A very consuming read, I really enjoyed the flow of this book and the narrator. This book is some really relatable themes like academic drama, career chaos, family drama, and discrimination. Loved the suspense throughout and the way it shows how communication or lack thereof can affect things. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Review will be posted on Instagram and Amazon on pub day and links added to NetGalley.

Although nothing could top the genius of The Doloriad, The Vivisectors held its own as a striking new title.

Bleak, philosophical, and nihilistic — for a book focusing on the meaninglessness of life, it also seeds so much meaning beneath its grim surface.

On the surface, we follow a woman who works for a lazy professor at a university.

The city is an unnamed, deteriorating town in a place we can’t quite pinpoint. The woman acts as a blank slate to the world around her — her motivations murky, her morality ambiguous, her actions random and often cruel.

Similar to The Doloriad, this is a book you experience. Although the prose was easier to grasp with a more “conventional” or conversational flow, by the end, there is a similar sense of dread, a loosening grasp on reality and perception, and a bleak gaze towards the future.

Williams is a master of nihilistic parable and allegory. I love how her writing takes on a sense of breaking the wall between reader and writer — these asides with the gardeners and students acting out theatrical tragedy and comedy, it feels like watching a play unfold, and the text is winking at you. Sometimes dense to get though, but always, ALWAYS worth it. Her books leave me thinking for days, and endlessly rereading and reexamining the rich and expansive symbolism.

Not for everyone, but for those that love dark, philosophical explorations and challenging themes, this is a 5 star read. Williams does it like no other!