Sorrowland is a science fiction allegory for racism in America, and more specifically, the horrific way in which Black people have been treated and used since the founding of the country. And it's a powerful one, at that. I was immediately drawn into Vern's world, and while it doesn't become clear at first what is happening with and to her, I wanted to know more. Then you begin rooting for Vern (and her children) as she realizes that in order to survive, she needs to fight back. " . . .[they] wanted people to think their power was eternal, but even gods died. Empires, too. Continents shifter. Nations came. Nations went. Castles became ruins." Vern realizes that almost nothing about her life is what it seems. "What order of events did Vern need to disrupt in the lives of the millions upon millions who woke up every morning proud to be Americans? What made someone love lies?"

There are so many quotable lines from this novel. The writing is descriptive and gorgeous. The characters are unique and compelling and jump off the page.

From the publisher: "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."

Thanks to NetGalley for the free ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Vern has recently escaped from the Blessed Acres of Cain, a compound where she was married to the Reverend Sherman, the leader of the compound. After giving birth to her twins, Howling and Feral, she makes her home in the woods until it becomes unsafe to do so. As she sets out to find her childhood best friend, Lucy, Vern realizes that her body is changing significantly. Shortly after stumbling across Lucy’s aunt Bridget and Bridget’s niece, Gogo, Vern’s body is gripped by a force stronger than she could have ever imagined. As she struggles to understand her new future, she also fights to rectify the devastation of her past.

This novel was beautiful, well-written, and far beyond my understanding. Speaking out against centuries of oppression, Rivers Solomon uses Cainland to illustrate just how deeply white privilege controls the fate of black America. Cainland is a self-sustaining black nationalist compound. It is purported to be lived in, cared for, and completely controlled by black people. But is it? Upon taking a deeper look, Solomon provides us with a startling view of the truth, albeit truth presented in a fantastical way.

This work is not a light-hearted read. This is a novel that requires deep thinking and self-awareness. It is a novel that exposes privilege and demands accountability. Solomon has so much to say, so much to share and teach. I am looking forward to enjoying more of faer work, as I still have so much to learn.

Thanks to Rivers Solomon, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, and Netgalley for the ARC in return for my honest review.

Beautiful and poignant writing. Outside my usual reading preference, but it is captivating from the beginning.

Rivers Solomon's writing is wonderful and powerfully descriptive. I found myself cringing a few times at the descriptions of the fungus/spores. Learning about the cult that Vern had been a part of was so interesting and also terrifying. I really enjoyed the exploration of so many important topics including racial tensions and religion.

I was hooked for the first 50-60% of the book, then I started to become a bit lost, it was getting a little disjointed and confusing. I wish it had been explained more what was happening to Vern, with more background from the cult. Howling and Feral were amazing, as was Gogo. It took some time but I did also eventually like Vern.

An intriguing science fiction thriller novel tinged with body horror and terrifying plausibility, Sorrowland kept me guessing and on the edge of my seat until it's final beautiful and shocking twist. Readers follow young Vern as she tries to survive in the woods after having escaped a cult compound known as the Blessed Acres of Cain, on the run from a mysterious fiend who is hellbent on scaring her back to the cult and constantly threatening the lives of Vern's newborn twins. All the while Vern continues to experience strange "hauntings" of people who may or may not be real, dramatic changes to her body including new levels of strength, speed, and agility, and a growing pain deep inside.

Without spoiling what I found to be one of the most interesting and horrific aspects of the novel, I'll say that Solomon aptly addresses themes of memory, responsibility, and systemic racism in brilliant ways, using our country's own history of abuses and a new conceptualization of hauntings to make their points through a weird but accessible lens of sci-fi horror. Recommended.

Vern is a teenaged mother, hiding in the woods with her two babies, from her husband and leader of the cult she was raised in. Eventually, she's driven into the outside world, seeking answers about both the truth of the cult and the changes happening to her own body.

This book took a little while to grab me, suffering, I think, from a poor choice of opening sequence. Vern is on the run, hiding, and giving birth, but we don't know why, we don't know who from, we don't know any of the stakes. All of these points come to light over the course of the book, but I feel like it would have benefited from a little more clarity to start with. Vern is rough, so rough and probably rightly so, but it took longer than I'd prefer to understand why, particularly when it comes to her children.

Once the book had gripped me, I appreciated Vern's roughness, and that of her children. I particularly liked Gogo, and her history and part in the story. The scifi elements to the story, the changes that Vern undergoes, grow more and more interesting the more that's unveiled on the page.

A book that I probably wouldn't pick up a second time, but did enjoy for the most part.

15-years-old and heavily pregnant, Vern flees from her cult compound to give birth to twins in the woods. However, even in the woods she remains hunted and haunted by her past, so in order to protect her young family, she must dive deep into herself to survive.

Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon is a fiercely beautiful Gothic work that defies genre. It’s part sci-fi, folk horror, and magical realism all in one. The writing is both raw and lyrical, and I found the scenes of body horror fantastically grotesque.

However, there were some plot twists that I wish had been better set up to create a stronger emotional impact. There were also some aspects that took away from my suspension of disbelief—for instance, like Vern frequently leaving her babies to their own devices in the woods filled with wild animals or the twins’ unnatural language and behavioral development.

All in all though, this is a compelling read that deftly deals with heavy themes of racism and abuse in a voice that is as unapologetic and unrelenting as its main character.

I had some difficulty connecting with this narrative. It is bleak and difficult to read at times, as the title should have clued me in on. The prose is top notch so I am not knocking it too many stars.

This was such an interesting read! This author always has creative and complex ideas and I love reading them. I’ve always been curious about cults and how people get sucked into them, so when I saw that cults were a part of this story I was interested.

There were some sections that seemed to go too quickly to follow but for the most part this was a great read and really made me think.

This book had so many things going for it. A fascinating concept, queerness, it's occasional imagery, anger. I really loved the concept, all of it. It's the tale of Vern, a young girl in a cult devoted to the God of Cain. It's ostensibly a Black Power movement, a total excoriation of anything deemed white. They grow their own food, partake of only Black media, and are almost completely insular. The down side is that they are also conservatively, religiously patriarchal. So Vern, being upset about the disappearance of her best friend and first love, and embittered at her forced marriage to the leader of the cult (because she needs a man to help control her deviant proclivities), decides--in her pregnant state--to run away. So she does one night, leaving behind her family and all she's ever known. She gives birth in the woods and is tracked by an unknown person who leaves threatening messages in the form of bloodied baby clothes. Vern spends nearly three years in the woods.

Vern is also albino and very nearly blind. She bears twins, one Black and one albino. Howling and Feral, respectively. She runs off one day and begins an affair with a strange white woman, which will haunt her throughout the novel.

Speaking of hauntings, she has those too. Nearly everyone in the cult has night terrors, but Vern starts seeing things at any given time of day. And some of them, as the book progresses, can see her right back.

Eventually, she tries to hunt down her friend Lucy, and she winds up in the family of Lakota woman Bridget and her niece Gogo, with whom Vern begins a relationship. As things come to a head, Vern learns about who she really is, what the cult really is, and what she will become.

So again, some great elements. Cults, government conspiracy, LGBT+ character representation, Indigenous characters of importance who--spoiler--don't DIE. This book has some great things going for it! Like, really great things.

So why three stars? Because the elements of semi-magical realism don't quite work for me. Nor did Vern, really. Her children are just a little too precocious and advanced for their years. They don't talk like the kids they should be throughout the book. I didn't believe them. And, once Vern is in the woods, I was boggled. This is strangely a book based somewhat in reality, but her years in the woods are like a strange fairy tale. She wasn't so very far from civilization, but she refuses to leave the woods and becomes sort of feral? For three years? I think if the book had had a more dreamy quality that would have worked for me, but it really doesn't. So I spent most of the book not believing the story. Which made me sad, because I wanted to be invested. I wanted to really love it. There are so many awesome things going on with this book, but the execution for me just fell a little flat, a little unfulfilled; the pacing a little unbalanced. Still, some of the things going on are truly cool, and I would have liked more exploration of those things.

When I got approved for this arc from Netgalley I screeched. Rivers Solomon is one of my favorite authors, and I just love their writing style so much. This has become one of my new all-time favorite books, and it was just so so good, from beginning to end.
I'm not kidding when I say that I cannot find a single thing I didn't like about this. The writing is amazing, the characters are amazing, the themes are amazing, and it's all just so unique and creative. I don't have much to add except I need a physical copy of this when it comes out. 10/5 stars, and I'll continue to read anything Solomon writes. ALSO, Vern is probably one of the most badass characters ever, and I wish I knew her in real life

In this intense novel, a young woman raised in a religious compound escapes, but not before she's been unknowingly subjected to experiments that will change her body in dramatic ways. This is a story of race and and conspiracies and survival and motherhood and desire that breaks the boundaries of genre: it's a thriller, a political commentary, and erotica all in one. Vern, 15 and pregnant by the leader of an all-Black religious community, flees into the woods, where she gives birth to twins and raises them for four years, her only encounters with others being rare, passionate trysts with a woman who seems to know the area a little too well. As her children grow, Vern decides to leave the forest to seek out a safe haven, but the journey is difficult and dangerous. Hunted by her former lover and physically changing day by day, Vern ultimately chooses to fight the powers that truly run the cult. This book and its intersectional foci would be an outstanding read for any discussion group.

Sorrowland follows Vern-a 15 year old who is seven months pregnant and desperate to flee the strict religious compound where she has grown up. She escapes to the shelter of the woods where she gives birth to twins, Howling and Feral. Though she tries to exist on her own terms, Vern is a hunted woman. Forced to fight back against the community that refuses to let her go, she unleashes a brutality far beyond what is ordinary. Vern is changing, morphing into something stronger, something more connected. In order to understand these changes and to protect her family, Vern must face the past and future. She will have to uncover secrets of the compound and the America that allowed horrible things to happen.

There are some stories that remind a reader just how limitless an imagination can be. Our history is filled with horrors of what has been done to black bodies and this book is a poignant exploration of just that. This is a story of love, loss, sexuality, oppression, and so many other important issues but it is written in a way that allows the reader to read the bare truth in a beautiful way. There is no review that truly does this story justice.
I feel like Sorrowland is going to be a book that resonates with many regardless of race or religion. That is the mark of a great book.
I will be buying a physical copy of this book because it 100% deserves a ton of rereads and a spot on my shelf.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and Random House Cornerstone for this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

I got a chance to review this through Net Galley and I am so glad I did. I really loved this book so much and found it hard to put it down. The characters stay with you long after you finish it. Highly recommend it!!

I had really enjoyed Rivers Solomon's previous novel, An Unkindness of Ghosts so I was excited to jump into this one. Sorrowland is a tremendous book. It's hard to adequately describe the feelings that Solomon's books portray - I often describe Becky Chamber's books as feeling like a warm hug, and perhaps the easiest way to describe both An Unkindness of Ghosts and Sorrowland is that they feel like the opposite. It's not that they are grimdark or whatever other buzzword you want to try to use - the problems that Solomon writes about, while written through a sci-fi lens, are rooted in reality.

"Sorrowland" was a very difficult book for me to read. I started and stopped several times. Then realized that, despite the talented writing, the story was too depressing for me to continue. Maybe it's because of the times we currently live in, or maybe it's just me., because I found the story too dark for me.

Sorrowland defies genres. Rivers Solomon does it again by bringing the impossible to life through their incredible world-building and beautiful prose. This absolutely needs to be on your to-read list for 2021, regardless of your favorite genre.

Sorrowland follows the life of 15-year-old Vern shortly after she escapes the all-black compound she has lived in her entire life, leaving behind an abusive older husband and a cult that never fit for her. The Blessed Acres of Cain started out as a group of Black Americans that wanted to create a society outside of the white world, teaching their members to survive and thrive on their own, to take back the autonomy that was taken from them centuries ago. However, the horizontal structure of leadership was upended when a member took over, calling himself a Reverend and enacting the strict rules and religion that Vern grew up in. You can't leave unless on a mission trip, there are no phones but the Reverend's office, and punishments for outbursts are severe.

Vern has always had a rebellious streak, wishing her best friend Lucy had taken her with when she escaped years ago. After being forced to marry the current Reverend after an escape attempt, she becomes pregnant with twins at just 15 and makes the split decision to escape one night after she finally breaks free of the restraints that keep her tied to her bed. She gives birth in the woods, knowing how to live off the land like she grew up learning, but she is being hunted. She finds dead animals with baby bonnets on their heads or pacifiers in their mouth, watches as her white pursuer tracks her through the woods like a wolf. But Vern does not back down and raises her children despite the target on her back, the knowledge that anyone from Cainland could come and drag her back.

Soon enough, strange things start to happen, ricocheting Vern and her children from a simple life in the forest to one of survival and nature-defying feats. Solomon blends magical realism with gothic horror in a terrifying mix that gets under your skin and into your bones. It's creepy, it's heartfelt, it's raw, and it's real. It will keep you on the edge of your seat, completely unable to put it down for fear of what may happen next.

Sorrowland is unapologetically queer, featuring intersex and wíŋkte main characters and lesbian relationships while tackling internalized homophobia and religious trauma. Solomon does not shy away from embracing the dark past of the United States' involvement in medical testing on Black Americans, in showing bare the realities of generational trauma, and the very-real threat of government infiltration. In particular, Solomon does a beautiful job with the creation and downfall of Cainland, first as a commune to reject white supremacy and culture, and then as a deeply broken cult sustained through religion and fear. Cainland has their own mythology based on stories of very real history, like Tuskegee and police brutality. It's an honest reflection and microcosm of what happens to Black people in the US every day and has for centuries, their spaces becoming infiltrated and poisoned by white colonization.

This is a book that will stay with you long after you've finished the last pages. What starts out as a tale of survival turns into something more as Vern herself becomes something more. Let it get under your bones and propagate there; something beautiful may grow from it yet.

⭐ 4 these Rivers run deep Stars ⭐

Sorrowland tells the story of Vern, a pregnant teenager who escapes the cult Cainland. Rather than re-enter society she births and raises her babies in the woods. However Vern soon learns that Cainland's powers are far-reaching and more life altering than she could have imagined.

So that's what the book is about in the literal sense. But everything it's saying is in the subtext. And it has a lot to say about a vast number of topics, including race, religion, sexuality, community, growth, love, hate, control.....
I struggled in the beginning to find my footing in this strange new world but ended up enjoying the stunning imagery and symbolism.

I think it's very difficult to categorize it into one genre as it has elements of so many. One page could be horror but the next could be sci-fi. I guess, like Vern, this book is fierce, unforgiving and does what it wants on its own terms.

Amazing cover art designed by Abby Kagan!

𝘈 𝘩𝘶𝘨𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘰 𝘕𝘦𝘵𝘎𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘥𝘷𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘱𝘺.
𝘋𝘶𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘔𝘢𝘺 4𝘵𝘩.

This is my first story from this author and I was excited to read it as it seemed to have all the aspects I like in darker stories. However, it was extremely different (much darker) the I was expecting and that I read in the blurb and other reviews; and had triggers that I am uncomfortable reading. I had to skip a lot of this story and ended up marking this as a DNF because I personally could not read enough to write an informed review.

The story covers a lot of dark topics (most of the dark topics?), the difficult ones and for that there are a lot of triggers for many readers.

I would caution sensitive readers and younger audiences. I cannot do the story justice in this review, it is just impossible; but I will stay this is a story that might not be for all, but for those who get it will love it.
Trigger list: abuse (drug, alcohol, child, and animal), rape, drowning, torture, suicide, cult like talk and pedophilia, among others.

*I would like to note that just because this is not a story for me, does not mean that it is a “bad” story. I think there will be many readers who will enjoy this story and find it amazing.

I received an ARC via NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux MCD Publishing and I am leaving my honest review.

SORROWLAND: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This book is such a dark and twisted gothic fairy tale that I fell for every delish morsel Rivers Solomon dropped. Vern is a young woman who escapes from Cainland to save her babies and perhaps her own life.

It reminded me of that old HBO show, Carnivale, and that’s a good thing.

NOTE: I was given an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Thanks Netgalley!