Sorrowland

There's.. a lot of things to say about this book. Few of them very good. I will say, this book is high camp. A lot of it is so absurd and wonkily fleshed out that you can't help but keep turning the page. There are some sections of prose that work very well, and the schematics of the plot are intriguing and sort of work in the form of a back-of-book blurb.

The actual book itself? Yeah, no. This book goes all over the place. Fungus, AIDS ghost sex, wolf allegories, native healing, secret lovers, biker bars. The pacing is insane and hard to latch on to, making this book both way too short and way too long. If anything, the first section could work reworked to a short story form. The rest is just insane. Some of it made me audibly laugh. I have been live tweeting this book because of how strange and off kilter it is.

So many questions: why does Vern bitch out literally everyone with no consequences? She is remorseless, uncaring, and unkind, and continues to have the worlds best favors thrown at her every 10 pages. How does Vern elicit no reaction at any “electricity” human places/stores—FUNGUS EXOSKELETON WINGS ASIDE—despite coming in to each one looking like a feral human/serial killer survivor (bc shes kind of both)? Did no one worry about her covered in blood and sweat and ripped clothing at like, the 7-eleven? What is the point of the twins as plot device? Nothing interesting happens to them beyond page 70. Why is this story claiming a “woke” Native character representation, despite Gogo playing into the exact same healer “in tune with nature” stereotypes always used for Native characters?

If you want an artful campy book about a cult, read Arcadia by Lauren Groff. If you want something more intellectual and about genuine emotion behind lived queer experience, read the James Baldwin novel name dropped in thjs book a thousand time, Giovanni's Room.

Don't pick Sorrowland up if you have real books to read, or can get it for free from the library. It reads like a high schooler's rushed Nanowrimo piece. I'd be pissed if I paid 27 dollars for this.

Do not read this for any reason beyond having fun.