An intense and uncomfortable book about the relationship between a teen girl and her manipulative teacher that lays bare the often complex legacy of t
An intense and uncomfortable book about the relationship between a teen girl and her manipulative teacher that lays bare the often complex legacy of trauma and abuse. How do you heal when you’ve never viewed yourself as a victim? When you love your abuser? When you need your abuse to be a love story because you’ve built your whole life around this defining experience? Heavy subject matter that dares to go to some compelling psychological places.
An inventive and provocative novel about a rumored sexual assault that occurs at a high school party and the long-term impact it has on four people haAn inventive and provocative novel about a rumored sexual assault that occurs at a high school party and the long-term impact it has on four people haunted by the roles they played. It’s genre mashup of a mystery, horror, campus novel and noir, including various view points and narrative forms. It’s a timely and nuanced look at the often complex nature of truth and the stories we tell that come to define us. And about reclaiming our own narratives to reach a point of personal liberation and possibly even forgiveness. Really smart debut here. Almost like a more accessible version of Trust Exercise. ...more
Ah, man. This is a brilliant novel. It upends narrative structure and form right up front, and then catches you off guard by doing it again toward theAh, man. This is a brilliant novel. It upends narrative structure and form right up front, and then catches you off guard by doing it again toward the end.
It’s about a college student, Regina, and the womanizing male professor whose class she takes. But what you think is going to happen doesn’t entirely happen, which is to say there’s an affair but it’s not between Regina and her professor. This is the first twist.
Much of the novel is an excruciatingly self-conscious recollection of this affair, which shaped Regina at a formative part in her life. It’s that feeling we all have when we’re young that we’re the protagonist of life and everyone else is a supporting character and we don’t realize until we’re older that in fact everyone is their own protagonist.
And therein lies the second twist: Regina coming to terms with this and the way that she reconciles it. The final pages gave me a lump in my throat, they hurt so good.
This is a challenging novel. It’s dense and cerebral and its reward demands to be earned. I won’t soon forget it.
“We don’t deserve the spring, and we don’t deserve the winter either. They just exist.�
The marketing for this book does no justice to its sadness, its“We don’t deserve the spring, and we don’t deserve the winter either. They just exist.�
The marketing for this book does no justice to its sadness, its darkness, its profundity. Two childhood friends, Mia and Lorrie Ann, take completely different paths in life. Mia, the colder and hard-hearted of the two, finds a fulfilling career and a man she loves, while beautiful and kind Lorrie Ann appears to be plagued by bad luck.
Mia struggles to find a semblance of meaning in it all, wondering what either of them did to be given their lots in life, never fully allowing herself to feel the happiness she doesn’t believe she deserves.
But the stories we tell about ourselves and the ones we love aren’t always accurate. And sometimes there are no answers, and the most freeing thing we can do is accept that.
This book devastated me � as a mother, a friend, a person trying to figure it all out. It hurt so good. ...more
This collection is so good I can’t even handle it! Surreal, atmospheric, unsettling takes on familiar themes: the uncertainty of new relationships, thThis collection is so good I can’t even handle it! Surreal, atmospheric, unsettling takes on familiar themes: the uncertainty of new relationships, the realities of climate change, the desperate need to protect the ones we love.
Two women attend a party at a ski lodge full of ghosts. On a trip to the desert, a woman is infected with the spirit of a Joshua tree. A posthumous surgeon in the 1600s is tasked with performing a disturbing ritual to prevent corpses from rising. A new mother agrees to breastfeed the devil in exchange for her baby’s safety.
Russell builds tension and dread so masterfully. These stories teeter on the edge of reality, the strangeness of each one gradually unraveling at a perfect pace. Sometimes it takes several pages to even figure out what’s going on, but the thing is I trusted Russell implicitly to take me on these little journeys. Some of her sentences are so beautiful and magical that I kept re-reading them.
If you like strange fiction along the lines of George Saunders and Kelly Link, don’t miss this....more
On an August afternoon on the Kamchatka Peninsula in northeastern Russia, two little girls go missing.
In the year following the event, the news reverbOn an August afternoon on the Kamchatka Peninsula in northeastern Russia, two little girls go missing.
In the year following the event, the news reverberates throughout the peninsula, impacting the people who live there in ways both subtle and profound.
Each subsequent chapter focuses on a different woman in community: sometimes the girls are central to the chapter, sometimes they’re only mentioned in passing during a conversation, but their presence is always there in the background.
There’s a haunting melancholy throughout the entire novel, through each chapter that is its own short story. What struck me the most is that most of them are left unresolved, ending before we find out the fate of the characters and their central conflicts. I loved this about it: it deepened the sense of dread and mystery, made each story somehow even weightier.
Importantly, we still find a semblance of closure as the novel concludes and comes full circle. But it’s just as nuanced as everything that comes in between.
Disappearing Earth is an expertly woven story, gorgeously literary and full of understated suspense. It’s not a page-turner; it’s the kind of book you take your time with, the kind that gradually seeps deeper and deeper inside of you....more
“That of course life is random, a series of coincidences, etc., but that to live you must attempt to make sense of it, and that’s what narrative’s for“That of course life is random, a series of coincidences, etc., but that to live you must attempt to make sense of it, and that’s what narrative’s for.�
Inject this book directly into my veins, please. Reading this reminded me of reading Call Me By Your Name. While this is a completely different narrative, it is similarly sensual and self-conscious and intellectually edifying. It is essentially a series of conversations that one woman has with people over the years as she gradually upends her life.
There is so much here that spoke to me about the dark and baffling nature of female desire, the conflict of being a liberated woman but craving a respite from control and power, the ironic oppressiveness of choice. These are bold and provocative ideas that I rarely see addressed with such courage and nuance.
Mostly what this is about, though, is the stories we tell about ourselves and others, and how those stories can be both constructive and limiting....more
A young woman and her boyfriend, John, take a road trip across America, past all the strip malls and hotels and fast food chains. They are drifting apA young woman and her boyfriend, John, take a road trip across America, past all the strip malls and hotels and fast food chains. They are drifting apart. They are each self-destructive in their own way. She is anorexic, he is an alcoholic. She promises him over and over aging that she will eat. He promises her he won’t drink. They break their promises again and again. They are binary stars hurtling through space and time.
This is a distinctly American book, filled with prescription drugs and celebrity magazines and diet pills and name brands. It’s an indictment of the vacuousness of our culture, of all the ways that it feels futile to ever be okay....more
I love Ottessa Moshfegh, and I love the premise of this novel, but it really wasn’t for me.
Vesta is an old widow living by herself in a rural cabin wiI love Ottessa Moshfegh, and I love the premise of this novel, but it really wasn’t for me.
Vesta is an old widow living by herself in a rural cabin with her dog, Charlie. Her husband, Walter, died recently and now she is all alone. While walking in the woods one day, she finds a cryptic note stating that Magda is dead, and becomes obsessed with it. She doesn’t know who Magda is, so she makes up a story about her as she attempts to solve her mystery. Lines between delusion and reality blur, and Vesta’s fixation on Magda brings her closer to her own truth.
Like most of Moshfegh’s novels, there’s a lot of internal monologue. But I just didn’t find Vesta a compelling enough character to want to reside in her mind for an entire book. There is some interesting commentary about death, and a meta component to it as Vesta meditates on what makes a good mystery. The tone is infused with subtle dread and menace.
I think many people will enjoy this creepy character study, but it just didn’t grab me the way I hoped it would, especially after loving Eileen and My Year of Rest and Relaxation....more
This short novel about death and grief really packs a punch. Eden lies on his death bed in a burn unit, severely injured in America’s forever war and This short novel about death and grief really packs a punch. Eden lies on his death bed in a burn unit, severely injured in America’s forever war and essentially imprisoned in his own mind. He has left behind a wife and young daughter. His wife stays by his side for years, dutiful and loyal. As Eden floats in and out of consciousness, his life nearing its end, difficult truths about his marriage come to light.
The whole thing is narrated by Eden’s deceased fellow soldier, who remains in a purgatory-like state, sitting vigil by Eden’s side. The tone is somber, reflective and moving. A quick read filled to the brim with poignancy and sadness....more
This book checked all the boxes for me: weird family dynamics, intellectually stimulating subject matte“The Greys were scientific about their misery.�
This book checked all the boxes for me: weird family dynamics, intellectually stimulating subject matter, strange and thoughtful insights on everything from millennial culture to human evolution.
Following the death of their father, Ian, estranged siblings Elsa and Nolan reunite on a remote island in the Gulf Coast where Ian had spent his final years. Ian was part of a pop-science doomsday cult known as the Reversalists, whose members believe that human progress has reached its end and that evolution is now reversing course. The main subject of their research is a peculiar bird called the undowny bufflehead, which has seemingly defied evolution.
While on the island, the siblings try to learn more about their father’s research, each secretly fearing that they are the ones initially responsible for his belief that the future held no hope.
Can evolution go too far? Would becoming less efficient and less geared toward survival make us happier? On the contrary, does indulging in happiness make us bad at survival? What does one generation owe another? And which parts of ourselves should we let go of in order to proceed into a hopeful future?
Hauser challenges us to ask ourselves all these questions and more, and in doing so she really captures the sense of doomed urgency that burdens millennials—not only about the fate of the planet, but about the seeming futility of our own lives and relationships in the face of everything happening around us.
I loved this book so much. Definitely one of my favorites of the year....more
The long-anticipated follow-up to The Handmaid’s Tale serves as another reminder that Margaret Atwood is one of the modern masters of dystopian fictioThe long-anticipated follow-up to The Handmaid’s Tale serves as another reminder that Margaret Atwood is one of the modern masters of dystopian fiction. It lacks some of the weight of the original � partly because its predecessor is so culturally iconic that any sequel would be inevitably doomed to exist in its shadow, but also because it’s more action-driven, more of a page-turner, less literary.
The Testaments delivers the accounts of three women living in Gilead, the oppressive patriarchal theocracy that has taken over what was once the United States. Aunt Lydia is one of the original aunts—high-ranking disciplinary women who oversee the handmaids; her power and prestige give her access to many of Gilead’s secrets. Agnes, a young woman living in Gilead, is the privileged daughter of a Commander. And the third is a rebellious teenager living in Canada who participates in anti-Gilead protests and whose family has connections to the Underground Railroad-like liberation movement.
The three storylines inevitably converge. And yes—we find out how they connect to Offred from The Handmaid’s Tale, too!
The Testaments gets a bit weighed down by its plot, as well as some of Atwood’s dialogue that is a little too “how do you do, fellow kids.� But what really stands out is Atwood’s incredible world-building. There is so much thought put into Gilead, from the structure of the society to the hymns and chants and everything in between. It feels real, and is just close enough to our own current political reality in many ways to be especially chilling.
Fans of The Handmaid’s Tale will surely enjoy this follow-up. Just don’t expect the same gravitas.
“The inventory of echoes was not a collection of sounds that have been lost � such a thing was in fact the impossible � but rather one of sounds that “The inventory of echoes was not a collection of sounds that have been lost � such a thing was in fact the impossible � but rather one of sounds that were present in the time of recording and that, when we listen to them, remind us of the ones that are lost.�
This is an extremely ambitious and compelling novel that is at times too dense for its own good. It’s about the so-called “immigration crisis”—yes—but really it’s about an American family: an archive of their last time together on a road trip driving toward a future they will not share.
The mother and father are sound documentarians who met working on a long-term project and married, each bringing with them a child from a previous relationship. Now that the project is over, they find themselves going separate ways professionally—and thus personally, too. The father is interested in Native American history and the mother wants to document the “lost children� that have taken the harrowing journey from Mexico to the United States.
The first half is narrated by the mother, and there are lots of deep and insightful meditations on family and on the demise of a relationship. The second half is narrated by the 10-year-old son, offering an entirely new perspective. Interspersed in their narratives is a fictional “elegy of lost children:� a third-person account of children crossing the border, as well as lines and quotes from everything from Cormac McCarthy to TS Eliot.
Luiselli plays around a lot with language and meaning—of sounds, of archives, of what it is to be lost. As you can imagine, the result is haunting and beautiful, though there were many passages that I appreciated more than I actively enjoyed reading, if that makes sense. ...more
If the speculative fiction of Black Mirror and the gothic fiction of Frankenstein had a baby, it would be this book.
In fact, the latter features promiIf the speculative fiction of Black Mirror and the gothic fiction of Frankenstein had a baby, it would be this book.
In fact, the latter features prominently in the narrative, which alternates between a fictionalized account of Mary Shelley writing her horror classic in the 1800s and a near-future in which Ry Shelley, a trans doctor, becomes romantically and professionally involved with a mad scientist, Dr. Stein, who has some inventive and morally questionable ideas for prolonging human consciousness.
Lots of fascinating dichotomies are explored, most interestingly the question of body vs. soul, and whether consciousness can (or should) be separated from an aging vessel. What would a post-human world mean for us as individuals and, more importantly, for our relationships with each other?
This is a cerebral and philosophical book, but never at the expense of humor and sexiness. Winterson’s writing is fiercely intelligent and beguiling—the kind of sentences that you take an extra minute to re-read and marvel at. Such a clever and genuinely fun read.
Lillian doesn’t have a lot going for her when she receives a phone call from her childhood friend, Madison, with an interesting proposition. Madison’sLillian doesn’t have a lot going for her when she receives a phone call from her childhood friend, Madison, with an interesting proposition. Madison’s wealthy politician husband has recently gained custody of the two children from his first marriage, and they have a bizarre affliction: they spontaneously combust when they get agitated, literally bursting into flames. Does Lillian want to come be their caretaker?
Lillian doesn’t have much else to do, so she agrees, moving into the guest house at Madison and her husband’s Tennessee estate along with the two kids, Bessie and Roland. And she finds herself caring about them more than she ever could have imagined.
This book was all about the voice for me. It’s witty, quirky and tender all at once. I worried at first about the magical realism aspect of the plot, but the fantastical elements were handled just the way I like it: matter-of-fact and ultimately secondary to the realism.
Everything about it just worked for me: the characters, the dialogue, the pacing, the narrative tension, and the themes.
Lillian’s complex feelings about becoming the parental figure for the twins serve as a wonderful metaphor for parenthood as a whole: how you can want something so much, and love someone so deeply, and yet also acknowledge how insanely hard and life-changing it is. These complicated feelings were so relatable for me.
I loved this quirky little book and found it so genuinely moving....more
Narrated by a chorus of collective voices from a graduate-level creative writing program, this novel is a meta exploration of the possibilities and liNarrated by a chorus of collective voices from a graduate-level creative writing program, this novel is a meta exploration of the possibilities and limitations of fiction writing. It’s centered around three charismatic students—Hannah, Leslie and Jimmy—one of who is befallen by tragedy, and the vengeance that they take against one of the professors who wronged them. But the narrative technique kept me at such a distance that I had a hard time connecting with any of the characters or believing deeply enough in their motivations. (Ironically, this says as much about the dark side of MFA writing as the content of the novel.)...more
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