Reviews

The Girl in the Road is an intricately woven story. It bounces back and forth between two seemingly separate narratives. Meena is a twenty something woman in India who was orphaned at birth and is struggling to find her identity. Mariama is a ten year old girl who is fleeing from her home across Africa. Both of them have the same goal in mind: Ethiopia.

This book is quite different than my usual reading material. I struggled with many aspects of it. Meena is a very sexual being and the book describes many of her encounters. Mariama is a small naive little girl running from a danger she doesn't understand. Both of them are fleeing their pasts and searching for a better future. Each of them is plagued by visions of a girl in the road and they struggle to understand the meaning.

The story is set in two different time periods, both in the future. India and Ethiopia are the main backdrops and the futuristic setting adds a difficult layer to understanding the cultures. Many struggles and wars mentioned in this book are fictional but little context was given for them, the context is not strictly necessary but would perhaps help clarify some things.

All of this adds up to a book that takes you on a surreal journey across a landscape that is vaguely familiar but is somehow alien as well. Monica Byrne wrote a wonderful piece for her debut novel. This book is a very twisting 'road' and the final piece of the puzzle doesn't fall into place until the last page. The author does not shy away from the unpleasant aspects of life and this book faces those things we all would rather ignore head on.

I received this book for free from Blogging for Books in exchange for an honest review.

pbobrit's review against another edition

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5.0

This is going to be a difficult review to write for fear of spoilers, so I'll make this as generic as I can. As a debut novel this book is amazing, in terms of scope, language, story arcs and vision. It is a futuristic story of journeys, both external, mental and psychic. A story of growth and acceptance of the characters selves and their past actions. The writing is rich and deep and yet it is a page turner.

It is also a book I will re-read and will lead to fights in book clubs :)

This book is sci-fi in the same realm of writing as authors such as Margaret Atwood, and I'd recommend to anyone who is a fan of intelligent sci-fi and/or good writing.

jnfpayne's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark inspiring mysterious sad medium-paced

hekate24's review against another edition

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5.0

So, from a technical standpoint, I'm not sure if this is a five star read. But whenever I encounter a work of fiction that feels totally unique I'm inclined to give it five stars.

Like I said in my status update, the voice of the main characters (Meena in particular) just grabbed me. They're well-defined from the first page, and also totally different from one another. It helps that the narrative is very go go go pretty much from the start. The worldbuilding is pretty fantastic too. All the technological and political and environmental details seem like logical extensions of what's going on now. The end is a mindfuck and you're not going to have everything wrapped up in a bow, but I feel like it played fair (unlike, say, [b:The Other Typist|17329041|The Other Typist|Suzanne Rindell|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1385399311s/17329041.jpg|21999016]. By which I mean I had fun guessing at what the end would bring, and got the satisfaction about being right about some things. And I think I have the pieces to guess what happened at the end even if, again, it wasn't fully explained.

So, yeah, this is a pretty gushing review. I'm not sure if this is a book for everyone. There are some passages that get into intense, vulgar, disgusting, etc things, and I often wanted out of the heads of these characters to be honest. Wanted to stop filtering their poisonous thoughts through my own mind. But it all seemed to a purpose, rather than just mindless grimdark shock value, so I could deal with it. But, yeah, this is one of those cases of the stars aligning perfectly so that I was in precisely the right mindset (and having the right general fictional preferences) to enjoy this book. It's not for everyone, but I think it's great that this book exists.

meganmreads's review against another edition

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I started The Girl in the Road with high hopes, as it seemed right up my alley. Unfortunately, I was confused from the start. There wasn't a lot of world building, the characters weren't likeable or relatable, and I couldn't get into the story at all. Books like these are usually hit or miss for me because I feel as if they try too hard to be hard hitting and lyrical, gritty and yet poetic at the same time. These are the books that are often raved about in book clubs, but can be difficult to get into. I wanted to like the book and when I read the synopsis, I'm left feeling like I must have missed something because I didn't enjoy it and it seems like something I would have liked a lot.
I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review

jerseygrrrl's review against another edition

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4.0

I loved this book. It surprised me, shocked me, educated me, and made me think. I often had no idea where it was going and I enjoyed that. A fantastic mix of speculative fiction, religion, feminism, and madness. An original and spectacular read.

frog_appreciator's review against another edition

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1.0

Wow. I have a lot to say about this. Firstly, this book is not what it’s summary seems to suggest. Instead of a grand adventure it’s an exploration of trauma, sexuality and culture. Chock fucking full of triggering content. I was very excited for the concept. I haven’t read enough sci fi that isn’t eurocentric, so having Africa and India as these global superpowers was exciting. I was also excited for queer representation, and after starting the book, mad representation (mc is bipolar). My issues with this book are not with its technical construction, I found it’s language quite beautiful. I also really enjoyed the futuristic technology, especially the trail itself. However, our two narrators are incredibly unreliable, which has potential for a great read but it wasn’t executed well in this book. I am still a bit confused but I think I understand enough of what happened to discuss it. I’d have to re-read it to fully understand, which I will definitely not be doing. There is so much sexual content in this book, which is fine, but a lot of it is violence. Multiple instances of rape, and assault including towards a child, which was treated in a neutral light. There is no symbolism in the world that could make that necessary. There was a trans character in this story but everything we learn about her is from the unreliable mc, she doesn’t have her own voice. And SPOILER, she suffers from domestic violence from the mc and it’s implied that she dies. Very unfortunate direction taken. Also there were comparisons between being transgender and the phenomenon of trans nationalism where in this futuristic world people have the genetics to change race, which made me uncomfortable. Another thing, which I didn’t realize until after I was finished reading, but the author is white. This made the whole experience even more uncomfortable than it already was. Considering the importance of culture to the worldbuilding and character identities, and the heavy trauma they have , it doesn’t feel right to have it come from a white woman. Raises eyebrows in regards to how the mcs sexuality, which are women of colour, are written. I think if you are a part of the marginalized identities discussed in the novel, and have experienced the trauma it covers, and you take something from this book, all the more power to you. In regards to mental illness, the bipolar main character is violent and SPOILER potentially a demon? if my understanding of the book is correct. I could be wrong and it could have been a metaphor I misread but regardless it is a negative portrayal of a mad person. My experience reading was highly uncomfortable, and I do not recommend it, despite how intriguing it may sound from the book blurb.

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