This is classically Karen Russell: a misfit teen protagonist surrounded by misfit adults in a slightly sinister time/place, all of them reckoning with the past. I love Karen Russell, and I think she’s at her best in short stories. Her novels tend to sprawl a bit, and this definitely does. The second half, as all the separate POVs begin to pull together, feels just a little baggy. By then, I cared about these characters and I genuinely wanted to know how she’d end this story, because I wasn’t sure I saw a way out. 

I love historical fiction that expands and challenges the stories we think we know. This definitely does that. I can see some readers might find Russell’s story to be preachy. But I found the extended metaphor of a human vault to store the things we cannot take to be very effective. And moving. 

Ultimately, this is a story about how people survive.

Thanks to Netgalley for the advance copy.