What drew me to the book is how weird the synopsis sounds! And this book is definitely weird, so in that aspect I wasn’t let down. I enjoyed the concept, and the voice of the author. The story seems strange while also being completely believable.

I did find the main character to be a little annoying, but just because I didn’t like her doesn’t mean I didn’t find her compelling! I still cared about the story and where it was heading even as I was rolling my eyes at Kim.

The pacing was slow for my liking at many points, which I felt was a distraction from the story.

I’m giving 3 stars to this because I think the story is unique and the authors voice is compelling. I would have liked to see a more consistent pacing.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

I picked up this book because of its very cool cover. It's a great design!

Kim is a reporter at a small newspaper who really loves her job. One day, while transcribing a community meeting (minor note: it is impossible to transcribe live text using a qwerty keyboard. Human hands just can't type as fast as humans can speak), Kim starts to feel intense pain in her fingertips. She takes a few days off to recover but "the disorder" as she calls it, persists.

At the same time, wildfires threaten the town Kim and her boyfriend live in and the human world seems to be slowly succumbing to natural disasters. Powerful people are using their their money to save themselves and manipulate the public. And, Kim's boyfriend is dreaming of an idyllic future on the land.

This book is weird! It's absurdist while at the same time being hyper-real. You could see all of the events described in this book actually happening (and the competition between Kim and the other reporter she works with, genuine lol). But (and this is a big but), the character of Kim is so annoying. She sees a doctor because of her pain but instead of telling him her actual symptoms she tells the doctor what she thinks he wants to hear, so he obviously cannot properly diagnose her. Kim struggles to communicate with everyone, which I found a bit frustrating.

I think this would be good for fans of Sayaka Murata and Maud Ventura.

This one was definitely unique, but I struggled to fully connect with it. The concept was creative and had some really sharp moments, but overall the tone felt uneven. It wasn’t always clear whether it wanted to be darkly funny, deeply unsettling, or satirical, which made it hard to get into the flow of the story.

There were some strong visuals and clever writing scattered throughout, but the characters felt a bit distant, and the plot didn’t quite stick the landing for me. I kept hoping it would all come together in a more satisfying way, but it left me feeling more confused than impacted.

That said, I can see how readers who enjoy offbeat, surreal narratives might find more to love here. It just didn’t fully work for me. 2.5/5 stars.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Extremities! is an upcoming novel from debut author Samantha Kimmey. In it, protagonist Kim is suddenly stricken with a mysterious disorder, causing pain in her hands. In her quest to remedy her disorder and determine its cause, she is forced to confront guilt, grief, and self-exploration. In its quest to explore several different themes in a cohesive and well-paced manner, The Extremities! fails to cement the emotional and political impact it aims to impart on the reader.

In The Extremities!, Kim is a reporter at a local paper in a coastal town, explicitly dealing with the impact of changing economic conditions and climate change. She is deeply committed to her job despite having ambivalent feelings about it. While working, she is afflicted with a pain in her hands that has no clear cause. As time goes on and the disorder does not improve, Kim begins to use increasingly unconventional methods to manage and remedy it. Throughout this process, she must explore her feelings around her deceased mother, her career, her relationship, and her life path moving forward.

The writing style with which The Extremities! is written positively contributes to the overall understanding of the protagonist, who otherwise struggles to understand herself. The novel is written in a direct and concise style, with each detail of an action or situation stated in many cases. Passages are expansive, often with a single word or phrase punctuating the protagonist’s actions or thoughts. A trademark is the use of “Anyway.” between passages when Kim has been describing a situation, and her feelings about it, at length. As a result of this writing style, readers are invited into Kim’s internal monologue and are able to gain a better understanding of her worldview and way of existing in the world. She aims for organization, but finds chaos in her life. She wants to be logical, but goes on rambling, emotional tangents that she must stop herself from continuing. Given the framing device of the novel as a document Kim writes about her experiences with the disorder, these choices also allow readers to have an understanding of what Kim is like as a writer, an element of herself that is core to her career and, by extension, herself. Since a central theme of The Extremities! is Kim’s understanding of herself and her goals, it is a strength of the novel that readers are able to learn more about Kim through the writing style and form their own conclusions about what sort of person she is.

The Extremities also has several creative standout lines, particularly when Kim describes her pain. For example, early in the novel, Kim indicates that the pain was like “...[if her] fingers were piano keys and someone inside [her] who was not [her] was trying to figure out how to play a melody with a harpoon.” In the same passage, she states [The pain] was like [her] fingers had been disassembled from the inside and something was attempting and failing to put [her] back together again, and merely touching my keyboard was proof that the wiring inside [her] was still all mixed up.” These descriptions of pain highlight the uniqueness and mystery of the disorder.
While The Extremities! Aims to tackle many themes, using Kim’s disorder as a vehicle to dissect them; this decision can make it challenging to understand how these themes relate to the story’s plot. In this way, the experience of reading the novel can be disorienting. Many themes are explored in sporadic ways that do not present much depth. Thus, it takes large portions of the story to understand how themes like environmentalism and trauma connect to the story’s plot after the themes are introduced. Other themes, like feminism and ambivalence in interpersonal relationships, are not clearly connected to the plot, even by the end of the book.

Ultimately, The Extremities! is well-written, with a structure that supports the story’s plot well. However, there is some lack of clarity around theme exploration.

This was a really well done book, I was invested in what was happening with the characters and their world. The plot was everything that I was looking for and enjoyed the element of this storyline. The characters were everything that I was looking for and enjoyed the overall concept of this. Samantha Kimmey was able to weave a strong story and characters and I enjoyed the overall feel of this.

Thank you NetGalley and University of Iowa press for the ARC!

I was drawn to read this book based on the description provided, like the main character, Kim- I have experienced unsuspecting pain that starts in my hands and goes down my arms that doctor appointments have not helped or diagnose. Therefore, I would say that this book seems very real to me. The various descriptions of pain that Kim experiences allowed me to feel a sort of kinship with her as if she was a real person because I have been in her shoes. The writing is strong (as I said, I love the descriptions) but I saw the story through due to the character development and experiences Kim is going through. I wanted to see where she ended up at, because the way she is written feels real.

This book was impressive and has a unique voice and concept. The amount of detail really blew me away.

Thank you to NetGalley and University of Iowa Press for the free ARC in exchange for my honest review.

The Extremities follows Kim, a reporter who suddenly has horrific pain in both of her hands that leaves her unable to type. Desperate to get back to typing for work, she tries a variety of treatments and reflects on events over her life. The writing was strong, and I really enjoyed Kimmey's various ways of describing pain-they were so relatable. The amount of research that must have gone into the various treatments Kim tries was impressive, and the concept was interesting. I felt the pacing was slow throughout the novel and that made it difficult for me to want to continue reading-I tend to prefer books that have more interactions between other characters or a quicker pacing.

This story was rather unique & interesting to me as I’ve never read anything like it before which is honestly a breath of fresh air.
We follow a young newspaper reporter named Kim who is struck with a mysterious pain in her hands that renders her unable to type she attempts treatment which fails and medical professionals are unable to diagnose her.

‘I was fearful of disturbing it, like the disorder was some animal that would go berserk if it realised it was confined in the cage of my body.’

I found the flashbacks between Kim and her mother rather interesting. Her mother also dealt with her own medical issues that had no solution. It’s like Kim was seeing herself in her mother.

I fell in love with the writing style straight from the beginning but felt that some parts of the plot dragged.

Thank you University Of Lowa Press & NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I am always interested in books that touch on chronic pain, especially women’s chronic pain, and I think “The Extremities!” had some very interesting points to make about the ways people cope with unexplainable health conditions and the lengths they will go to accommodate that pain in their lives when they find no answers. The most interesting element of this story for me was the parallel between the main character, Kim, and her mother, who had also suffered with medical issues for which there were no solutions. Kim addresses her relationship with her mother as one possible avenue for finding relief from her pain, and these scenes were some of the most engaging in the novel, for me.

I will admit I was not really a fan of the main plot of this book, which I felt I could see coming from miles away. I was hoping I would enjoy the novel more, seeing as the plot brings together environmental issues, chronic pain, and mother-daughter relationships. The big reveal, though, kind of made the story fall flat for me, personally. I did enjoy the main character and the structure of the novel. And I definitely thought the writing was strong and many of the characters were well-developed.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.