My thanks to the publisher for my digital ARC of Cicada Summer by Erica McKeen! I thoroughly enjoyed this sophomore novel, a haunting but somewhat whimsical story imbued with grief. The writing is ethereal, which lends even modern and difficult topics like COVID a dreamy feel.

In one storyline, a woman and her girlfriend have moved in with her grandfather following the death of the woman’s mother. Father and daughter grieve for the same woman, known to them in completely different ways. They find a book of short stories written by the mother, and reading them together, come to see her in a new light.

For me, the mother’s short stories absolutely stole the show. They’re interspersed throughout the text in their entirety, but they could have just stood alone as an excellent short story collection. They’re reminiscent of Julia Armfield, tackling topics like grief, postnatal depression, mental illness and family through horror. I was kind of sad to leave a story behind to get back to Husha and Nella’s story, which isn’t ideal but also is a testament to the strength of the stories.

It’s also a moving exploration of what it means to look after an ageing relative; the sudden removal of privacy, new intimacies, attempts at saving their dignity.

Overall moving and eerie, just how I like it.