Book Review: Sorrowland

 

Image: The cover of the book is a artists rendition of a collection of various wild plants. The color scheme is blue with the background of the cover fading from a darker blue to navy blue and the illustration being composed of a spectrum of light blues. The plants look like they could be sea life or above ground, it is difficult to tell. All lettering on the cover is gold. The font is a capitalized calligraphy style. Across the top in a curved banner is the title of the book. On the right side in small letters is "a novel" and across the bottom is the author's name.

I was a huge fan of Rivers Solomon's first novel, An Unkindness of Ghosts, when I had the pleasure of reading an ARC that I chose from a long list on a bit of a whim. That novel set the bar really high for their future works in my mind, which is perhaps why the second novel, The Deep, didn't do it for me. Going into Sorrowland, I had more realistic expectations and was open to it being anywhere on the quality spectrum. I can say that this one is definitely much better than the last.

I have mentioned before that fantasy as a genre does not have a huge appeal to me, though I have been overcoming this recently. This book sits in a fantasy realm, but extends far outside that as well, which made it much more enjoyable to me. I found the way that Solomon handled themes of liberation and oppression throughout the book to be creative and well orchestrated. Solomon captures the complexity of human beings who find themselves attached to different belief systems. The compound in the book mirrors some Black nationalist movements of the past and today and offers a lot of thought provoking content to the reader. Seeing how Vern and others are treated by a system that pretends to have their well being centered shows us that we can all still do great harm even when coming from a marginalized group or with an idea or intention to do good.

Through these creative lenses, Solomon also becomes a historian, weaving pieces of the long and horrific past of the so-called USA- and how that past inspires places like the compound to come into existence. As Solomon's past writings have, this book is full of a lot of creative Queerness. I am often a person who isn't big on long detailed sex scenes in books- I honestly don't know why given my history. But, the few in this book were approached from such a creative standpoint that I did not mind them.

I am very glad that Solomon has continued to write and that smart publishers continue to publish their work. I am looking forward to their next contribution.

This was also posted to my goodreads.

Book Review: Long Division

 

Image: The cover of the book is a black background with multicolored illustrations on top. There are blue leaves and grass on the top and bottom with yellow zigzag lines behind them. In the upper left corner is a partially obscured illustration of a keyboard. In letters ranging from white to cream in a style of being painted capitalized with a wide brush is the title of the book, an elipsis, and under it the author's name. below that in small white letters is a blurb from Jesmyn Ward saying, "Smart and funny and sharp... I loved it."

I usually reserve posts on this blog for books to be released or that which have been released in the past year. In the case of this post, I am reviewing the newest edition of Kiese Laymon's "Long Division," despite it first being published in 2013. I did not read it back then, but can tell from the book design alone that it has been given a necessary makeover. 

In order to avoid spoilers, I will remain vague about why the cover matters here. But, I will say that the design of the print version of this book is grounded in what happens in the story more than the previous cover. This occurs in a way that I have previously never encountered and added to the direction the book took me on. I felt like part of the story in some ways.

I had previously only read nonfiction by Laymon, and knew he excelled immensely in that realm. But, I am always cautious going into a book that is a genre shift that the author or I am not used to. Some authors can write beautiful nonfiction and terrible fiction and vice versa. However, I was unsurprised to find that Kiese Laymon also excels in the fiction arena.

The book is a bit of a genre bender. At one point it is referred to as a "young adult book for adults" and I see how that fits. You follow teen and young adult characters throughout the story, but it strikes me as a bit different from the usual YA sort of style. (Though I completely admit, since I haven't enjoyed a lot of YA, I am no expert there.) This book also can be classified as scifi or even fantasy, but it doesn't settle directly into those genres either. Judging by the other books of Laymon's I have read, this is also a autobiography-inspired fiction, where characters in the story deal with similar things that Laymon has dealt with in his own life. One could likely attach a number of other genre labels to this as well.

I enjoyed this about this book and how Laymon did not allow the expectations of fiction genre to dictate the arc of this story. I loved how the design of the print book fit into it all. I found myself surprised by where it took me and enjoyed the ride. I have yet to meet a Kiese Laymon book that I did not like. I am looking forward to the next thing he puts out.

This was also posted to my goodreads.