This book was full of emotion, a different view of the Wild West, and camels! Obrecht’s writing is almost poetic - descriptive and bold. This was absolutely a page turner.

I felt very disconnected from this book for most of it. Inland is told from two characters perspectives through their own stories. At the end, the stories came together but I was left with questions! I almost wished the stories tied together sooner and then I could read on for a bit longer. The characters were interesting but I can pinpoint what was so unsettling for me. I guess I just feel very confused about the story as a whole. As far as the writing goes, it was well crafted and very interesting culturally. It was set in the Arizona Territory in 1893 and talked a lot about the west. It made lots of references to Wyoming (which I loved because I lived there) and other areas that were old farm towns and mining camps. In all, there were things I liked but it was not outweighed by the things that I didn't.

I DNF'd this book at 32%. I tried this book both on audio and reading the physical copy, and I couldn't get into it either time. After reading reviews that said it was along the same tone of Lincoln in the Bardo, I knew I couldn't keep going. The two storylines were interesting, but the time jumps in both were really hard to follow.

Inland is a historical novel that takes place in the Arizona Territories and is narrated by Nora, a frontierswoman who spends the novel waiting for her husband and sons and Lurie, an outlaw that believes in ghosts – the two stories intersect in a dramatic way. The novel was slow going and was somewhat disjointed. I love historical fiction but could never get into this novel. Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for an honest review.

I was not expecting Tea Obrecht to write, what is essentially, a western. I am not a fan of westerns. However, I adore the Tiger's Wife and so was willing to give this a shot. I was not thrilled, but I think that is due more to myself and the subject matter and less the quality of the writing. I am giving five stars because I feel it is only personal preferences that would give it anything less.

Inland by Tea Obrecht is a tale of the old west and in as much, a story of regrets and struggle and of those decisions and people that haunt us. There are ghosts that live in the same world as us and in our hearts and minds as well.

"...Once, a great big fella got stuck halfway out his coffin. I sat there in the dirt with his pale arm on my knees until the Coachman handed me a saw. I carried that arm all the way uptown, wrapped in its own burlap sleeve, on my shoulder like a ham. Some evenings later, I saw that same rent sleeve on a one-armed giant who stood unmoving in the fishmarket crowd. He was pale and round and stood smiling shyly at me, as though we were old friends. He drifted closer, hugging that empty sleeve, till he stood at may side. It seems an odd thing to say, but a thin tickle spread around me, and I knew he'd put his ghost arm about my shoulders. That was the first I ever got this strange feeling at the edges of myself-this want..."

Lurie was an outlaw, a young man who had joined a gang and in a fit of rage, had beat a boy to death. There is a lawman, a tried and true lawman who is hunting Lurie and his gang for the crimes they have committed. He has tracked Lurie from Missouri to the desert of territory of Arizona and he means to hang Lurie just as he has hung all the rest. But there is something different about Lurie, something the law man does not know. Lurie sees the dead and if they get to close, the dead can feel Lurie with a want. A desire for what the dead miss most.

Nora feels the heat bearing down on her, in her home in Arizona, there is a fierce drought and Nora is battling both the heat and the thirst. But she is too busy most days to pay it too much mind. With three boys, the youngest partially blinded, an invalid mother-in-law, a New York transplanted girl and a husband missing now for close to three days; Nora has more than enough to keep her busy. But Nora's family runs the local newspaper and in 1893, the Arizona Territory is approaching statehood and there are changes and conspiracies about. When her two oldest sons leave to work the paper in town, Nora is left with her youngest son who is convinced there is a mysterious beast about the property. But Nora has no time for imagined monsters, her husband is missing, her oldest boys are up to something more than publishing the paper and the ghost of her daughter speaks softly to her.

"...She is full of forgiveness,' Josie said.
Nora nodded so she would not have to speak.
'And the Injuns,' Josie said. 'The ones who rode in and drove you into the fields where she died. She forgives them, too.'
The girl went on, but Nora didn't hear the rest. The candleflame swam. After a while, she held up a hand. 'That's enough-that'll do.' On her way upstairs, she blew out the light.
If there was on thing Evelyn-the real Evelyn-would surely know, it was the circumstance of her own death. The Evelyn of her imagination knew it; rarely spoke of it, but was frank when she did so. Left the Indians out of it, for she knew the truth.
This shade conjured by Josie-whatever it was-did not know..."

Lurie and Nora's tales intertwine in the heat of the Arizona desert, laced with monsters and ghosts and greed. But for both, death walks alongside them. Death and the past.

Téa Obreht is a lyricist. She tells stories that sing to your soul. The rhythm holds you tenderly and as the truth of her story unfolds, it rends you defenseless and you are held in the same joy and grief as her characters. The tale of Lurie and Nora is the story of the past and the mistakes made. The hauntings and wants of that past manifest themselves in the spirits of those now gone. But Inland is not a ghost story per se, it is a tale of survival and greed and unrelenting heat of an Arizona summer. This is a story of the old west without the glitz and glamour of Hollywood. It is dusty and raw and filled with dark tidings. It is also a story of love and living. Of a hope that flickers and dies as quietly as a candle left alone, its light dying slowly and without notice.

Lurie and Nora are haunted, but they will haunt you long after the last page is turned and the book is closed.

A terrific tale.

I was such a fan of The Tiger's Wife and had so looked forward to reading Inland, but it was a struggle for me the whole way. The western setting did not grab me and though the characters were interesting, and I enjoyed the dural narrative, I never could get to a place where I really cared about this story. Obreht's writing shone as I had expected it to, but it's not a book I'll find myself recommending often.

Obreht’s Inland is an ambitious novel about the American West. Set in 1893 Arizona, the narrative focuses on two narrators - a homesteader and a member of the Camel Corps. While her prose is beautiful, the rising action of the book missed the mark a bit for me - causing the first 2/3 of the book to be a bit of a challenge to digest. Readers who enjoyed Obreht’s first book or those who enjoy book about the American West will likely enjoy this book.

This is a stellar book set in the Wild West with complex characters and a dark and fascinating plot. This work of historical fiction fleshes out an interesting historical fact - camels in the Wild West - once again proving that fact is stranger then fiction. The story was richly detailed, and gave an intimate look at the difficulties the early settlers encountered. I am grateful to NetGalley for providing me this book in return for an honest review.

The writing style in this book wasn’t for me. There were two narrators, neither of whom was telling a story in a compelling or compressible manner. There were meandering, random thoughts out of chronological order. I made it to the 20% point and gave up. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

Inland is a story set in the southwest in the late 1800s. It is broken into two parts two in an alternating pattern. You have Nora Lark in Arizona and Lurie Mattie traveling all over. Lurie's story spans a long time and is the journey of a former outlaw and a camel. Nora's story mainly takes place over a 48ish hour period in 1893.

While their stories come together in the very end I did not find either of them very compelling. I was also disappointed in the ending. I was not a fan of Tea Obreht's first novel, The Tiger's Wife, and wanted to give her another try to see if it was just that book, but it seems that I am not a big fan of her writing.

Now if you liked her first book then please get this one as I think you might like it.

The Tiger’s Wife is one of my favorite books, and so I was looking forward to Tea Obreht’s followup. Unfortunately, I couldn’t power through Inland. I just didn’t care enough about... any of it. It dragged. Obreht’s debut sparkled from the European folktales infused into the story. This book also had magical elements, but they were ghost stories. I’ll read her next book, providing it’s not another western.

Incredibly atmospheric, Téa Obreht's second novel, Inland, vividly recounts the parched existence of Arizona homesteaders in the mid-19th century. Also, there are camels! Read this if you're in the mood for a somewhat surreal Western. And make sure you have plenty of water at hand.

Obreht’s novel in the beginning seems to a Western story in the vein of Charles Portis True Grit but by the end it is clear that she is using the genre of the Western as a vehicle to explore the nature of American identity and experience. It is a meditation on love and grief as experienced by a tough woman in unforgiving country as she struggles to protect her family and satisfy their needs: all because there is a lack of water.

The story was unique and the writing was very beautiful, but the story moved along at a very slow pace. So overall, the book was just “okay” for me. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

There are aspects of this novel I really love: the ghosts, the setting, and really one entire storyline. The second story line, about the young boy and the camels....so strange and uninteresting to me.

I think the hype around this book raised my expectations too much (and the gorgeous cover!). There were some truly beautiful moments, but several times I felt like I was slogging through just to get through it and find out the mystery of where Nora's husband was. The parallel narratives were an interesting choice but the conclusion came too quickly once they converged and I was left feeling a little unsatisfied. I almost felt like they could have been two separate books.

This Review below was Posted on my blog on Oct. 12, 2019 at https://www.thecuecard.com/books/raking-in-the-reviews/

Synopsis: The novel features two alternating storylines that converge a bit at the very end — the first is of a frontierswoman named Nora and her family living in Arizona Territory in 1893 and the other is of a former outlaw named Lurie, who becomes part of the U.S. Army’s Camel Corps on a trek through Texas and the American West.

My Thoughts: I was quite taken by Tea Obreht’s first novel “The Tiger’s Wife” in 2011, so I really wanted to like this one as well, but I didn’t fully warm up to the story until the second half when it finally started to move for me. The protagonist of Nora is a pretty tough lady, who’s waiting for her husband to return from a far-off errand of acquiring water for the household. She’s trying to manage the bone-dry property and family of boys, while still holding conversations with the one young daughter she lost years ago. Meanwhile Lurie, the former outlaw, who is being chased by a sheriff, joins up with an Army regiment of Camel Corps in Texas, which apparently once truly existed in the West as a means to transport gear over the dry, rough terrain. Lurie becomes attached to his camel Burke, and the two share in a variety of adventures on a trek though the West, culminating eventually in crossing paths with Nora.

The idea of the Camel Corps and the frontierswoman in Arizona Territory sparked my imagination, and there are some keen descriptions in the story of the landscape and characters that captured me, but you also have to wade through quite a bit. It’s not exactly a page-turner, but I did want to see how it would end. So while “Inland” was quite a bit more work than I thought it would be, there are some rewards if you see it through to the end. Though perhaps I was expecting a bit more from the story … or I found it a bit slow in parts. Admittedly I don’t read a lot of western novels, but if you liked Paulette Jiles’s 2016 novel “News of the World,” which I did, than you might try this one as well.

I had loved The Tiger's Wife and was very excited to read Inland, but it just did not work for me. I enjoyed much of the writing, but I found it so tough to get through the first half of the book, as neither of the two stories fully drew me in. I did not want to leave it unfinished, so I pressed on. Luckily, I enjoyed the last sections when the two stories finally came together but it just wasn't enough for this to be an enjoyable experience overall.

Thanks to NetGalley, the author, and Random House for the opportunity to read an advance copy.

A story of the American West and its inhabitants. Not my usual genre but one I will explore more. Her writing is very prose-like and sometimes difficult to get through but you will be happy you did. My first read by Tea Obreht, now I will need to go back and read her debut.