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The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

This book was SO MUCH FUN to read! I generally do not like books with too many characters; it's hard for me to keep track of a bunch of names of usually minor characters who can oftentimes be combined into one character. On the other hand, it's also irritating when there are several characters whose only defining feature is a catchphrase or uniform (think: cartoon characters).

Before we get too far into this, I would like to point out that this book contains two individual scenes of sexual assault.

However. This book blew me away with how vivid and detailed each character was. I had no trouble keeping track of who was who, remembering each character's backstory and goals, and the way McBride handled dialogue was excellent. The psychic distance was kind of zoomed out, but with so many intertwining characters and plot lines going, it was necessary not to get too close to any one particular character. McBride did a great job of weaving a complex plot without being predictable or too unbelievable. With every page, something new was revealed.

I wished that the ending had been different. Spoilers below the cut.

I knew that Dodo would be rescued, but I really wanted the conversation between him and Nate in which Dodo understood that he wasn't in trouble and someone explained why no one came to visit him. We never got it. I will say, though, that the epilogue was satisfying as far as the Dodo plotline was concerned.

The other thing I liked was that Malachi's presence was never explained. I was torn on whether this added or detracted from my enjoyment of the novel, and I think it was additive in the end. A little bit of mystery can be good sometimes.

And if you're wondering, the characters who commit sexual assault get punished in the end.

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Her Sister's Tattoo by Ellen Meeropol

I came across this novel when I was at AWP this past weekend, where I bought too many books and am still trying to make a dent in the pile of them. (That sentence made no sense, but you catch my drift.) The basic premise: Two sisters are arrested while protesting the Vietnam war. One sister has to testify against the other, and this reverberates through the family for generations.

The writing was lovely, and the story was gripping. Almost the entire novel was told in the 3rd person limited, with one character being the focal point of each chapter, and the focal character's name was the title of each chapter, which I always appreciate. When dealing with a rotating POV or a novel that has a huge cast of characters, I find that it's much easier to follow when the character name is at the start of each chapter rather than having to discern whose chapter it is from context. Unless it serves the story, it's just easier that way.

That being said, there was one character who got a first-person POV in all of her chapters. I would have really liked to know why the author chose to do it this way and what her reasoning was. (And I probably could've asked her too, since it was AWP!) It didn't distract me so much that I couldn't focus or engage with those chapters, but it struck me as inconsistent.

The passage of time flowed really well in this novel. It spanned multiple generations, which can be challenging, but Meeropol did it with grace. The historical info felt accurate and not obtrusive; the author had done her research, but didn't feel compelled to make us read endless paragraphs to prove it.

I did think that some of the characters' actions were a little bit hard to believe or go along with. The relationship between the two daughters who meet at summer camp was... odd. I also found it surprising that the Esther was so willing to never speak of Rosa just because that's what her husband wanted. For such an allegedly headstrong character, this didn't track for me. I wanted the parents, especially the father, to be a little more rounded out. Also, the first several chapters of the book talk about breastfeeding--a lot. This normally wouldn't be worth mentioning, but it seems to appear on every page, sometimes every paragraph, for quite a while. It's not because it's a bodily function, but simply because it seems odd to mention something so much, so often, and then never bring it up for most of the rest of the novel, especially because it is completely inconsequential to the plot.

All in all, I really enjoyed this novel, and I devoured it in one day. The writing struck a really nice balance between lyricism and accessibility, the story was gripping, and the characters were vivid.

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Brutes by Dizz Tate

This book was incredible! As a writer from Florida who is obsessed with all things girlhood and coming-of-age, I knew I'd like this novel, but I cannot overstate how much I LOVED it.

Here's the basic premise: a group of several neighborhood girls (if I recall correctly they are 13) is obsessed with Sammy, the local televangelist's daughter. When Sammy goes missing, all hell breaks loose. There's more to it than that (a lot more!) but I don't want to give anything away.

So many things are done well in this novel. First of all, the use of the first-person plural was bold. Really bold! And it worked. I honestly did not think Tate could pull it off for as long as she did, but I was pleasantly surprised. I think the use of the first-person plural (we do this, we do that,) was so effective because it both captures and mythologizes the teen girl experience, as well as highlighting this group mentality of the obsession with Sammy.

One of the major symbols in Brutes is the lake in the subdivision where most of the novel takes place. Oh, did I mention there's a lake monster? Yeah, sign me the fuck up! There is so much going on in this novel, action and weirdness and tension (oh, the tension!) on every page, so at times the lake monster seems like less of a concern than it maybe should be? But also, when you're a teenage girl, it can be hard to prioritize. (Speaking only from personal experience here as a former teen girl.)

The novel also did a really fantastic job of managing huge jumps in the timeline which were accompanied by changes in POV. I definitely think it was the right move to shift into the first person singular for the chapters that didn't take place in childhood. It helped break up the weirdness of the repeated "we," pronouns in the bulk of the story, and it also gave depth and definition to the characters speaking as "I" in their designated chapters.

I have zero complaints about this book, other than the fact that I did not read it sooner. This was so good, so filled with beautiful, brilliant, and creepy lines, and just utterly captivated me in every way. If you are looking for something unlike anything you've read before that doesn't wrap pretty much anything up at the end, sprint to your nearest bookstore or library and read Brutes!

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A Home for Friendless Women by Kelly Hill

Before we get started, I'd like to note that this book contains scenes of sexual violence/rape, a stabbing, and suicide.

Alright, so this book left me with a really heavy feeling. Set in Louisville, KY in the Victoria era, (yeah, so it's already pretty grim), the novel follows the lives of several women who are involved in what's more contemporarily known as a home for unwed mothers. It's quite clear that Hill did her research on this time period and associated societal norms, which were basically misogyny, misogyny, and... more misogyny.

The writing was gorgeous. I say that a lot because I will read just about anything if the writing is pretty, pleasant to read, or just especially well-crafted. This book was no exception. There were some truly beautiful lines, which stood out against the bleakness of the concept.

Structurally, Hill broke the story up into three different plotlines, the first two being in the first-person, the last one in omniscient(ish) third-person. I liked the second one the best because I thought that narrator was the most likeable and easiest to understand. (Not on a comprehension level, but an emotional one.) I didn't really find it necessary that the last character's arc was in third-person, but it was a nice, if jarring, break from the intensity of the first-person.

I'll be honest, I was confused at the end. As I've mentioned, I have a hard time with novels that have (what I consider) too many characters, and many of them had similar names (Mary, Marie, Mimi, etc.) which is even harder for me to differentiate. (I think I read in one of those "hey kiddo, do ya wanna write a novel?" books that writers should never give their characters unusual names or names that are too similar unless its central to the plot, and I think I just internalized this at a young age, and my brain just refuses to work with me on this one. anyway.) But yeah, I wasn't quite sure what had happened with the situation with one of the babies at the end.

That being said, this book is a grim and stark look at what motherhood and womanhood was like in the Victorian era (overall: bad.) It also makes pregnancy, birth, and postpartum look pretty bleak. Again, Hill did her research, and presents her findings to us without holding back.

I did wonder why the book was broken into three very distinct sections, and why they didn't overlap as significantly as I thought they might have. Especially with the change in POV, I thought that was signaling something important or central to the plot, but it never came.

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You Exist Too Much by Zaina Arafat

This was such an impactful little book! The writing was really beautiful and introspective, a good mix of heartrendingly funny and deeply insightful. I liked the narrator, and I didn't think she was necessarily bad bisexual rep, but she was just a nuanced, flawed character who was sometimes unlikeable. I liked that it ended on a hopeful note for the protag without wrapping everything up too neatly. My only complaint is that the setting jumped around a lot, and it didn't really add anything to the plot. The story could have remained in one city and the plot would've been basically the same.

Structurally, Arafat's choice to tell this novel in non-chronological vignettes was highly effective. The main conflict was between the narrator and her mother, and by jumping around in time, Arafat was able to really drive home the way memory is warped by time and vice versa. It was clear that the mother was mentally ill, but I appreciated that Arafat didn't come right out and diagnose the her. (As a mentally ill writer/reader/human, this matters!) The dialogue, especially the mother's dialogue, was convincing while remaining eloquent.

Main takeaways from this book: (1.) vignettes differ from scenes. Don't ask me how. As a writing exercise, I tried to write a story in vignettes. I wrote a bunch of scenes. If I had to define it, (which I don't, but I will), I'd say a vignette stands alone, while a scene is a segment of a larger story. Though that second definition is applicable to a vignette as well. So don't ask me. (2.) Playing with chronological order is fun, and works well, when done with a purpose. This author definitely knew what she was doing. (3.) Please give your protag a name!

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A Treatise on Stars by Mei-Mei Berssenbrugge

Good morning, y'all! It's been a minute! I just finished reading this collection of poems yesterday, and it was quite an experience! Divided into two parts, the first section is exactly what the title promises: it's a bunch of long poems about stars. If that sounds predictable and cliché to you, you're not alone, but what surprised me about this collection was how original Berssenbrugge's approach to these often tired topics was. There are so many (so, so many) poems out there about the magic of the moon and eyes like stars, etc., etc., but this is as far from cliché as can be. My favorite line from this section is "Some hear coyotes speaking in computer beeps; some entertain guests unaware." The whole first section is like this: a strangely beautiful combination of nature and science. Burssenbrugge uses tons of astronomy-related terms, which heightens the originality and distances these works from overdone cliches that so often permeate works about the stars. The vibe? You're walking under the Northern Lights with a soft-spoken friend who is quietly telling you about a half-remembered dream.

If only the second half were as good! Ugh, it was all downhill after about 55 pages or so. The book is formally divided into parts I and II, and the second part got all weird, intentionally edgy, and pseudo-sciency. If you're going to write a poem about aliens, do it well. I couldn't take all of the metaphors about dolphins being unconditional love seriously, and I disliked the idea of star-people. There were still plenty of beautiful lines in this section, but they were overshadowed by the weirdness of what they described.

Overall, this was a cool book, and I think I will return to it, and perhaps even appreciate the second section a little more at another time.

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First Born by Will Dune

This book was utterly ridiculous. It was just barely good enough to motivate me to keep reading because I wanted to know just how over-the-top things were going to get. The characters had absolutely zero depth, so it didn't matter that the reader has no idea which twin is which because they're quite literally interchangeable. A lot of the major plot points hinge on internet research that Molly, the narrator, does on YouTube. Sure, fine, I guess everything's available on the internet, but do we really need the detail that Molly wears adult diapers while she researches so she doesn't have to use the bathroom? Call me crazy ("You're crazy!") but I really didn't think that detail needed to be there, nor did it advance the plot. Speaking of plot... one good thing about this novel was that it did, indeed, keep me guessing. Is there a plot? Are any of these moving parts connected? Technically, yes, in the end everything was revealed, and it was all explained... through dialogue that was totally stilted and unnecessary because Molly was explaining to another character all of the major plot points that the reader and this other character were already aware of. (That was a poorly constructed sentence, but you feel me.) Ultimately, this book was quite silly, but I really enjoyed it because sometimes you just need some fluff!

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Call It Sleep by Henry Roth

Okay, I'll be honest with y'all, this book took me about 6 months to finish. It wasn't because I didn't like it--quite the opposite, in fact, it was incredible. Roth's diction was stellar. Chef's kiss and all that. However, at just over 440 pages, with a high-level lexicon, it's not the kind of book you can devour all at once.

The basic premise is that we're following a young boy named David over the first few years of his conscious childhood (by which I mean, from, like, ages 3-8 or so). The novel is largely told in the 3rd person omniscient with a few chapters from David's POV. The first scene has this beautiful and intimidating description of the Statue of Liberty and we meet David's parents: Albert and Genya.

When I started reading, it was apparent right away that this is a book that is more about the sensory experiences than a fast-paced plot (or a plot at all, really). Rather, we piece things together through David's limited insights into the very adult things that are going on in his child-sized world. That first scene, though... it's important about 300 pages later.

Normally, I would not be into a book that takes 3 pages just to tell you it's raining. However, the language was just so, so beautiful that I would have read a description of just about anything. The other notable thing about this novel is that while it is written completely in English, there are sections where the reader is expected to know that the characters are speaking Yiddish. The difference between the Yiddish and the English dialogues are like night and day. The English is written phonetically, which was a bit of a barrier to my understanding of some of the sections. For instance, when the word "furniture," appears in an English dialogue section, it's written as "foinichuh," and I had to say it aloud several times to be like, "Oh... furniture... right," rise and repeat. With every. single. English. word. So, that was kind of annoying. However, with the way that Roth elevated the Yiddish dialogue the contrast added a lot to the narrative.

So yeah, overall, this book was a great read. I didn't realize that Roth has written other works (Thanks, Wikipedia!) so I will definitely be checking those out.

This is an example of some of the language I found especially lyrical and lovely.

I highly, highly recommend this book!