As the title implies, this is an extremely dark book. Warnings for suicide and child abuse.

As our main character struggles with his relationship, he begins to confront his past. One that he completely fabricated to the point even he had no idea what was true. As the story moves through his tragic childhood, you quickly realize the reason for his selective memories.

*Many thanks to NetGalley and publishers for the advanced reader’s copy of this book.

The reason I love translated books are they educate us about many cultures and customs. Dark Mother Earth by Kristian Novak is one such book which explores the Croatian culture. Again in Asia, we don't see books about Croatian culture so this one is an absolute delight for me. I love the writing and the plot. The characters are relatable and I love them especially Matija. The book had folklore stories of Croatia which I absolutely enjoyed. But this is not an easy book to read. This book was challenging for me to read and I loved it. This is one of my favourite books in 2019.

Dark Mother Earth is a deeply atmospheric novel, where the setting is like a character. I did struggle a little to connect all that much the the human characters, but the writing was very good and the story well plotted.

I struggled a bit to get into this book, I believe, because there are not the kind of folklore here in Canada that is heavily present in this book. However, I did thoroughly appreciate it, and the deep emotions displayed throughout the whole story. To the point I needed to take some pauses to regain my own emotions from the pure rage Matija has. It was a beautiful book, just not my genre.

I'm very glad it got translated to English. For those who are into magical realism, this book is for you! I struggled a bit to get into this book, I believe, because there are not the kind of folklore here in Canada that is heavily present in this book. However, I did thoroughly appreciate it, and the deep emotions displayed throughout the whole story. To the point I needed to take some pauses to regain my own emotions from the pure rage Matija has. It was a beautiful book, just not my genre.

I'm very glad it got translated to English. For those who are into magical realism, this book is for you!

*I received a digital copy of the book from NetGalley for an honest review*

Haunting and lovely. Disturbing and profound. So insightful, I found myself re-reading parts to doubly reflect, or bask in astonishment that it was that beautifully written. I found myself hating, loving, and identifying with several characters in a myriad of facets. This story will stay with my mind for quite a while, leaving me wanting more.

A beautiful translation from the original novel in Croatian. I heart rending story of an amnesiac writer and his struggle to face his past in order to create his future. A beautiful read.

I was put off this book right at the beginning with the constant and various different ways it talked about poop. I just have got a bit squeamish i guess. Not for me!

Just in the first chapter I think every way to refer to shit was used. It was meant to make the introductary narrative/navel gazing sound gritty and jaded but it read more like a first grader got ahold of a dirty language thesaurus. Being that put off in the beginning, I did find some of the middle story interesting but not enough to really change my mind completely on the book.

Thank you Netgalley for sending me this arc. I will be reviewing this book in the near future with an honest rating and review.

Dark Mother Earth by Kristian Novak a three-star read that shows promise. I had high hopes for this one and think that maybe that is where I went wrong, this is a very deep read, so don’t go into it unless you are prepared for the depth. There is a quote something like, there is nothing to fear inly fear itself, this story tries to turn that on its head is possibly the best way to describe this one. I don’t know how to put it into words, some will love this story and the darkness that it contains, but it didn’t hit the spot for me.

'When one person took their life, the disease was theirs alone. When four people took their lives, the whole village was afflicted.'

Successful Croatian author Matija’s creativity, born out of a disconnect from the torment of his past, seems to have abandoned him. His third book is a failure, nothing is going right since Dina walked out of his life. A pit is opening inside of him, abandoning himself to the abyss he must confront the past he has buried in the dark mother earth of the Croatian village of his childhood. Fear has been at the heart of his creations, his make believe life the safety net that has maintained his sanity, kept the demons of the past from pulling him back to the trauma he has repressed. He doesn’t even truly know what he has buried. Dina wants his memories, whether they expose his fragility or not, this is the meat of any solid relationship. How can love be real if you don’t share your childhood, the glory days and the goofy awkward stages? What if all you have is horror? How do you share memories you don’t even have? Some things are better left repressed. Some memories are wild animals, animals he left behind before he and his family moved away to Zagreb. But memories have a keen sense of smell and can track you down, no matter how many years pass in between.

Reaching back, further back it all began with the passing of Matija’s father when he was only six or maybe the rot seeped in because of the legend his grandmother told him. Something about the soil of that burial ground disturbs him, some sort of ‘staged’ feeling about his father’s funeral births mistrust of the villagers. This child’s disbelief in the face of loss, death is the seed that germinates into abandonment of reality. Grief gets tangled into stories about the will-o-the-wisp folk, and what is real for a child? What about the world is solid when you are still trying to wrap your mind around all the big and small nagging questions of the world? What happens when the village starts watching you because they think you are different, a ‘troubled’ child? What happens when you start to see things, know things maybe even become the catalyst for tragedies, and realize that they could be right about you? What’s a boy to do when the brutal dark ‘things’ visit him, as if summoned by his need?

This novel is a strange type of horror story whose engine is revved all because of Matija’s love for Dina. Everything rises to the surface, you must face the dark earth of your origins in order to have a chance at love. The past always comes back for us. For Matija the things left unexplained have soured his thoughts, a curious, intelligent, creative little boy left to makes sense of the wounds of losing his father. He never really recovered from that first loss, and everything that followed; the suicides, the terrible things people hide from each other in any village or town haunts him so much that any fabrication is better than facing everything he knew. He doesn’t understand his father’s death and his mom and sister are so swamped in grief they don’t know how damaging keeping him in the dark will become. His strange drawings don’t help, he feeds the villagers fear of him, he can’t seem to help it. He is fated to be an outcast, every village needs one, it makes it so much easier to avoid the real horror, within ourselves and each other. Collectively, these people are suspicious and distrusting of anything different, they can overlook the ugliness in those nearest and dearest so long as the person seems admirable, clean..etc. The horror is in that. War is looming, at least that is something solid to fear and maybe they can turn their hate there.

There is an eeriness in what Matija starts seeing, and the overwhelming horror of fantasy that becomes a threat for others near him, which at the heart really comes from a place of love and grief to have his dad come back from the dead. The scariest moment is in his fervent, childish hope by the water with his friend. His mother just wants him to act like a normal boy, because behaving like his ‘natural’ self carries the threat of being taken away. He learns early on how to betray himself, and in turn, how to betray others in order to ‘fit in’. It’s hard to blame his actions, who doesn’t want to feel accepted somewhere, especially when you’re young and have been on the outside for so long? Sadly, it’s one of the biggest mistakes of his life, some things can’t be fixed. Is he the disease in the midst? Is he really to blame as people begin to take their own lives?

“Things you’ve forgotten bide their time. They keep an eye on you, poke each other in the ribs, and snicker softly so as not to disturb the sanctity of the delusion. They only start getting louder when you begin to stagnate, when there’s no forward movement and that’s when they go after you, seething because you’ve forbidden them from coexisting with all the new things you neatly pack into the storage unit known as your life.”

We are the horror. It’s a solid novel, it put me in a strange place. We forget how fear can consume young minds and how destructive fantasy can be. What a sad tale.

Publication Date: January 14, 2020

Amazon Crossing

This was an interesting read for me. It took me a while to get into it, but when I did, It was hard to put down. When the main character's amnesia/selective memory from childhood starts coming back it became quite riveting. The fantasies, lies, tales he told himself as a child to deal with trauma followed him into his adult life, and his relationships. While this was not a typical read for me in a genre I wanted to try out, I enjoyed it once I got past some of the confusion in the beginning.

I went into this book expecting something a little bit more than what was actually delivered. It had potential but took too long for me to really start gaining any interest in the story.

It took me a little while to get into Dark Mother Earth, unsure at first where the story was going. The turning point for me was when Matija began to delve into his past. From that moment, the book gripped me and I was keen to turn each page and find out what would happen next. Overall, this book presented an interesting study of how events in childhood can shape adult life, and the long-term effects of trauma on the psyche. The prose had a nice blend of punch and lyricism, and Matija's narrative was compelling. I would definitely read more from Novak in the future if some of his other works are translated.

I expected something more from this book. It was okay, it had a good message, but it wasn't what I expected to read.

The story, in the end, is nothing special, albeit it carries a good message. My expectations were, unfortunately, high.