marissasa's review against another edition
It was boring and didn't hold my attention
Graphic: Alcohol, Drug use, Excrement, Kidnapping, Child abuse, Cursing, Blood, Sexual content, and Animal death
kell_xavi's review against another edition
slow-paced
3.0
Couldn’t the self exist in a single word? Meaning, water. Meaning, war. And what if that word was not allowed?
This novel, and its central characters, flirt with miracle at the place where it’s wedged up against hopelessness. A begging for answers, for people to provide or embody those answers, and the failure of answers to coalesce and remain. A few clean, sparkling scenes, all near the beginning. A few diamond passages about wealth, peppermints, heat, betrayal of the American imagination, soul-deep love, water, sand dunes, the climate crisis, governmental neglect, and trauma-touched youth. A slow sinking into dry dust and a dirtying, a bruising of the land and the story’s reality.
She saw for the first time the way we fill our homes with macabre altars to the live things we’ve murdered—the floral print of the twin mattress in her childhood bedroom, stripped of its sheets after she’d soiled them; ferns on throw pillows coated in formaldehyde; poppies in petrochemical dinner plates; boxes and bags of bulk pulpstuffs emblazoned with plant imagery the way milk cartons are emblazoned with children.
Where are we left at the end? The timeline is sometimes unclear, the place one of stark realism and one of mirage. Somewhere firm and slippery both, with a few paths and a few answers and somewhere to go, and yet nothing, really, none of the certainty we’re all looking for.
Somewhere between Kōbō Abe’s The Woman in the Dunes and Francesca Lia Block’s gritty starlight underbelly books, with a strong literary pull.
This novel, and its central characters, flirt with miracle at the place where it’s wedged up against hopelessness. A begging for answers, for people to provide or embody those answers, and the failure of answers to coalesce and remain. A few clean, sparkling scenes, all near the beginning. A few diamond passages about wealth, peppermints, heat, betrayal of the American imagination, soul-deep love, water, sand dunes, the climate crisis, governmental neglect, and trauma-touched youth. A slow sinking into dry dust and a dirtying, a bruising of the land and the story’s reality.
She saw for the first time the way we fill our homes with macabre altars to the live things we’ve murdered—the floral print of the twin mattress in her childhood bedroom, stripped of its sheets after she’d soiled them; ferns on throw pillows coated in formaldehyde; poppies in petrochemical dinner plates; boxes and bags of bulk pulpstuffs emblazoned with plant imagery the way milk cartons are emblazoned with children.
Where are we left at the end? The timeline is sometimes unclear, the place one of stark realism and one of mirage. Somewhere firm and slippery both, with a few paths and a few answers and somewhere to go, and yet nothing, really, none of the certainty we’re all looking for.
Somewhere between Kōbō Abe’s The Woman in the Dunes and Francesca Lia Block’s gritty starlight underbelly books, with a strong literary pull.
Graphic: Emotional abuse
Moderate: Drug abuse, Kidnapping, Confinement, Sexual assault, and Trafficking
Minor: Violence, Death of parent, Pedophilia, Religious bigotry, and War
Spoiler
cult, imprisonment, gaslighting, government deceptionoptimisticmara's review
dark
emotional
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Toxic relationship, Grief, Drug use, and Confinement
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Sexual content, Infidelity, and Animal death
Minor: Death, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Suicide
nosmallthing's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Kidnapping and Toxic relationship
carolinefaireymeese's review
challenging
dark
slow-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Completely transfixing. Watkins makes and unmakes with the otherworldly force of her Dune Sea--her prose enchants the reader into a dreamy magical state, then snaps, and wakes the reader up to a horror scene. I've never been so taken in by a fictional dangerous cult figure. Every line is decadent.
Graphic: Kidnapping
More...