3 stars.*

I absolutely chose this book by its' cover. The blurb looked intriguing so I jumped at it.

State of Paradise started out like contemporary fiction- the story of a writer and her husband living with her mother in Florida during the pandemic. Then it quickly swerved and became sci fi, and it was not my jam.

I'm sure it is somebody's. The writing is solid. The characters are well-written and intriguing. The moving amongst worlds thing lost me.

*with thanks to NetGalley for the honest review in exchange for the digital ARC.

State of Paradise
Laura van den Berg

A ghost writer moves back to Florida to live with her mother, and her sister next door – the story starts off pretty conventionally, and you can virtually see the cookie-cutter strip malls, laudromats, and typical Florida scenery pass by, feel the heat and humidity. This is my first book by this author, and it is evident that her storytelling is crisp and engaging. In a parallel narrative, the author takes you back to her childhood – dealing with an abusive, alcoholic parent, to her troubled adolescence culminating in her running away from home. Continuing downhill to institutionalization for early adulthood mental health issues. The gradual character development makes you slowly realize that things are not always what they seem. And I think this is a central theme of this novel. To paraphrase: No one is interested in reading about the truth. The truth is what people read to get away from.

Then the story starts to get weird – there is a VR headset townspeople are getting addicted to using, then they start disappearing. There are “ghostly” apparitions of people long-dead or vanished. The famous author the protagonist/narrator takes on a more mysterious and sinister role. Altered reality, parallel universes – sci fi, horror…hang on to your seats!


My appreciation to NetGalley, to the author, and to the publisher, for providing me with a digital Advanced Reader Copy for review, in exchange for an original, unbiased, independent review.

In sunny, stormy Florida, a ghostwriter grapples with her past of mental illness and institutionalization amid the ever-more-turbulent atmosphere of the world post-COVID. When a new virtual reality system is introduced and given freely to the public, how will she react? How will the world?

This book is an absolute trip. It is very disorganized and completely random. If you have ever spent time in florida ( and I mean with locals not tourist areas) you will appreciate the weirdness.

the narrator was enjoyable to listen to. The story bounced around and at first I felt very lost but after about 15 minutes in I was able to grasp what was going on . I could not wait to hear the next outrageous story.

3.5 stars

This was an absolute trip, featuring both highs and less-than-highs for this reader.

The narrator, a ghost writer, has experiences that anyone who has spent significant time in Florida will understand are perfectly placed there (don't come for me - I HAVE spent a lot of time there). Along with the setting, the unsettling, potentially unreliable narration makes for an exciting jaunt through a variety of past and present scenes and leads readers to reflect on how much we're still learning about pandemic impacts in every way. All members of the narrator's family are struggling (or have struggled) in some way, and the narrator is not exempt from this. Her at times nearly apathetic, factual recollections of traumatic events are both sound in the traumatic response realm and deeply disturbing since some of them reveal just how harmed she is.

I loved the concept, the sentiment, and so many of the details, but I did struggle with the style and organization. Transparently, this may be fully related to listening to an audio version rather than reading by sight, as for me, the latter tends to result in more effective processing. I still enjoyed the work and am interested in reading more from this author.

Slip into a new world, a whirlwind, a rollercoaster, a crazy train and maze of mirrors.

The ghostwriter is our protagonist, nameless, but known. She has returned to Florida with her husband post Covid to assist her mother. Her father has recently died, her sister lives next door. Her husband is struggling as he continues to try to complete a book on Pilgrims. Van Den Berg punctures each paragraph with insights that are hard to argue yet sometimes also hard to swallow.

The Ghostwriter is stuck, she hasn't moved on from her stint in a mental institution after high school, and she never made peace with her family. She is now in her childhood home writing ridiculous thrillers for famous authors. As we learn more about the crazy covid world in Florida, we hear about the sister and her increasing addiction to Mind's Eye, a free virtual reality headset apparatus. When a storm hits and her sister goes missing, things speed up and while the story is very different then our contemporary lives in the United States, in many ways, it's exactly the same.

Megan Tusing was excellent as the narrator and really added punch to the story!

It's a carefully wrought crazy burst of sanity, this is the ride you need to take - Read States of Paradise!
#spotifyaudiobooks #spotify #stateofparadise #lauravandenberg #megantusing #florida

Weird things are happening in this South Florida town; our main character can hardly make peace with it all.

I am so thankful to Spotify Audiobooks, Laura van den Berg, FSG, and Netgalley for granting me an advanced audiobook and physical copies of this eerie tale before it hits shelves on July 9, 2024.

After moving home to take care of her sick father, our ghostwriter main character and her husband find themselves stuck in this South Florida home, even after his death, due to the limitations of the pandemic. Surrounded by violence and Confederate flag appearances, they realize this place is not their home and so unlike anything they are used to. Moreover, our MC's sister becomes slowly entranced by her MIND'S EYE VR device, where she escapes reality and goes elsewhere every day, leaving her problems behind, until one day, she indeed does go missing, leaving her family to worry about her state.

After suspecting that her mother is the overseer of a cult right in their backyard, and the list of missing persons' posters continues to grow, it's safe to say that there is something really off about this town. Our MC is doing her best to remain the glue that keeps everything together.