I’m having a difficult time pinning down a rating for this book. On the one hand, I absolutely loved the first third of this book but once a certain ✨pivotal scene✨ occurred I felt myself liking the book less and less. It seemed to drag quite a bit.

I just don’t know if I maybe had different expectations for what the plot of this book was or the genre it was supposed to be. I am actually still a little confused by this being marketed as ‘fantasy’ and ‘horror’ because I feel like it was neither of those things? I guess the twist was what made it eligible to be classified as ‘horror’ but even that felt a little ridiculous.

Overall, I did enjoy the writing and the storytelling. I also loved Vern so much and felt like she was one of the realest and most raw characters I’ve read a perspective from in a while. But, I just couldn’t get behind the story as a whole.

Fierce and fantastical, 'Sorrowland' had me gripped from the very first page. Masterfully constructed.

Ok, so I often keep track of what I consider “best”, first lines in book, lines that catch my interest and hook their way into my imagination. This book has something less settled than that. My interest and imagination were caught for sure, but wrapped up in a coating of intense discomfort: “The child gushed out from twixt Vern’s legs ragged and smelling of salt.”

Gushed. Definitely a bad vibes word.

It sets the tone well. This is a “bad vibes” sort of book—and I mean that affectionately. It is purposefully upsetting and distasteful at turns and that is exactly what it needed to be. Not for the faint of heart, for sure!

2.3

DNF @ 40%

It pains me so much that I did not like this book. I tried MANY times, in all formats, Arc, Audio, hardcover. All of them. Because if there is something I love is unique books. And this book promised to be so unique. And it was, but I did not like it. The plot moved way too slow and the story was very confusing most of the time and felt disjunctive.

This has got to be one of the craziest books I have ever read. At no point during this journey did I have a single clue what to expect next. What started off seeming like a cult horror escape story quickly went off the fungi sci fi deep end with all sorts of self discovery, sexual awakening and questionable parenting in between. I never really liked the main character Vern (I think that was sort of the point), but I was highly invested in seeing how her story panned out. River Solomon’s writing is beautiful, but ultimately I think there were just too many ideas and themes crammed into one book here. It was chaotic and bizarre but not unenjoyable.

I’ve loved everything I’ve read by Solomon so I was thrilled to see a new title! While still a fascinating and engaging read, this is not going to be one of my favorites by them.

We start right with the action, with a young pregnant woman named Vern escaping. There’s no gentle easing into the story here. And there’s a lot to this story, like the seductive power of cultism, the US’s long history of racism, and human experimentation. We get drips of backstory as needed, no info dumping, so it is easy to get a little lost sometimes.

One of the things that I appreciated the most is that all of the characters were human and flawed. So many women were portrayed in this story, all with unique drives and ambitions and characters.

I’m not exactly sure how I feel about the ending, and discussing it too much would spoil it, so I’ll just say it left me feeling unsatisfied.

Really interesting takes with this novel. I wasn't sure exactly what to expect but it ended up being a page turner I couldn't put down.

Looking forward to more books by the author!

This was my first Rivers Solomon and I hate to say it but I was definitely disappointed. I went into this pretty cold and wasn't really expecting the extreme fantastical elements -- which I'll admit is on me. It's definitely a book that some people will love, but it was a little too out there for me. I had difficulty following some things and just didn't get along with the writing in general. I did appreciate how queer this was, though, as well as the messages Solomon was conveying. I have a copy of The Deep which I'll definitely also be trying out.

Sorrowland is a haunting and intricate narrative that tells a powerful story of change and resilience.
The story centers on Vern, a young woman who escapes the cult she was born into. She runs to seek a better life not just for herself; but for her babies. As Vern continues her journey, she becomes more and more powerful. Both mentally and physically. These strange and terrifying changes are the key to completely breaking free of her old life and ushering in a potential new age.

I do not know why I even requested this book. I am not in the least bit interested in it at all. Sorry, but tha KS for the early access though!

This is an intense, dark, difficult, and fascinating book. It contains many things — beautiful, lyrical writing, unique and intriguing characters, commentary on gender roles and race, a mysterious background that involves a religious cult, and more! — but it felt like too chaotic and messy. There is too much to cover and ends up overwhelming the reader. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Vern is just 15 and heavily pregnant with twins when she escapes the commune of Cainland where she’s been raised. Despite her age and inexperience in the world, she manages to carve out a life for herself and her children deep in the woods for roughly three years. Yet Vern’s body continues to change more than she could have ever expected (or could be considered natural) and suddenly she must leave the wilderness to protect her family from those that hunt her.

This novel contains many things — beautiful, lyrical writing, unique and intriguing characters, commentary on gender roles and race, a mysterious background that involves a religious cult, explorations of involuntary experimental testing on humans and its predecessors in American history, survival in the wilderness, and growing up in unthinkable yet completely believable and relatable circumstances — but it felt like too chaotic and messy, too much trying to be covered at once. Instead of any kind of panoramic overview or examination of what’s happening, we focus mainly on a protagonist who doesn’t seem interested in doing anything other than survive. There’s not much driving the story forward in the way of plot, so if you’re looking for an action packed sci-fi, this isn’t it (the blurb made me think this was going to be a story of vengeance by a woman with special powers). This is instead a character driven story centered around a pretty unlikable main character (though I did really like the character of Gogo, who comes in later). I’d describe this as gothic literary fiction with a sci-fi twist that’s mainly focused on Vern’s coming of age, her development and acceptance of who she is, with some wild magical realist moments sprinkled throughout.

Speaking of magical realism, I don’t have a lot of experience reading it so I’m still unsure of how I feel about it and will keep trying different voices and examples. However, at one point (page 300), I pretty much mentally checked out and just powered through the rest of the book in order to give a review for NetGalley. Nothing made much sense (what’s real, what’s a hallucination, and what are the rules for how one can interact with the other) and I was sick of being left in the dark, stuck in Vern’s head, and wanted to learn more about what was actually going on and why. I enjoyed the writing but the pacing and unfolding of the plot just didn’t keep me engaged in the latter half of the book. It felt like too many genres being packed into one story with not enough editing for it to hit with full impact.

Such a great book! I enjoyed reading this one so much! I highly recommend this book. Side note: the cover!!!!

An intense book that is hard to pin down. This book speaks to history's tragedies and anger that has built up over time. I have never read anything quite like this before.

Dark Intense and Disturbing. I found this book difficult to read it covers difficult and complex themes, on the whole I am glad I read it but not so sure I would recommend it to others.

Confusing and fascinating. It took such a long time for me to understand what was happening in this book. I"m sure that was the intent - so well done. It didn't mean I didn't enjoy it, but it didn't quite feel like I got all the value throughout the book and had to wait until pretty much the end for dessert.

This is maybe one of the weirdest books I've ever read, and not in a good way the entire time. I'm giving this 3.5 stars, but rounding down, because I think people should be more aware of how this story ended up working before deciding to dive in.

SORROWLAND is another book with a promising premise in that it's unique, interesting, and makes you think you're picking up one book when in fact, it's another personal journey book more dependent on character building that plot events. The author does that well, it's just another bait and switch for me this year. When the plot was focused on (and like, weird culty racism is really engaging story idea, so I was very hopeful for this), it didn't always make sense and was kind of hard to follow. There is also a very odd undead group sex scene that I was not prepared for, tossed in for extra flavor.

Overall, it had good potential and little follow through.

The book was hard to get into at first. The reader is dumped into the story en medias res. Vern has just run away from the cult Cainland to the woods. It is there that she gives birth to twin boys: Feral and Howling. She is somehow able to care for the baby boys in the woods through toddlerhood, which seems improbable, but we later find out that Vern has been infected by some kind of super fungus during her time with the cult. The fungus gives her superhuman strength and abilities. Is it just me, or is fungus having a real moment? This is the fourth book in recent years that I've read that has some kind of fungus in the narrative (Mexican Gothic, Firekeeper's Daughter, etc.). The book did pick up past the beginning. At times the narrative felt disjointed, but not enough to stop me from reading to the end.

This was a fantastic and dark / gritty novel. It was unlike anything I had expected from the synopsis. The writing style was so raw and beautiful, and touched on some incredible heart wrenching and poignant issues. The main characters were well thought out, and the growth and development throughout the book was beautiful to witness. I would definitely recommend this one for other readers.

Vern is a 15-year-old traumatised and abused albino black girl, 7 months pregnant who flees the Cainland cult for the woods, however, the community have no intention of letting her go. Hunted, the haunted Vern gives birth to twins, Feral and Howling. Hell-bent on surviving the challenging environment of the wild woods, but burdened by her past and distrust of others, Vern slowly begins to forge connections with others, a highlight of which is her relationship with Native American Gogo and Bridget.

This is an atmospheric, imaginative book with beautiful storytelling that takes in identity, gender, race, sexuality, misogyny, religion, mental health issues amongst many other themes. There are twists and turns and revelations which makes this is a compelling story.

At times a disturbing read this book is so much more. It is profound and moving, and ultimately it's a beautifully written book