A review by joelkarpowitz
An Untamed State by Roxane Gay

4.0

An Untamed State is one of the hardest books I've read in a long time, not because it's dense or complex--in fact it's incredibly readable and straightforward--but because the subject matter is so brutal. Gay explores the crossroads between political violence, sexual violence, and family dysfunction in this story of the Americanized daughter of Haitian parents who is kidnapped and held captive until her father is willing to pay her ransom. Gay describes the violence without sparing any details, but not to sensationalize the cruelty but to not allow readers to shy away from it. Her focus is not the awful acts themselves, but the emotional and psychological toll they take and what it costs to survive such an experience. It's not pat and easy, and it's not a read I think everyone could or should read, but her unflinching examination of the type of crimes that do occur around the world on a regular basis is eye opening. Sometimes, like the main characters in this book, we have to face the worst in order to begin to understand and deal with it, and hopefully begin to do something about it.