yup - as stunning as it's been touted to be - well written and startling - Vern gives birth in a forest to twins - having prepared us with her story, we expect the exceptional and the story delivers ... a bizarre mix of super powers - but wonderfully not explained away but lived with as a natural tool box in a way - really loved this ... surprising even myself - mix of genres is satisfying and refreshing .... and that's a hard thing to manage ...

Sorrowland is a gripping, insightful novel that combines the real and the fantastical, as an escapee from a separatist compound starts developing powers. Vern has spent as long as she remembers in a Black separatist religious compound, used to night terrors and being told she's too willful. When she escapes one night into the woods she's hunted, but discovers she is developing extra-sensory powers. Vern gives birth to twins and raises them in the woods, but she must leave the woods if she wants answers to the larger questions about what has happened to her and others, and what power led that to happen.

I wanted to read this book after the hype around it and Rivers Solomon, and it surpassed my expectations, drawing me into Vern's world both on a character level and to think about the power structures and histories that cause medical experimentation and other horrors. Vern and her children Howling and Feral are memorable characters carefully constructed, especially around what Howling and Feral know and how they experience the world, having spent the first few years of their lives in the woods. The approach to gender in the book was another element that was particularly good, touching on lived experience of fluidity and its importance over labels.

Another notable thing about Sorrowland is that despite all of the horrors that occur and the importance of power structures and nations in causing that horror, there is also a focus on individual healing and survival. Vern and Gogo's relationship, and the restorative qualities of being able to rely on other people rather than having to fight everything yourself, felt very crucial, bringing out ideas of community resistance.

Exploring both a personal rebellion and metamorphosis and larger structural abuse of groups of people, Sorrowland is a genre-defying novel that takes such a powerful approach towards resistance, gender, and who the monsters really are. I think it'll be lingering with me for a long time.

Firstly, thank you to NetGalley for the eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The story focuses on Vern, a 15 year old who manages to escape from her abusive husband and the cult he leads. Whilst on the run in the woods she gives birth to twin boys, Feral & Howling. She then has to find a way to survive on her own, whilst looking after her babies and suffering from hallucinations (hauntings) and her changing body as a side effect of what happened when she lived with the cult.

I seriously wanted to love this book, it sounded amazing on paper but unfortunately I struggled to push through it. I found it beautifully written and the story flowed well but at times I found it hard to follow and in all honesty a bit bizarre but I think that's due to my personal preference in regards to book genres. This is a mixture of quite a few genres, horror, thriller, sci-fi.. A bit of everything really.

Overall rating: 3 stars

My thanks to Random House U.K. Cornerstone/Merky Books for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘Sorrowland’ by Rivers Solomon in exchange for an honest review.

This is undoubtedly a strange, genre spanning novel. Its lead character is Vern, a fifteen-year-old Black woman with albinism. She has escaped from a strict religious compound into the woods; though she is being hunted by someone or something. There she gives birth to twins and raises them away from the influences of the modern world.

Yet Vern knows something is wrong with her body, it is changing: becoming stronger and she is developing extra-sensory powers. In order to
understand her metamorphosis, Vern investigates the religious community and the violent history of dehumanisation, medical experimentation, and genocide that produced it.

This was a promising premise that drew me strongly and I also enjoy novels that span genres. In part I felt that it fulfilled this initial promise but drifted (at least for me) as it progressed.

The first part of the novel as Vern carved out a place in the deep woods for herself and her children was fascinating and I was totally engaged.
However, as the weirdness of Vern’s metamorphosis began to dominate the narrative, I found it increasingly difficult to follow the plot and connect to its characters. Also, ‘Sorrowland’ was packed with the kind of material that necessitates content warnings. It began to feel excessive and turned me away.

I certainly felt that Rivers Solomon’s writing was powerful and I have also heard many good things about their work. I will look into reading their earlier books or perhaps return for a closer reading of ‘Sorrowland’ at another time.

It is difficult to judge whether a novel such as ‘Sorrowland’ will appeal to a particular reader or not. I found it quite challenging in terms of content though that is not necessarily a barrier in terms of recommending, more something to be aware of.

Disturbing, enthralling, gripping and thought provoking.
A book that mixes different genres creating something new and fresh.
There's a lot going on in this book, there are well thought characters and tightly knitted plot, emotions and a young woman who deals with a lot and fight.
It's an excellent story, highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Wow! This book is a stunning mix of complex modern day issues (combining racism, gender fluidity, sexual fluidity, cult mentality) with science fiction and mysticism.

Vern escapes a pro black commune/cult that started off being idealistic, but devolved into something else). She runs off to live in the woods and birth her twins but is hounded by a fiend that dogs her movements. In trying to escape it, she discovers her body is changing into something else, and she has new abilities. During her quest for survival, she explores her sexuality, questions her upbringing, and tests her new abilities and all that comes with it.

I love how this book explores the different issues - it covers the issues of race and American oppression as we come to understand what the commune was and what was really going on. The author also explores gender fluidity as not all men are really men, Vern is other and we aren’t told the true gender of the twins. Vern sleeps with both men and women and there are some smutty sapphic scenes. Vern is also albino but this is pretty normalised and only referenced with the issues with her eyesight. The science fiction element is really interesting and one I don’t want to spoil .

There are soo many facets to this book and to Vern’s character, I could discuss it for ages. It’s one I would love to reread and discuss in a book club, as I’m sure there will be nuances or different aspects I missed. Tremendous piece of work. Cannot recommend enough.

"Vern wished to make every moment of her life a rebellion, not just against the Blessed Acres of Cain but the world in all its entirety. Nothing would be spared her resistance."

Wow, wow, wow, where to start with this review!! There is so much I would like say about Sorrowland, I would have loved to have read it with a friend because if ever there was a book that should be discussed, debated and read with other bookish buddies, it is this one.

The book opens with an albino 15 year old Vern, giving birth to twins alone in the woods after running away from the Blessed Acres of Cain, the cultist compound she grew up in. Although, she knows someone is after her and her children, she is determined to never return. As Vern makes a life for her family, living free from the influences of others, she starts to notice some unusual changes happening to her body. To understand her metamorphosis, Vern has to uncover the dark history and powers behind the compound she left.

The skill in which Rivers Sololmon wrote this book is incredibly remarkable. It's a perfect blend of magical realism and speculative fiction, mixed with some gothic horror and even a beautiful dash of queer smut. All entwined in a deep rooted story that examines America's abuse of power and the systems that help to maintain it. Not only does Solomon cover this dynamic of the corruptible and exploitable nature of power, both institutional and within personal relationships. They have created some of the most amazing multidimensional, diverse and intersectional characters I've read in a while.

The way Vern approached motherhood and parenting while bringing them up living the woods, was so enjoyable to read and challenged conventions. Her children, Howling and Feral have unique personalities of their own that radiate off the pages. The character development, brilliant pacing and layered plot all made for an outstanding book.

Karen Chilton's audiobook narration is phenomenal and completely immersed me into the story. I highly recommend listening to it but you're anything like me and enjoy making copious highlights, you'll definitely also want a copy of the book.

5 stars

Thank you to Random House UK, Cornerstone, Penguin Random House UK Audio and Merky Books for providing me with the e-arc and audiobook to review.

I enjoyed this a lot. I didn't know what to expect going in, but with the experience I have from reading Rivers Solomon's work, I expected it to be somewhat weird. And I got weird :)

The story follows Vern who in the beginning is running away from a cult but she is pregnant and she gives birth in the forest. We follow her as she tried to survive and figures out what the cult actually is.

It was a fascinating storyline and I never really questioned any of the twist and turns. Yes, they surprised me a bit but in a good way.

The world-building was a bit spar in the beginning. I struggled for a long time figuring out when we were. was it 2020? 1980? 1860?1780? I mean when? I would have liked a bit more information in the beginning about this but the confusion did little harm to my enjoyment and I figured it out eventually.

As with the author's previous work I loved the writing. It's direct and to the point without much faff. Sometimes I felt there was a bit much of the telling instead but all in all the balance was good.

I loved the book and I can't wait to see what the author does next.

I recently read Rivers Solomon's short story, "Blood is Another Word for Hunger," and loved it, so I was doubly excited to read the Netgalley ARC of *Sorrowland*. *Sorrowland* also counts for Jen Campbell's Disability Readathon which ran over the month of April. I did not think far enough ahead in my TBR creations to actually plan a disability TBR (even though I should have). By a happy accident, a few disability books ended up in my lap during April anyway.

Solomon's writing is beautiful, visceral, and haunting and I really enjoyed this book. The main character, Vern, a Black woman with albinism, escapes from the compound of a strict religious cult while heavily pregnant and the book follows her survival journey with her twin sons. Vern comes across several other characters through her journey, for good or bad, and it shapes the way she continues to live. As the story continues, Vern starts to notice that maybe her body isn't entirely "normal."

*Sorrowland* is a creepy and unsettling story for many reasons, including weird body stuff (absolutely for fans of *The Beauty* and *Follow Me to Ground*), but also in the way patriarchal oppression intersects with civil rights work. Solomon includes a lot of commentary on the way white supremacy and western imperialism have shaped our world and our relationships to physical bodies.

> 'There's a word for that, you know. In English.'
'I'd rather not know it, then,' said Vern.
Gogo nodded. 'Why not?'
'Because without a name for it, it's just something I am. A part of life. Once it's got a name, I know that means someone has studied it, dissected it, pulled it apart. When something has a name, they can say it's bad,' said Vern, and she didn't want to hear anybody else's thoughts on what was bad anymore.

If you read *Wilder Girls* and were disappointed with the "explanation" of the tox in that story, then I think you would enjoy *Sorrowland* more in terms of the "weird body stuff."

I was so happy when I’ve been approved for this review and I was so excited to finally read it, but unfortunately, this book didn’t become my favourite.

The premise sounds really intriguing, but I try to keep the summary as minimal as possible:
The story centres around Vern, an albino black pregnant teenage girl, who escapes from a Black religious commune known as the Blessed Acres of Cain or better known as ‘Cainland’. While desperately running away from her “hometown” she gives birth to her twin sons. As times passes by Vern starts to experience physical changes, which she suspects could be the results of the never-ending medical drug usage back at Cainland.

The book touches on important topics such as gender, race, sexuality and even motherhood, and I can certainly agree with the comments that state it is a genre-bending novel, with the mixture of sci-fi, fantasy, gothic fiction and horror and I haven’t even mentioned the representations within this book!

Just by writing down all these aspects of the story - being dark and weird but discussing important questions - I was fully expecting it to be at least a 4 stars read. But it didn’t turn out to be this way. Although, I can completely see why people would love this book, for me it felt too ambitious, the pace of the story felt a bit all over the place, I couldn’t really connect with writing and that’s why I simply just couldn’t connect to the story overall.

There were some interesting moments to remember and it definitely has many layers to unpack, but it just wasn’t for me.

Sorrowland is a fierce, flawless and darkly captivating genre-bending contemporary novel, with elements of speculative science fiction, horror, thriller and gothic fiction. It boldly tackles the complex history of racism in America, the systems of oppression that continue to exert such an extraordinary force in our world and the increasing marginalisation of those society deems to be undesirable. Vern is an intersex, albino 15-year-old black teenager who was raised in a cult in Cainland known as the Blessed Acres of Cain and is wedded to the cult leader Reverend Sherman. As time passes she becomes more and more desperate to escape the oppression of the strict religious compound. As she reaches 7 months into her pregnancy she decides to flee to the woods for shelter in the hope of leaving the trauma and abuse behind her. There she soon gives birth to twins she names Howling and Feral and plans to raise them far away from the influences she was subjected to, but little does she know, the claustrophobic community she was once part of does not want to let her go. For 4 years she manages to successfully evade those hunting her down and stalking her family like prey as she dresses her young babies in the furs and hides of animals she has caught.

They have a desire to learn and understand their environment so Vern teaches her two boys about nature to feed their omnipresent curiosity. The family are being followed by The Fiend, a wicked tormentor who slaughters animals before dressing them in infants’ clothes and scattering them throughout the forest, letting Vern know she is being watched. The Fiend also tries to smoke them out by cultivating dangerous fires that rage with a searing heat and spread through the dense woodland ferociously. And until their unexpected meeting with him, Howling and Feral have had no contact with humans for the first 4 years of their life. 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. Her metamorphosis is caused by a parasite that ravishes and takes over her body. Alongside these terrifying physical changes, Vern gradually begins to experience horrific nightmares and hallucinations that haunt her everywhere she goes and she can no longer tell reality from the supernatural visions she is plagued with.

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. This is a compelling, enthralling and beguiling story of a family fighting to survive against the odds. It's rich in claustrophobic atmosphere and a creeping sense of dread underpins the narrative from start to finish; a striking searing novel featuring ample twists and turns, Sorrowland hits with authority and urgency. This is one of those rare books I will never forget for its stunning, rage-driven and explosive, yet nuanced, portrayal of issues such as misogyny, identity, gender, religion, race, love, loss, trust, survival, motherhood, sexuality, conspiracy, mental health and government experimentation on blacks. It's written beautifully and is full of imagination and disturbing imagery that unsettles you more and more as the story progresses. Told in Solomon’s bold, fearless literary voice this profound and incredibly moving tale is evocative and often upsetting and is an astonishing novel, not only for the story it tells–the odyssey and transformation of Vern, through a nightmarish yet recognisable landscape–but also for the story it tells about today. One of the finest books of 2021. I cannot recommend this highly enough.

4.5 stars
Sorrowland is a mashup of horror, sci-fi and fantasy, yet the themes covered are very much rooted in the real world, with things like motherhood, sexuality, race and religion explored. The story is utterly unpredictable and it was refreshing to follow this strange, gruesome narrative that always left me guessing how it would play out. The characters are complex, each with unique perspectives on the world. Many of Vern's actions are appalling but you can't help admiring her determination and commitment to her children especially, when everyone else is against her. The children themselves were a joy to read about, and Vern's relationships with them as well as other characters were so complex - her relationship with Cainland and the memories of her childhood was yet another well-analysed aspect. There were so many heart-breaking moments in the book, along with so many insightful and quotable lines, and I just loved everything about it.

Sorrowland is the latest offering from Rivers Solomon , and is a powerful piece of speculative fiction. The book is the story of Vern, a young albino Black woman who flees her cult like home when she discovers she is pregnant and gives birth to twins in the woods that have given her shelter. She is so determined to escape the abuses she endured in the name of religion that she decides to raise her children , named Howling and Feral , away from people, deep in the woods where nature will provide them with all they need to survive. Unfortunately the Church of Cain is not going to let her go that easily, and so the family become fugitives, hunted through their forest home. As if that is not enough to deal with , Vern feels like something is deeply wrong in her body , and not just the differences she has known about since childhood, she is changing, becoming something different and in order to understand she will be forced to face the truth about her family, her community and society as a whole.
This is a strange and dark book, with beautiful prose and striking imagery that draw the reader in, Vern is a strangely compelling narrator, often unlikeable and cold to the point of cruelty, there are moments where her love for her children cast her in an entirely new light. The story takes a strange turn in the latter half of the book, moving more into horror territory, which some readers might find unsettling, but I really liked as it took me to a place I was not expecting, however there was a feeling of the story being a little rushed as the book drew closer to the ending , which is unfortunate.
This is a strange, memorable and unforgettable book, and fans of the author's previous works will certainly enjoy it.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

Where to start with this explosion of a book? I truly felt that I was reading something very new and very different, the first parts of the book being particularly strong and compelling.

Vern is a defiant character, fleeing from a cult and bringing up twins in the woods, before being challenged to return and confront the massive issues thrown up by the cult and her ongoing connection to it,

This is a very challenging read, and although to me it ran out of steam towards the end when the writing became almost short-cut and note-like, it is a defiant celebration of life. It is traumatising and challenging and thought-provoking to read - don't miss it.

The first half of the book, when Vern was in the forest with her twins was quite intriguing, but the second half became more and more bizarre as Vern transformed into a weird creature with super-strength. It took too long to build up to a conclusion and the ending was unsatisfying. There are too many long descriptions of sexual activity. I think with some editing this could be good, as it is original and quirky but it just doesn"t work as it is. The best characters are the twins.

Rivers Solomon describes themselves on their website as follows: Rivers Solomon is a dyke, an anarchist, a she-beast, an exile, a shiv, a wreck, and a refugee of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. Fae writes about life in the margins, where fae's much at home. So it is perhaps unsurprising that Vern, the protagonist of her third novel Sorrowland, fits many of these descriptors. Sorrowland is the story of Vern’s journey from runaway to outcast to fugitive to her own kind of hero.
When Sorrowland opens Vern is alone in the forest giving birth while also avoiding a person or creature who she calls the fiend. Vern has run away from a Black religious commune known as the Blessed Acres of Cain, a seeming utopia that hides dark secrets. In the forest she gives birth to twins who she names Howling and Feral and she begins to raise them in that place. But things change and the three need to go on the run eventually connecting with others who try to help them. As this journey progresses though, Vern finds herself changing both mentally and physically, a result of the experiments run on the inhabitants of the commune. These changes make her a bigger target but also give her the power to take back control of her world.
Sorrowland bases its action in the modern mythology of the superhero origin story Those power borrow also from a growing body of fantasy amd science fiction (cf Star Trek: Discovery among others) that is fascinated with how fungi might communicate through the mycelial network. But its themes run much deeper than this – referencing a dark history of experimentation on Black communities including the Tuskegee Study and the work of James Marion Sims (also dealt with recently in HBO’s adaptation of Lovecraft Country). Solomon also tackles issues of gender and identity and through Vern’s power to connect with the dead, how to reconcile and work through the sins of the past.
Sorrowland, like Vern herself, attempts to carry a heavy load of both storytelling and theme. And it mainly succeeds. Solomon has crafted an engaging fantasy around a damaged and flawed individual who finds her strength and her purpose with the help of her children and others around her. Like many of the narratives that it draws from, they ultimately deliver a story of finding inner strength, of coming to terms with a troubled and violent history and of redemption.

Synopsis: Vern is a pregnant Black teenage woman somewhere in the East of U.S.A. She flees from the repressive religious Cainite sect into the wild where she lives self-sustained from the woods. Her strength and endurance is remarkable, slightly supernatural which she needs to escape a "Fiend" who hunts her. She gives birth to two boys, Howling and Feral, dresses them in animal hides, hiding them in makeshift shelters, hunts and gathers to survive the next winter. 

Something itches at her back, she rubs herself bleedy with a bark but it doesn't stop. A parasite takes over her back. 

A stranger was growing inside her.

Vern suspects that she was used as a guinea pig back at the Cainites to develop superhero powers. Her metamorphosis just started.

Four years later, she decides to track down her best friend Lucy who left the sect years before her. Arriving at her home, she finds out that Lucy is dead. But she stays there, bonding with a Native American Gogo who takes the little family in. 

But outside forces still want to hunt her down and a surreal pursuit starts.

Review: I was eager to read the author's next book after their mermaid novella The Deep (review). 

After some initial troubles getting into the novel, an engaging story started with Vern's survival story. That first half read like a Wild West story given all the religious sect and wood survival. This drove the novel as a page turner, but ended at Gogo's doors. Relax and recommit to a different story which was astonishing in a different way. But the rest was more of a psychedelic trip opening up every superhero trope one can think of. 

I mostly enjoyed the story despite or maybe because of Vern's harsh and fierce character. The kids were cute and added to the fun, but most importantly provided the anchor for the theme of responsibility.

Don't expect a comfort read, it is an intensely angry book yelling at you for attention. Flashbacks to Vern's past at the Cainites make you suffer with her.  

If you like to read a prequel of a superhero, a coming-of-age story which isn't YA at all, then this is worth your time.

Sorrowland

A young woman names Vern runs away to live in the forest.

A teenaged, African American, albino, nearly blind, heavily pregnant, intersex woman escapes a cult and a marriage to a cult leader in order to give birth to twins in the forest.

A woman who has been abused and experimented on by the people that she should have been able to trust discovers that she has been infected by a strange and primal parasite that changes her into something wild and unknown.

Vern discovers that being too much – too loud, too hungry, too black, too white, too sexual, too curious, too queer, too strong, too wild – may be the only thing that she needs to be.

A book by Rivers Solomon is not easy to read. It just isn’t. Even if you didn’t need the kind of trigger or content warnings that I will always give before recommending a Rivers book, there is just so much inside these books that is sharp and piercing. So much that wounds even as it heals.
Rivers’ first book, ‘An Unkindness of Ghosts’, gave us a space-faring story of slavery within a dying colony ship midway through a centuries long journey toward a too distant possible salvation.
‘The Deep’ , inspired by the incredible clipping song (with the incomparable Daveed Diggs), is about the descendants of pregnant women thrown from slave ships reborn as mermaids and generational trauma. Sorrowland…..

There is just so much, so many layers! For many writers they would have stopped with about half of what Rivers manages to pack in. Even as just an example of queer and LGBTQ’s+ rep, Rivers is nonpareil.
In Unkindness, the MC is non binary and asexual. The Deep shows a queer, neuro-atypical mermaid falling in love. Sorrowland has trans, intersex, lesbian, gay, and bisexual characters, and even when there is prejudice and violent judgements, it is just a part of the incredible breadth of storytelling.

I may have had to stop multiple times in order to take mental health space from Sorrowland, and I may have a few addendums, a “few, uh, provisos, a, a couple of quid pro quos” before recommending, but I genuinely can’t give anything other than a complete 5/5 stars.
For Vern, for her twins Howling and Feral, and for Rivers, FIVE.

Now to clean up the mound of tissues that I used up reading Sorrowland….

Difficult to classify this one - Where the crawdads sing meets X-Men?

OK, I'm kind of joking there but this is a very unusual book. It's clear the author has a lot of talent and I was drawn in to the story of runaway Vern and her newborn babies, as they struggle to survive in the woods whilst stalked by the mysterious 'fiend'. The book unfolds as a hugely ambitious genre-bender. But whilst it's memorable, it doesn't quite pull off what it was going for.

The first half of the book is really well written and I was thoroughly enjoying it. However, I felt the wheels came off in the second half unfortunately. The pacing seemed off, with quite a slow section where Vern becomes close to some new characters, then large plot developments happening very abruptly, or somewhat bizarre occurrences coming out of leftfield (I'm not a fan of hunting but the "hey, we're totally evil!" hunter characters just seemed weird).

It all leads into a hectic, messy, action-movie climax which felt a little out of place with the first half of the book.

However, there was lots to admire about the writing and the great, big ideas here. It's the sort of book I should have loved but in the end the execution of the second half of the book didn't quite work for me.

PS - Kudos for the most bizarre sex scene I can recall since...ever.

I have mixed feelings about this book but it's more of a me problem rather than a book problem. I truly enjoy Rivers Solomon's stories and their gift to craft stories on such important subjects. My issue is that i just can't connect with the writing style and can't fully immersed in the story.