A review by rachel_athens
The Antidote by Karen Russell

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Karen Russell gives us a spellbinding and enthralling Dust Bowl saga in The Antidote with the story beginning on Black Sunday, April 14, 1935. Welcome our five characters: a prairie witch who, for a price, will carry your secrets; a New Deal photographer whose camera not only captures prophecies of the future but reveals the tragic past; a Polish wheat farmer and his grieving niece, both in mourning (one for a severe drought and the other her mother's murder); and a scarecrow haunted by memories of a former life. Russell has layered rich characters into a nuanced depiction of settler amnesia. She also calls attention to the environmental devastation caused by the loss of Indigenous institutional farming knowledge which some might say helped create the Dust Bowl.
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