This one is a little outside of my preferred reading genres, but felt like a timely read right now despite being set in the Dust Bowl era. Well written and I loved the Prairie Witch angle. Thanks to Netgalley for the free advanced copy in exchange for an honest review, book publishes March 11. I also won this in a giveaway so I read the paperback version instead of the digital then passed it on to a Little Free Library

"It was a great collapse of memory that paved the way for our collapse."
"whose eviction is a tragedy, an emergency?...whose lost land tugs at America's heartstrings?"

spellbinding, incredible storytelling! Karen Russell is a master of the game. When randomly coming upon an interview that she did regarding her previous book, Swamplandia!, she described this Dust Bowl narrative being her next project. That was thirteen years ago! You can tell this work has been harnessed over time and carefully crafted. There's heavy research and dedication to the Native Nations and their history of ethnocide & genocide.
this novel somewhat reminded me of Lapvona in the way of a desolate, historical landscape being interspersed with witchcraft and magic. Inhabiting minds of different characters throughout the timeline. An antagonist realming over the throne. It's not as outrageous or satirical but it had that shapeshifting effect with world building. Haven't felt this enchanted with a book in awhile🔐

“The Anitdote” is a towering triumph!! A stunning, lyrical, devastating mediation on memory; the memories we lose, the memories we forget, the memories revealed to us in our lives and the lies we tell ourselves to erase the sins and traumas of the past from our minds and hearts, but also how remembering can help us forget a better future. From the first page you know you’re in for something special. The prose is lush and purposeful. I found myself highlighting line after line. The setup is captivating, a prairie witch who is a vault for the memories people of her town choose to deposit suddenly loses all the deposits after a dust storm. A young girl wrestles with the loss of her mother and finding herself while her uncle tries to find his way through the dust bowl and discovers a miracle is happening on his land. All the while photographer is sent to the Midwest to capture photos of the struggling folk there and she discovers her camera is showing more than she bargained for. And so much more. There’s layer upon layer here. It is a work of art. A novel that I will be thinking about for a long time to come and one of the best books I’ve ever read. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC!

Karen Russell’s The Antidote is an extraordinary novel—bold, urgent, and profoundly resonant. Set in the fictional town of Uz, Nebraska, during the Dust Bowl, it blends historical fiction with the otherworldly, a signature of Russell’s work. This is a novel about memory—its absence, its weight, and its power to shape both individuals and communities.

At its heart is the Prairie Witch, known as the Vault, who absorbs the town’s most painful memories, leaving its residents as amnesiacs with hollowed-out pasts. Alongside her is a Polish wheat farmer whose land remains mysteriously untouched by the storms, his orphaned niece—a basketball prodigy and the Witch’s apprentice—a sentient scarecrow, and a New Deal photographer whose camera reveals both hidden truths and possible futures.

The novel excavates the town’s dark history—a murdered woman, a corrupt sheriff, the brutal treatment of the Sioux, and a home for unwed mothers steeped in cruelty. Yet, amidst these haunting legacies, The Antidote is ultimately a hopeful novel, one that asks whether we can choose a better future if we confront the past. Russell’s prose is both luminous and unsettling, her vision uncompromising yet deeply humane. This is a novel that lingers, demands reckoning, and deserves a place among the most vital books of the year.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced reader copy.

Wow, historical fiction is typically not my forte, but this was an extraordinary blend with magical realism that delivered a powerful story about memory, loss, and social justice. Russell’s writing is lyrical and poignant, capturing the harsh realities of life during the Depression while also weaving in elements of magic and the supernatural. I particularly loved the time-traveling camera and the mystical perspective of the prairie/buffalo.

This story was thought-provoking, emotionally resonant, and brilliantly executed. It definitely (rightly) had heavy themes of Native genocide, historical amnesia, and social injustice, but not to the exclusion of a hopeful vision of what could be if we acknowledge our past and the lessons it has to offer.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book, releasing March 11th!

I really enjoyed this one! I had loved Swamplandia when I read it originally, but on re-read a couple of years ago it just felt too dark and bleak, a series of bad things happening to the characters with no real moral resolution. Pleased to report this one, while it certainly has dark elements, didn't feel that way at all. I think this book had really powerful things to say about memory and who writes history and whose narratives are the ones that get told-it felt very relevant in the current political climate here in the U.S. All of our main characters/narrators were fleshed out, multi-dimensional, and likable and the magical realism blended well with the setting (I'm assuming based on some specific characteristics that this is meant to be a Wizard of Oz allusion but I'll be honest, I didn't really get it lol. Probably just a me problem). Don't skip the afterword content-there's a great supporting short essay and lots of references and research that went into this one. Between the content/topics addressed and Russell's excellent writing, I wouldn't be surprised to see this one on awards lists for this upcoming year. Recommended!

The Antidote is a Great American Novel and my kind of historical fiction. Beautifully written, weird, and deeply moving. The Antidote is bookended by two very real weather disasters in Nebraska - the 1935 dust storm referred to as “Black Sunday” and the flooding of the Republican River after 24 inches of rain in 24 hours soon after. We have a cast of incredible characters: a Prairie Witch who can absorb and store her customer’s memories forever or until they want them back, an uncle and niece grieving in different ways, a photographer whose camera can capture things not yet there and reveal past truths, and a scarecrow with very human thoughts. That won’t be everyone, but I loved it.

That strange cast of characters made this book hard for me to put down. Every point of view was interesting and had something to say. Memory is at play in every section, and as a whole, Karen Russell is critiquing the amnesia that falls over those history deems the “good guys” and she does this in some many singular and profound ways. One of my favorite booksellers turned away from this one because of the animal cruelty, and yes, it’s there and it’s hard, and it also serves a purpose.

This book left me filled with hope and full body chills. It’s unlike anything I’ve read and I absolutely loved it. I’ll never think about memory the same. Thank you @aaknopf for the chance to read this ahead of its March 11th publication.

This was tough to read, starting out with the animal harm right from the start. While I appreciate reading about this point in history, this was a book that just wasn't for me.
Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for access to this eARC.

One of the best authors of our time! This is a riveting book that is well researched and beautifully written. This moved me and it will be a book that I will be sharing with many people this year!

Spanish philosopher George Santayana is credited with saying, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." This belief may be the central theme of Karen Russell's The Antidote. Another related theme is purposefully forgetting or depositing one's memories in a vault so that life can proceed without dealing with or learning from historical events.

The Antidote is set in a fictional Nebraska town called Uz while FDR was president in 1935. The main story takes place roughly between two disasters that struck the people of this region: Black Sunday, one of the most catastrophic dusters during the Dust Bowl, and the Republican River Flood. Uz is an allusion to Oz, the magical land that does not quite deliver its promises. In The Antidote, a group of Polish immigrants received large tracts of land to farm and seek the American dream. Although they had been forced from their homeland because of oppression, few honored the Native Americans they had oppressed to obtain their land.

Karen Russell's novel includes multiple characters' viewpoints, one of which is Antonina Rossi, who, before Black Sunday, had been the vault to the townspeople, allowing them to deposit their memories and withdraw them if they wanted. She was known in Uz as the Prairie Witch and the Antidote. She lost her superpowers on Black Sunday and was soon to be exposed for the fraud she was. The Antidote addresses her narration to her son, who was taken from her at birth at a cruel, abusive home for unwed mothers. She is the quintessential, disparaged outsider "woman" who is a mother. Although the reader knows about her motherhood from the book's early chapters, she does not reveal it to the other storytellers until later in the novel. There are multiple nuanced messages for modern readers in the descriptors and actions of the Antidote.

Another storyteller whose viewpoint is essential to the overall story is Asphodel (Dell) Oletsky, named after a flower, and living with her Uncle Harp Oletsky in Uz after her mother was brutally murdered. Dell is a rising basketball star on a local team that becomes known as The Dangers after Black Sunday. Dell and her uncle, another storyteller, have differences in lifestyle and personality, but both have a love for the murdered mother, Harp's sister. Both also struggle with good and evil. When the Oletsky wheat farm is the only one spared after the infamous Black Sunday dusting, we realize how magical realism and supernatural intervention play a role in the development of the plot.

The government sent New Deal Black photographer Cleo Allfrey to document the Dust Bowl in Nebraska. Cleo's descriptions of the people and land differ from those of the primarily white townspeople, and her narration contributes to the themes of what is real and what is counterfeit. Cleo's Graflex camera has the magical ability to show past and present. With her unusual camera and her outsider status, she is instrumental in exposing the inaccuracies believed and perpetuated by local town leaders since the Polish settlers took the land from the Natives. Of course, her presence in this novel highlights the injustices of the United States government that continue today. Uz is but a microcosm of the country where the people ignore the value of the Natives, persecute non-Europeans, and continually repeat the mistakes of the past.

Other narrators include a scarecrow and a cat. They further the analogy to the fable of the Wizard of Oz and figure prominently as the story progresses. While The Wizard of Oz provided commentary on political, economic, and social events of America in the late 1800s, The Antidote is a modern parable that uses the atrocities of Manifest Destiny and the Dust Bowl as its basis but is clearly speaking about modern times. It is a cautionary tale about how Americans cannot choose to erase the ugly memories. Government officials throughout the history of the United States have used rhetoric and euphemisms to deny and rationalize the treatment of the disenfranchised. In 2025, when this novel is published, our country continues to face far-reaching consequences of questionable actions over the past years.

This book had me at "prairie witch" This was my first Karen Russell. I love a literary fiction/historical fiction read. This book was extremely thought provoking without spoon feeding it to the reader. I thought this was a really creative way to address "settler amnesia" and to serve as a warning for the climate change that is currently happening and the climate change to come. I also think westerns as a genre could have their moment this year and in coming years.

Wow!
I’m not someone who ever does this but literally the first page made me queasy and honestly unable to read further about the rabbits being murdered so brutally. I don’t do well with animal death and least of all told in such a graphic nature. Nope! Can’t get past it. Sorry

The Antidote is a work of historical fiction interwoven with magical realism that covers a period in 1935 in Nebraska, between two remarkable weather events, the Black Sunday dust storm and a subsequent torrential downpour that flooded the area. The story is told primarily from four different perspectives in alternating chapters.

I loved Russell's Swamplandia!, and this book, at its best moments, shines with her beautiful prose. These moments mostly derive from her beautiful descriptions of nature as a force. Readers can truly picture living in Uz, Nebraska and suffering under the challenging conditions.

Unfortunately, on the flip side, all four storytellers really speak in the same voice. Each chapter has a name in the heading, so it's not really an issue from the standpoint of following the plot, but the characters don't really come fully to life.

On the flip side, the touches of magical realism (something I normally don't love) were very creative and definitely were the most interesting part of the storytelling. Prairie witches take on confessions that wipe the confessor's memory clean. Scarecrows have thoughts. Cats seek retribution. A camera takes photos of the past and the future. So creative and definitely each element contributed to the plot and was not a simple aside.

The story has a very strong social justice orientation. It's not subtle. Covering the environment, colonialism, the stealing of Indian lands, the foibles of the legal system, and the mistreatment of unwed mothers all in one tale makes for a heaviness that really wasn't alleviated in any way by the editing.

The ending is dramatic, and in some respects very touching. But it's a long slow trek to get there.

I do see that this is a book that might win some prizes. So if you are a literary fiction reader who likes to be up on prize winning fiction, you may want to get to it.

In Karen Russell's imagined Dust Bowl-era Nebraska, prairie witches serve as "vaults" for people's memories - a type of confession, but one in which the memories are stored out of the individual's mind until they care to retrieve them. An incredible dust storm rises, and one vault goes bust, empty of all stored memories. Russell has a way of spinning characters that are complex, likeable, and realistic, even when they are magically so. The interactions between characters are wonderful. Suspense is high as we learn more about the death of one main character's mother and other women in the area. There's a lot going on in this novel, but Russell keeps track of the thread holding it all together.

This novel blended together several historical elements in a fresh way, infusing them with a touch of magical realism that kept the overall story from feeling too heavy.
While I did enjoy this blending and the characters included in the story, the last twenty percent began to feel repetitive, as characters were telling other characters things that had already been revealed to the reader.
Overall, a solid historical fiction.

An excellent mix of historical fiction, climate change fiction, and magical realism. No one write an immersive novel as good as Karen Russell and I will be thinking about this for a long time.

My library book club will be reading this book in August.

The Antidote is beautifully written--one of those books where I had to force myself to stop highlighting because there was more highlights than not. It is told from a multitude of perspectives--not all of them human. Or even animate.

The story takes place in rural Nebraska during the time of the dust bowls in depression-era America. Although the opening feels like a upernatural horror movie, it turns out that it is based on an actual event: "Black Sunday" when a dust storm destroyed houses and farms, killing people and animals. The feeling conveyed is of a claustrophobic terror--I could feel the dust and the fear. As the dust storms settle, we meet the inhabitants of the (fictional) town of Uz.

One of our narrators is Asphodel (Del), a 14 year old who has come to live with her uncle after her mother was murdered. She is the captain of her school basketball team and her fierce determination to win translates into an equally fierce determination to survive. The Antidote is a witch--and here the book enters the supernatural realm, where it will continuously wander around the edges and sometimes straight into the heart of.

Then we have Cleo Alfrey, an African-American photographer who has come out to the farming community as part of a New Deal grant. Her dream of achieving artistic and commercial success, But her artistic vision goes beyond what the people who sent her want, and her subjects seem to be making demands on her.

I often forgot about the supernatural elements in the story since I was so caught up in the emotional lives of the characters. But they are unavoidable--beginning with the witch who takes "deposits" from troubled people--who pour their memories into her until they feel able to make a "withdrawal" and deal with them.

The writing moves seamlessly through lyrical writing, emotional revelations, and an intensely suspenseful ending. I was surprised to find myself unexpectedly moved to tears several times and to fear at others.

The primary theme of the book is memory--as symbolized in the witch's holding of unwanted memories, we see how an entire civilization is struggling with the same issues. How it chooses to forget the trauma it has inflicted on others--the people living on the land that were dispossessed and often slaughtered when the "settlers" arrived. This "political" issue is enacted not through preaching but in the best possible writing of individuals struggling with their own memories and pasts and dawning realizations of what they have done, often without allowing themselves conscious awareness of their actions.

A wonderful, thought-provoking work that also is emotionally satisfying and evocative.

The Antidote will be published March 11 2025 by Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor | Knopf. I thank the publisher, NetGalley and the author for providing me with a copy of this ebook.

This story was an interesting story from an author I don’t know or haven’t read before! Will look at finding other things by this author. I am grateful for the early access, thank you to those that allowed it!

mean, it's Karen Russell; of course, it will be a 5-star read.

Set in the fictional Nebraska town of Uz, "The Antidote" is a Dust Bowl story. It's also a story about memory, human nature, racism, bodily autonomy, and the criminal justice system. With three MAIN narrators (and a few others interspersed throughout), we follow a Polish farmer who has the only viable wheat crop, his orphan's niece who is a basketball player and maybe something else, and The Prairie Witch, a vault of secrets.

With Karen Russell, a bit of magical realism is included. This tale includes a sentient scarecrow and a photographer with a camera that might be from The Twilight Zone. Ultimately, this is a story about memories. Those from the past, those that we don't ever want to forget and the ones we do, and the hopes of memories of the future.

The Antidote is just a beautifully written story.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.

One of the worst storms of the Dust Bowl swept across an immense part of the United States on April 14, 1935. The storm moved an estimated 300 million tons of topsoil in a matter of hours. Karen Russell’s strange, affecting, new novel, The Antidote opens with the Black Sunday Storm. Storms feature heavily in this book. They scour away the past. They wash the present away, too. The storms leave so little behind that the only way to go on is to rebuild everything from the ground up.

The dust of Black Sunday in the opening chapter clears to reveal our primary trio of narrators: an angry teenager, a dour farmer, and a miserable prairie witch. We also hear from the most mysterious character, a scarecrow who doesn’t know who he is or why he’s a scarecrow in a wheat field. Another narrator—a photographer hired by the federal government to document the Dust Bowl—emerges a little later. The first character we meet is the Antidote herself, a prairie witch with the ability to take away people’s memories and magically store them for later retrieval. The witch, or Vault as she sometimes calls herself, never knows what people deposit with her. She’s in a trance the whole time. Thanks to the Antidote, the people of Uz, Nebraska, can forget whatever they don’t care to carry around in their brains. Unfortunately for the Antidote, the local sheriff has learned to use her to his advantage. Meanwhile, teenaged Asphodel and her melancholy uncle, Harp Oletsky, are learning to live together at the family farm. Dell had to come live with her uncle after her mother’s murder and now spends most of her time fiercely playing basketball with Uz’s girls’ team. Later, Cleo Allfrey arrives in Uz to take pictures, only to stumble upon something strange going on with the land in and around Uz.

There is a lot going on in The Antidote—some of it very tragic—but themes start to emerge across the chapters. After Black Sunday, Harp finds himself on an inexplicable lucky streak. He’s only farmer who is able to get a crop to grow in his fields and is very surprised to find himself suddenly elected as the head of the local grange. All of this is so baffling that he spends a lot of his time, out in his wheat field, trying to figure out how he came to be here, in this place. Scratching at his memories dredges up long-forgotten memories about the Pawnee who used to call this land home, until American settlers pushed them further and further away. At the same time, the Antidote discovers that the Black Sunday storm has somehow erased all of the memories she’s held in trust for so long. She has to fake her magic with the assistance of Dell, who badgers the older woman into taking her on as an apprentice in order to make money to support her basketball team. Being around Dell has the Antidote looking back to her own past, at the abuse and pain that turned her into a Vault. All of these characters, including Cleo, are forced to contemplate the way we forget or rewrite our histories. We like to think of the past as fixed but it’s a lot more volatile than we realize.

So much happens in The Antidote that I am barely scratching the surface here. In fact, I wish that I had read the book more slowly than I did, so that I could sit and spend more time ruminating on the characters’ memories and revelations. I was so hooked by all of the plots going on that I couldn’t stop reading. I had to know if the Antidote would ever be able to expose the monstrous sheriff and if Dell was going to win her season and if Cleo would be able to take a picture that truly captured what life was like out on the dusty, impoverished heartland of Nebraska. Most of all, I had to know what was going on with the scarecrow. I feel like The Antidote is going to become one of those books that I keep returning to, that I can reread many times and always find something new to think about. This book is truly extraordinary.