Version Control by Dexter Palmer: Review

Version Control by Dexter Palmer
Publisher: Pantheon. Feb 23, 2016.
Pages: 512
Genre: Science Fiction (sort of)
Source: Publisher



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Rebecca Wright has reclaimed her life, finding her way out of her grief and depression following a personal tragedy years ago. She spends her days working in customer support for the internet dating site where she first met her husband. But she has a strange, persistent sense that everything around her is somewhat off-kilter: she constantly feels as if she has walked into a room and forgotten what she intended to do there; on TV, the President seems to be the wrong person in the wrong place; her dreams are full of disquiet. Meanwhile, her husband's decade-long dedication to his invention, the causality violation device (which he would greatly prefer you not call a “time machine”) has effectively stalled his career and made him a laughingstock in the physics community. But he may be closer to success than either of them knows or can possibly imagine. -Goodreads

"Your name is Rebecca, yes?"
"Yes, that's me. If you wish to speak to my--"
"Are you sure? Has it always been?"

Version Control is a time travel book that surprised me in so many ways. I was having some bookish commitment issues lately. I kept starting books then moving on to new ones. So you wouldn't think I'd go for a 512 page chunkster in this situation, right? Well, I did and it paid off. Dexter Palmer has written a subtle and completely immersive novel covering all sorts of my favorite topics such as: online dating, wormholes, memory, loss, big data, difficult marriages, and technology. I was so gripped throughout.

In the near future (ten years or so ahead of us), Rebecca struggles with her job, with a horrible loss, with her relationship with her husband, and with alcohol. Her husband, Philip, invests all of his time in his work on the causality violation device and grows more distant from her. The book moves back and forth in time fluidly, letting us get to know the characters' pasts gradually. It's heart-wrenching. And at the same time that this book had me in its clutches emotionally (I definitely cried), it was hilarious when it comes to commentary on our modern lives. I was laughing constantly throughout the commentary on online dating and how we use the internet. Seeing the groups of scientists interact was also brilliant, and what Palmer had to say about the science world was often biting.

The second [ad] showed up during a quick binge of clips from old Simpsons episodes on YouTube (a photo of an ambiguously ethnic woman with curly hair and clunky black eyeglasses, sitting across a table from an equally ambiguously ethnic man with hazel eyes, a shaven head, and a sweater vest; both had the self-satisfied look of people who were glad they were themselves and not someone else. They probably both had apartments that got lots of sunlight.

Some of the near future bits feel very close: self driving cars; and some feel very far away: personalized video calls from the president before tv shows, during meals, etc. But it's all plausible and fascinating. And once things start to get a little weird, once time gets a little more complicated than it at first seemed, the book travels subtly into scary and amazing territories of what's possible.

I can't imagine this book is for everyone. But at the same time, I'm someone who favors tiny books. The closer to a novella, the better. And I also get bored relatively easily and don't suffer slow plots gladly. So I have to come to the conclusion that this book is very interesting (theoretically and emotionally), and also well written. It's not action packed in the way a lot of time travel books tend to be. Its pace is slower, but steadily moves forward, offering us depth in exchange for thrills. It's also science heavy, which I absolutely loved. Palmer makes the assumption that smart people are reading his book and that they actively enjoy puzzling things (the nature of space-time) out; that they enjoy taking a moment to sit and ponder what the book's implying might be possible both within the story and in our own world.

It's hard to think of things that were bad about this book. Perhaps it was longer than it needed to be. It wasn't completely mind blowing. But this is a complicated book full of ideas that feels more like an experience than a novel. Once you've taken this journey with these characters, it's going to be nearly impossible not to immediately flip back to the beginning and look for where Palmer deftly began putting things in place that we missed earlier. I, personally, can't wait.

The thing about memories wasn't that many of them inevitably faded, but that repeated recall of the ones you remembered burnished them into shining, gorgeous lies.

Yikes! I Think I Hated This: The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

Ok, unpopular opinion time. I just read The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne and it made me "yikes" innumerable times. A lot of people love this book. A LOT A LOT. So I am open to hearing what is so great about it, but let me just lay down all the yikes for you real quick.

So what is this book about? A little German boy during World War II. He is also the son of the dude who is newly in charge of Auschwitz! But this son of an SS officer seems to know nothing at all about Nazism or Hitler. Does he know the word Jew? Nope, never heard it. Has his schooling or family or nazi family friends/neighbors ever vaguely mentioned the inherit superiority of his race? Neeever, why would they do that? Oh wait, of course they would do that. Why does this not happen??

Bruno is not an infant. Bruno is nine years old. I may not like children, but I don't think children are stupid. Children are sponges. They pick up on stuff and they internalize it.

What might be more nonsense, or at least in the same nonsense vein, is all of the weird English puns that go on. Not like funny puns... let me try to explain. Little German Bruno hears Auschwitz and thinks people are saying "out-with." He asks "out with what?" Ummmm, this doesn't make sense seeing as you don't speak English? It also does not make sense that he thinks people are saying the Fury instead of the Fuhrer. Fuhrer means leader in German! YOU KNOW THIS WORD, TINY BRUNO. And Heil Hitler isn't a gibberish way to say goodbye! How has Hitler not been covered in school/everyday life?? I get that this is trying to present an innocent child's perspective, but it's not realistic in any way. Linguistically or historically. And I think it's offensive to assume that your young readers are not smart enough to understand this story without nonsense English puns.

I'm not going to spoil this book for you all. I wouldn't do that. But basically the family moves right next door to Auschwitz and little Bruno has no idea what's going on in the concentration camp. It doesn't seem so bad, because the boys over there get to have friends and he doesn't! But anyway, one day he sneaks off to wander around the fence of the concentration camp and there he meets a little boy. Because why would there be guards near the border of a concentration camp? I'll let the fence nonsense slide (there's more of it) because it's fiction, yeah yeah, I know.

But what is STILL nonsense is that the young boy is there at all. Shmuel is there for a year. Let me repeat: I understand that it's fiction. At the same time, there's a certain amount of pandering, emotional manipulation, and historical fact bending that is destructive. Especially when it is as widely read as this book. Any little boy taken to Auschwitz was marched right to the gas chamber when he got off the train. The very real atrocities of the holocaust are completely undermined. If he wasn't killed immediately, there's no way he wouldn't have been killed within a year. He wasn't useful in any way. He wouldn't have been worth keeping alive even for the sake of torture.

There was no subtlety in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. I wouldn't have been surprised if Hitler had been flipping gas chamber switches and twirling his tiny mustache while laughing maniacally at the end. Don't even get me started on how not at all traumatized sweet Bruno is by watching at least two people get shot.

I can suspend my disbelief to a certain extent, but not when the end result is damaging. Or nonsense. There's only so much a girl can take!! And I love a good cry, but there's only so much blatant manipulation I can accept before I roll my eyes. I know this book moved a lot of people and I can see why, but how unrealistic it was just pushed me over the edge and it did not work for me at all.

What level of realism do you need from historical fiction? How much history-bending is too much? Am I asking too much from a book written for a younger audience? Let me know what you think!

 

Mr. Splitfoot by Samantha Hunt: A Video Review with Shaina Reads!

Mr. Splitfoot by Samantha Hunt
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Jan 2015.
Pages: 336
Genre: Literary Fiction
Source: Library



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Ruth and Nat are orphans, packed into a house full of abandoned children run by a religious fanatic. To entertain their siblings, they channel the dead. Decades later, Ruth’s niece, Cora, finds herself accidentally pregnant. After years of absence, Aunt Ruth appears, mute and full of intention. She is on a mysterious mission, leading Cora on an odyssey across the entire state of New York on foot. Where is Ruth taking them? Where has she been? And who — or what — has she hidden in the woods at the end of the road?

In an ingeniously structured dual narrative, two separate timelines move toward the same point of crisis. Their merging will upend and reinvent the whole. A subversive ghost story that is carefully plotted and elegantly constructed, Mr. Splitfoot will set your heart racing and your brain churning. Mysteries abound, criminals roam free, utopian communities show their age, the mundane world intrudes on the supernatural and vice versa.- Goodreads

Get pumped, book individuals. Shaina and I did a buddy read of Mr. Splitfoot and this time we RECORDED it. What we have here for you is a half hour discussion of what we loved about this book, and what confounded us. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend you read the blurb above because Shaina and I do NOT do a good job of summarizing this book succinctly. After around 9 minutes in it treads into spoiler territory. So those of you who haven't read it are advised to turn it off there! (Don't worry, there will be a fancy graphic to guide you).

We ask important questions such as: "what was this guy's deal?" or "what was this other guy's deal?"

"Was Ruth going straight to the place or was she taking Cora to all of the meteorite places?"

And how do we feel about pregnant protagonists?

Don't got time for our video? Here are the non-spoiler-y highlights:

Shaina: There’s a cult. There’s some weird magical realism. And it’s a love story.
Julianne: Sort of.
Shaina: Sort of. And there’s like weird sci-fi elements.


Julianne: I don’t even know how to begin explaining why this book is good. Like it seems impossible to put into words.
Shaina: I mean it’s impossible to put into words partially I think because a lot of the words we use would be very big spoilers.
Julianne: Yeah.
Shaina: But it just draws you in and you’re really - I mean you don’t know what’s going on but you’re kind of happy to not know what’s going on. You’re happy to like go along for the ride.
Julianne: You know that it will be revealed. You know you’re not going to be let down, because there’s too much random weird shit going on. You’re like ok this is going to connect in some way and I really want to see what she’s going to do with it. Ya gotta have faith.


Shaina: I really liked the orphan who had the word “fuck” tattooed to her face but had spelled it wrong.

Why do the living assume the dead know better than we do? Like they gained some knowledge by dying, but why wouldn't they just be the same confused people they were before they died?

Mr. Splitfoot was an incredible read that kept delivering beautifully thought out strangeness. This is a perfect book for #weirdathon in March, if you're looking for potential reads. If you dig cults or Carl Sagan at all, read this. I continue to think about this wildly original story, and I'm now kind of obsessed with Samantha Hunt.


Tell us what you think of Mr. Splitfoot! Do you have any answers for the questions that stuck with us?

Moonshot: The Indigenous Comics Collection - A Review

Moonshot: The Indigenous Comics Collection edited by Hope Nicholson
Publisher: Alternate History Comics. 2015.
Pages: 174
Genre: Comic
Source: Purchased



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MOONSHOT brings together dozens of creators from across North America to contribute comic book stories showcasing the rich heritage and identity of indigenous storytelling.

From traditional stories to exciting new visions of the future, this collection presents some of the finest comic book and graphic novel work in North America. The traditional stories presented in the book are with the permission from the elders in their respective communities, making this a truly genuine, never-before-seen publication. MOONSHOT is an incredible collection that is sure to amaze, intrigue and entertain!- Goodreads

When I first heard about this project, I was both very excited and kind of nervous. I had never before read short fiction in comic form. I didn't really have any idea that it was possible to tell an entire story within ten pages of panels. But this collection showed me how much can be pulled off. And it taught me an amazing wealth of things about the indigenous cultures of North America.

The stories range from visiting the origins of folklore, to seeing these stories' modern impact, to brilliantly imagined futuristic sci-fi stories blended with folklore. It continued to surprise me throughout, and the artwork is absolutely stunning. Between every few stories there's a 1-2 page spread featuring an unrelated work of art that often took my breath away.

Obviously it's hard to judge an anthology of stories written by different people. There are some that really stood out, and there were some that were just ok. A number could've used more pages to really develop. There were probably more anthropomorfic animal characters than I normally would've liked to read about, but that's sort of to be expected if some of the stories explore tales related to local wildlife. And there's one story that I just didn't understand at all. All of that being said, the good stories and the incredible artwork were both fascinating enough to make up for them.

A few of my favorites:

Vision Quest: Echo - In a beautiful collage of a limited number of images, a young deaf girl explains the importance of storytelling to her family and culture. She learns how storytelling is possible through images. I probably cried the first time I read this one.

The Qallupiluk: Forgiven - This one isn't technically a comic. It's a short story with an accompanying illustration every other page. It is SO CREEPY. The Qallupiluk is a creature from Inuit legend that comes from the deep Arctic ocean. It's kind of shapeless, with spines and fins, that can morph into other forms. In this story a young Inuit girl makes the mistake of approaching the creature in the water.

Ue-Pucase: Water Master - A futuristic story about two space travelers visiting another planet, this is based on Muscogee Creek story"The Young Man Who Turned Into a Snake." I loved the blend of space travel, modern dialogue, and what turns out to be startlingly real folklore.

Ayanisach - This one may be my very favorite, but it's hard to decide. An old woman teaches her grandson how to tell the story of their people. It starts with what sounds like folklore, then reaches into modern day and explains how an apocalypse of sorts went down. Extraterrestrials were involved and their people had to fight back. The protagonist goes on to tell the story to his young friends in the city, because the retelling of stories is what will teach others in the future.

Some of the following stories you may interpret as having specific morals and lessons, but that is not necessarily their intention. Stories really are the foundation of our lives. They are how those close to us will remember us after we've gone. In life, not all of our stories have a strict beginning, middle, and end. Our Best stories are moments in time that help us make sense of our world. And that is what this anthology is for.

There's been a long, long history of Indigenous peoples having their culture appropriated in mainstream media. Especially when it comes to comics, indigenous characters are often turned flat and one-dimensional; caricatures that are either foolish or barbaric. Their stories/traditions are blown out of proportion to comic levels and/or completely misunderstood. There is rarely any amount of respect involved when appropriating these stories and ideas. With this collection of comics, indigenous peoples are taking space that they deserve to create and tell their own stories. And they are damn good.

A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay: Review

A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay
Publisher: William Morrow. June 2015.
Pages: 286
Genre: Horror
Source: Publisher



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The lives of the Barretts, a normal suburban New England family, are torn apart when fourteen-year-old Marjorie begins to display signs of acute schizophrenia.

To her parents' despair, the doctors are unable to stop Marjorie's descent into madness. As their stable home devolves into a house of horrors, they reluctantly turn to a local Catholic priest for help. Father Wanderly suggests an exorcism. He also contacts a production company that is eager to document the Barretts' plight. With John, Marjorie's father, out of work for more than a year and the medical bills looming, the family agrees to be filmed, and soon find themselves the unwitting stars of The Possession, a hit reality television show. When events in the Barrett household explode in tragedy, the show and the shocking incidents it captures become the stuff of urban legend.

Fifteen years later, a bestselling writer interviews Marjorie's younger sister, Merry. As she recalls those long ago events that took place when she was just eight years old, long-buried secrets and painful memories that clash with what was broadcast on television begin to surface--and a mind-bending tale of psychological horror is unleashed, raising vexing questions about memory and reality, science and religion, and the very nature of evil.- Goodreads

I've talked before about having trouble finding books that actually scare me. Despite loving horror movies, I had come to avoid horror novels for the most part, for fear of being disappointed. I had put off reading A Head Full of Ghosts for a long time, and I hate that I didn't read it immediately when I got it.

Apart from it being horrifying, it's a combination of horror AND reality TV. Yes, you read that correctly. Never before has a book been more perfect for me, combining my two true loves. The tale is told by Merry in retrospect as she speaks to a writer interested in her story 15 years later. After young teen Marjorie starts acting a little bit kooky/possessed, the parents send her to doctors and psychologists to no avail. The unemployed father gets more and more religious and begins to insist on Marjorie seeing a Catholic priest who wants to give her an exorcism. As money runs out from all the doctors, the family is left with no choice but to go the exorcism route and monetize it by agreeing to be a part of a new reality show called The Posession.

This is all told from Merry's childish point of view, because she was young when this all went down. And Merry saw the most of the horrifying, often demonic things Marjorie did and said. At the beginning of each new "Part," we read a blog post by somebody analyzing the the show's episodes, pointing out allusions to other horror movies/books, and identifying broader themes in it as a piece of media. This is all delightfully meta and a fascinating look at the horror we consume, and it just gets better as the book goes along.

I watched the blinking red of the screen and then looked over at the blanket-covered house. In the LED white light the blue blanket looked like it was the same white color as the cardboard house... I stared at or into the blanket, trying to see the blue that I knew was there but wasn't seeing, and then the blanket was sucked inside the house through the shutters of the front window, as though that window was a ravenous black hole.

It's hard to say much more without spoiling the book. It gets super intense and makes you question everything. You never quite know what to expect next from it. Or, you think you know, but you're wrong and you're completely delighted by where it ends up going. Is Marjorie struggling with mental illness or is something more sinister afoot? There are all sorts of psychological twists and turns that will make it a huge struggle to put down this book once you start. An exorcism tale that's highly self aware, modern, and incredibly clever, A Head Full of Ghosts will scare the pants off you and give you a whole new appreciation for the horror genre itself.

I sneak into your room when you are asleep, Merry-monkey. I've been doing it for weeks now, since the end of summer. You're so pretty when you're asleep. Last night, I pinched your nose shut until you opened your little mouth and gasped...

xoxo

Marjorie

A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin: Review

A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. August 2015.
Pages: 432
Genre: Short stories
Source: Library



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A MANUAL FOR CLEANING WOMEN compiles the best work of the legendary short-story writer Lucia Berlin. With the grit of Raymond Carver, the humor of Grace Paley, and a blend of wit and melancholy all her own, Berlin crafts miracles from the everyday, uncovering moments of grace in the Laundromats and halfway houses of the American Southwest, in the homes of the Bay Area upper class, among switchboard operators and struggling mothers, hitchhikers and bad Christians.- Goodreads

I wasn't going to review this book. I really wasn't. Because how does one even begin to go about describing what it feels like to be in love? Ok, maybe that's hyperbolic, but at the same time I'm feeling the same excitement and utter loss for words. I almost skipped this book because of all the hype. Because that's the kind of person I am. I figured there's no way I won't be disappointed by a book getting this much press and acclaim. But I am here to tell you that I, the coldest heart this side of the Mississippi, always ready and willing to hate, believe the hype is entirely justified and that this book needs more. This collection of short stories is a masterpiece.

I've only had this feeling with a few other authors. Shirley Jackson, Lydia Davis, Vladimir Nabokov. You just have a moment when you're reading where you go "wow, this person is actually a literary genius and I am not worthy." Prepare yourself for that feeling. Lucia Berlin is incredible in the least pretentious way possible. When you read her stories it's like being told a story by a friend. Granted, a friend who's seen a lot of life. Her writing is beautiful without it being easy to put your finger on why. Not a word is wasted and her voice is so strong and compelling. Normally I mark a bunch of passages that I like, but I had to give up with Berlin, because I loved it all so much. I was running out of book darts.

After a long time the cranes did come. Hundreds, just as the sky turned blue-gray. They had landed in slow motion on brittle legs. Washing, preening on the bank. Everything was suddenly black and white and gray, a movie after the credits, churning.
As the cranes drank upstream the silver water beneath them was shot into dozens of thin streamers. Then very quickly the birds left, in whiteness, with the sound of shuffling cards.

The stories in this book are a selection of her best works put in order chronologically. What's brilliant about this is that Lucia Berlin writes very autobiographical stories. It essentially feels like you're growing beside her, like you're watching her life unfold. And this lady has been through all sorts of shit. For a while she lived in mining camps in America, then she moved to Chile where she lived flamboyantly into her 20s. She moved back to America and lived much less flamboyantly. She worked as a maid. She was married 3 times, had some kids, had some affairs, and struggled with alcoholism for most of her life. Most of her stories are about poverty, alcoholism, relationships, family, death. That's part of why I thought I wouldn't be interested, but I was wrong. Berlin is sharp as a tack, she has all sorts of hutzpah, and boy can she tell a story (often in only a few pages or less).

Women’s voices always rise two octaves when they talk to cleaning women or cats.

I still really don't know what to say about this collection of short stories. I'm tongue-tied. I don't want to try to describe the pieces, because I know they'll all fall flat in my summation. All I can ask is that you please take the time to AT LEAST read this excerpt from it. "Carpe Diem" was one of the stories that really got to me and you can read it online here. I'm so grateful to have read A Manual for Cleaning Women. I genuinely feel lucky to have had the opportunity, which is an incredible feeling to have after reading a book. I want you to feel that too.

The only reason I have lived so long is that I let go of my past. Shut the door on grief on regret on remorse. If I let them in, just one self-indulgent crack, whap, the door will fling open gales of pain ripping through my heart blinding my eyes with shame breaking cups and bottles knocking down jars shattering windows stumbling bloody on spilled sugar and broken glass terrified gagging until with a final shudder and sob I shut the heavy door. Pick up the pieces one more time.

The Divine: Possibly The Most Stunning Graphic Novel Ever

The Divine by Asaf Hanuka, Tomer Hanuka, Boaz Lavie
Publisher: First Second. July 2015.
Pages: 160
Genre: Graphic Novel
Source: Library



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Mark's out of the military, these days, with his boring, safe civilian job doing explosives consulting. But you never really get away from war. So it feels inevitable when his old army buddy Jason comes calling, with a lucrative military contract for a mining job in an obscure South-East Asian country called Quanlom. They'll have to operate under the radar--Quanlom is being torn apart by civil war, and the US military isn't strictly supposed to be there.

With no career prospects and a baby on the way, Mark finds himself making the worst mistake of his life and signing on with Jason. What awaits him in Quanlom is going to change everything.
What awaits him in Quanlom is weirdness of the highest order: a civil war led by ten-year-old twins wielding something that looks a lot like magic, leading an army of warriors who look a lot like gods.
What awaits him in Quanlom is an actual goddamn dragon.- Goodreads

The creation of The Divine has a really fascinating backstory. The creators saw a photo in the news of two young twins who had just held 800 people hostage in a Thai hospital. The Hanuka Brothers and Lavie created a story for them.

©AP/SIPA

If you were a fan of Miyazaki's "Princess Mononoke", this is the graphic novel for you. It's a graphic novel interested in similar things. The effect of war on people and their land, colonialism, violence, and crazy weird gods of old still being around and getting pissed at humans. It's an incredible blend of modern issues and ancient cultural traditions. It's so everything I want in a book.

©Tomer Hanuka

The twin boys are super magical and hardcore. The main character, Mark, and his relationship with army buddy Jason, who ropes him into coming to work on a project in Quanlom is intense. The only complaint as far as story goes that I and a lot of other seem to have is that it's a little too straight forward; perhaps a little shallow. It doesn't go quite deep enough. But then there's the ending. I won't spoil it, but people have some theories and I would urge you to spend a little time thinking about what else the last panel could mean. PREPARE FOR GOOSEBUMPS.

Finally, it would be a crime not to mention this: the art. I have never in my life been more blown away by the use of color and composition in a graphic novel. The entire book is absolutely beautiful. Intense monochromatic overlays reshape the entire atmosphere of a scene. Mystical aspects of Quanlom are intensely vibrant. The violence and gore is so violent and gory it becomes bizarre and entrancing. The world takes on a shining quality. I have no words. Do yourself a favor: find this book somewhere just to flip through it and be in awe.

The Determined Heart by Antoinette May + Giveaway

The Determined Heart by Antoinette May
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing.
September 2015.
Pages: 410
Genre: Historical Fiction
Source: TLC Book Tours



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The Determined Heart reveals the life of Mary Shelley in a story of love and obsession, betrayal and redemption.

The daughter of political philosopher William Godwin and feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Shelley had an unconventional childhood populated with the most talented and eccentric personalities of the time. After losing her mother at an early age, she finds herself in constant conflict with a resentful stepmother and a jealous stepsister. When she meets the Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, she falls deeply in love, and they elope with disastrous consequences. Soon she finds herself destitute and embroiled in a torturous love triangle as Percy takes Mary’s stepsister as a lover. Over the next several years, Mary struggles to write while she and Percy face ostracism, constant debt, and the heartbreaking deaths of three children. Ultimately, she achieves great acclaim for Frankenstein, but at what cost? - Goodreads

Mary Wollstonecraft is my GIRL. If you haven't read A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, you need to get on that immediately. Her daughter, Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein is also a badass. Which is why I really wanted to read this fictionalized account of Shelley's life, despite not normally being a historical fiction reader. Despite being a fan of her mom, I really didn't know much about Mary Jr.'s life apart from a little of her affair/marriage with Percy Shelley. But I learned a lot from this book.

Mary Shelley's is a tragic tale, rife with heartbreak and complicated relationships. Her homeboy/lover Percy was basically the biggest player of all time (if we ignore Lord Byron for a minute). He'd be writing her poetry one minute and the next he was knocking up her stepsister. RUDE. But he was really into free love, because he's a poet, so she sort of knew what she was signing up for when she ran away with him at age 16 (did I mention he was married to someone else at the time?). Throughout their crazy life and travels together, things keep getting worse for Mary. She has a horrible stepmother, most of her children die, etc. It was devastating to watch her go through all of this, but it was also fascinating to see what shaped her character and her writing.

All in all, this was an alright read, because I was interested in the subject at hand. But the book definitely felt longer than it needed to be. I thoroughly hated all of the characters (which is probably due to them being historically bad/annoying individuals). Sometimes the references to things that would influence Mary Shelley's idea for Frankenstein felt a little heavy handed, and I couldn't help but roll my eyes. Neither the writing nor the plot blew me away. Also, the gang kept finding chateaus to rent within a couple days of arriving in a new country despite being broke, improper poets, which made me furious on a very personal level. I guess I was born at the wrong time. I'll try not to take that out on the book.

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Book of the Month Club: After Perfect by Christina McDowell

After Perfect by Christina McDowell
Publisher: Gallery Books. June 2015.
Pages: 320
Genre: Memoir
Source: Book of the Month



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Christina McDowell was born Christina Prousalis. She had to change her name to be legally extricated from the trail of chaos her father, Tom Prousalis, left in the wake of his arrest and subsequent imprisonment as one of the guilty players sucked into the collateral fallout of Jordan Belfort (the “Wolf of Wall Street”). Christina worshipped her father and the seemingly perfect life they lived…a life she finds out was built on lies. Christina’s family, as is typically the case, had no idea what was going on. Nineteen-year-old Christina drove her father to jail while her mother dissolved in denial.

Since then, Christina’s life has been decimated. As her family floundered in rehab, depression, homelessness, and loss, Christina succumbed to the grip of alcohol, drugs, and promiscuity before finding catharsis in the most unlikely of places. From the bucolic affluence of suburban Washington, DC, to the A-list clubs and seedy underbelly of Los Angeles, this provocative memoir unflinchingly describes the harsh realities of a fall from grace. - Goodreads

So I was recently introduced to something called Book of the Month. Yes, it's the same one as like the big deal Book of the Month Club from back in the day. But it's officially relaunching this month! Now judges (such as Emily St. John Mandel and Liberty Hardy) pick five books and you have the opportunity to choose one that will be sent to you in an adorable box. Even cooler, there are online discussions on their site now.

I wasn't super interested in any of the picks offered to me in August, so I decided to go for a memoir. After Perfect is about the daughter of a man who worked with Jordan Belfort (Wolf of Wallstreet guy). There was a lot of promise for downward spirals, family drama, discussion of privilege, and redemption. And it's not that these things weren't present, but that it felt like a shallow representation of each.

"And that was it. He turned around and walked through the automatic sliding glass doors, carrying nothing but a plane ticket. I studied him as he entered the concourse, looked left, then right, and then left again. He was figuring out which way to go. It was the first time I had ever seen him look uncertain."

Obviously Christina has gone through a whole hell of a lot, and I don't want to critique her story as it's a reality for her. There are some really devastating moments. I definitely gasped when the extent of her father's deception and betrayal is revealed. I just wasn't blown away by the writing or how deep it went. And there was a whole lot of name dropping that made me roll my eyes instead of get deeper into the story.

One of the best parts of reading this book was doing it with Book of the Month, because Christina McDowell actually did a Q&A on the site for members. The interactivity of that was cool and I'm definitely curious about what's next for Book of the Month. If you're interested, there are 3 more days to sign up and get a September book. It sounds like I was paid to say this, but I really wasn't. I just think it's a fun idea.



HOW OUTLANDISH WAS IT?

2/10 - The family betrayal was minorly outlandish. But like humans are pretty awful, so it wasn't the surprising.

The Captive Condition by Kevin P. Keating

The Captive Condition by Kevin P. Keating
Publisher: Pantheon. July 2015
Pages: 267
Genre: Literary Fiction, Horror
Source: Publisher



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When Emily Ryan is found drowned in the family pool, pumped full of barbiturates and alcohol, a series of events with cataclysmic consequences ensues. Emily’s lover, a college professor, finds himself responsible for her twin daughters, whose piercing stares fill him with the guilt and anguish he so desperately tries to hide from his wife. A low-level criminal named The Gonk takes over the cottage of a reclusive elderly artist, complete with graveyard and moonshine still, and devises plans for both. His young apprentice, haunted by inner demons, seeks retribution for the professor’s wicked deeds. The town itself, buzzing into decadent life after sundown, traps its inhabitants in patterns of inexplicable behavior all the while drawing them toward a night in which the horror will reach its disturbing and inevitable conclusion. - Goodreads

The Captive Condition has some intense Twin Peaks and True Detective vibes. The small town location is gritty and unsettling. The multiple characters the story jumps between are bizarre, harbor terrible secrets, and are always watching one another. Another similarity: There are a startling amount of surreal aspects that happen so quickly and casually, it's hard to tell what's reality and what's some character's dark hallucinations.

"The problem is this: Normandy Falls, in all its gruesome comedy, in all its colorful and agreeable horror, could never properly prepare me for the experiences that awaited me on the other side of those gates. Regrettably, the best I can do is render one version of that unhappy fiasco, and I must rely on my imperfect memory, a thing that, like the Wakefield River, flows with maddening predictability in one direction only, far from its mysterious and secret source."

The book is being narrated by a college dropout who fancies himself a writer. A lot of the language slowed down my reading of the book significantly. Not because I was too dumb to understand it, but because it would take a hefty paragraph to say something that could take a sentence. Whether or not this was a stylistic choice due to the main character's situation, the overload of adjectives, adverbs, and similes made the book more of a chore to read than I had wanted it to be. Oftentimes, because I would get lost in the flood of words, it was hard to keep track of what was going on in the plot or what exactly was motivating the characters.

With that said, the story really did pick up after 200 pages. It started to get pretty weird, with some potentially supernatural presences. The characters' stories started to come together to several very dramatic, slightly surreal conclusions. That level of strange darkness was really cool to experience. It just would have been great to have experienced it throughout the rest of the book.


SOME QUOTES:
                       
"When the delirium of love dies and the asphyxiating cloud of romantic ruin finally dissipates, the bruised and battered survivors will often find lurking among the rubble and ashes of the human heart an insidious beast who yearns to wreak more havoc."


HOW OUTLANDISH WAS IT?

6/10 - It starts to get a little supernatural and strange near the end, though that isn't really explained.

The Beautiful Bureaucrat by Helen Phillips

The Beautiful Bureaucrat by Helen Phillips
Publisher: Henry Holt & Company. August 2015
Pages: 192
Genre: Literary fiction, Science fiction
Source: Publisher
First Line: The person who interviewed her had no face.


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In a windowless building in a remote part of town, the newly employed Josephine inputs an endless string of numbers into something known only as "The Database." After a long period of joblessness, she's not inclined to question her fortune, but as the days inch by and the files stack up, Josephine feels increasingly anxious in her surroundings. The office's scarred pinkish walls take on a living quality. The drone of keyboards echoes eerily down the long halls. When one evening her husband Joseph disappears and then returns, offering no explanation as to his whereabouts, her creeping unease shifts decidedly to dread.  - Goodreads

Once I started reading this book, there was no way for me to stop. My reading experience was essentially this: an inability to move from my bed, an inability to stop reading hilarious lines to whoever was so lucky to be near me at the time, and, once I was alone, a lot of me giggling and/or gasping to myself. It was a great time.

From how I've described this so far, it sounds like I was reading a comedic novel. But this was easily one of the creepiest books I've ever read. The surreal take on a bureaucratic office includes a man with no face, grimy hand prints all over a claustrophobic office wall, doppelgangers, and strange strings of words leaking into the main character's mind. The thing is, Phillips' writing is just so clever. Every dose of creepy is coupled with a bit of "spot on." I couldn't help but laugh at Josephine's darkly comic thoughts about work, life, and relationships throughout.

"Josephine had yet to receive any instructions about what name or title she ought to use for her boss; her failure to ask now meant that she never would."

If you like a strange, thrilling read that feels like a puzzle and plays with language, this is the book for you. I was horrified, I was uncomfortable, and I was delighted. You may not have ANY idea what's going on most of the time as the tension continues to mount, but the pay off at the end is clean and well thought out.
Helen Phillips, be my best friend.


SOME QUOTES:
                       
"As they walked, The Person with Bad Breath consumed three mints dispensed from a small tin drawn from an inner pocket. The bad breath became less offensive to Josephine when she saw that an attempt was being made to remedy it."

"Only he had stood on street corners beside her and their piled detritus. Only their two minds in the entire universe contained this same specific set of images: a particular pattern of shadow on the ceiling above a bed, a particular loop of highway ramp circled just as a song about a circle began to play on the radio. Tens of thousands of conversations and jokes. Without him she was just a lonely brain hurtling through space, laughing quietly to itself."


HOW OUTLANDISH WAS IT?

8/10 - A solid "what the fuck is happening" throughout.

The Animals by Christian Kiefer

The Animals by Christian Kiefer
Publisher: Liveright. March 2015
Pages: 314
Genre: Literary fiction
Source: Library
First Line: What you have come for is death.


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Bill Reed manages a wildlife sanctuary in rural Idaho, caring for injured animals raptors, a wolf, and his beloved bear, Majer, among them that are unable to survive in the wild. Seemingly rid of his troubled past, Bill hopes to marry the local veterinarian and live a quiet life together, the promise of which is threatened when a childhood friend is released from prison. Suddenly forced to confront the secrets of his criminal youth, Bill battles fiercely to preserve the shelter that protects these wounded animals and to keep hidden his turbulent, even dangerous, history. Alternating between past and present, Christian Kiefer contrasts the wreckage of Bill's crime-ridden years in Reno, Nevada, with the elusive promise of a peaceful future. In finely sculpted prose imaginatively at odds with the harsh, volatile world Kiefer evokes, The Animals builds powerfully toward the revelation of Bill s defining betrayal and the drastic lengths Bill goes to in order to escape the consequences.  - Goodreads

There's nothing better than a book that surprises you. When I started reading this I was sort of in a phase where I was over books about guys having feelings about things and not doing much. I wanted aliens is basically what I was trying to say. But The Animals roped me right back into literary fiction. Not only was it beautifully written, it was thrilling, page-turning, and ultimately heartbreaking.

At the beginning of the book, it's sort of hard to place the characters within a time or place. The narrative jumps around a bit, but it's so gratifying when you begin to figure out why that is and who is who. Over time the past of our main character, Bill, is revealed to us. Bill is such a down to earth guy and he's struggling to do so much good with his animal sanctuary (which is facing enormous pressure from more bureaucratic forces). It's hard to imagine what could possibly have Bill in trouble with his childhood friend who just got released from jail. And figuring it out is so riveting.

Christian Kiefer writes some absolutely gorgeous prose and raises some interesting moral questions about what being good means and how much of the past should be forgiven. He had me completely wrapped up in his story and I was sad to leave. Oh, and it totally made me cry. His depiction of the strong bond that humans and animals can have is probably the most realistic I've ever encountered. If you're looking for a dark, raw, emotional literary thriller, look no further.


SOME QUOTES:
                       
"There is no ground beneath you. Everything is water sucking into dry sand. You are in a muddy pond and there is a snake around your body and it is pulling you under. You are in a muddy pond and there is no television crew to help pull you from its depths."

"...the ringing and clanging of the casino's bells fading into a slow reverberant silence and their bodies shining. He sat up late, thinking about how their lives must have changed after such an event, the golden moment that rotated them out of wherever they had been and into a world so unexpected they could never have imagined its geography at all. Lives made incandescent in an instant."

A Cure for Suicide by Jesse Ball

A Cure for Suicide by Jesse Ball
Publisher: Pantheon. July 21, 2015
Pages: 240
Genre: Literary fiction and kind of sci-fi
Source: Publisher
First Line: The examiner closed the gate behind her with a swift, careful motion.


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A man and a woman have moved into a small house in a small village. The woman is an “examiner,” the man, her “claimant.” The examiner is both doctor and guide, charged with teaching the claimant a series of simple functions: this is a chair, this is a fork, this is how you meet people. She makes notes in her journal about his progress: he is showing improvement, yet his dreams are troubling. One day, the examiner brings him to a party, and here he meets Hilda, a charismatic but volatile woman whose surprising assertions throw everything the claimant has learned into question. What is this village? Why is he here? And who is Hilda?  - Goodreads

The entire time I was reading this book, I was completely fascinated. I've been a fan of Jesse Ball's since I read Silence Once Begun, and this novel doesn't fail to bring another dose of quiet, haunting weirdness. I finished this book in two sittings and only stopped during the first sitting, because I absolutely had to go to bed. You find a nameless "examiner" teaching a nameless "claimant" very, very basic tasks as if he is first being introduced to being a human, despite being an adult. The claimant is told he almost died, but is now healing in the Gentlest Village. It takes a while for the claimant to catch on to what she's teaching him, but once he does, some other memories start to boil back to the surface. We watch their interactions and then we sometimes get to see the examiner's notes about the claimant's progress:

Claimant is matching given data with remembered data--a troubling development.

I really, really don't want to spoil anything about this book, because figuring out what's going on and why is what makes reading this book exciting. The characters are clearly in some strange, sterilized and bureaucratic dystopian system. This is reflected throughout by how alarmingly straight forward the writing is. Especially in some of the stilted, taught dialogue. My only real complaint is that in the last third of the book we get to see the claimant's past, but it's written in a style in which it's being told to someone else. And we're frequently reminded of that. After experiencing such stark, distant prose, it would have been nice to be immersed in the claimant's memories with more casual writing.

I adored the ending. It might bother some people, but I loved the feeling and questions I was left with. What do you need to learn to be human? Do you lose yourself when you lose your memories? How much treatment for depression is too much?

If you like your mysterious literary science fiction a little experimental with some shades of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, this will be a great read.

Some Quotes:

"On the fifth day, she told him about fire, and explained what cooking was. He found fire to be very exciting. He could hardly bear the excitement of it. She wrote this down."

"After breakfast, we will wash the dishes we have used and we will put them away. We will stand for a moment in the kitchen, which we will have cleaned, and we will feel a small rise of pleasure at having set things right. It is an enduring satisfaction for our species to make little systems and tend to them."

"The world isn't the place we are told to live in. It is another place entirely. We have both more choice, and less, than we are supposed to have."



Outlandishness Rating: 7/10

6 Reasons Why The People in the Trees is Perfect

The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara
Publisher: Doubleday. August 2013.
Pages: 384
Genre: Literary Fiction
Source: Publisher
First Line: March 19, 1995 Renowned Scientist Faces Charges of Sexual Abuse


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In 1950, a young doctor called Norton Perina signs on with the anthropologist Paul Tallent for an expedition to the remote Micronesian island of Ivu'ivu in search of a rumored lost tribe. They succeed, finding not only that tribe but also a group of forest dwellers they dub "The Dreamers," who turn out to be fantastically long-lived but progressively more senile. Perina suspects the source of their longevity is a hard-to-find turtle; unable to resist the possibility of eternal life, he kills one and smuggles some meat back to the States. He scientifically proves his thesis, earning worldwide fame and the Nobel Prize, but he soon discovers that its miraculous property comes at a terrible price. As things quickly spiral out of his control, his own demons take hold, with devastating personal consequences. - Goodreads

1. // It's a book within a book.

Maybe it's just me, but I'm delighted whenever this happens. If you're a little hesitant, fear not. This is no gimmick. There is no better way this strange story could be told. The book is framed as Norton Perina's memoir that he's writing from jail. The introduction, editing, and footnotes are done by his friend, Ronald. At one point, Norton Perina says about his life:

...I have found that contemplating the events of that year becomes tolerable only when I consider them as things that happened long ago and to someone else--some series of misfortunes and tragedies that befell someone I once admired and had read about in a dusty book in a grand, stone-floored library somewhere far away, where there was no sound, no light, no movement but for my own breath, and my fingers clumsily turning the rough-cut pages.

That's what reading this book feels like. And it's a glorious feeling.

2. // There are unreliable narrator(s).

Remember Ronald who edits the memoir? He admits to being biased toward Norton Perina, as they're friends, and he also says that he has edited things out that seem unnecessary. That paired with a main character whose only focus seems to be success and who is in jail for a horrible crime he says he didn't commit? You always have to be on your toes as you read this story. Not all is as it seems.

3. // There are some disturbed characters.

As Yanagihara proved this year with A Little Life, she can take you to some dark places in her books. And the darkest places are within the minds of her characters, which she creates so richly and thoughtfully. The complexity of these people is revealed so subtly, it feels like you're discovering secrets as you read. Every revelation about a character is well placed and well timed. Norton Perina is a troubling individual on so many different levels and I love that.

4. // Hanya Yanagihara's writing is so immersive.

I really don't know how she does it. I mean a lot of it has to do with the context of this being a memoir that you're reading, but you get completely immersed in the story and the characters she has created. Her written landscaping of this fictional island is so in depth and atmospheric, you can feel the heat and darkness and claustrophobia of the jungle. None of the weirder plot points took me out of the story at all; they only helped to suck me in. 

5. // It's also really beautiful. 

My arms cramped up from how many paragraphs I typed up. Because it's written as a memoir by a scientist with extensive footnotes, it looks and feels like it should be dense. I'm not going to say you can race through it in one sitting, but there was no point in this book that I was bored. Yanagihara's prose is so lyrical. I mean, look at this.

I stood periodically and listened to the dry palm fronds chattering against one another like bones, and to the ocean, its remorseless, lonely conversation with itself, a sound that—though I did not know it at the time—I would not hear again for months to come.

6. // Physical immortality is acquired through eating mystical turtles.

Ok, this isn't always criteria for me, but it's definitely a bonus. Despite how human the plot is, the fantastical elements really take it up a notch. The discovery of "The Dreamers" (the people who are 100+ years old, but incommunicable due to mental deterioration) is so intense. Not knowing how many more are in the jungle is more so. The tribe of islanders and their customs are fascinating. The folklore behind the turtles that provide physical immortality is so interesting to read. All of these strange elements adds a richness through its inventiveness and layering, and it only helps magnify the the real life issues: exploration, globalization, mortality, progress, ego, etc.



I don't want to say too much about Yanagihara's stunning debut novel. I just really want you to read it. Do you look for any of these things in the books you read?

Why You Should Read Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor

Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton. April 2014.
Pages: 306
Genre: Science fiction
Source: Giveaway
First Line: Welcome to Lagos, Nigeria.


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When a massive object crashes into the ocean off the coast of Lagos, Nigeria’s most populous and legendary city, three people wandering along Bar Beach (Adaora, the marine biologist- Anthony, the rapper famous throughout Africa- Agu, the troubled soldier) find themselves running a race against time to save the country they love and the world itself… from itself. Lagoon expertly juggles multiple points of view and crisscrossing narratives with prose that is at once propulsive and poetic, combining everything from superhero comics to Nigerian mythology to tie together a story about a city consuming itself. - Goodreads

While Lagoon is a great science fiction read, I think what made it so special was that it's really a revealing, sometimes critical, but ultimately caring love letter to Lagos, Nigeria. This book exemplifies why I think everyone should read science fiction. These stories aren't just about aliens or robots or other sci-fi tropes. Those things are used to illuminate important truths about humanity and culture. Through Nnedi Okorafor's use of a first contact alien story, I learned so much about Nigeria and I'm really glad that I did.

Ayodele, the alien ambassador that asks the three main characters for help, walks out of the sea and promises that her people will bring positive change to humans. They just want some place to live. They seem to have incredible powers and technology allowing them to transform into many different things, amongst other talents. But when news of these aliens starts to get out, the change that takes place in Lagos is anything but positive. The city gets torn apart.

The three main characters (Adaora, Agu, and Anthony) are all strong and fascinating in different ways. They all bring something new and fresh to the table when they're confronted with the issue of having to hang out with an alien that has transformed herself to look like a human. The villains in this story are equally interesting in their motives and their behavior. I don't normally like books that jump between characters each chapter, but I think the technique really worked for Lagoon. It only further helped to paint a picture of the beauty and the problems in Nigeria today.

Something else that I really appreciated about this book was the Nigerian mythology that gets woven into the novel. It's surprising whenever it appears. I never expected it. But I do think it added a layer of richness to the story. I didn't understand all of it or why it was there, but that just has me excited to do some more research to understand these stories.

I personally wish that we had learned a little bit more about the aliens and why they were there, but I realize that's not the story Okorafor was trying to tell. If you're looking for a sci-fi read about aliens that gives you a great introduction to Nigeria, look no further.


Outlandishness Rating: 7/10

Aliens. And some of the chapters are told from the point of view of animals who basically gain super powers. So it's inherently a little weird.

Review: The Wolf Border by Sarah Hall

The Wolf Border by Sarah Hall
Publisher: Harper. June 9, 2015
Pages: 448
Genre: Literary fiction
Source: Publisher
First Line: It's not often she dreams about them.


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For almost a decade, zoologist Rachel Caine has lived a solitary existence far from her estranged family in England, monitoring wolves in a remote section of Idaho as part of a wildlife recovery program. But a surprising phone call takes her back to the peat and wet light of the Lake District where she grew up. The eccentric Earl of Annerdale has a controversial scheme to reintroduce the Grey Wolf to the English countryside, and he wants Rachel to spearhead the project. Though she's skeptical, the earl's lands are close to the village where she grew up, and where her aging mother now lives.

While the earl's plan harks back to an ancient idyll of untamed British wilderness, Rachel must contend with modern-day realities--health and safety issues, public anger and fear, cynical political interests. But the return of the Grey unexpectedly sparks her own regeneration. - Goodreads

I'm so torn about this book. To be completely honest, I almost put it down several times. I didn't, because Sarah Hall's writing was actually stunning and I wanted to know what was going to happen with Rachel and the grey wolves. The problem was that I was waiting anxiously for Rachel to stop being a passive character. And I don't know that she ever really did.

Rachel's an interesting one. She's often cold, distant, quietly analyzing; almost wild herself. Much of our time is spent watching things happen to her. And that made me kind of crazy. I realize that inaction is a choice in itself, but that doesn't make for an amazing reading experience when it's the default choice.

If I had known this book would be mostly about pregnancy and having a kid and relationships, and hardly about wolves, I don't know that I would have read it. I mean, I obviously expected the wolf stuff to reveal things about those topics and for Rachel's life to be the main story. But a lot of the time the wolf stuff felt inconsequential. I would've at least liked to see them a bit more, if not learn about them more.

Despite my issues with the plot and characterization (which made it a pretty slow read for me), Sarah Hall's vocabulary is incredible. When we get to see the wolves and the wilderness, it's beautiful and vivid. And Hall wrote some profound moments/realizations about familial relationships, love, and motherhood. Her talent can't be denied, I just wished the action had picked up sooner than 70% in.


Some Quotes:

"What use are higher faculties now, Rachel thinks, as she indicates and pulls out onto the road. Cognition and invention, the internal combustion engine, intermittent wipers, peace treaties and poetry, the homosapien thumb and tongue? Is optionality really evolutionary ascent when it leads to paralysis?"

"The strong April sunlight renders his fur brilliant, pale gold and silver-white, like the blaze of a matchhead. He could almost set fire to the trees. He's going to vanish, Rachel thinks, against the snow and the moors, against the blonde sward of the grassland."

"What else can she say amid the banal, undramatic language of the medical world? How will I be a mother? Will I feel love?"



Outlandishness Rating: 4/10

It's kind of weird, because it's almost an alternate history of the UK. Obviously wolves haven't been reintroduced to the wild. But also Scotland becomes an independent nation. Kind of interesting, but not touched on very much.

Review: The Shore by Sara Taylor

The Shore by Sara Taylor
Publisher: Hogarth. May 26, 2015
Pages: 320
Genre: Literary fiction
Source: Publisher
First Line: When news of the murder breaks I'm in Matthew's buying chicken necks so my little sister Renee and I can go crabbing.


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We are one of three islands, off the coast of Virginia and just south of Maryland, trailing out into the Atlantic Ocean like someone's dripped paint.

The first chapter of this book absolutely blew me away and the rest of the book did not disappoint. If you're at all interested in dark, gritty Southern Gothic literature, or perhaps think you could be but have been put off by how male-dominated those stories tend to be, grab this immediately. And if you want a little dose of magical realism, too, you're in the right place. I waited a couple weeks to read this after acquiring it, and I regret it.

The Shore is an interesting book, in that each chapter focuses on a different character (though sometimes narrators recur) and each chapter jumps to a different year, sometimes up to 100 years in difference. But the common thread is that they all focus on families, and particularly the tough and fascinating women, who inhabit a group of islands off the shore of Virginia. And boy does Sara Taylor know how to evoke a sense of place. The marshland these families have populated for years is both desolate and enchanting. Taylor's writing is absolutely stunning and I loved just soaking in how real and rich her descriptions were.

Behind her, the marsh stretches silver and gray and bright lime green, veined with creeks the reflect the blue of the sky, out to the gold smudge of barrier islands and white smudge of breakers at the horizon.

Taylor is also extraordinary at writing characters. Each one was intriguing and different. Sometimes at the beginning of a story, you had no idea who you were watching, but you could begin to recognize people from earlier just based on how they felt. One character that was vaguely mentioned in one story could be the main character of the next one. It was a lot of fun taking notes and trying to keep track of how all these people were related, because they all were in some way, and it added a layer of depth and interaction that many books don't achieve.

It's worth noting that this book is really intense. Beautiful, but intense, and it goes to very dark places. Anything that you imagine might happen in a rural, isolated, run-down set of island towns does. There's violence, crime, drugs, domestic abuse, child abuse, sexual abuse, and rape. I think all of it was important to read and it doesn't feel gratuitous, but it is worth mentioning.

I loved this book. Well, I loved all but the last chapter of this book, which felt unnecessary. But I'm fully behind every other chapter. Even if you think you don't need to read this book, you do. I'm beyond excited to see what Sara Taylor does in the future.

She'd reached out her hands, like he'd shown her, and felt the breeze between her fingers like long strands of dried grass, only this time she felt it in her mind, too, as if her head was an empty room with all the windows open and the breeze was wandering through it. She'd grabbed hold and twisted, and the breeze twirled in on itself, picking up the cut grass on the road, spinning a confused chicken around a few times, then straightening back out.

Outlandishness Rating: 8/10

Ok, I didn't really touch on much of the magical realism, but it is there and it is SO magical. I love how it's just kind of integrated without trying to explain it too much. Also, when I said there can be differences of 100 years between chapters? It definitely goes into the future a couple times. Those stories show a grimmer future. A little bit literary apocalyptic, akin to Station Eleven or Cloud Atlas. It's so good. Except for the last chapter, but we really don't have to talk about that.