Genre: Literary fiction, magical realism Published: Tin House Books & Recorded Books Audio, July 2024 My Rating: 3.5 stars
“(you are) Plenty old for romance… Did you find yourself a fella yet?”
If only it were as simple as being found., or not found. Sheila would build such a maze, that no one would ever find her. She would travel to the center and live there in a neat square of green to be known only by those she invited.”
Smothermoss had a bunch of buzzwords going for it, that immediately piqued my interest; queer coming of age, nature-focused, set in rural Appalachia, and described as a murder mystery with a “weird magical realism” element.
Although, yes, the book delivers all these separate elements, it fails to successfully pull them together into a coherent narrative. And I’m truly not sure if I minded…
The Story:
We follow two sisters growing up in 1980’s Appalachia; oldest sister Sheila, who’s exploring her identity whilst being relentlessly bullied by her peers, and younger sister Angie; the weird girl with an obsession for nuclear annihilation and drawing her own “tarot cards” which seem to have supernatural properties. When a pair of female hikers are brutally murdered on the nearby Appalachian trail, Sheila and Angie find themselves inexorably drawn into the hunt for the killer. As the ever-present threat of violence looms larger, the mountain might be the only thing that can save them from the darkness consuming their home and their community.
What I liked:
The story shines in its depiction of the sibling-relationship. Angie and Sheila both feel like realistic characters, with relatable conflicts between them. If you’ve ever been an anxious teen with an “obnoxious younger sisters”, you will feel for Sheila on multiple occasions here… Yet you will also recognize some of the beautiful moments of bonding these girls do under unforeseen circumstances. I loved that true-to-life balance of sisterhood, where your sibling can boil your blood and make your heart swell with love all in the same day.
Individually, their journeys make sense too. Sheila’s exploration of her own sexuality and creating her own future against the weight of familial tradition, contrasts well to Angie’s wild and chaotic nature.
The book also truly lived up in terms of atmosphere; I felt myself transported to Appalachia thanks to the lush nature writing and the variety of metaphors and motifs that adorn the story. The writing is a little gothic, lyrical and ominous (think Shirley Jackson with an obsession with nature), and I will 100% check out whatever the author does next.
What I didn’t like:
The variety of motifs is also where the story drops the ball a bit. Rabbits, invisible boys, an invisible rope around our protagonists neck, a sentient mountain, a killer without a face, tarot cards and a hint of naturalistic magic… All of these and more are prominent throughout the book, and I often found myself wondering: how is the author going to tie all of that together? The answer is simple; they don’t.
By the end of the story, nothing quite makes sense or is explained. Some of these loose threads aren’t resolved, and the ones that are don’t tie together into a whole. Although I liked the many different little plotlines (there’s a great coming of age novel about sexuality and sisterhood, a great “period-and-place-piece” on Appalachia, and a cool murder-mystery with witchy vibes in here), they almost felt like they belonged in different novels, instead of smashed into one. The result, unfortunately, was disjointed to me and lead me to love this book less in practice than I did on paper.
A note on the audio: brilliant narrator, whom soothing voice did actually add to my immersion.
Readalikes: Bunny by Mona Awad, not only for the weird-female-coming-of-age, but also because of the copious amount of rabbit-references…
Find this book here on Goodreads.
Many thanks to Recorded Books Audio for providing me with an audio-ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
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