Unsettled is, in many respects, historical fiction at its most rich and most charming. The Reinhardts are gorgeously rendered, the prose intimate and nostalgic, their story prairie gothic at its finest. It paints a conflicted yet complete picture through interwoven points of view and Tante Kate’s journal entries, with best intentions twisted to devastating results and legacies of confusion.

This should, in theory, be the value of a modern timeline; to depict the way entire lives are reduced to black-and-white print, incomplete and sometimes misleading. A brilliant concept. Unfortunately, it stumbles in its execution; the present timeline is the weakest aspect of the novel, and serves as a jarring contrast to its expertly written counterpart. It is riddled with cliches ranging from memories said to roll in flashes like a b-movie and written-out song lyrics to the more uncomfortable, like the protagonist of marginally indigenous ancestry being called Pocahontas because she braids her hair. Van’s internal monologue is unconvincing, her reactions banal and contrived, the Iowan residents trite, the dialogue inauthentic and stilted, the journal entries which might have served as a tether to the past timeline bland rehashes of what’s just happened. It feels like an entirely different book written with vastly different skill, and gives the novel a disjointed feel, neither resonating effectively nor cohesively tying the narrative together.

It bears repeating that the historical timeline is exceptional. Richly imagined, its descriptions beautiful and immersive, and the characters gorgeously rendered, the prose & atmosphere of Unsettled is a resplendent experience that is dampened by a painfully written second narrative, made all the more frustrating in its stark contrast to its remarkable complementing timeline.