⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This book was fucking amazing
I wasn’t sure what to expect when I requested this book, but it exceeded my wildest dreams. Vern is a 15-year-old woman, married to the leader of a Black Power cult. She gives birth to twins, Howling and Feral (gotta love those names), in the woods after escaping the compound and chooses to raise her babies alone and completely off the grid in hopes of avoiding capture by her husband and the fucked-up motherfuckers in his orbit.
Vern was an interesting character who I respected like hell in one breath and didn’t understand in the next. I had to keep reminding myself that she was a teenager, so some of her behavior had to be deconstructed with that level of immaturity in mind. I couldn’t help but love her stubbornness about everything and her devotion to her children, early jaunts to spend the night with Ollie the "fiend" notwithstanding. What the hell was that about?! No good mother—I don’t care how young she is—would leave her children without supervision for hours in the woods, close to water where they could drown. I had a hard time believing she was really that dumb and/or selfish, but maybe that's just how kids roll these days. She knew what she had to do to survive, and she got it done, regardless of how unpleasant the task.
As Vern began to unravel the idea that she was slowly becoming a fungus from the inside out (yes. You read that right. A fucking fungus), the story got crazier and crazier. Being injected with compounds that are capable of forcing a person to grow a carapace and to develop the ability to use her mycelium to infiltrate the forest around her might be completely over the top, but I believed that shit. Rivers Solomon has a deft hand when it comes to convincing their reader that the impossible is actually quite possible. I tried to describe the plot of this book to a friend, and I could only laugh at myself for how ridiculous it all sounded, yet I was glued to my e-reader from page one.
I had a few beefs about this book. First of all, the cover...isn't great. What's with that ugly font? And I get the fungus imagery with what looks like a little hand in the middle, but to me, it's a bit too on-the-nose. Looks like a sixth grader put this together. Luckily, I don't pay much attention to covers, and I won't hold this one against the author.
Second, the graphic bisexual ghost haunt sex scene in a motel room came way the hell out of nowhere and tossed me out of the story like a grenade thrown into a puppy mill. It didn’t fit with the rest of the plot at all, and it left me feeling slimy. Vern getting ghost-finger-banged while serving as communications officer for two dead gay lovers and simultaneously barking orders to Gogo over the phone about how to get herself off was too much even for this book. If that kind of thing had been happening from the beginning, I wouldn’t have been shocked, but to me, it didn’t fit at all with the rest. It felt gratuitous and didn’t move the story even a millimeter forward. The scene could be removed from the book, and it wouldn't affect the plot, which tells me it's unnecessary.
Another issue I had was the chapter written in Howling’s point of view, which was, I believe, the only non-Vern POV chapter in the whole book. It appeared early-ish in the story, which made me expect more from his POV. We never got it, leaving me scratching my head. In this scene, Howling came off as manipulative, and I got the sense that he was planning something against Vern--like there was some conspiracy brewing. It was almost like the author intended to bring Howling’s side of the story to light, but then decided later it wasn’t important after all. What the fuck?
Finally, the ending was a little too neat for me after the messiness leading up to it. Vern reunites with Gogo and her kids. They descend on the compound only to find Ollie's people have killed everyone, including Vern's mom and brother. Vern resurrects all the dead bodies, and they live happily ever after. WTF? I understood why the author chose to end it that way, but it was too easy, too convenient, and too clean.
But there was plenty of great stuff to make up for the few stumbles. The relationships Vern forged with Gogo and Bridget were the real gems of this book. With Gogo on the scene, Vern’s definition of family grew into something much bigger than she had ever experienced before, and it was a beautiful transformation—not only for her, but for Howling and Feral too. I loved the message that family doesn’t always fit into traditional definitions. Family is what you make of it. And parenting is too. I remember something Neil DeGrasse Tyson once said about encouraging kids to learn about the world around them. He said to let kids get dirty. Let them make mistakes and messes. That’s what engages curiosity. Despite their unusual upbringing, Howling and Feral were blessed that their mother and the other adults in their lives allowed them to explore the world on their own terms. Sure, they were a little wild, but I'll bet they grew up to be very intelligent and creative people.
Overall, Sorrowland blew me away. I can't put a finger on exactly what made it so special (perfectly drawn, imperfect characters? Exquisite world building? Thorough explorations of sensitive themes? All of the above apply), but it certainly had something to do with Rivers Solomon's enviable ability to hook their reader and make a wild, unbelievable story totally believable. If you’re looking for a genre-crushing novel that blends sci-fi and fantasy elements, LGBTQ themes, horror, gender and racial issues, all with creepy government overtones, give Sorrowland a try. It’s truly indescribable but so worth the read.
* I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
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