Rivers Solomon

This was just incredible; Solomon manages to grapple with trauma in ways that are deeply familiar and also alien, and manages to show what survival under these horrific conditions might look like. But there's so much going on here on a sociopolitical and interpersonal level, and Solomon does an amazing job of zooming in and out on those conflicts as they are intertwined and also somewhat separate. Aster moving through the world especially is great insight into those systems of power don't show more work, where they fall apart, and how that happens.

It's brutal (lots of references to rape and descriptions of brutal physical assault,) but there's also so much about what it can mean to move from a dystopia to something more, something better--and how tha work happens, how an uprising happens and when violence happens. But it was so good and I was so invested in the story and its ending. show less

Trigger Warnings: rape, torture, abuse, self-harm, pedophilia, child abuse, death, drowning, childbirth, blood, alcohol abuse, drug abuse, cult, brainwash, racism.

When Vern escapes the strict religious compound where she grew up, she's seven months pregnant and desperate. She flees into the woods where she gives birth to twins, Howling and Feral, and plans to raise them far from the reaches of the outside world.

But Vern can't flee from her past, metamorphosis is leaking into her world. show more Forced to fight the community that refuses to let her go, she discovers she can handle something that no person should ever be capable of.

To understand what's happening, and to protect her small family, Vern has to face everything, especially what lies beyond the outside of the woods. Finding the truth will mean uncovering the secrets of both the compound and the violent history in America that helped produce it.

Rivers Solomon is a talented writer and I'm always excited to read their books. But just like with The Deep , it took me a minute to get into the writing style. Vern had an older voice, an old soul even, wise beyond her years... it took me a bit to get into the narrative. I struggled slightly in the beginning, trying to figure out what time this was supposed to be set in, but quickly figured out why that was the case.

Vern is a black albino woman, who is struggling to understand herself, the world around, her upbringing, and others around her. She was a hard character to like; sometimes she wasn't a good mother or a good person. But throughout the novel, you learn more about her and start to understand her pain, both mentally and physically, past and present. You begin to empathize. Solomon writes prose in such a way that you're engulfed in it and, though there may be nothing similar, you as a reader, connect with Vern.

I loved how genderless this book is... it explores gender in a way I haven't read before. The best example would be Vern's children, though others try to put labels on them, Vern says they're children and that's that. There's also a sapphic romance in the novel!

Though the list of Trigger Warnings is a bit long, Sorrowland is a novel that deals with racism, social injustice, and misogyny. Solomon does all this using horror elements as well as magical realism. I know people have it marked as Fantasy, but it's magical realism... I can see that this book won't be for everyone, it deals with a lot and the main character won't be liked by most, but I will still recommend this to anyone who has read Solomon's other works and enjoy them as well as those new to their work. Those who enjoy Octavia E. Butler would also enjoy this. show less

I haven't read a great adult mermaid novel in.... forever. The story was unique, dark, and captivating; although the plot was quite slow at time. Inspired by the pregnant African slaves who were thrown overboard to die on their way to America for being "disruptive" cargo; the authors wondered what happened to their unborn babies who were already breathing underwater in their mother's womb? Inspired may not be the right word; but that horrible back story helped mold this book into what it is. show more Yetu, an underwater being tasked with storing the entire history of her people, is barely hanging on. The history of the wajinru is a violent and bloody one and it wants to claw it's way out of Yetu. The wajinru are descended from the pregnant slave woman, yet that traumatic history is too much for their people to process so the historian (Yetu) must house all that painful history and bear the burden for all. Yetu must find a way to live with those truths or pass them onto others without breaking tradition. Dark, slow at times, but unique and enchanting! show less

This was a fantastic book. I'm not sure how Rivers Solomon sustained the intensity of Vern's story and Vern's emotional journey so completely throughout the book, but they did it, and did it convincingly. This had an emotional resonance and bone-deep ache in its exploration of the loss and the abuse of Black bodies in US history (and US present), but it was also a page-turning, propulsive narrative. I hope non-genre readers will be adventurous enough to read this book (it doesn't stick with show more any one genre, but borrows liberally from the tools provided by horror, gothic, fantasy, sci-fi, and realistic fiction). I will certainly be recommending this to everyone this year! (Also, it provided unforgettable characters in Vern, Gogo, Howling, and Feral).

Thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for providing an ARC of this book, which did not influence my review. show less