirst’ may be about two women eventually crossing paths and leaning into one another for unexplainable reasons, for a connection, for a desire to both live yet feel something more than just living, but at it’s heart, it’s about two women who wanted to survive when death lingers deep within them. It’s a poem and a eulogy and a representation of the dying that occurs when you’re still alive, of the decay that lingers within the soul, and of the depression that sinks it’s fangs deep into the flesh of even the seemingly-strongest of people. It’s a reminder of the futile yet beautiful yearning that exists inside of people, and the desire to feel whole. 
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