Aimee Pokwatka
Author of Self-Portrait with Nothing
Works by Aimee Pokwatka
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- Unknown
- Gender
- female
- Education
- University of North Carolina at Greensboro (Anthropology)
Syracuse University (MFA|Creative Writing) - Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Wheeling, West Virginia, USA
- Places of residence
- New York, USA
- Associated Place (for map)
- USA
Members
Reviews
I really liked this! It was legitimately horrifying, suspenseful horror, of the family-centered kind I find particularly creepy and upsetting, but with an extremely high throughput of jokes, for balance. I love horror stories about women trying to balance professional fulfillment and familial love, but I especially love ridiculous situations and events taken to the point of terror. Repetition is used in this in a particularly unsettling scary/funny/VERY scary way. A great read!
The owls are not what they seem…
(Sorry, I couldn’t resist.)
“The Silent Queen”, the story-within-a-story fairy tale was beautifully written and I loved Alala and everyone else. It was dark, tragic, emotional, colourful. Why couldn’t this story have been published separately, developed even more? (Inconceivable! Sorry, I couldn’t resist.) I would read it with pleasure!
As for the main story, “we are trapped in this library with thousands of homicidal owls outside, help” – I show more couldn’t connect with it. I’ve read and watched too many similar things before (minus the owls). The writing and the characters would have had to be exceptional to be seen in this crowd of cultural memories. So, I was bored, exasperated and scared all at once. The writing was bland and the characters were made in the same mould as those in countless other books on bestseller lists. I rolled my eyes and didn’t care about any of the trapped people, except for the kids. The kids were nice.
To me, it looks like the book is trying to violently hammer together two pieces of a puzzle that don’t fit. Why must we once again use this plot device where the characters in a book are reading a book that the reader also gets to read? I kept turning those pages, though – because murder owls *are* scary.
Nash’s bad jokes were just about the only thing that I really liked in the owls part. “When do you go to the dentist? Tooth-hurty!” “Want to hear a joke about pizza? Never mind, It’s too cheesy.” Me: hoot, hoot, hoot. I am easily amused ;)
I was pleased with the ending (or rather, both endings). And I’ve just realised that I managed to have myself a Halloween read, which is unusual for me. You always get something out of books :)
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the free e-book! show less
(Sorry, I couldn’t resist.)
“The Silent Queen”, the story-within-a-story fairy tale was beautifully written and I loved Alala and everyone else. It was dark, tragic, emotional, colourful. Why couldn’t this story have been published separately, developed even more? (Inconceivable! Sorry, I couldn’t resist.) I would read it with pleasure!
As for the main story, “we are trapped in this library with thousands of homicidal owls outside, help” – I show more couldn’t connect with it. I’ve read and watched too many similar things before (minus the owls). The writing and the characters would have had to be exceptional to be seen in this crowd of cultural memories. So, I was bored, exasperated and scared all at once. The writing was bland and the characters were made in the same mould as those in countless other books on bestseller lists. I rolled my eyes and didn’t care about any of the trapped people, except for the kids. The kids were nice.
To me, it looks like the book is trying to violently hammer together two pieces of a puzzle that don’t fit. Why must we once again use this plot device where the characters in a book are reading a book that the reader also gets to read? I kept turning those pages, though – because murder owls *are* scary.
Nash’s bad jokes were just about the only thing that I really liked in the owls part. “When do you go to the dentist? Tooth-hurty!” “Want to hear a joke about pizza? Never mind, It’s too cheesy.” Me: hoot, hoot, hoot. I am easily amused ;)
I was pleased with the ending (or rather, both endings). And I’ve just realised that I managed to have myself a Halloween read, which is unusual for me. You always get something out of books :)
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the free e-book! show less
The premise of Aimee Pokwatka's novel is that there are parallel universes where people live slightly different lives, and that a certain artist can paint portraits that will force a sitter's double from one of these universes to to come to live in the sitter's universe. The painter is Ula Frost, who as a teenager abandoned her child, the protagonist, Pepper at birth.
This is Pepper's story, now an anthropologist, a professor specializing in human skeletal remains, and also in forensic show more science. Her mother is now missing, characters with good and bad intentions intervene, and the adventure begins.
It's interesting that the parallel universes are only suggestive until almost the second half of the book. There's much about Pepper's confused and rocky marriage to Ike, a historian, about lawyers and a possible inheritance, about a shadowy group who wants to know how travel between parallel universes could be used by them to gain power and money.
But, I found the characters are well written. Pokwwatka is a Polish-sounding name and much happens in Wroclow. She was a veterinary tech, and Pepper's mothers are vets. She studied anthropology, analyzed bones, and taught. All these things are in the novel, so Pokwatka is writing what she knows, and all the parts feel real.
This is fantasy or sci-fi only in the sense that I had to buy into its certain kind of parallel universe idea, which was not hard to do. Otherwise it is a thriller, and a love story, and stories of several doubles, victims of Ula self-portraits, who were ripped from their lives in other universes and had to learn to get by in Ula's .
It is a very good first novel, One I read when I maybe should have been doing other, more practical things, but found hard to put down. show less
This is Pepper's story, now an anthropologist, a professor specializing in human skeletal remains, and also in forensic show more science. Her mother is now missing, characters with good and bad intentions intervene, and the adventure begins.
It's interesting that the parallel universes are only suggestive until almost the second half of the book. There's much about Pepper's confused and rocky marriage to Ike, a historian, about lawyers and a possible inheritance, about a shadowy group who wants to know how travel between parallel universes could be used by them to gain power and money.
But, I found the characters are well written. Pokwwatka is a Polish-sounding name and much happens in Wroclow. She was a veterinary tech, and Pepper's mothers are vets. She studied anthropology, analyzed bones, and taught. All these things are in the novel, so Pokwatka is writing what she knows, and all the parts feel real.
This is fantasy or sci-fi only in the sense that I had to buy into its certain kind of parallel universe idea, which was not hard to do. Otherwise it is a thriller, and a love story, and stories of several doubles, victims of Ula self-portraits, who were ripped from their lives in other universes and had to learn to get by in Ula's .
It is a very good first novel, One I read when I maybe should have been doing other, more practical things, but found hard to put down. show less
In a Nutshell: Could have been brilliant but ends up as average. Innovative concept. But the execution transcends multiple genres and creates a mishmash of experiences. The choppy pacing doesn’t help. Debut work, so I will cut it some slack.
Story Synopsis:
Where the book worked for me:
✔ The concept is truly unusual. While multiverses and doppelgangers have been a part of various fictional works, using art as a medium to access these rather than the more typical technological entryways was a novelty.
✔ Pepper and Ike make for an interesting couple. Neither overly lovey-dovey nor totally indifferent, their relationship comes across as quite relatable. Their connection is more based on the mind than on the body, and this shows in their repartee and their strong connection with each other even through non-verbal communication. While some of their arguments were too trivial and hence avoidable (which is what happens between couples in real life too), I still liked how they were portrayed so realistically.
✔ There are some interesting secondary characters, the best being Pepper’s lesbian moms Lydia and Annie.
✔ The title is perfect for the story, though I can’t reveal its relevance now as it will be a spoiler. (The cover is brilliant too!)
✔ The story makes good use of its locations. I especially enjoyed the parts set in Poland.
Where the book could have worked better for me:
❌ The pacing isn’t consistent. It was too slow during the initial three quarters and too rushed in the final quarter.
❌ The story covers various genres: magical realism, drama, family, literary fiction, speculative fiction, mystery and thriller. Unfortunately, these aren’t blended well and the plot goes hopping from one to another, creating a choppy feeling as you go along. The initial sections are more dramatic while the finale is like an action thriller. As a character-driven story, the book hinges entirely on the actions of its characters, which may not work well for plot-driven content lovers.
❌ While the plot vaguely reminded me of Blake Crouch’s ‘Dark Matter’, it left a lot untouched. There could have been so much more explored with respect to the alternate universes, but the story sets itself very firmly in our world. The whats and whys of the multiversal technicalities remain unexplained.
❌ It overdoes the reference to alternate universes while Pepper is musing. Especially in the first half, after every few lines, we hear “in another universe,…[assumption about what would/could have been]…” These multiversal what-if ramblings get too repetitive and boring soon.
❌ The ending feels somewhat anticlimactic. So many things are left unsaid. There’s no closure.
The audiobook experience:
The audiobook, clocking at a little more than 11 hours, is narrated by Jesse Vilinsky. She is simply brilliant! There are plenty of characters to keep track of in this story, but thanks to her narration, not once did I falter on the identity of anyone. The only issue is that there are plenty of text messages between Pepper and Ike, which becomes slightly confusing in the audio version as they appear in between another conversation or scene. If you think this isn’t a big issue, then audio is definitely the way to go for this mixed-paced story.
All in all, this isn’t a bad story, but it is also not as mind-blowing as it could have been by virtue of that brilliant concept. It is a strange book, but then again, it is speculative fiction – there’s no fun in this genre without a shade of bizarreness to the content.
This debut author certainly shows promise, and with a bit of editorial fine-tuning, her future works are sure to be more impactful. I’ll definitely keep her on my radar. I don’t know how I would have felt if I were reading this due to the varying pace and genres, but the audiobook certainly helped a lot.
3.5 stars, rounding up for the audio version.
My thanks to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the ALC of “Self-Portrait with Nothing”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the audiobook.
———————————————
Connect with me through:
My Blog | The StoryGraph | Facebook | Twitter show less
Story Synopsis:
Thirty-six year old Pepper Rafferty lives a happy average life. Abandoned as a baby, she was raised by the lesbian doctor couple who found her on their veterinary hospital’s doorstep. Pepper is married to Ike, an ordinary, easy-goingshow more
man with excessive interest in historical journals. Pepper herself is a forensic anthropologist and loves her job.
There’s one thing about Pepper that no one knows: when she was fifteen, she discovered the identity of her biological mother, who was none other than Ula Frost, a notoriously reclusive painter famous for her paintings that supposedly summoned the subject’s doppelgangers to this world from an alternate universe.
Now Ula Frost is missing, presumed dead. Pepper suddenly finds herself at the centre of attention of various parties, good and bad—all of whom want to crack the secret behind Ula Frost, not realising that she is a secret to Pepper too.
Where the book worked for me:
✔ The concept is truly unusual. While multiverses and doppelgangers have been a part of various fictional works, using art as a medium to access these rather than the more typical technological entryways was a novelty.
✔ Pepper and Ike make for an interesting couple. Neither overly lovey-dovey nor totally indifferent, their relationship comes across as quite relatable. Their connection is more based on the mind than on the body, and this shows in their repartee and their strong connection with each other even through non-verbal communication. While some of their arguments were too trivial and hence avoidable (which is what happens between couples in real life too), I still liked how they were portrayed so realistically.
✔ There are some interesting secondary characters, the best being Pepper’s lesbian moms Lydia and Annie.
✔ The title is perfect for the story, though I can’t reveal its relevance now as it will be a spoiler. (The cover is brilliant too!)
✔ The story makes good use of its locations. I especially enjoyed the parts set in Poland.
Where the book could have worked better for me:
❌ The pacing isn’t consistent. It was too slow during the initial three quarters and too rushed in the final quarter.
❌ The story covers various genres: magical realism, drama, family, literary fiction, speculative fiction, mystery and thriller. Unfortunately, these aren’t blended well and the plot goes hopping from one to another, creating a choppy feeling as you go along. The initial sections are more dramatic while the finale is like an action thriller. As a character-driven story, the book hinges entirely on the actions of its characters, which may not work well for plot-driven content lovers.
❌ While the plot vaguely reminded me of Blake Crouch’s ‘Dark Matter’, it left a lot untouched. There could have been so much more explored with respect to the alternate universes, but the story sets itself very firmly in our world. The whats and whys of the multiversal technicalities remain unexplained.
❌ It overdoes the reference to alternate universes while Pepper is musing. Especially in the first half, after every few lines, we hear “in another universe,…[assumption about what would/could have been]…” These multiversal what-if ramblings get too repetitive and boring soon.
❌ The ending feels somewhat anticlimactic. So many things are left unsaid. There’s no closure.
The audiobook experience:
The audiobook, clocking at a little more than 11 hours, is narrated by Jesse Vilinsky. She is simply brilliant! There are plenty of characters to keep track of in this story, but thanks to her narration, not once did I falter on the identity of anyone. The only issue is that there are plenty of text messages between Pepper and Ike, which becomes slightly confusing in the audio version as they appear in between another conversation or scene. If you think this isn’t a big issue, then audio is definitely the way to go for this mixed-paced story.
All in all, this isn’t a bad story, but it is also not as mind-blowing as it could have been by virtue of that brilliant concept. It is a strange book, but then again, it is speculative fiction – there’s no fun in this genre without a shade of bizarreness to the content.
This debut author certainly shows promise, and with a bit of editorial fine-tuning, her future works are sure to be more impactful. I’ll definitely keep her on my radar. I don’t know how I would have felt if I were reading this due to the varying pace and genres, but the audiobook certainly helped a lot.
3.5 stars, rounding up for the audio version.
My thanks to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the ALC of “Self-Portrait with Nothing”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the audiobook.
———————————————
Connect with me through:
My Blog | The StoryGraph | Facebook | Twitter show less
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