Thank you to Netgalley and the Publishing Team for this Advanced Digital Readers Copy, I thoroughly enjoyed this book!

I read about half before I gave up, not really understanding the timeline of when or where this was happening and the meandering feel put me off finishing.

One of the most disturbing characters I've read in a long time, but wow did I have a hard time putting this down. We have the most untrustworthy of narrators, and yet, this story very much worked. Intense, dark, and I loved it.

The main character Deirdre, going through adversities of her life, a tough life. Then later a discovery she wasn't expecting. A troubling story from start to end that will make you captivated to her enduring journey.

A great read that you can finish in one sitting


3.6/5 stars

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this eARC.

Crooked Seeds by Karenn Jennings delves deep into the heart of post-apartheid South Africa, exploring the complex layers of national trauma and the personal struggles of its protagonist, Deidre van Deventer. Set against the backdrop of a Cape Town public housing complex, the story unfolds with Deidre receiving a call that thrusts her into a criminal investigation involving her family’s land and a dark history that has long been buried.

Jennings crafts a narrative that is both taut and daring, weaving a tale of collective guilt and the prisons we create for ourselves. The prose is exquisitely spare, yet it carries the weight of Deidre’s world—a world where the past is inescapable and the present is a landscape of desolation and decay. 

This is not a feel good story, and not for the faint of heart.

Deidre’s character is a testament to Jennings’ skill in creating complex, flawed, and utterly unique individuals.  As the investigation brings alarming evidence to light, Deidre is forced to confront her shattered memories,, ultimately offering a faint glimmer of hope that something better might emerge from the remnants of her fractured life.

Crooked Seeds is not a book that seeks to comfort; it is a book that demands attention and introspection. It is a powerful examination of the ways in which history can entangle and define us, and how the act of remembering can be both a burden and a means of liberation. Jennings’ portrayal of Deidre’s journey is a poignant reminder of the resilience of the human spirit in the face of extreme adversity.

In summary, Crooked Seeds is a novel that resonates with the echoes of a nation’s troubled past and the quiet strength of its people. Karen Jennings has delivered a work that is both a literary triumph and a poignant reflection on the enduring impact of history on the individual soul.

I had a hard time getting into this book, and thus having a hard time rating it. The imagery was vivid and the topic was interesting, and once the pace was set, it kept going. It wasn't explicitly clear to me in the beginning what the plot was and where it was going, but I stuck with it and got the idea. We start with description of a woman in what is clearly a very dire and dismal situation, not sure of the circumstances until the story progresses. I'd like for it to have held my attention a little bit more.

In post- Apartheid South Africa, Deidra, disabled and alone, lives in subsidized housing in Cape Town. Her brother disappeared many years ago, her mother is in long term care and her daughter emigrated. She lives a subsistence lifestyle, struggling to get by. There are shady memories from past trauma. When bodies are found in the yard of her childhood home, she must face the past. The story is told in sparse language and I couldn’t put the book down.

Deirdre van Deventer is a victim of everything: as a child, she lost her leg in an accident, and now the government has removed her from her family home in Cape Town to build a factory in its place.

She drinks too much, doesn't take care of herself, is broke and feels entitled to constantly demand help from those around her, without ever thanking them or giving anything back.

Then, one day, she gets a call from the police: certain items have been found on the terrain of her former house, if she can please come to 'identify' them. This triggers not only memories of the past, but also throws new light on some of the unresolved question marks of Deirdre's life.

It took me a few chapters to get into it, but then the story grabbed me. Jennings carefully navigates the past and present troubles of South Africa, from racism to corruption to water crisis.

Crooked Seeds by Karen Jennings is a difficult books to sum up . . . well written with a talented author's gift for description, pacing, and storytelling, but centered on a very difficult setting and topic . . . I found myself drawn to what would happen on the next page and in the next chapter, but with a chilling apprehension about the ugliness that assuredly awaited me. And I suppose that is the point of the book . . .the topic is supposed to be unsettling and difficult, and is meant to push the reader into uncomfortable places and realizations.

As stated above, Jennings is a talented writer, and I consider it a testimony to her skills that she continually enticed me to see what would happen next, not in the dynamic of a literary thriller, but rather by drawing me into the story of these incredibly broken and messy characters. I could see that the general dystopian setting could be a metaphor or commentary on modern South African society in general, and Jennings's gift for literary painting had me feeling the smothering heat and general misery of the neighborhood, as well as the desperation of the characters.

So personally I was torn by how to rate this book . . . well written, thought provoking and gripping, but not a story I want to read again because of the difficult core subject matter and the general depressing tone of the core narrative.

3 1/2 stars

This book is bleak but like a bad car crash, hard to look away from.

The story opens up to a visceral scene, with our main character Deidre preparing to get in line outside for the water distribution. I found myself scrunching my nose, the author’s vivid depiction of Deidre’s filth and squalor and stench seeping from the page to my olfactory nerve.

This story takes us to post-apartheid South Africa, where government corruption runs rampant and Deidre’s childhood home is seized and wrongfully taken. Through snippets, we uncover that her leg amputation was caused by a bomb her brother, a member of a pro-apartheid terrorist group, made that accidentally detonated. Deidre’s father, the only family member who seems to have actually taken care of her is long dead, her mother battling dementia and the ghosts from her past in a nursing home only just across the street from Deidre’s new displacement housing situation and her brother never seen from again after the night her whole life changed.

This story sucks you in to this ugly, dark world - while reading this, I constantly felt like i was experiencing a gray, cold day that threatens rain but never delivers.

I will say I wish this story was a bit longer so that the reader could have more backstory into the atmosphere of post-apartheid South Africa and perhaps feel the tension and the revelation more. But throughout it all, I felt like I was there with Deidre, my senses engaged and my mind trying to wrap around the circumstances.

South Africa post-apartheid finds Deirdre caught up in a police investigation of which she knows nothing about. Involving her brother and the finding of several dead bodies near her family home, she is forced to face her memories and question her past. Well written.

The sadness and despair that prevails through this novel made it a difficult read for me. Lots of emotions in the book that crossed over and stayed with me. I had to stop reading numerous times but I couldn't stay away. This is definitely a 4 star read but it definitely isn't for everyone. Thank you to NetGalley and Hogarth for the complimentary digital ARC. This review is in my own words.

Crooked Seeds by Karen Jennings was an extraordinary read.
The writing was amazing. I will definitely pick up Jennings next title.

Thank You NetGalley and Random House | Hogarth for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

A couple of years ago I read Karen Jennings’ novel entitled An Island which was nominated for the 2021 Booker Prize. I loved it (https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/2022/01/review-of-island-by-karen-jennings.html) so I was anxious to read her next offering.

Crooked Seeds is set in near-future Cape Town, South Africa, which is experiencing a years-long drought and wildfires. Fifty-three-year-old Deidre van Deventer lives in a dilapidated public housing complex after her family home was reclaimed by the government. She is contacted by the police when several bodies, including those of children, are found on the property formerly owned by her family. In particular, she is questioned about her brother Ross’s associations with a 1990s pro-apartheid group with terrorist leanings. When she was eighteen, Deidre herself suffered life-altering injuries as a result of a bomb believed to have been built by Ross. She claims to know nothing, but she is forced to uncover family secrets and question responsibility for the past.

Deidre is a totally unlikeable character. She believes she has been denied the life she deserves so is angry, bitter and resentful. She is both physically and psychologically damaged, but she has options which she chooses not to take, preferring to wallow in self-pity. She is determined to be seen as a victim in need of sympathy. She believes the world owes her and so constantly manipulates people to do things for her. A neighbour mockingly mimics Deidre: “’”Do this for me, do that for me, help me, help me, I’m a fucking cripple and I can’t do anything for myself.” . . . you are the most selfish person I’ve ever met.’” When another acquaintance suggests Deidre help out at a charity, she responds with, “’Why would I help anyone else? I’m the one that needs help,’ she said, poking her chest with a finger. ‘Me. Look at me. I’m the one!’” Though she does nothing to deserve the help of others, some people do come to her aid but then she shows no genuine gratitude. In fact, she abuses both herself and others. Her neighbour questions, “’Are you trying to be unpleasant, tell me? Is that your plan, to be unpleasant and make everyone dislike you?’” Because of her choices and unwillingness to take any responsibility for herself, it’s difficult to have sympathy for Deidre.

Of course Deidre’s upbringing, when she was overshadowed by her brother, affected her. Trudy, Deidre’s mother, always saw Ross as the golden child so her daughter was sidelined: “He was the one they spoke of. He the one they returned to again and again, throughout her life. Even when he had left, even when it should have been her, there he was.” Trudy tells Deidre, “’It’s just that there are people, like your brother . . . [who] can be just a bit more’” and “’Ross is special, that’s the thing. He’s special.’” After the bombing, Ross fled and though some people feel “’he should have been brought back and forced to see what he had done,’” Trudy’s version is different: “He had been no more than a boy when he was forced to go away.” Rather than blame Ross, Trudy says, “’I chased away my boy and he never got to have the life he was meant to have. He never got to live as he should have.’” Some more attention to her daughter might have meant that an accusation against Deidre wouldn’t be true: “’She lives across the fucking street and you can’t walk a hundred meters to see your own fucking mother.’”

The novel is really an allegory. Just as Deidre is forced to reckon with her family’s past, South Africa must reckon with its history of colonialism and apartheid and address its national and generational trauma and collective guilt. A policeman tells Deidre, “’the truth has to come out. To leave the thing alone would have been to deny it and cover it up.’” The first step to moving forward and making positive change is acknowledging and taking responsibility for the wrongs of the past. At the end, Deidre feels diseased and wants to remove “all that was rotten within her.” Fire destroys Table Mountain overlooking Cape Town, leaving “slopes of black and ruin,” but fire can promote seed germination. The book ends with a glimmer of hope: “If only the rain would come, just a little bit of rain, to wet the soil, feed the seeds, so that something might grow again.” Perhaps something better can emerge from what remains.

The novel is not an easy read. At times, it is a grinding read because there is little to alleviate its bleakness; in fact, at times I didn’t want to continue. Its message, however, is worthwhile. Though the book’s setting is South Africa, its theme applies to other countries; it certainly made me think of my country’s need for truth and reconciliation with our First Nations people.

I bet there isn't anyone who will find Deidre likable or even sympathetic but she's an interesting and compelling character. The past- the past of her family- has rocketed back at her but she's mostly concerned about herself, not what happened to others. The world is drying up around her and this only fuels her anger. I have to admit that I admired this more than enjoyed it (Deidre is just awful). Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. For fans of literary fiction willing to endure.

Literary fiction based on the politics of apartheid in South Africa. Deirdre is alone and disabled, making her way through life under a haze of cigarette smoke and alcohol in Government allotted housing in A post-apartheid South Africa riddled with drought. Her mother, Trudy, is in a nursing home afflicted by dementia. Her brother Ross who was the apple of her mother's eye is absconding since the event which cost Deirdre her leg. Her father is dead. Her daughter has emigrated to London. Then one day Deirdre receives a call from the police that bodies of children have been found buried in the plot of their old home. Against this backdrop unfolds the mysteries of Deirdre's family's past intrinsically linked to the political history of her country This is not a mystery novel. This is literary fiction documenting the politics of apartheid and post-apartheid. It is a description of one lonely, bitter woman, consumed with self-pity, wholly unlikeable living in filthy conditions and making zero effort to better her situation and another ill, disillusioned mother, grappling with dementia who cannot believe that her beloved son can do any wrong. Overall a short, easy, riveting read for lovers of literary fiction and fans of Karen Jennings previous novel An Island which was nominated for the Booker Prize.

Thank you Netgalley, Random House Publishing and Karen Jennings for the ARC.

While an interesting story, I felt like I was missing foundational information that would have helped me understand and enjoy the story more. From beginning to end, this book felt like an excerpt from a longer book. Stories were introduced halfway or only alluded to as though the reader should already know the background story. I never quite felt like I understood the characters or what was going on. I wish there had been more.

Jennings confidently captures an unrelentingly bleak narrative that weaves together the climate crisis - never fully explored, but gestured at - and the pains of post-Apartheid South Africa. Through the character of Deidre, she examines a white South African who is averse to confronting the violence of the past, who would rather turn away from it and pretend it is no longer relevant. Compared to her odd and fiery Booker longlisted novel AN ISLAND, this felt a bit thin. But it’s an effective quasi-speculative political novel about memory and reconciliation.

Set in 2028 South Africa, amid draught and fires. From the beginning I was appalled by 53-yr old Deidre van Deventer's lack of hygiene, having no idea how very, very much worse her situation and condition would become. I wanted to know what really happened to Deidre's brother Ross after he fled the scene of his crime(s), could not fathom their mother's blatant favoritism, and truly appreciated the lifelike way that Deidre slowly confronts her painful memories. Karen Jennings' writing is practically experimental in the extent to which it details rock bottom and intergenerational decay, the reader is essentially observing the main character succumb to depravity. First thing I did upon finishing this book was add An Island to my To Read list.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Wow. The ending.

This novel is set in a dystopian South Africa where there is a severe lack of water. Deidre is a woman living alone as an amputee with limited resources--financially and emotionally. She struggles with addictions and with memories from her past.