Real Rating: 4.75* of five, rounded up because the author's A Major Talent

↡↡↡ HEED. THE. CONTENT. WARNINGS. BELOW. ↡↡↡

There are almost no good people in this world, and Vern meets the worst of them. What makes this a deeply satisfying read is that teenaged Vern, in their unbelievable indomitable drive to thrive not just survive, manages to do exactly that. Overcoming all-too-real obstacles? Check. Guiding new lives through a terrible world, explaining how to be better? Check. Vern raising their children is the single brightest take-away I have from this unhappy story.
Loving, worshipping, and bowing down to folks who harmed you was written into the genes of all animal creatures. To be alive meant to lust after connection, and better to have one with the enemy than with no one at all. A baby's fingers and mouth grasp on instinct.

If I were to seek my mental filing system's catalog for closest comparables, I'd have to go with Toni Morrison's deathless <I>Beloved</i> admixed with Octavia E. Butler's more trenchant <I>Kindred</i>, as written for Quentin Tarantino to film. Yes...violence and menace are imbued in every scene. No, it isn't a splatterfest. Yes, every single thing that happens evokes an emotional response. No, there are no "answers" or fancy nostrums to help us deal with the underlying hate, like the lava in a volcano, erupting for as long as it erupts.
Going against tended to end more rightly, more justly, than going with. People were wrong. Rules, most of the time, favored not what was right, but what was convenient or preferable to those in charge.

If you've read 2017's <I>An Unkindness of Ghosts</i> or 2019's <I>Blood is Another Word for Hunger</i>, you're ahead of me in this realization. If you haven't, read this book. You will not regret your introduction to the magical prose that Author Solomon uses being this story. I'm willing to bet you'll get on to their back catalog after finishing the read. If not, if this is just all too much for your sensibilities at the present, read their free online short work that's part of The Verge's "Better Worlds" project: <I>St. Juju</i>.

This writer is a Talent in a world that needs more of them.

CW: sexual assault, CW: violence

Fun to read a sci-fi fantasy with a queer protagonist. The plot of this involves a mysterious metamorphosis that our main character begins to go through upon fleeing, pregnant, from a colony of people. Usually I'm not one for sci-fi but this was able to maintain my attention. Entertaining mostly and I had a good time.

This was an ambitious, dark and harrowing read. Oppression, subjugation, abuse and the imposition of religion and ‘norms’. This is a compelling story of one family’s struggle to survive a horrifying world. This was not a comfortable read but it certainly was an important one, in a unique and distinctive voice.

In all honesty I almost DNF'd this book and I think it has largely to do with me and how I just didn't vibe with the characters, I've finally finished it and I can't say I disliked it. It was enjoyable but a tad slow for me. However, the worldbuilding was amazing. If there is something I absolutely enjoyed about this book is that sometimes it felt as if I was watching a movie.

What a fierce novel! Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon had be captivated since page one. Much like the cult Vern had escaped from. The writing style is poetic with just the right amount of rdge and darkness. Solomon weaves in important messages of inequality and intolerance. This is a good read!

This was Definitley an interesting tale. It is Definitley genre bending and does not fit into any box as far as traditional books go. This was another author I hope to read more from in the future,

This was my first Rivers Solomon book and it definitely won't be my last, however, I think this one is just a bit too bizarre for me personally. Their writing is honestly some of the best I've read this year, if not ever, but the plot became too convoluted for my personal taste.

3.5/5

"Vern would always prefer a difficult truth to an easy lie."

Vern, a 15-year-old girl, runs away while pregnant from a religious sect. Slowly, we will know her story and what it is haunting her in the forest.

"Loving, worshipping, and bowing to folks who harmed you was written into the genes of all animal creatures."

Let's first talk about the protagonist, Vern, who is a child who has been abused and who has not been protected by the adults who are supposed to. We get to know Vern in depth, with whom it is not difficult to empathize, and on the surface we meet her twins, Howling and Feral, whom she gives birth to in the woods. Pursued by the community from which she fled, she decides to keep moving forward in search of answers.

The atmosphere during the time she spends in the forest is very interesting, since Vern must be alert at every moment, and she transmits that feeling of unease to us throughout the pages. The descriptions are abundant, both in the atmosphere and in the progress of the story, so it is possible to imagine the entire environment in which the novel takes place. However, the pacing of the story seemed very slow to me in the first half of the book. In the second half, things happen all the time and it was difficult for me to detach myself from it, but the first part took me many days of reading. In fact I felt that I could not enjoy it as much, because I had lost some of the interest that I had initially.

How far does religious fanaticism go? This and many other topics are those that are addressed and questioned here, such as discrimination, corruption, etc. The plot of the story is very interesting, not only because of the topics that are covered, but the fantastic / sci-fi part had an interesting twist.

It is a book that was original to me because of what it states and how it does it, how in a fictional novel it addresses many real issues that concern us, and the world building that this story presents.

Uh, I don’t think I’m a fan of sci-fi because this wasn’t for me.

A lot of things happened in this story and I don’t feel attached to any of them but yet I kept pushing to finish this because I wanted to see how it would end.

Thank you for the advanced copy of this book! I will be posting my review on social media, to include Instagram, Amazon, Goodreads, and Instagram!

A well-written book that was just not for me. I should have known from the genre and synopsis, but I just couldn't get through the consistent darkness, violence, and repeated references to rape and abuse. Even the consensual sexual content was problematic (since it involved an adult and a minor), and it just made me too uncomfortable to continue.

I'm sure this book would be an excellent read for many people, but it's just not for me.

I don't even really know how to articulate my feelings about this book except to say that I really loved it. It was very different, full of oppression and injustices that are all too real but told in a fantastical way that had me engaged from the very first chapter all the way up to the very last sentence. The relationships and characters were so well-written. I'm still processing it and I think this book will stick with me for a very long time. I'm looking forward to reading some of Solomon's other works soon that have been on my tbr for too long.

Thank you NetGalley, Solomon, and publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon is one of the best books I have ever read. Following Verns journey on leaving the compound and raising the twins all the while trying to figure out what is going on with their body was so intriguing.
I want to reread straight away.

Did not get to this book in 2021.
My review is not a reflection of the work or the writing/plot itself, but rather speaks to other books that caught my attention more.
Hate I didn't manage to squeeze this one in, but there are so many books and only so much time.

I would look to Goodreads or other reviewers on Netgalley who read the title and will offer their unbiased opinion.

This... this review breaks my heart. I love Solomon and everything they produce and come up with. I keep putting it off because I truly want others to read this and love this story, even though I did not. So while this did not work for me - read it anyways. I'm just going to blame my brain for not loving this as much as I should.

I tried this book so many times but I can't make myself to get into it. so this will be a DNF for me. I still have Solomons other book,The Deep, on my shelves and look forward to try it out.

Sorrowland took a little time for me to process. Upon finishing it, I had to set it down and give myself time to reflect because the story was so complicated, so emotional, so heart-wrenching, and so beautiful at the same time. I love how Sorrowland explores parenthood; it examines the impact parenthood has on who we are and how it might clash with our own feelings/beliefs/dreams/desires/needs. I also enjoyed Sorrowland for the way it was written: a touch of magical realism, a sliver of our own reality, a whisper of our own history. It felt both familiar and alienating, lovely and sorrowful. Full of hope and despair. Sorrowland is the first book I've ever read by Rivers Solomon, but I doubt it will be the last.

When I read something from Rivers Solomon, I prepare myself first. I know I'm in for something is simultaneously heartbreakingly beautiful and painfully raw. Sorrowland is just that. Vern is a protagonist with rough edges and the scars make her who she is to her core. You love her and root for her even if, as the reader, you have a sense that she wouldn't care if you did. She's a force of nature, Vern; no one has anything to do with her power except her and there's something thrilling in that.

Howling, Feral, Gogo, Bridget, Lucy, every secondary character adds a layer to Vern and the story in unique ways. They show the world differently than she does and it creates a feeling of largeness in the plot that is perfectly set when the climax hits. I won't name the villain because that'd be a spoiler but BOY they are so unlikeable I'd get angry just seeing the name pop up on the page. To me, that's a good thing.

Solomon's prose is always something to behold. The Deep was similar to Sorrowland in how there would be these passages that were so pretty and lyrical that would quickly be splashed with something disturbing or violent. It imitates the truth of life in that way and while many authors try to do it Solomon is one of the few in my mind that does that juxtaposition with a perfect touch. I would absolutely recommend this book to any reader. At its deepest depth it's a human story and everyone can get something from that.

Note: I received a free electronic edition of this book via NetGalley in exchange for the honest review above. I would like to thank them, the publisher, and the author for the opportunity to do so.

I received an e-copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

What a poignant, beautifully written book. Solomon is definitely a writer to be reckoned with.

Sorrowland is a book I haven't full processed and it's been a few weeks since I finished. It is an epic, emotional, and raw book with a tinge of body horror, fantasy which will intrigue you, and a fascinating main character. One of my favorite elements has to be the way that Sorrowland examines parenthood and identity. Vern explores this line of where her own desires and dreams end once she becomes a mother. Where she continually has to decide between her own ambition and her children.

This line of identity becoming a mother was intriguing because I feel like I don't read about that much in adult fantasy. So I could talk forever about how much I appreciated Vern delving into this question of a future for herself as it relates also to her children. But Sorrowland is also an action packed story featuring identity, queerness, motherhood, and the medical experimentation of Black bodies. While these events provide this alternative history setting, the rhetoric and experiments felt just a shade away from our reality.