hillarycopsey's reviews
865 reviews

Both unsettling and fortifying 

A philosophical treatise masquerading as a novel. Flashes of lovely writing, some evocative rumination on grief and loneliness and time. I’m curious whether this will stick with me, but I’m glad I made the relatively small investment of time with this. 

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. 

Evocative dual storylines that parallels the narrator’s thankless work at a fast food place with her father’s thankless blue collar job. 

Funny and tender. Moving without being treacly. 

I mostly liked this and really loved the ending, which was expected but moving. I found Jamie as the center to be frustrating and the villains were rather mustache-twirly. But appreciated the exploration of grief, community and masculinity. 

This is messy and unsubtle, but I couldn’t stop reading it. Sathian is very good at poking at the absurdities and soft spots of modern life. 

Thanks to Netgalley for the advance copy. 

Solid mystery. Interesting setting. I liked Perveen more in this second book. 

Compellingly told history. Nagle reads the audiobook and does it well. I do think this might be easier to follow in a print format. Nagle is pulling together a lot of different threads to show how the US government has dealt with tribal nations across centuries. 

Very appreciative of the history and context provided by this book. 

Charming, thoroughly enjoyable distraction on a day I needed it.