Syndrie
This right here is a true southern gothic novel — filled to the brim with flawed characters, illicit themes, raw emotions, and a fair amount of gore.
Overall, it's a rough story that really focuses on dark ramifications of generational trauma. We follow the story of a woman named Jude, who runs away from her childhood home — and more importantly from her abusive mother. One thing that really hit me harder for this novel is that this wasn't a case of a young woman or teenager running away to try and start a new life. Jude is actually already 41 years old before she finally manages to escape from the house of suffering she's been stuck in for her entire life. The meat of this novel is really about how Jude grows and adapts to her new life in the abandoned, haunted home she's fled to deep in the Georgia woods. We watch as she learns some harsh truths about herself, and we also watch as she develops a deep, intimate relationship with a mysterious woman who suddenly appears at her door one day.
Written with lush and descriptive prose, you can really feel the anger, fear, lust, sorrow, and disgust absolutely dripping from the pages of this novel. But in between all the bad, there are moments of serenity that help make the story more palatable and really humanize (most of) the characters. It's also a pretty fast-paced story with frequent time skips, but the pacing feels very natural and there's an impressive amount of character development packed in along the way.
I don't want to give too many details on the plot as I went into this one mostly blind and I'm glad I did so, but here's a list of some keywords I jotted down during my reading for anybody who might want a little more of an idea of what to expect: visceral, haunting, incandescent, tranquil, frenzied, wanton, harrowing, hopeful.
If you're a reader that tends to be triggered by darker themes, you'll probably want to pay special attention to the content warning at the beginning of this book before fully committing to it. But for those who do not have any triggers, I would highly recommend this one. I'll also most definitely be keeping an eye out for future works from Yah Yah Scholfield!
(I received an advance review copy of this book from the publisher, Saga Press, via NetGalley and I am leaving this review voluntarily. All opinions are my own.)
This right here is a true southern gothic novel — filled to the brim with flawed characters, illicit themes, raw emotions, and a fair amount of gore.
Overall, it's a rough story that really focuses on dark ramifications of generational trauma. We follow the story of a woman named Jude, who runs away from her childhood home — and more importantly from her abusive mother. One thing that really hit me harder for this novel is that this wasn't a case of a young woman or teenager running away to try and start a new life. Jude is actually already 41 years old before she finally manages to escape from the house of suffering she's been stuck in for her entire life. The meat of this novel is really about how Jude grows and adapts to her new life in the abandoned, haunted home she's fled to deep in the Georgia woods. We watch as she learns some harsh truths about herself, and we also watch as she develops a deep, intimate relationship with a mysterious woman who suddenly appears at her door one day.
Written with lush and descriptive prose, you can really feel the anger, fear, lust, sorrow, and disgust absolutely dripping from the pages of this novel. But in between all the bad, there are moments of serenity that help make the story more palatable and really humanize (most of) the characters. It's also a pretty fast-paced story with frequent time skips, but the pacing feels very natural and there's an impressive amount of character development packed in along the way.
I don't want to give too many details on the plot as I went into this one mostly blind and I'm glad I did so, but here's a list of some keywords I jotted down during my reading for anybody who might want a little more of an idea of what to expect: visceral, haunting, incandescent, tranquil, frenzied, wanton, harrowing, hopeful.
If you're a reader that tends to be triggered by darker themes, you'll probably want to pay special attention to the content warning at the beginning of this book before fully committing to it. But for those who do not have any triggers, I would highly recommend this one. I'll also most definitely be keeping an eye out for future works from Yah Yah Scholfield!
(I received an advance review copy of this book from the publisher, Saga Press, via NetGalley and I am leaving this review voluntarily. All opinions are my own.)