Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon

Blurb

SORROWLAND
Vern – seven months pregnant and desperate to escape the strict religious compound where she was raised – flees for the shelter of the woods. There, she gives birth to twins, and plans to raise them far from the influence of the outside world.

But even in the forest, Vern is a hunted woman. Forced to fight back against the community that refuses to let her go, she unleashes incredible brutality far beyond what a person should be capable of, her body wracked by inexplicable and uncanny changes.

To understand her metamorphosis and to protect her small family, Vern has to face the past, and more troublingly, the future – outside the woods. Finding the truth will mean uncovering the secrets of the compound she fled but also the violent history in America that produced it.

(CW: body horror, domestic abuse, sexual abuse, blood, death, child torture)

My thoughts

Sorrowland left me feeling numb and bittersweet. It’s a book of horrors of all kinds — from the stereotypical seeing dead people to body horror. To the horrors of domestic abuse, sexual abuse. And even the horrors of what the USA has done experimenting on Black individuals. Truly, Sorrowland is an apt title.

This is not a comforting book. It doesn’t hold your hand because it doesn’t have time for niceties. In truth, this book rips you from where you are and screams in your face for you to stop and pay attention. It yells out in pain that it knows you can’t do anything about. The pain of the people in Cainland, which might be a cult but who knows for sure? Furthermore, it deals with the pain of Vern as she struggles with all she’s become: mother, demigod, lover? This book is angry and hurt. And it wants you to listen.

There’s a large cast of characters, but only a few that are major key players. Vern considers herself somewhere between a woman and a man. She begins the novel almost doing things by rote, out of necessity to just survive in the woods. But over the course of the book, she develops as a person and becomes more sure of herself. More sure of what she wants and who she wants. She is a fierce mother, but will protect her children Howling and Feral with intense force. Gogo is a winkte (a Lakota term sometimes referred to as “two-spirit person”), and she does her best to help Vern in all her needs — even both their needs for love with each other. And then there’s Cainland. While not literally a character, the compound feels like a living presence in its own right.

We’re given glimpses of Blessed Acres (Cainland) through various flashbacks. It was almost like the book was reminding the reader that suffering happens wherever you are. But good memories can also happen wherever you are. The flashbacks are countered with a few regular small time skips that help keep the novel moving forward.

In conclusion

Sorrowland is intense and raw. But in the end it was beautiful in a bittersweet way. It’s not for the faint of heart or those looking for comfort or happiness. In the end, though, this book should be read. It was truly spectacular.