This was a weird and bizarre story about a woman who gives birth in the woods while running from those who wished her harm. I have to say that this book was so confusing and although I did finish it I am not sure what I read and I don't think that I would read anything else from this author.

Thank you to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for gifting me an ARC of this book!

Rivers Solomon’s Sorrowland is a genre-bending work of Gothic fiction. Here, monsters aren’t just individuals, but entire nations. It is a searing, seminal book that marks the arrival of a bold, unignorable voice in American fiction.

I've been really struggling to figure out my final thoughts on this novel. Sorrowland is incredibly unique and thought-provoking, with important discussions on race, religion, and sexuality amongst other topics. Vern as a character was young and resilient, and I appreciated learning about her history and seeing how she grew as a person as she came to terms with the metamorphosis she experienced.

Solomon's writing read like poetry. It was beautifully done and created a dark and intense atmosphere that permeated throughout the book. The subject matter was heavy and heart-breaking, but in my opinion Solomon approached all of these difficult topics in a unique and thought-provoking way.

My issue with the book is how confusing the 'fantasy' portion was. I was constantly re-reading sections because I didn't understand what was being described and thought certain explanations should've been more in depth rather than brushed over. I also thought that the ending seemed rushed and left me feeling unsatisfied. I think this book could've benefitted with an extra 50 pages.

Overall, I think Solomon is an incredible writer and can't wait to see what she does next. I would definitely pick up future novels from her but feel like this one could've used some tweaking.

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the advanced copy! Unfortunately, it was a DNF for me. I found it really hard to get into and connect with the characters. I will be trying again in the future!

Here is my review of Rivers Solomon’s new novel, Sorrowland. The book will be published on May 4th. I received an advance copy, courtesy of NetGalley, in return for providing an honest review.
Rivers Solomon is the author of two previous books: An Unkindness of Ghosts, a space opera crossed with a neo-slave narrative, and The Deep, a narrative elaboration of the hip hop group clipping.'s reboot of the Detroit techno band Drexciya's mythology of an underwater civilization composed of the descendents of kidnapped Africans who were thrown overboard during the Middle Passage. Both of those books were powerful and thought-provoking, but Solomon's new novel, Sorrowland, is even better. The book feels like science fiction to me, even though it might more likely be categorized as gothic horror, or even magic realism. Solomon's writing is one more instance of the genre hybridity and emotional and conceptual reach of speculative fiction writing in the twenty-first century, especially by writers of color.
It is difficult to discuss Sorrowland without giving away lots of spoilers, but I will do my best to keep these to a minimum. The reason it is hard to avoid spoilers is that the narrative works by continual expansion. It starts out with a very narrow focus, but continually opens up, or spirals outward, to new dimensions and new contexts. What starts out as a grim survivalist tale about isolation, loneliness, and deprivation ends up as a much broader account of the United States as a repressive hierarchical state founded upon racist terror. The writing is tightly focused on naturalistic detail, even as it offers up the most unsparing judgments, and even when it opens up to the most fantastical happenings.
At a number of points throughout the book, the narrative reaches a crux, a confrontation. Each time this happens, you think about what might take place next; you imagine the most extravagant possibilites, and wonder if the author will dare to go there. And each time, Solomon does not so much go there as go even further, to an outcome (or a new stage) that exceeds even my most delirious expectations. (Of course, my inability to imagine such happenings in advance is part of why I am not a creative writer, but a critic-scholar who seizes on books like Sorrowland as opportunities for reflection and expansion). At each of these cruxes, it feels like I have had the rug pulled out from under me, and I am forced to realize that, 'no, this is vaster and more horrifying than I had previously imagined.' I should note too, though, that every time these developments are given fictively scientific explanations, rather than supernatural ones; this is part of the reason that the book feels science fictional to me, despite the fact that its tropes have more in common with gothic fiction. Even as we discover and feel forces that are cosmic in scope, and disproportionate with our commonsensical understandings, they still ultimately have empirical roots and explanations. There is no rupture or bifurcation here between the natural and the social, or between the material and the spiritual.
Sorrowland gives us the story of Vern, a young albino (and apparently intersex) Black woman. When we first meet her, she is 15 years old and pregnant. She is extemely nearsighted, and does not know how to read. She is hiding, alone, in the woods, having run away from the only home she has known, a Black nationalist commune called Cainland, somewhere in the US Deep South. Cainland is all about Black pride, education, and self-sustaining independence for its community; but it is also extremely patriarchal and puritanically religious. Life in Cainland involves a seemingly endless series of chores, prayers, punishments, and medical exams and injections. Vern, still a girl, was forcibly married to, and impregnated by, its stern leader, Reverend Sherman.
But all this backstory is only filled in gradually, over the course of the book (and with revelations placed strategically at unexpected points in the course of the narrative). At the start of the book, Vern gives birth to twins, unassisted, in the heart of the forest. The novel has a great and compelling opening sentence: "The child gushed out from twixt Vern's legs ragged and smelling of salt." Vern immediately thinks of drowning this child, to preserve him from a worse fate. But instead, she cares for him "with what gentleness she could muster, and it wasn't enough to fill a thimble." Though the child is referred to as "he" (together with his sibling, born an hour later), Vern raises them without any ascription of gender. Their names are Howling and Feral. Vern and her babies remain in the forest, apart from any human contact. They subsist as hunter-gatherers. Conditions are harsh, rather than idyllic; Sorrowland is no robinsonade. But Vern's survivalist skills are sharp enough that they make do.
Things happen around Vern and her children, however; she is not truly isolated, but submerged in the world, or in nature. The novel has an ecological vision, according to which all things are entangled. Vern has a living connection to the trees, and more generally to the animals and plants and fungi. But there are more disquieting things, as well. Vern is stalked by a "fiend," who continually taunts her, sometimes by setting fires, and otherwise by leaving murdered animals hanging from the trees, often adorned with baby clothes or toys. In addition, Vern is frequently tormented by hauntings, visions of the dead who sometimes speak to her, and other times just appear mutely before her. They include people she remembers from her time in Cainland, but also people from deeper (ancestral, community) levels of memory, like lynching victims she sees hanging from trees. And on top of all this, Vern starts to notice strange changes in her body...
Saying more, with any detail, would involve those spoilers I said that I would try to avoid. So I will just note that Vern lives with her babies in the forest for four years; and then -- at not quite a third of the way through the novel -- she has to return to, and deal with, what most of us know as the outside world (and what she mostly encountered in the past during short supervised trips outside Cainland itself). Surviving in contemprary America without any form of ID, or any money or credit cards, is in some ways more difficult that surviving in the forest. But Vern finds allies and helpers, as well as persecutors and enemies. She and her children are gifted with greater resources, as well as assaulted with wider and more articulated dangers. And Vern herself continues a metamorphosis (both physical and mental) that at once debilitates her, gives her strength, and puts her in danger from forces that want to control her. She is no longer entirely human, though in some ways this also ties her more concertedly to human histories and communities. (Again, I must be vague in order to avoid giving away too much).
Like Solomon's other novels -- only even more so -- Sorrowland is at times overwhelmingly distressing, though it manages to eke out a bit of hope by the end. A lot of what happens in the course of the novel really hurts. The pain is both inflicted by others, and also self-inflicted, as Vern has to some extent internalized her own oppression -- this is part of how she was educated, as well as how she experiences the world. Though Vern ultimately becomes something like a superhero, she also continually has to face her own limitations, an existential finitude that would exist in any context whatsoever, but that is massively amplified by social injustice. This is still another way in which the novel feels science-fictional to me; it combines a daring cognitive scope with a careful parsing of how it feels to be caught up in, and very nearly swamped by, powerful social and technological currents.
The prose of Sorrowland is deeply affective and intellectually cutting at the same time, a combination few writers can manage. Concrete physical and sensory details, and a deep sense of corporeal being, coexist with tremendous leaps of abstraction, not to mention citations of such authors as James Baldwin, Langston Hughes, and Jacques Derrida. There's even a joke about a book supposedly called A Poststructuralist Critique of Embodiment (which is entirely silly, and yet at the same time deeply apropos to what is going on over the course of the novel). The novel starts out with a harshly delimited horizon, but it ends in a sort of cosmopolitics.
Sorrowland is an extraordinary novel. it is continually and astonishingly inventive, while at the same time (I don't know how to better express this) it has the force of necessity, of something that just has to be. It begins with the harshness of childbirth; and it ends with "the night calls of one thousand living things, screaming their existence, assuring the world of their survival." The book is itself a deep and ferocious expression of survival; and -- perhaps, even, we may at least hope, beyond its final pages -- of flourishing.

Cronin’s The Passage meets M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village in this twisty, heart wrenching monster tale that often left me confused to which time period this book was set. It starts with the main character, Vern, on the run, making it sound like she is an escaped slave fleeing from her master and his hounds, add then the brutal solo birth of her twin babies, and this definitely has to be 19th century. Then there are the civil rights references and the cult-like, commune environment of the Blessed Acres, reminiscent of the 1960s and ‘70s, and you start to form another picture in your head, but it’s still hard to reconcile these happenings with the present day. However, even further in the story you realize that this is, in fact, playing out in the 21st century and begins to sink in, the depth and magnitude of the story.

An extreme range of emotions can be felt when turning the pages, from anxiety when Vern leaves the twins, to anger at the treatment Vern receives at the hands of her family back on the compound. The excitement experienced during some of the steamier moments played out are undeniable, and then quickly expunged with the images of pain used to describe Vern’s mysterious and gruesome transformation. Prepare for your imagination to run amok as it conjures images of a Kafka-esque metamorphosis that doesn’t even scratch the surface of the horrors unveiled.

There is so much to unpack with this novel and I think it would take multiple readings to catch everything. While there are some spots that drag a bit and it’s a bit more risqué than I tend to read, the overall storytelling and imagery make this a worthwhile read.

I received an advanced copy of this book from its publisher. The opinions are my own.

I had an English professor in college, whose particular area of study was the queer, Black body in literature. I don't think I truly understood the power of that concept until I read this book. Because Vern, who doesn't have Black skin, represents all that white people and institutions fear and hate about Blackness (whether it is true or not): sensuality, wildness, physical strength, determination, a lack of self preservation, actual certifiable madness. And we see it all, the good and the bad, as Vern faces down one injustice after another.

Solomon leaves no stone unturned - bringing us into the story with a teenager giving birth in the middle of the woods, passing through cults, government-sanctioned experiments (think: Tuskegee), the AIDS epidemic, religion, the ghosts of a sad history, and so much more.

Vern herself is a hard character to love. For so much of the book, she eluded me, changing her mind constantly - and I had to remind myself often of her age, the nature of her upbringing, and the really shitty hand she was dealt. Also, that her albinism is never swept under the rug, how she moves through the world with unreliable sight, how she reacts to light.

I think my favorite part of this book came with Gogo. With how she softly pried Vern open, exposing Vern's insecurity and helping Vern to better understand the world and society.

I didn't read the synopsis of this book going in. Maybe several months ago, but I had zero memory of it. I didn't know what to expect, only that Solomon always digs faer teeth in deep enough to draw blood every single time.

WOWWWWW!! I don’t even know what to say. This book encompasses many genres, all of which I don’t typically read: sci-fi, horror, queer erotica, thriller, speculative fiction. Regardless, this book expands across space and time and just hits you full force, no matter who you are. I think this will be a runaway hit and I’m excited to see what others think about the explosive story. Vern, the main character, has got to be one of my favourite characters in a book ever. There is so much strength, beauty, and raw visceral emotion in Sorrowland. Give it a chance, you won’t regret it!

TL;DR: YET ANOTHER must-read from Rivers Solomon. Sorrowland is chilling, atmospheric, and fantastical horror that breaks down the gender binary and draws on dark histories of US government violence against Black bodies and communities. My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars.

Sorrowland is the chilling tale of Vern, an albino, intersex (but AFAB), queer, 15-year-old Black gxrl. Pregnant, she escapes the religious-Black nationalist-cult-compound where she grew up. In the years after her escape from the Cainland compound, Vern uses the survivalist skills she learned there to raise her twins--Howling and Feral--in isolation in the woods. They’re not completely alone, though. Vern is tormented by hallucinations--which she calls hauntings--and a very real and human pursuer--who she calls the fiend.

Without giving spoilers, Sorrowland’s plot also draws on extensive histories of medical experimentation on Black bodies in America and US government surveillance and undermining of Black opposition leaders and groups.

I loved An Unkindness of Ghosts. I loved The Deep. And now, Sorrowland has guaranteed that I will forever and always read anything that Rivers Solomon writes. I relate so hard to their characters, who are often defiant, bookish, academic, introverted, lovers of words and knowledge. And Vern is no different. She revels in being as contrary as possible--not just in rebellion against her upbringing, but against the whole world. Despite being illiterate due to her eyesight, Vern is formidable in her intellect and resourcefulness.

There are all kinds of chilling horror elements in Sorrowland, like when the fiend leaves threatening animal corpses dressed in baby clothes around Vern’s camp for her to find. Or when Vern’s body starts to change in startling and disturbing ways. Solomon’s rich and sensory descriptions of nature and the woods is also pretty spectacular.

When Vern, Feral, and Howling are forced to flee the woods and enter the outside world, they eventually find themselves building a new home and family with two indigenous womxn who have their own connections to Cainland.

Vern becomes romantically involved with one of the womxn, Gogo, and their relationship is a really heartwarming part of the story. Vern really, really deserved to find some joy and intimacy. I enjoyed their connection so much 1) because they have some incredibly steamy sex, and 2) because of how their perspectives balance each other out. Gogo is dedicated to exposing and fighting state-perpetrated violence, while Vern looks at history and her own experiences and is filled with far more pessimism about the possibility of preventing further injustices.

On another note, this book does SO MUCH to break down the gender binary. Vern is hermaphrodite, while her love interest, Gogo, is possibly trans, though both eschew the pathologizing labels of western medicine. The sex of Vern’s children is never revealed, and both are given exceedingly unconventional and gender-neutral names. They’re raised believing that their father is a girl named Lily, Vern’s childhood best friend at Cainland, and not the megalomaniac cult leader who took Vern as his child bride.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for giving me advance access to this book in exchange for an honest review.

I'm very disappointed to say I DNF this book. The summary was intriguing and the writing was fantastic. However, due to the triggering content of this book, I was unable to finish.

I have to admit that I DNF'd this. I just couldn't get through it. I didn't really care about Vern or even her twins. I only got about 10% in, and I know I should have tried to get through more, but I just couldn't. I think I would have liked this story if it started off in the cult before Vern escaped.

I don't want to really give this a rating and since I didn't finish this book. But I am going to give it two stars.

Vern is 7 months pregnant and living in the woods. She is a black albino 15 years old girl that managed to escape the Church of Cain, a cult led by black people for black people attempting to fight against white supremacy. They live in a close compound without contact with the exterior world. Vern was forced to marry the leader of the cainites and from that union she conceived twins. But before they were born, she left the compound, following the steps of her childhood friend, Lucy.
Vern is special. Her albinism affected her visual acuity but she is extremely intuitive and has the ability of magically healing herself. She is also stubborn and is determined to raise her kids far from Blessed Acres.
But while living in the woods, her body starts to change in a very strange way. Some kind of fungus is growing in her body and she is also experimenting what she calls "hauntings". Hallucinations? Hidden memories? Encrypted messages? She doesn't know. What she does know is that they are extremely disturbing and vivid.
As Vern and her children move further and further away from Blessed Acres, the threat and the fear of being caught by the fiend, a multiform demon sent by the church, grows within Vern, as also grows the realization, an epiphany, of the unbearable truth.
Told from Vern's POV, the story is a wonderful and heartbreaking reminder of how black bodies are treated in this country.
The writing is magnificent and poetic; even in the most disturbing scenes you get a sense of beauty. Lots of natural and supernatural elements that makes the book difficult to categorize genre-wise. Gothic, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Erotica, Philosophical Fiction. It has it all.
.
The last quarter of the book was a little bit too slow paced for my taste, but that didn't change my general perception of the book.
It was a wonderful journey.

I very rarely don't finish a book; but I think I should have paid better attention to the tw on this one. it's a testament to the writing and characterization how strongly I reacted. For those who can get through the first chapters and hang on, I'm sure this is a fantastic novel that will sit with the reader long after the last page has turned.

I am very sorry to say that Sorrowland is my first DNF of 2021. Don't get me wrong, the book itself is very intriguing and impeccably written, but unfortunately it didn't win me over enough to convince me to finish it. It deals with very hard and disturbing themes, so if you are a sensible reader, I highly suggest you to look out to trigger warnings before you pick this up. I'm sure everyone else will otherwise enjoy it.


(Thank you to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.)

<i>Sorrowland</i> is the story of Vern, a young girl fleeing the only life she has ever known, her abusive husband and the cult he leads, to create a life for herself and her babies. But the tentacles of Cainland, the home she left, are always following her as she grows into a young woman and something more, something terrifying and powerful thanks to the “vitamins” she’s been raised with, that just might allow her to break free from all that haunts her.

<i>Sorrowland </i>seizes the history of white supremacy, racist medical experimentation (think Tuskegee), and the danger of the commune she lives within, spinning a fantasy that blends confrontations with power, gothic horror, and parenting while on the run. This is a fairy tale for adults, with scenes of both touching and erotic love, sealed in the wreckage of the world Vern thought she knew.

There are cinematic scenes, and there are lulls in the book where you want to hurry to the next confrontation. Overall it was a good book, and one I will recommend to people looking for gothic horror, life in the margins, and the ingenious blend of the LGBTQIA culture.

Many thanks to #NetGalley, #MacmillanPublishers, and the talented author Rivers Solomon for graciously providing me with an electronic ARC in exchange for my unbiased review. You can find all my reviews at http://OceansOfBooks.com. This novel will be available for purchase May 4, 2021.

I went into this read with high hopes - love a good cult novel, some super natural twists, futuristic themes and dark stuff. I was disappointed and barely made it to the end.
I am glad Vern escaped the cult. I am glad she loved her kids, but it was admittedly hard for me to get through the parts where she left them alone to indulge herself, and yes, I understand those moments were all part of her journey towards self acceptance - just didn't love it.
Vern is a true survivor. I will grant that. And her journey does end well and the end was satisfying.
I just didn't love the journey as much as others as I went along with her.
Thankful for the ARC!

This is the first book I've read by Rivers Solomon and I really, really loved it! It kind of reminded me of Room by Emma Donoghue, the way Howling and Feral didn't realize that there was a world outside of the woods, and Mexican Gothic, the insidious fungus. I found the story to be really interesting, the pacing was great and I really enjoyed Vern and specifically her relationship between Lucy and Gogo. Also, the scene where Vern basically has an orgy with the two dead men and Gogo made me cry because it was so beautiful. I tried explaining the scene to a friend though and I realized how bizarre it sounded. The fact that Rivers Solomon made me think that scene was beautiful is a true testament to her ability to craft a provoking and engaging narrative that leaves you hanging on each page. Very well done and I will highly recommend this book to others as well.

Characters: While I never felt truly connected to these characters they were well fleshed out and dynamic. I would have loved to read from the children's perspective and see this story through their innocence.

Atmosphere/Plot: This was an excellent take on generational trauma coupled with the consequences of growing up in a cult. Very well described settings and emotions.

Intrigue: Finished this is about 3 days.

I decided to DNF this book at 13%. It just wasn't for me. The writing was impeccable, however there were just too many disturbing images and triggers for me to continue reading. I do not mean to imply in any way that this is not a good book, someone else may love it, it just was not something that I am able to enjoy because of the difficult subject-matter.

See below for a list of the triggers that ultimately led to my decision not to finish this book. These contain minor spoilers for the first 13% of this book.

TW: pedophilia, child abuse/neglect, self-harm, animal carcass desecration, rape, death, racism, homophobia, etc.

Sorrowland is a book I’ll be thinking about for a long time to come, possibly a reread in a few months once it settles in my mind. Rivers Solomon is one of my favorite authors. when stepping into one of faer worlds, I expect something dark, unflinching, and beautiful. Sorrowland definitely delivered.

A blending of gothic horror and science fiction, Solomon takes on themes of race, identity, queerness, mental health, and many others, with a serving of gorgeous sentences. The story follows Vern, a 15yo albino Black girl. She’s been traumatized and abused, and flees her home in the Cainland cult for the woods. I admit, it took me a longer than usual to get into this book knowing there would be suffering ahead, but once I did I was absolutely hooked. Yeah, Sorrowland is definitely going to stick with me.

I am going to say this is NOT my genre - SciFi, Gothic Horror! Rivers Solomon has crafted a story on inequality and intolerance for a very unique book. I started out intrigued with the hauntings, Vera's back story, the fiend and Cainland but soon lost interest. Solomon is a good story-teller but ultimately it did not land with me.

Thank you NetGalley for the courtesy copy for an honest review.