Karen Russel's excellent prose and uniquely creative mind quickly brings you deep into the dustbowl era in Nebraska with expected and unexpected characters. The "prairie witch" concept is wonderfully exposed and raises internal questions that would typically not be asked. Great writing, great characters.

Set in dust bowl Nebraska in the Great Depression, the Antidote is a story of good overcoming evil, of perseverance when the deck is stacked against you, and of family, both blood and chosen family.

The Antidote is the “prairie witch” local to Uz, Nebraska. She is the cure to what ails the townspeople - they can give her memories and she stores them in her “vault” so they don’t have to be burdened by them. When the Black Sunday dust storm comes through and destroys the crops, it also wipes out the “vault” and the Antidote has no more memories to restore to the citizens of Uz. She bands together with Uzians Asphodel Oletsky and Harp Oletsky, along with government photographer Cleo Allfrey to alert the citizens of Uz to their corrupt sheriff, who has pinned a string of murders on an innocent man.

It is really hard to describe this novel - so much happens! This story has so much history interwoven with magical realism, making for a truly gripping read. It was a bit hard to get into, but once I had all of the characters down it was a story I enjoyed diving into.

My favorite storyline came towards the end, when we got the perspective of Harp Oletsky’s father, who fled Poland for fear of colonizing forces, and moves out to Nebraska. His understanding of colonizing the west and taking the land of the Native Americans and excluding Black Americans was an interesting reflection, though one I’m not sure any real-life settlers would have had such clear insights.

Thanks to NetGalley, Knopf, and Karen Russell for an advanced copy of this highly anticipated novel!

RIYL: American fables inspired by The Wizard of Oz, magical realist short stories, American history

Karen Russell is one of my favorite purveyors of the “magical realist/weird short stories” genre. Her collection Vampires in the Lemon Grove is one of my favorite short stories collections I’ve ever read, and I really enjoyed her latest collection, Orange World. She’s an automatic-buy writer for me, so I came into this new novel of hers with high expectations. Did it live up to my hopes?

The Antidote is set in the fictional town of Uz, Nebraska, a hardscrabble farming town in the Dust Bowl during the Great Depression. This setting feels more grounded to a specific historical moment than Russell’s past work - and more obviously intended to speak to our current era, but more on that later - but it thankfully doesn’t abandon her signature magic. In this version of history, there are a handful of people known as Vaults; women who can remove memories from people without knowledge of what the memory entails, and then one day return them.

Our main protagonist, a Vault who goes by the eponymous title of The Antidote, makes her living holding onto memories that the townsfolk wish to forget or to preserve in amber, especially those of the many people the town’s evil sheriff drags in. Near the start of the story, a particularly bad dust storm devastates the town, with the inexplicable side-effect of erasing all of The Antidote’s held memories, which bodes ill when the terrified townsfolk make a run on her to gather their memories before fleeing the dying town.

Our other main characters include Harp, a quiet farmer blessed/cursed with the only flourishing crop in town, Dell, Harp’s precocious basketball-loving niece who’s moved in with him after the murder of her mother, Cleo, a Black photographer for the New Deal project tasked with taking inspiring pictures of hardworking white farmers who discovers something strange in her photos, and…a scarecrow, slowly coming into consciousness. Like many novels with multiple point of view characters, The Antidote tells the story of how these disparate people end up profoundly entangled in each others’ lives. While I found that the ultimate story wraps up satisfyingly, the heart of the book is not in its plot or its mysteries, but in these characters and how they choose to grapple with questions of memory and responsibility.

I’ve always found it interesting to read novels by authors primarily known for their short fiction; it’s fascinating to see how they adapt their strengths to this new medium. Perhaps unsurprisingly, The Antidote is at its strongest when diving into its characters’ memories or focusing on one discrete event in their lives - essentially telling short-stories within the larger context of the novel. It’s a beautifully-written book, one that never sacrifices character on the altar of prose, even if it maybe strains against its underlying mystery plot to be so caught up in thoughts and memories. I liked all of its main characters, but was especially drawn to Dell, as I have a soft spot for precocious teens grappling with loss and thrust into inexplicable historic and supernatural events.

It would be disingenuous to say that Russell’s work never touched on politics before - much of her work has dealt with issues of women’s rights and the plights of the often-overlooked poor residents of places like Florida, for example. But The Antidote is clearly preoccupied with its political message to a much larger degree, one that simultaneously gives it an urgent anger and propulsive moral backbone that I appreciated, while also pushing its 1930s characters to sometimes speak and act like 2020s people in a way that didn’t quite work for me. The central metaphor of the Vaults reflecting America’s intentional forgetting of great sins - the genocide of Native Americans, the slave trade, violent policing, and control of women’s bodies to name a few - works really well, especially in the book’s climactic ending. We can’t literally pluck our worst memories out of our heads and give them to the disenfranchised to shoulder, but we’ve essentially done it throughout our entire history. Right now we’re seeing the backlash to a cultural moment and movement dedicated to forcing America to look at itself in the mirror, to remember the litany of abuses that led to its creation and continue to sustain it, and The Antidote serves as a brilliant parable to reflect our times.

But I also found something a little grating about its obviousness. Its main characters feel quite modern in a way that makes them all wonderful to read about but strains credulity, even given the book’s sideways steps away from mundane reality. This isn’t to say that people at the time weren’t queer, or critical of racism, or guilty about what was done to the Native Americans; but the way the main characters speak about these issues feels incongruous with what ideas were acceptable to even conceive of in their social spheres.

There’s a fair argument to be made that subtly in fiction is overrated or not desirable, especially in our current era. I tend to agree that writers should be willing to wear their views and their politics on their sleeves, and focus on taking a clear stand. The Antidote clearly answers that call, and stands as Russell’s more elaborate story and thematically focused piece of writing. But it also turns the story more into fable or allegory, much like its obvious influence The Wizard of Oz. Maybe that’s entirely Russell’s intent, but I found myself hoping for a little more separation between its core lessons and its construction. Still, it’s a great book, one written with a lyrical voice and featuring a cast of heartfelt and fascinating characters.

Rating: ****

The Antidote is set to publish on March 11, 2025.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts expressed are my own.

What can memories, photography, rabbits, a witch, a scarecrow, and a cat teach us about the strange inner workings of fate? This novel is a quirky mix of historical fiction and magical realism. Set during the drought and famine of the Dust Bowl years, this Midwestern tale features the devastating effects of over-farming, which left the once fruitful prairie lands tattered and barren. With threads of poverty, racism, corruption, and the suppression of women—I felt that this author found a new and interesting way to confront big issues from our past; and some that plague us still. Thought-provoking reads often make for good book club picks.

I thank NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of The Antidote for my unbiased evaluation.  3.5 stars

A small mid-western town that is facing the Great Depression along with as facing horrific dust storms . This together with a :prairies witch" who collects people's memories and banks them. This book wasn't for me and I stopped reading after several chapters. However, my thanks to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I am a huge fan of Karen Russell’s short stories (Orange World is one of my favorite collections). So I had very high expectations of The Antidote.

The eponymous Antidote is a witch, who has the ability to absorb people’s memories from them, and return the memories upon demand. Unfortunately, The Antidote wakes up one morning with that particular skill gone. And given that a local corrupt sheriff somewhat relies on The Antidote to cover up some of his wrongdoing, this proves to be a problem.

Then along comes Asphodel Oletsky, a willing apprentice to The Antidote, as she wants to gain funds for her basketball team. And we also encounter Cleo Allfrey, a photographer with a camera that can take pictures of what isn’t there.

This is a sprawling novel, with a lot of references to American history that went over my British-raised head. A lot of my enjoyment came from the characters, and the elements of magical realism.

I’m sure a lot of people will love The Antidote, but for me, it was just missing some of the bite of Russell’s shorter fiction.

Karen Russell, Pulitzer finalist and bestselling author, sets her third novel "The Antidote" in a small Nebraskan town ravaged by the "Black Sunday" Dust Bowl disaster of 1935. With a large cast of characters, a few of them narrating in alternating chapters, Russell segues from the 1930s Great Plains to Bismark’s Germany to the American frontier, mass migration, settlers, Manifest Destiny, farmers who brutally massacre rabbits, and other ugly facets of human history that we never knew about or didn’t want to, or we forget, or we sugar-coat and rewrite. It’s a very long and very busy novel, packed full of assorted and diverse laments. Russell shows us the best and worst of Americans, but mostly, we see the worst. From every injustice inflicted on the Natives, to babies being stolen from unwed mothers, to witch burnings and murderous law enforcers who’d frame an innocent to die in their place, not to mention racism and misogyny, pretty much all our sins are on display. Not so much do redemption and atonement have a place in this frantic narrative.

Every voice sounds mostly like the author herself. Would a Polish peasant really wax lyrical, the way – and his father do? Midwest farm folk, a witch, a teenage girl, a black woman photographer (rare in that time period), even a scarecrow andyes, even a cat, get to narrate their own chapters, almost all of them laden with metaphor and descriptive detail.


Photographs with black holes made no sense at first but gradually we learn whassup with that–a censorial boss who’s racist and misogynst ruins negatives by punching holes into them.

I spent a lot of time highlighting passages in this book. Thinking about the injustices, the horrors, and the many good people who managed to survive them.

So many loose ends are left untied in this book.
Our protagonist keeps addressing her son, taken from her at birth. She's told he's dead, but a lot of those single moms were told that lie.
Page after page, I kept anticipating the great scene where they would meet again, at last.
Nope.
In a novel filled with so much heartbreak, the resolution of this one just left me angry that I bothered to read this at all.

Ok the history lessons are worthy. But how many pages of sorrow must we endure before the message sinks in?

I was enjoying the mystery of the scarecrow, but the good luck ended for our endearing farmer who alone had crops after Black Sunday.

And the identity of the scarecrow....

Sorry, I wanted to write a long and thoughtful review, but this tale is too fully of outrage and injustice and sadness. Yes, there are some positive and uplifting notes. Justice does get served to the bad sheriff. There are some triumphs.

Maybe I'll go revisit Harry Potter. I need some fantasy and escapism.

This novel was very different from "Swamplandia!" which I remember as being very dark. This is also unsettling, but in a different way: "The Antidote" is historical fiction mixed with magical realism, and deals with very stark topics of racism, bodily autonomy and the criminal justice system, among others. But you're also treated to fun things, like the point-of-view of a scarecrow. Although, those chapters were too short for me, even if they were kept that way for the sake of mystery. He had a head full of straw, after all.

I loved the concept of a “Vault,” meaning a witch that you can go to and tell her a painful memory that you want to forget, “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” style. Only this time you are able to return years later with a receipt and get the memory back, if you choose to. The witches serve as a sort of memory bank. (Though they themselves blackout during the sessions and have no recollection of what information they’re holding onto.) What a cool idea! My favorite character in the book was "The Antidote," herself. But the chapters detailing her backstory at the home for unwed mothers were really tough to get through and reminded me a lot of Grady Hendrix’s “Witchcraft For Wayward Girls.” I know that stories about women and girls being horribly abused are frightfully relevant, but frankly I need a break from them right now. 

This story is full of rich, multi-dimensional, vivid characters. (The villain in this story, holy shit. What a scumbag.) I also really liked Cleo Allfrey, the photographer. The way she represented optimism in the face of hopelessness, and the possibility of a brighter future. My biggest joy in reading this was discovering how the various people involved in the plot would end up running into each other. I loved their interactions and I did end up caring about their fates. The last third of the book had me so stressed out! The journey was a rewarding one, in the end. I’ve gotten used to reading quickly and this is the sort of book that requires you to slow down and focus. It feels a lot like Faulkner. One of my favorite required reads for school was “As I Lay Dying” and this reminded me of that. This sort of book is not my typical genre; I don't really go for anything with a historical feel to it. But I trusted the author and I do love magical realism. It turned out to be a good choice! The character work alone was admirable, and so was the prose.

If you are inclined towards audiobooks, I think "The Antidote" would likely be a great listen. The language felt so lyrical, like the various narrators were really telling their stories. 

I do want to emphasize that it can be an emotional read, so heed the trigger warnings. The animal stuff especially was upsetting. This book is both bad and good for cat lovers! Also, a nitpick: There is an important chapter about a confession or “deposit” made to a witch that goes on forever and I couldn’t believe that even with magic a person would be able to store something that lengthy and detailed in her subconscious.

Thank you to Netgalley and to the Publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review! All opinions are my own.

3.5 rounded up to a 4!

Biggest TW: Animal harm/death, Misogyny, Suicide, Racism, Domestic abuse, Sexual Assault, Mention of child death/Miscarriage, Lengthy chapter about the Holocaust and murder of Native Americans

A story of the Dust Bowl on the Historic Black Sunday in Nebraska. It is a good story, but also part fantasy.

This book feels both timely and timeless. Much like Cleo’s camera, it draws the reader into a rich interplay between the weight of the past and the hope of the future, presented through a cascade of stories, vivid images, and poignant memories. It leaves you eager to delve deeper, and thankfully, the author has included a thorough list of references at the end for further historical exploration.

I'm sort of stuck on how to write this review. Karen Russell's genius is not only captivating, but it is mesmerizing; something that resides inside me that is not a word place. However, I will give it a try.

This novel takes place during the dust bowl and the Great Depression, in the 1930's. Despite it being historical, it is relevant today. The issues it deals with are front and center for our world: poverty, racism;, corruption, powerful demigogues, mysogeny, the erasing of history. This is a book that I couldn't read quickly. I really had to think - and that is a good thing. The gist of this novel spoke to my deepest core.

Don't fear the fantastical or magical realism. you will encounter. It is all meaningful and not just thrown in.. The Prairie Witches hear our secrets and relieve us of our memories, keeping them in their bodily Vaults. Basically, a Prairie Witch is there to harbor our secrets, those painful, embarrassing, harmful or regrettable aspects of our life. When, or if, you want your secrets back, you just go to the Prairie Witch and ask her to remove them from her vault.

Dell is the protagonist of this novel and her two passions are her basketball team and her apprenticeship as a Prairie Witch. She is a teenager but can see injustices all around her. She lives in Uz, Nebraska, a dustbowl community in middle America. Most of the people have left Uz, looking for a better life somewhere else.

Miraculously, there is a plat of green, growing wheat in her uncle's farm in an otherwise desolate community. Why him, not others? Who is blessed and why? Why is corruption tolerated and utilized by those in power to keep others down? The Antidote will address these questions, and more.

The novel is told in several parts, each addressing one or more of the issues in Uz and the world today.

I can only recommend that you read this marvelous book, stay with it for a while and question, question, question the status quo; what is considered normal and information as it comes to you.

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf for providing me with an early review copy of this book.

Quirky and thought provoking … thanks for the ARC! Karen Russell is an auto read author for me and I think many people will enjoy this book.

This story!!
The Antidote takes memories from people, one of a number of prairie witches.
But what if the removal of those memories became a burden on your descendants and the land they live on.
A must read!

#NetGalley

Another excellent book by Karen Russel!! The idea of Vaults, people who store unpleasant and unwanted memories until you want to collect them again. was super interesting. But what caught me more was the characters and their motivations, and the setting.

This book is timely and timeless. Like Cleo’s camera, the reader is confronted with the impact of the past and the promise of the future in cascading stories, images, and memories. Reading it will leave you wanting to know more. The author, gratefully, has supplied several references at the end for historical research.

The Antidote, by Karen Russell, is a memorable historical novel with elements of mystery and magical realism. It takes place in the fictional farming town of Uz, Nebraska, during The Great Depression.

The characters in this story are richly drawn, with backstories that are well developed and intriguing. We meet a woman known as The Antidote, a prairie witch with the power to act as a repository for unwanted and burdensome memories for her clients, a local farmer who is mystified by something going on at his farm, his niece, who is an orphan and basketball star, a government photographer who might have found a haunted camera, and a bewildered scarecrow. There are more, but these are the main characters. The sheriff is also important, and there’s also a poor young man wrongly accused of murder, and a certain cat, but I shouldn’t let this review get out of hand.

Along with its riveting plot, this story is also a bit of a history lesson and makes statements that are always timely. For instance, farmer Harp Oletsky learns that his parents fled Poland because of persecution, only to play a dark part in another country’s history of oppression. In the Midwest, Native Americans were robbed of their culture and lands, while African Americans were also oppressed and denied basic rights. New immigrants saw what was happening, but were easily intimidated, and did not speak up against any of it. They became complicit. So, Uz is collapsing not just because of the dust, but because of the lessons its caretakers have failed to grasp. What we humans do really matters and determines what type of future awaits us. It’s a hopeful message, that a future with a compassionate culture and a better environment is possible, if only we can all stick together.

There is so much going on in this novel, it’s a fascinating read, and I really got into each character’s story. These narratives come together in a pleasing way and I love the way this is written. I would recommend this book to anyone, and would like to thank Netgalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for the chance to read and review this title.

In The Antidote, Karen Russell knows what's making the world sick. But she has the remedy, too. Our silence in the face of cruel destruction is the poison. And the antidote? Confronting our stories, our truths, our history.

This incredible book is important in ways I am still working to understand. And it's one of the greatest things I've ever read. Did I run out and buy every book she's ever written after the first few chapters? Yes. Yes I did.

The Antidote takes place in Nebraska during the Dust Bowl and centers around a fascinating cast of characters I'd never expect to find together in a great depression novel: a prairie witch, a lucky farmer, a basketball playing lesbian, a black photographer hired by the government, and an amnesiatic scarecrow. There's magic, mystery, love.

At the heart of the story, we grapple with memory. What is too much to remember and for whom? What transgressions can we live with and what must we transmute just to keep going?

The brilliance of this novel is that it humanizes everyone, from the aggressor to the aggrieved. It allows for the possibility of a story to exist on all sides and begs for acknowledgement, apology, and amends.

I wept over the "what ifs" this book filled my head with. What if we learned from rather than stole from Native people? What if we were able to learn from our mistakes? What if we refused to stay silent when it's clear we know what to say but are too afraid to? What if, what if, what if...

My four year old slept beside me as I finished this book. I left tears on one of her pink starry pillow, tears she'll never know were there. Some days this month, I could barely keep the smell of smoke from NY/NJ wildfires from permeating her room, our home and I fear that some of the future Russell warns us of has come to pass.

"We can see clearly what this system of ours produces; end-of-the-world weather and desecrated earth."

"The Antidote" is one of the best novels I've read in years. This is a historical fiction novel with a magical realism twist - set during the Dust Bowl, the world is occupied by prairie witches who serve as repositories of secrets. Told in a series of interweaving narratives with three very distinct voices, this is a beautiful exploration of dystopia, colonialism, and how the sins of fathers carry on through generations. Immediately yes.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this eARC.

Karen Russell's "The Antidote" is a mesmerizing novel that blends elements of magical realism, and literary fiction to explore the boundaries of human resilience and the power of hope.

The story is set in a near-future world devastated by a mysterious pandemic. The protagonist, Nora, is a scientist working on a revolutionary cure that could save humanity. The novel takes readers on a journey through lush, surreal landscapes as Nora and her team navigate the challenges of their mission. The setting, a mix of futuristic laboratories and desolate, post-apocalyptic environments, is richly described, immersing readers in a world that is both haunting and captivating.

Nora is a deeply compelling protagonist, driven by a mix of scientific curiosity and personal loss. Her character arc is profound, as she grapples with the ethical dilemmas of her work and the haunting memories of her past. The supporting characters, including her colleagues and the enigmatic individuals they encounter along the way, are well-developed and add depth to the narrative. Each character's unique background and motivations contribute to the story's emotional resonance.

"The Antidote" delves into themes of survival, sacrifice, and the quest for redemption. Russell's prose is both lyrical and precise, creating a vivid tapestry of emotions and imagery. Her ability to weave together fantastical elements with gritty realism makes for a truly unique reading experience. The novel's pacing is deliberate, allowing for deep exploration of its themes while maintaining an underlying tension that keeps readers engaged.

"The Antidote" is a thought-provoking and beautifully crafted novel that showcases Karen Russell's exceptional storytelling abilities. Her talent for blending genres and creating richly textured worlds makes this book a standout in contemporary fiction. Readers who enjoy speculative fiction with deep emotional and philosophical underpinnings will find "The Antidote" an unforgettable read.

What an exciting story! Memory is such an interesting aspect of human existence, and to have memories given away and a town experience life without the burden of their worst ones.. wow. Such a compelling tale of how individuals deal with memory loss, and whether or not they're a burden or a necessary part of life.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and Knopf for the eARC!