State of Paradise

I've loved Laura van den Berg's work for years, and her latest did not disappoint. The novel tells the story of a ghostwriter who moves back home to Florida during the pandemic, then *things* happen. For one, there's the VR tech that makes people act oddly. Our narrator's sister is an avid user, often encountering their dead father in this virtual world. The state in general seems to be going through an upheaval. There's also the narrator's stay at the Institute when she was younger. The novel has speculative elements that I won't totally spoil, and which are situated close enough to our present to feel almost real, possible. The chapters have a diaristic feel (the novel was once called Florida Diary, which is mentioned in the text), and the characters are perfectly idiosyncratic. I loved spending time in this world, devoured this book in nearly one sitting.

Thanks to the publisher for the e-galley!

"State of Paradise" is a wonderfully strange and compelling read. It includes pandemic time, virtual escapism, cults, addiction, family dysfunction and rich atmosphere. If you love Florida (which I do) the setting and descriptions will feel like home. If you love inventiveness, and the turn of a gorgeous sentence, you will not be able to put this down. Highly recommended. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

laura van den berg’s STATE OF PARADISE applies van den berg’s signature uncanny style to a post-Pandemic Florida.

a ghostwriter finds herself stuck living with her mother in Florida after the deep throes of the pandemic. amidst destructive storms, the woman discovers the strange reality of her childhood memories as she begins uncovering her family’s secrets and fissures. her mother becomes involved in an ominous cult while her sister loses herself in a mysterious virtual reality headset. the surrounding town increasingly mirrors these uncanny happenings and soon, she is down a rabbit hole of perception, place, and reality.

STATE OF PARADISE addresses the malleability of perception and grief in a “post”-pandemic world. i typically avoid new pandemic books, but van den berg’s writing is anything but pandering. instead, her observations are strikingly original and profound. STATE OF PARADISE is brimming with sentience — the setting visceral, the implications unsettling, the past ghostly. somewhere among the floods, sinkholes, and wormholes, i was left gutted, but also with a new outlook on the buried grief of 2020 and beyond.

STATE OF PARADISE is about so much more than the pandemic. it is ghost story, family drama, and funhouse mirror. i don’t know how van den berg pulled this genre-defying story off, but i’m glad she did, because she captures contemporary existentialism like no other

5/5 ⭐️

Laura van den Berg can do no wrong!

She's quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. "State of Paradise" is a simple and yet stunning novel. I love her previous books and this one is no exception. I love how she weaves such off-the-wall topics (oddball scenarios/characters) with serious topics like depression and suicidal ideation. I loved how we don't even know anyone's name throughout this novel, not even the protagonist. This book also felt like non-fiction. I also liked how dark and absurd it was. One-minute you're laughing, and the next you're moved by so many different emotions. This book is hard to explain but I will tell you one thing: its brilliant and unforgettable. Laura van den Berg makes the mundane things in life feel extraordinary.

Thank you, Netgalley and FSG for the digital ARC.

Laura van den Berg is a chronicler of the strange corners of our world, the possibilities of ghostly liminal spaces and feelings and experiences that could be lurking just around the corner from the universe we all inhabit. STATE OF PARADISE is a thrillingly odd book, readable in a sitting or two but worth pondering for weeks after. It takes place in a pandemic-struck Florida that looks not unlike our own, featuring a willfully ignorant governor and natural disasters flooding the scene, but also a VisionPro-esque VR headset that threatens the stability of the narrator's reality. It's a great, great look at reality and perception, at storytelling and the omnipresence of ghosts. I loved it, as did the other members of my household who all read it in the space of a long weekend!

State of Paradise starts off in a familiar place in the recent past; a ghostwriter and her husband move to her childhood home in Florida during the early days of the pandemic. This quickly evolves into something much more surreal and wonderful in this fantastically weird novel that I couldn’t put down and was lucky enough to read in the Miami sun.

I would be hesitant to describe the plot, even if I could, because it was such an enthralling experience to see how this story unfolds. There’s the mysterious author the main character writes for, a sister that’s increasingly escaping into a virtual world to outrun her grief, bodies changing in strange ways after infection, and this is all set during an epic deluge that might wash away an entire state.

Can’t recommend this one enough and honestly can’t wait to read it again. Somehow this was also the first book I have read by van den Berg and I look forward to diving into her back catalogue as soon as possible. Many thanks to Farrar, Straus and Giroux and NetGalley for providing the ARC in exchange for my honest review.