Set in an alternate version of the United States, Biography of X follows journalist C. M. Lucca on her journey to uncover the truth of her late wife, performance artist X's, past. The novel bends genres at moments, between fiction memoir, historical fiction, and dystopian novel, making it altogether an engaging and well-constructed read. I particularly enjoyed Lacey's gradual revelation of the elements of the world that differ from our own in the same way that Lucca gradually pieces together X's identity.

The concept hooked me first: the excavation of our narrator’s now-deceased “Art Cunt” of a wife’s life.

This line got me next: "That she could destroy me totally should the whim ever arrive.
I fear that I'm the sort of person who needs to feel some measure
of fear in order to love someone. My first love had been, privately,
embarrassingly, God itself. Something that made me, something
that could destroy me."

Like, c’mon.

We follow C.M. Lucca, the widow of X–one of many name’s the mysterious subject of this book takes on as she shape shifts her way into the lives and hearts of the intellectual and elite. Lucca is on a vengeance quest to publish a more sincere retelling of her wife’s life than a biographer before her.

More so than that, she’s trying to unearth basic details of her wife’s origins that she never knew.

More so than that, she’s trying to understand the path that brought X to her.

More so than that, she’s trying to convince herself worthy of X’s love through garnering a deeper understanding of her wife and the many identities and lovers she took on.

X would have considered Lucca’s new life purpose a project of wallowing–she would have considered her pathetic. Well then call me pathetic because I too am victim to the power of nostalgia.

Lucca and I have a lot in common actually. Like how we both have been held firmly in the embrace of a capital N Narcissist. How our entire senses of self worth have been wrapped up in what they thought of us. How our identities were shrunk. How our thoughts were terminated. So that we could be exactly what these people wanted us to be. I have never been so grateful that my relationship ended with personal agency rather than death–otherwise maybe I would be on the same pitiful journey.

The length of this book is hard. Not just because it drags sometimes–and it does. We dive into the many, many lives of X and those who she connected with to enrich her mind to later pass off sound bites of wisdom as her own but more often to inject herself into a life of notoriety. And what the author chooses to share of these dynamics and the mindset of X within them is as indulgent as X herself. At one point, while someone is translating some transcripts of conversations between X and one of her lovers from Italian (one second, I need to stop rolling my eyes before I continue)--Lucca zones out and writes that she is tired of the intellectual squabbling of Two Now Dead Women. Like, SAME. I too am tired of X.

Not only of her pseudo intellectual babble, but also of the chokehold that she has on Lucca. It is painful, ~painful~ to read. At one point I was likening reading this book to The Pain Room exhibition that X created. Is this book a test of our stoicism in the face of emotional torture?

Lucca, RUN.

This book is impressive. It’s set in an alternate history of the Not So United States of America and Lacey did an impressive job of creating a political landscape the the characters within in. This is High Concept and Well Executed. Lacey has made a fan because I see what she can bring to the table–but I ultimately did not ~enjoy~ reading this book that much and I didn’t take much away from it other than it was like looking into an alternate future of what I could have been like had my relationship ended differently–and it was pitiful.

I’m not gonna lie, I’m not too sure how I feel about this one.
Set in an alternate version of the US, we follow a women trying to find out more about her mysterious late wife, X.
While confusing at times, I thought the premise was very interesting. I found myself, just like the main character, wanting to figure out clues about the wife, wanting to know everything about her life. But I also found it a little difficult to connect to any of the characters as I felt there wasn’t a lot of dimension to them.
Overall, I did enjoy this quite a lot but a few things kept this from being great, at least to me.
Thank you to RB Media and Netgalley for providing me of an audiobook arc in exchange for an honest review.

I'm afraid to say that I wasn't blown away by this book.

I got the audio version from Netgalley in return for an honest review so I should say that the actual narration is excellent. Cassandra Campbell's voice is clear and very pleasant to listen to so that's one star's worth.

The story, however, whilst interesting and a different wasn't really for me. I loved Pew because of its spareness of language but Biography of X seems to ramble around circuitously for a little too long. Catherine Lacey certainly can write a great character and in X (or whoever she was during her fictional lifetime) was just too unlikeable for me and CM came across as a little one dimensional and dull. I'm guessing that was the point given what the conclusion of the book was but (for me) it just took far too long to get there.

I'll definitely look out for more Catherine Lacey because I find her books interesting. If you like a saga-style book rather than the short, pithy offering we got in Pew then this book may be for you. She's certainly done her research.

Set in an alternate universe of the United States, Catherine Lacey presents a multi-layered novel narratorated by journalist C.M.Lucca. Lucca sets out to write about her recently deceased wife, the controversial artist known as X. Although Lucca embarks with the intent to rewrite the misconceptions that the public have about X, she comes to find that X's life had involved many iterations of masks and personas, which proves to complicate constructing a definitive story of her life. The novel expands as Lucca travels to meet with X's previous partners, family members, friends, and other acquaintances to fully grasp the history of her existence.

What I came to find (which is subject to interpretation) was that while the novel was presented as a development of the biography of X, it was almost more of a moving and intimate portrayal of Lucca. Lucca was so deeply caught up in the life of X - not only romantically but so deeply and vulnerably (and dangerously) tied to X - so much so that she lost complete sense of self after her partner died. Grief overtakes our narrator, and this persistent sense of loss schleps itself alongside us throughout the novel.

There are no simple answers in this novel. It is complex and challenging. At the end, the reader is left with the unsettling lack of resolve that our narrator, Lucca, is positioned with. Some areas of the novel felt a bit stale, but I can also see the necessity of these moments for the storyline. It was compelling and inventive, and so intellectually developed that it boggles my mind. Catherine Lacey is a master of fiction.

Thank you @netgalley and @fsgbooks for the ARC copy 🫶🏻

I was honestly expecting a bit… well, no… a lot more from this one. It fell flat and I honestly almost didn’t finish.

What secrets are revealed when someone dies? How well do you actually know your partner? In this novel, a former journalist seeks out the history of her newly deceased wife, a well-known but mysterious artist. While I found this book to be pretty engaging, the character of X was a bit of a bore to me. It was interesting to hear the story unravel, but I kept waiting for a big turn or reveal to make it more interesting. This is one that I think may be better read than listened to as well, since there are many callouts to images that audio listeners don’t see. Overall, I found the book to be well-written but wouldn’t return a second time.

Thanks to Recorded Books and NetGalley for the advanced copy!

Thank you so much to Netgalley; RB Media, Recorded Books; FSG for the opportunity to experience this stunning advanced reader copy audiobook written by Catherine Lacey and narrated by Cassandra Campbell in exchange for my honest review.

{edit: 31 march 2023} How well do you know the people in your life? How well can you know the people in your life? What do you do when you start to discover that the people you thought you knew, you may not know at all? What can you do when that person is no longer alive? Can art be divorced from the artist? Or are artists and their art inextricably linked for eternity? How about in death? These are some of the questions asked and explored in Catherine Lacey's third literary outing—the resplendent, thrilling, and haunting Biography of X.

Set in a parallel United States where the southern states split from the union after World War II to establish a fascist theocracy called the Southern Territory, we slowly discover how much the fraught tensions between the two territories mirror those between our narrator, CM, and her late wife X—an iconoclastic artist, writer, and polarizing shape-shifter. In her own words:
"My name is X and my name has always been X, and though X was not the name I was given at birth, I always understood, before I understood anything else, that I was X, that I had no other name, that all other names put upon me were lies. The year and location of my birth no longer pertain—few know that story, some think they know it, and most do not know it and need not know it. From 1971 until 1981—a youthful decade—I suspended the use of myself; that is, I was not here, I was not the actor within my body, but rather an audience for the scenes my body performed, a reader of the fictions my body lived. If this sounds ludicrous, that's because it is ludicrous; it is ludicrous in the exact same way that your life is ludicrous—you who have convinced yourself, just as nearly all people do, of the intractable limits of your life, you who have, in all likelihood, mushed yourself into the miserly allotment of what a life can be, you who have taken yourself captive and called it living. You are not your name, you are not what you have done, you are not what people see, you are not what you see or what you have seen. On some level you must know this already or have suspected it all along—but what, if anything, can be done about it? How do you escape the confinement of being a person who allows the past to control you when the past itself is nonexistent? You may believe, as it is convenient for you to believe, that there is no escaping that confinement, and you may be right. But for a period of years I, in my necessarily limited way, escaped." —Catherine Lacey, Biography of X (pp. 174-5).

As CM sets out on a journey to uncover the true extent of the identity, persona, and career of the wife she "had deified and worshipped[,]" but can't deny was held continually at arms length from; instigated by a desire to correct the publication of an unauthorized biography of X that came out after CM's express refusal to be involved by penning one of her own hand. Soon the cracks of their relationship begin emerge from hidden crevices and plain sight, unveiling the extent to which X had curated not just the many creative works she threw herself into but also her persona, her spoken truths, and the marriage between the two women itself. Lacey interweaves historical fact, prominent cultural icons, and artwork of several mediums from our reality into her fictional one to create a mysterious and mythic meld of reality and unreality.

But not only is Lacey’s Biography of X an examination of the line between reality and unreality in form, it is also so in subject. A mesmerizing dream-state of memory, truth, thought, interpretation, perception, pain, love, and longing. A text that will keep readers processing the events depicted within it for days. I know I have not been able to stop thinking about this book since I finished reading it. Every quiet moment I have quickly brims over into rumination over X and CM, both individually and in relation to each other. Fervent commendations to Lacey for their inspired exploration of control, deceit, revery, fame, iconography, obsession, grief, and worth—of art, of culture, of self, of others.

The writing is absolutely breathtaking. 2% into the book I got the 5-star magic and it carried through to one of the best final sentences I have ever read in a novel. It felt like everything in the universe was aligned and I was in another plane of existence for the duration of this audiobook—I couldn’t tell where the story ended and I began. Truly such an engrossing immersive captivating reading experience I never wanted to end. The last three chapters are, in one word, masterful; and some of the most impeccable pieces of writing I have ever read. Whilst revisiting them for the purpose of writing this review, I found myself gasping again at the the shocking moments and shedding tears all over again during the ones that hit me like a ton of bricks.

Yet as much as this novel is about the vast array of relationships and the dynamics within them, it is also deeply concerned with the process of creation itself. The relationship between an artist and their work, the relationship between an audience and creative art and by extension fandom and obsession, the inevitability of critical evaluation and interpretation that may or may not align with the artist's intention and who has control of such narrative in life and in death, and the life of art—lasting, unencumbered by time—beyond the life of its artist—ephemeral, on an unknown time limit. To be honest, it feels surreal writing a review for a book that has a lot to say about creative critique in the arts. X’s Disclosure, specifically, has been running through my mind on loop while I write this.

I'm hesitant to divulge much further about the text as I do strongly believe that going through the discovery experience of X with CM is the best way to experience the story, uncovering X's vast expanse of existence, art, and legacy with CM in real time.

The audiobook narration by Cassandra Campbell is beautifully performed. Well-paced, enigmatic, engrossing, and dream-like, Campbell's subtle inflections and tonal shifts not only oriented me throughout the story but kept me moored in a sea of reality and unreality as the story spun forward like a tendril of smoke unfurling through air. I sank into the story like a spectre in the room with the characters, observing to their every move, subsumed in the mystery and intrigue of X's life story and CM's investigations and discoveries. When a text has references and footnotes included I always find that audiobooks make the reading experience smoother for me because sometimes I get confused when I’m supposed to read them and as a result often get pulled out of the story itself. With the audiobook I was able to stay engaged and focused on the story and able to lose myself inside of it,

{edit: 1 april 2023} I loved the book so much I bought a physical copy and WOW being able to see the referenced photos, artworks, letters, notes, from the story included within the text à la Night Film by Marisha Pessl was thrilling. As soon as I spotted a copy I quietly yelped with glee and a couple that was perusing near the book where a little surprised by me. I quickly apologized, responding, "Oh my gosh I am so sorry I just got so excited they have this!" After I quickly flipped through the book and sufficiently oohed and aahed, I look up to see said surprised femme holding the one other copy of Biography of X that was left. Me, in my mind: "Exactly! Hope you love it, icon!" Then I have a fun long chat with the bookseller who rung me up, which ended in them asking me if they could take a picture of my newly obtained copy so they remember to grab a copy after their shift. #streetteam

Now having seen a physical copy of the text, the reading experience I would personally most recommend is flipping through a physical or digital copy of the text while listening to the audiobook at the same time. Cassandra Campbell's vocal performance brings the X-factor and does so much to bring the text to life, I truly believe that it is not one to miss. However, these stunning curated images and inclusions also infuse a text that feels somehow deeply grounded in reality despite being a fictional work, even more like a real biography of a non-fictional icon.

{edit: 2 april 2023} Did I buy a second copy as a gift for a friend? WHY YES, YES I DID.

I was talking to my mother earlier about my late father, memory, and grief and had a renewed sense of feeling seen and affirmed in my grief journey. I felt an ineffable kinship with CM's desire for understanding of her partner, their life together, her own self, X's death. Wanting answers from a person who can no longer provide you with them. It also gave me a deeper appreciation for my mother and the many hard losses in life she has had to grieve and recover from. How different people process, deal with, heal and move on from pain, grief, heartbreak, devastation, loss, joy, conflict, anger. I also understood this push pull between creative work and being perceived as a result of sharing art—wanting the freedom of anonymity but unable to douse the fire of creation which brims over your being into the material world. It is something I think about a lot but but find complex to articulate. I find myself returning to the text to engage with the section regarding self, identity, and creativity. What are we but not works of art ourselves?

Format: audiobook ~ Narrator: Cassandra Campbell
Content: 3.5 stars ~ Narration: 5 stars

C.M. Lucca is writing a biography of X, a woman without history, her late wife. The more she researches her life, the more she realizes she didn’t know her. What began as an attempt to correct an existing biography by Theodore Smith slowly became an obsession for CM to find out about the history of her wife and who she was.

The novel is heavily quoted from various books, articles, journals, and interview transcripts, therefore, it reads like an actual nonfiction biography. The author also mentions many people, places, and works from the real world. Some of them are well known.

Events are set in some alternative history, where, at some point, the US was divided into Southern and Northern Territory. Southern Territory is under a strict theocracy, and the regime sometimes resembles former communist ones, while the Northern part is more liberal.

Overall, Biography of X is an interesting novel, and it is, without a doubt, a very ambitious piece of work. I can appreciate that. On the other hand, it is pretty long. The writing can get very dry because of all the facts, data, and quotations. Therefore, the reader could lose interest. Even though Biography of X is an impressive work, it can lose its original meaning because of length and style. Also, it is definitely not a lightweight read.

For most literary fiction, I like to read book or ebook, but this novel is one of those when I’m really glad I had an audio format of the book. I’m not sure I would finish it otherwise, or it would take me a lot of time to read it. I think the narrator did a wonderful job here and read the book the best way anyone could.

This was my first Catherine Lacey novel, and I will keep reading her other works.

Thanks to Recorded Books for the ALC and this opportunity! This is a voluntary review and all opinions are my own.

I cannot get into this book, and I apologise for not posting a favourable review. After an hour of listening, I had no desire to carry on. Sadly nothing about the narrative or narrator is appealing. I won't be posting a review but I thank the publisher for the opportunity.

A truly unique read. This novel begs the question of why we love those we do. Set in an alternate reality where America has been divided into the North, South, and Western territories. The narrater attempts to answer a multitude of questions through an investigative biography about her mysterious late wife X.

The character of X is extremely complex, eccentric, and provocative, likely one of my favorite fictional characters ever created. I am perplexed by the character of X. Over her life she lived as dozes of personas, forever leaving an impact every inch of American culture from literature, music, art, politics, and nearly other cultural cornerstone you could think of. Though I loved the exploration of X, I was captivated by universe this book takes place. The Southern and Northern territories had been separated by a wall, with the Souther territory being ruled under a theocratic regime. I was absolutely obsessed with the descriptions of the ST and the political complexities of this world.

I am amazed at Catherine Lacey’s talent to blend the line between fiction and non-fiction. It was striking how similar this novel was to books I have read for history classes. Finishing Biography of X has me grieving that I will never be able to read it for the first time again.

Brilliantly written and ambitious, spanning decades and continents but largely set in an alternate version of the United States, Biography of X is the biography of an iconic, enigmatic American artist, X, written by her widow, journalist CM Lucca. Structured as an actual biography, complete with footnotes crediting imaginary sources and archival photography, author Catherine Lacey artfully, ingeniously blends fact and fiction in her new novel.

Lacey has created a fully-realized alternate version of the U.S., one in which the southern states broke off from the rest of the country in the 1940s to live under a religious, fascist regime. In the early 1990s, when Lucca's biography begins, the country is just beginning a tentative journey to reunification. Lacey provides a meticulously detailed history of the conflict and life in the Southern Territory, almost to the extent that she gives us too much information; it read as a bit dense at times. Although the separation of the country occurred in the 1940s in the world of the novel, Lacey uses the Southern Territory's belief system to make some important parallels with the state of today's politics.

Outside of the history aspect, the focus of the biography is, of course, X, and her various relationships and personas throughout the years. Through X's life as a musician, filmmaker, artist, writer, and actress (of sorts), Lacey explores love, art, grief, betrayal, authenticity, identity, manipulation, and obsession through complex characters that, while they are not likable necessarily, feel incredibly real. (And some are real, actually: Susan Sontag and David Bowie are only a couple of the real people that make an appearance in X's life.)

It's such a fascinating concept, and the novel's construction must have been a monumental undertaking. Ultimately, though, I thought that the various parts of the novel didn't work together quite as well as they could have. This could have almost been two separate novels: one a fictional biography about the Southern Territory, and one a fictional biography about X's life. Creating an entire alternate history requires a lot of explanation -- political figures, geography, noteworthy events -- that, in my opinion, could have been better spent on generating an emotional connection to the characters, which was lacking for me. I don't think X was a character I was supposed to like; she is pretentious and manipulative and selfish, but despite her constant reinvention, she also becomes boring and predictable. And Lucca comes across as distant and cold; possibly this was an intentional choice, but I wanted her to react more strongly throughout the text.

Nevertheless, Biography of X is an inventive, thought-provoking novel with lots of important and worthwhile things to say. I went back and forth between the audio version and reading an electronic copy: The audiobook is read by Cassandra Campbell, whose steady, deliberate narration works well for this type of story, but in this case, I would recommend the physical book instead, which includes photographs that I felt brought the book more to life. Thank you to NetGalley, Recorded Books, and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for the complimentary reading opportunity.

This book is strange, which I fully expected, having read two of Lacey’s other novels, but strange does not mean the story is without meaning.

Catherine Lacey writes with such intriguing elegance. She has this way of punching you in the gut with ordinary sentences, often lacing those painful lines with a second, extraordinarily profound message.

In Biography of X, readers are offered an alternate history of the US. I do believe this is my first time experiencing an alternate history novel and I found it very interesting. The history may have been different than our own, but there were authentic truths obscured within it.

I couldn’t possibly tell you everything Lacey intended to accomplish with this novel, but reading it filled my head with so many questions about who we are. My main takeaway was that the absurdity within this is an awful lot like how it feels to be in a relationship with someone with NPD. You don’t know what you really know about them and you’re left with an unexplainable grief even as you begin to understand their abuse.

Biography of X dares the reader to ask how well they know themselves and the people they love. There are many apt truths within the narrative, including this phenomenal line: “We cannot see the full and terrible truth of anyone with whom we closely live.”

I’m going to say the same thing I said about Pew to anyone considering this book: If you are unable to tolerate ambiguity in novels (which is totally fine because we’re all wired differently), this book is not for you. If you, however, love being actively involved with the story while trying to analyze its secrets as you move forward, you might find this to be your next favorite read. I think it will especially speak to those who have been infected by another’s duplicity and toxicity, as well as those who’ve felt or witnessed the adverse effects of weaponized spirituality.

I am immensely grateful to Recorded Books, Ferrar, Straus, and Giroux, and NetGalley for my advance listing copy. All opinions are my own.

I really enjoyed the premise of this book with the widow of X diving into learning about X’s life and learning much she didn’t know. I also found the fictional history of the US really interesting- it felt like a “what-if” things had gone differently after WWII. I would recommend this book to people who like a complicated character(s) and reading a reflection on a relationship that wasn’t always what it seemed.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this audiobook for review.

after having seen so many promising reviews of the novel and being intrigued by the idea of a fictional biography set in an alternate reality, i really expected to like biography of x. unfortunately though, it was one of those books that i was simply not able to connect with at all. even though her story is so complex and her life so enigmatic, x came across as neither likeable nor interesting to me. her pretentiousness, overly intellectual manner and disregard for other people's emotions quickly became predictable and boring, and the narrative really seemed to drag on without leading anywhere in particular. i also didn't feel the desire to learn more about any of the other characters either, including the narrator C.M. luccas, as they all appeared rather distant and cold. this wasn't helped by the citations from fictional sources, which often felt stilted and unengaging and whose footnotes and references interrupted the flow of the narrative. moreover, the alternative history felt slightly over-explained and, in my opinion, didn't add much to the story.
biography of x is a well-written novel that does address some interesting themes (identity, art, truth, grief etc.), but it wasn't nearly as engaging or captivating as i hoped it would be.

I had high expectations for this one, but found it profoundly uninteresting.
I like alternative history from time to time (Binet’s Civilizations especially, Roth’s Plot Against America) and the idea of using the form of a fictional biography chronicling the life of an artist in an alternative version of post-war America sounded like a creative way of asking thought-provoking questions about why we are where we are today.
Unfortunately, these expectations were not met at all. Mostly because we get an enormous amount of details about life in the seceded Southern Territories, an awful GDR-like police state with strict religious rules. The descriptions come complete with invented source material (articles, books, documentaries and associated distracting footnotes). Inventing politicians, protests, resistance groups, terrorists attacks…it all requires a lot of explaining and I just don’t see the relevance of inventing all this, especially because it is of little relevance to the main storyline: the search for the past of the enigmatic artist X. Reading through the (mostly very positive) reviews of this book, I am still not sure anyone has understood this, even though for some the reading experience was immersive.
As the novel progressed, the alternative history moves to the background and is replaced by an equally tedious account of X moving in artist circles in New York, which I guess is fun if you are interested in the real life events that are neatly interwoven in the text, but by then a feeling of complete indifference had set in…
I also did not feel the need to learn more about the late X or about the narrator, her wife CM Lucca. The problem is not that they are not particularly nice persons, but rather that they feel cold and distant.
It is possible that the rather flat and slow narration of the audiobook contributed to this insufferable reading experience, but even the best narrator couldn't have made this work for me.

Happy publication day!
Thank you NetGalley and RB Media for advanced audiobook copy.

3.5 stars

I have to say, given that it was an audiobook, I enjoyed it much more than if I had to read it. With too many references and footnotes, it was laborious at time to get through some of the section and even with an audiobook, I was spacing out too often.
CM, freshly widowed, is on a journey to learn more about his late wife, X. Although X is a fictional person, the people she knew in her life, were real/famous and we get few quotes from them which was neat. I also enjoyed the alternative America: the far-right Christian South and more progressive and advanced Northern Territory.
Overall, a good book, with a need of editing.

Catherine Lacey is on my auto-read list after I was blown away by her 2020 novel, Pew, an uncanny tale not too far removed from the Le Guin short story, The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas. Her latest, The Biography of X, is an incredibly impressive novel, in which a widow chronicles the life of her mysterious artist wife, X.

When an inaccurate biography of CM’s wife X is published, CM, a journalist, goes on a journey to get the “real” story about her dead wife. After speaking with many people from her past, and her own research, CM discovers a side of her wife of which she was not aware. Past lovers, friends, even false identities, begin to paint a picture of a talented and complex woman.

I went in knowing absolutely nothing about this book, and came away completely changed. Not only is this the story of a relationship with an incredibly complex, literally multi-faceted woman, it is also an alternative history book. In X’s America, the north and south were literally divided by a wall, with the south forcing religion on its occupants, with severe consequences if they did not comply. The reader quickly discovers this is the south X successfully escaped from.

Biography of X is such an intelligent and well-crafted novel. It’s about art, power, feminism, identity, truth, among other things. But the story is always immensely readable and enjoyable. We encounter celebrities such as David Bowie and Tom Waits, as well as real politicians in unexpected roles.

I was lucky enough to listen to the audiobook, expertly performed by the prolific Cassandra Campbell. She gave such heart to the character of CM, and I was absolutely devastated by the end, especially X’s final exhibit. X really puts CM through the wringer over the years, and Campbell beautifully captured CM’s internal conflict.

Apparently, in the physical book, some of the artifacts and documents referred to are included in the text. I don’t feel like I missed these by listening to the audiobook, and it gives me an excuse to read the book again at some point.

Catherine Lacey is a fantastic author, and Biography of X is a phenomenal work. Highly recommended to lovers of great fiction.

*A big thank-you to Catherine Lacey, RB Media, and Netgalley for a free audibook in exchange for my honest review.*
A novel that offers a quest of a woman whose late wife, X being just one of her many names, left her with few facts regarding her life. Set in alternative political and geographical circumstances with regard to the USA, which I found truly captivating, and in several places across the globe, the tale progresses slowly and so does the protagonist's comprehension of who her wife really was.
The book seems a little to slow at times, however, I got invested in the story despite feeling no closeness to any characters in particular.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for letting me read this ahead of publication.

This book is very hard for me to rate and review. I know I enjoyed reading it - I actually found it compulsively readable - and I know I loved the audiobook itself, as well as Cassandra Campbell's narration, and how seamlessly the narration moved between the different interviews and footnotes, I think it was excellent work.
The characters were all extremely unlikable but that did not deter me from reading at all.
The volume of identities that X adopted throughout the years was verging on the ridiculous and even though I was baffled by the never ending personalities and how annoying I found all of them, I still kept reading and wanted to keep reading.
The book was on the longer side - over 14 hours on audio - and even if some details could have been omitted I wouldn't actually change anything about the pace and content. I was not prepared at all about the setting being in an alternate version of the US and that threw me off a bit.
I found that the way CM Lucca expressed and talked about her grief and love was very well written, but at the same time I was baffled by how much she turned a blind eye towards lots of big things about her wife's life.
Overall this book was an experience - a baffling one, and one that is most enjoyed with some suspension of disbelief, but certainly an entertaining and captivating one at the end of the day.