Sorrowland is a weird book. Now...I usually like weird books...a lot. And I did like this one to an extent. But whoa. This one really took things and ran with them. The underlying references and lessons presented in this novel make sense and they are good points, but the delivery of this narrative was just a strange fever dream.

This was my first read from Rivers Solomon and their prose reminds me a lot of Toni Morrison. It's very gauzy and lyrical, like the whole story takes place in a bit of a dreamlike state. That works really well for a good portion of the book, but there were times (particularly in the beginning of the novel) where it felt like maybe the writing was trying just a little too hard and it lost its genuine quality.

The read was a slow build that was a bit of a dystopian/horror mix and moved with pretty good logic for about half the book. Then all of a sudden it was like a switch flipped and things took a hard left turn. The tone of the narrative shifted and felt off and the pacing suddenly started to drag. The things that took place in the last third of the book moved with a bit of unnaturalness and it felt like the ending of the book had been written in a rushed manner. It didn't have the careful construction and magical movement of the first half of the book. Instead it was somewhat choppy, hard to follow, and over the top.

Prior to the mild train wreck of the last section, I was on track to have a 4-star reading experience. That last chunk though...whew...it took me on a ride in a bad way. Like a bad acid trip. That bit of funky mess was probably a 2-star experience at best. So I averaged it out and we land with a middle of the road 3-star read.

* Disclaimer: I received a copy of this novel from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. *