Sorrowland

Reviews

A fantastical, fierce reckoning ... Sorrowland is gorgeous, and the writing, the storytelling, are magnificent. This country has a dark history of what it's willing to do to black bodies, and Rivers Solomon lays that truth bare in a most unexpected, absolutely brilliant way. Sorrowland is a wonderland of fantastical and frightening, magical and real. At the centre of this world and leaping off the page is Vern: unstoppable, unforgettable, and unlike anyone you have ever seen before. Dark, magical, and incredibly satisfying, Sorrowland is a fantastical tale that grapples with America's history of racism and marginalised communities ... This gripping gender-bending yarn from UK-based American author Rivers Solomon is yet another fine offering from Stormzy's #Merky Books. An exhilarating journey to the outer limits of science fiction, steeped in the southern gothic tradition and grounded in the physical and social realities of being poor, powerless, black and female in America ... A furious, justified anger drives this novel, drawing on the US history of racial oppression, but it's also joyful and wildly entertaining. Vivid and gut-wrenching A gothic techno-thriller in which the trauma of the past is parried with defiance and a thirst for understanding, as embodied by an electrifying young hero ... A stirring sense of the epic animates this striking novel ... This capaciousness is echoed in the sheer range of Sorrowland's timely preoccupations ... Its frame of reference is generous - in some ways, it's clearly rooted in Afrofuturism, owing plenty to Octavia Butler, but it nods as well to Giovanni's Room, Robin Hood and folklore from multiple cultures. A stirring sense of the epic animates this striking novel. Anything that remains of Vern's faith is rooted in the vastness of life, and when she meets her nemesis, it's only fitting that it should turn out to be a creature "so looming that being next to it was like falling". This capaciousness is echoed in the sheer range of Sorrowland's timely preoccupations. It's about escape, self-acceptance and queer love. It's about genocide and the exploitation of black bodies, selfdelusion and endemic corruption, motherhood and inheritance. Its frame of reference is generous - in some ways, it's clearly rooted in Afrofuturism, but it nods as well to Giovanni's Room , Robin Hood and folklore from multiple cultures. Rivers Solomon's Sorrowland (2021) is a powerful and vital work of speculative fiction, one with its roots in the gothic past but with tendrils reaching out beyond the limits of the New Weird... Uncompromising, haunting and unforgettable, Solomon has crafted a modern masterpiece of fantastic fiction. [T]his twisty adventure, in which the blood-and-guts thrills and breathy sex scenes ultimately act as a delivery mechanism for an urgent affirmation of the necessity of social justice. A furious utopia. Utterly compelling, brilliant and terrifying. Sorrowland seizes the history of white supremacy, racist medical experimentation, and the dream - and danger - of the commune and gnashes it into something magnificent and truly reparative. An epic fantasy that interweaves righteous, large-scale confrontations with power, extremely sexy and moving erotic gothic horror, and exquisite, meticulous renderings of the daily life of parenting. This is a fairy tale for adults, spangled in the wreckage of the world. A gorgeous, singular, and profound work. Expand reviews