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State of Paradise
A heart-racing fun house of uncanniness hidden in Florida’s underbelly, from a reality-warping storyteller.
Along with her husband, a ghostwriter for a famous thriller author returns to her mother's house in the Florida town where she grew up. As the summer heat sets in, she wrestles with family secrets and memories of her own troubled youth. Her mercurial sister, who lives next door, spends a growing amount of time using MIND’S EYE, a virtual reality device provided to citizens of the town by ELECTRA, a tech company in South Florida, during the doldrums of a recent pandemic. But it’s not just the ominous cats, her mother’s burgeoning cult, or the fact that her belly button has become an increasingly deep cavern―something is off in the town, and it probably has to do with the posters of missing citizens spread throughout the streets.
During a violent rainstorm, the writer’s sister goes missing for several days. When she returns, sprawled on their mother’s lawn and speaking of another dimension, the writer is forced to investigate not only what happened to her sister and the other missing people but also the uncanny connections between ELECTRA, the famous author, and reality itself.
A sticky, rain-soaked reckoning with the elusive nature of storytelling, Laura van den Berg’s Florida Diary is an interlocking and page-turning whirlwind. With inimitable control and thrilling style, she reaches deep into the void and returns with a story far stranger than either reality or fiction.
Along with her husband, a ghostwriter for a famous thriller author returns to her mother's house in the Florida town where she grew up. As the summer heat sets in, she wrestles with family secrets and memories of her own troubled youth. Her mercurial sister, who lives next door, spends a growing amount of time using MIND’S EYE, a virtual reality device provided to citizens of the town by ELECTRA, a tech company in South Florida, during the doldrums of a recent pandemic. But it’s not just the ominous cats, her mother’s burgeoning cult, or the fact that her belly button has become an increasingly deep cavern―something is off in the town, and it probably has to do with the posters of missing citizens spread throughout the streets.
During a violent rainstorm, the writer’s sister goes missing for several days. When she returns, sprawled on their mother’s lawn and speaking of another dimension, the writer is forced to investigate not only what happened to her sister and the other missing people but also the uncanny connections between ELECTRA, the famous author, and reality itself.
A sticky, rain-soaked reckoning with the elusive nature of storytelling, Laura van den Berg’s Florida Diary is an interlocking and page-turning whirlwind. With inimitable control and thrilling style, she reaches deep into the void and returns with a story far stranger than either reality or fiction.
224 pages, Hardcover
Expected publication July 9, 2024
About the author
Laura van den Berg
29 books704 followersLaura van den Berg was born and raised in Florida. She is the author of five works of fiction, including The Third Hotel, a finalist for the New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award, and I Hold a Wolf by the Ears, one of Time Magazine’s 10 Best Fiction Books of 2020. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Strauss Living Award from the American Academy of Arts & Letters, a literature fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Bard Fiction Prize, a PEN/O. Henry Award, and a MacDowell Colony Fellowship, and is a two-time finalist for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award. Laura is currently a Senior Lecturer on Fiction at Harvard. Her next novel, State of Paradise, is forthcoming from FSG in July 2024. She lives in the Hudson Valley.
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June 11, 2024
The synopsis of State of Paradise sums it up so well, there’s almost no need to write a review at all. This does indeed depict a funhouse of uncanniness hidden in Florida’s underbelly and a sticky, rain-soaked reckoning with the elusive nature of storytelling. Its narrator, who works as a ghostwriter of popular-but-trashy thrillers, has recently returned to her home state of Florida. She’s living with her mother and next door to her sister, who’s become addicted to MIND’S EYE, a virtual reality headset that was handed out free during the pandemic. It’s a time of increasingly extreme weather, and during one particularly apocalyptic storm, her sister disappears.
When the story starts, its contours seem familiar; van den Berg relies on that precise assumption to wrongfoot the reader. You might think you know what the narrator’s referring to when she talks about ‘the pandemic’, but then she describes some of the lasting side effects – her bellybutton has changed shape, her sister’s eyes are a different colour – and suddenly you’re wondering if this story is taking place within our world at all. Unfamiliarity with the setting adds a further sheen of weirdness to the whole thing (I imagine this book reads very differently if you’ve ever lived in Florida). This sense of a slightly altered world is key to State of Paradise’s mission. It’s a slippery story about stories – about how we rewrite our histories to empower (or deny) ourselves.
For me, it was all strongly reminiscent of Alexandra Kleeman’s novels You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine and Something New Under the Sun. In fact, it’s as though someone spliced the two of them together: the surreal setting and mysterious disappearances from You Too, the overtones of climate disaster from Something New, the cult elements from both. This was slightly to State of Paradise’s detriment; I just love Kleeman’s writing so much, and this doesn’t quite hit the same heights. It’s also a lighter, less complex read compared to van den Berg’s last novel, The Third Hotel.
I liked it, though – the palpable humidity of the setting, the startling suggestions about our narrator’s account of her own past. Unsurprisingly, I would firmly recommend this book to fans of Alexandra Kleeman’s fiction. I’d also compare it to other tricky, hallucinatory narratives like The Scapegoat and Looking Glass Sound, and in its last act it reminded me of nothing so much as the wild twists of The Writing Retreat.
I received an advance review copy of State of Paradise from the publisher through Edelweiss.
When the story starts, its contours seem familiar; van den Berg relies on that precise assumption to wrongfoot the reader. You might think you know what the narrator’s referring to when she talks about ‘the pandemic’, but then she describes some of the lasting side effects – her bellybutton has changed shape, her sister’s eyes are a different colour – and suddenly you’re wondering if this story is taking place within our world at all. Unfamiliarity with the setting adds a further sheen of weirdness to the whole thing (I imagine this book reads very differently if you’ve ever lived in Florida). This sense of a slightly altered world is key to State of Paradise’s mission. It’s a slippery story about stories – about how we rewrite our histories to empower (or deny) ourselves.
For me, it was all strongly reminiscent of Alexandra Kleeman’s novels You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine and Something New Under the Sun. In fact, it’s as though someone spliced the two of them together: the surreal setting and mysterious disappearances from You Too, the overtones of climate disaster from Something New, the cult elements from both. This was slightly to State of Paradise’s detriment; I just love Kleeman’s writing so much, and this doesn’t quite hit the same heights. It’s also a lighter, less complex read compared to van den Berg’s last novel, The Third Hotel.
I liked it, though – the palpable humidity of the setting, the startling suggestions about our narrator’s account of her own past. Unsurprisingly, I would firmly recommend this book to fans of Alexandra Kleeman’s fiction. I’d also compare it to other tricky, hallucinatory narratives like The Scapegoat and Looking Glass Sound, and in its last act it reminded me of nothing so much as the wild twists of The Writing Retreat.
I received an advance review copy of State of Paradise from the publisher through Edelweiss.
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April 22, 2024“The novel is a pretty outdated technology, but that is exactly why we need it. The form is so archaic that it can’t be fucked with.”
I’ve read almost all of Laura van den Berg’s work. She has an irreproducible style, one that marries the uncanny with the brutally real, contained in narratives that I find to be truly hypnotizing. Her previous book “I Hold a Wolf by the Ears” is my all-time favorite story collection. Here, through a rollicking story of Florida, a pandemic, ominous virtual reality devices, ghostwriting, mental illness, and a world on the brink of collapse, “State of Paradise” is a piece of weird fiction that at its heart is an exploration of storytelling; how stories provide form to the elusive aspects of living.
I’ve been drawn to contemporary literature that explores diaristic forms, a variant of autofiction that plays with an author’s physical act of keeping a diary, exposing the author’s seemingly private dialogue with themselves. Here, van den Berg uses this structure yet interestingly (and perhaps unconventionally) leans directly into the speculative. The “reality vs. fiction” distinction tends to be at the center of novels I love, and even when this story dips hard into the fiction, Van Den Berg’s skill is in keeping the reality lurking right over your shoulder, in often horrific ways. She has done this to varying extents in her previous work, but I loved the ambition of blurring all of these lines and leaning into genre to create a new, monstrous thing, which also happens be extremely fun to read.
“The more I read, the more, and the less, I understand.”
Read if you liked / Works brought to mind: Y/N by Esther Yi, Bliss Montage by Ling Ma, 2666 by Roberto Bolaño, Something New Under the Sun by Alexandra Kleeman, The Answers by Catherine Lacey, Weather by Jenny Offill
I’ve read almost all of Laura van den Berg’s work. She has an irreproducible style, one that marries the uncanny with the brutally real, contained in narratives that I find to be truly hypnotizing. Her previous book “I Hold a Wolf by the Ears” is my all-time favorite story collection. Here, through a rollicking story of Florida, a pandemic, ominous virtual reality devices, ghostwriting, mental illness, and a world on the brink of collapse, “State of Paradise” is a piece of weird fiction that at its heart is an exploration of storytelling; how stories provide form to the elusive aspects of living.
I’ve been drawn to contemporary literature that explores diaristic forms, a variant of autofiction that plays with an author’s physical act of keeping a diary, exposing the author’s seemingly private dialogue with themselves. Here, van den Berg uses this structure yet interestingly (and perhaps unconventionally) leans directly into the speculative. The “reality vs. fiction” distinction tends to be at the center of novels I love, and even when this story dips hard into the fiction, Van Den Berg’s skill is in keeping the reality lurking right over your shoulder, in often horrific ways. She has done this to varying extents in her previous work, but I loved the ambition of blurring all of these lines and leaning into genre to create a new, monstrous thing, which also happens be extremely fun to read.
“The more I read, the more, and the less, I understand.”
Read if you liked / Works brought to mind: Y/N by Esther Yi, Bliss Montage by Ling Ma, 2666 by Roberto Bolaño, Something New Under the Sun by Alexandra Kleeman, The Answers by Catherine Lacey, Weather by Jenny Offill
March 28, 2024
This was a really solid, unique blend of sci-fi and litfic, with even some horror elements. I felt like the synopsis doesn’t really do the book justice, and it does take a while for all of the plot to be introduced.
Van den Berg paints a quirky picture of an alternate post-pandemic Florida, where lots of people have become addicted to a VR-esque technology and its users have suddenly started seemingly vanishing into thin air. I’d say that is the *main* thread of the story, but there are bits of other things interspersed like information on our narrator’s past, some bizarre cultlike behavior from her mother, and her bellybutton becoming a void. I’ve never read anything quite like this before and this has me excited to read more from her!
Van den Berg paints a quirky picture of an alternate post-pandemic Florida, where lots of people have become addicted to a VR-esque technology and its users have suddenly started seemingly vanishing into thin air. I’d say that is the *main* thread of the story, but there are bits of other things interspersed like information on our narrator’s past, some bizarre cultlike behavior from her mother, and her bellybutton becoming a void. I’ve never read anything quite like this before and this has me excited to read more from her!
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February 10, 2024Kind of wonderful!!! Reminded me of Offill a little. Vignettey novel about remaking the end of the world. Claustrophobic and bizarre and for all the Florida heads out there. No Florida bashing allowed unless you’re from Florida!!!!!!
May 19, 2024
As with all her previous work, Laura an den Berg writes like no other. Except maybe her husband, Paul Yoon. The fact that they are a "literary couple like no other" explains a lot, with their shared expertise and imagination. State of Paradise is set in a place she knows well having lived there, but as with another Floridian (transplanted), she focuses on the native forces that impact the human population in weird and truly original ways.
November 15, 2023
State of Paradise chronicles strange pandemic days, the rise of mindless electronic escape, and grief's otherworldly whims in this wholly original and epically engaging novel from a master of episodic oddity. I'll follow van den Berg wherever she wants to take me, even Florida.
July 3, 2024
State of Paradise is an unsettling and incredibly well-written foray into the darkest recesses of the mind and our current moment. Told in interconnected stories/vignettes, Laura van den Berg brilliantly blurs the lines between reality and unreality. This creates for the reader a foreboding feeling of the uncanny and the accompanying dread and grief that lurks behind each new day of our technologically dependent and increasingly dystopian world. The state of Florida, much as in Lauren Groff's famously titled story collection, is used as metaphor for humankind's aptitude for imposing ourselves onto the natural world — whether we should be here or not.
Laura van den Berg, through an unmatchable prose style and skillful storytelling, portrays the similarities between the environment, society, and the self through our collective descent into increasing chaos, confusion, and instability. All of this under late stage capitalism, mass surveillance/encroaching technology, and the increasing threat of climate change, she touches a lot of ground without it ever feeling overdone. This novel was a perfect blend of realistic, weird, and science fiction. You don't read this for the warm and fuzzies, but this has truly been one of the best new releases of 2024 and a must-read for anyone who has felt themselves living in a warped simulation post-pandemic.
Readers of Ling Ma and Jenny Offill look no further.
Laura van den Berg, through an unmatchable prose style and skillful storytelling, portrays the similarities between the environment, society, and the self through our collective descent into increasing chaos, confusion, and instability. All of this under late stage capitalism, mass surveillance/encroaching technology, and the increasing threat of climate change, she touches a lot of ground without it ever feeling overdone. This novel was a perfect blend of realistic, weird, and science fiction. You don't read this for the warm and fuzzies, but this has truly been one of the best new releases of 2024 and a must-read for anyone who has felt themselves living in a warped simulation post-pandemic.
Readers of Ling Ma and Jenny Offill look no further.
February 18, 2024
Another stellar novel from Laura van den Berg and one in which the jacket copy fails to do it justice.
It's a post covid Florida, in which the goverment took advantage of everyone while they were isolating and got them hooked on a new meditative, immersive technology called MIND'S EYE, and where people are suffering strange side effects that are believed to have been caused by the crazy high fevers they survived. Our narrator herself discovers that her outie is becoming a cavernous innie and her sister's eyes have completely changed color.
As she deals with these subtle physical changes, and ignores her mom's strange antics, and puts off urgent requests from the assistants of the author she ghosts for, MIND'S EYE users all around town begin mysteriously disappearing, as though into thin air... her sister being one of them. Some of the missing begin reappearing days later, a little dazed, not much worse for the wear, but with strange stories of where they've been. And our narrator's sister is one of the ones who've returned. She swears she entered another reality at their dead father's bidding and she's determined to return, with or without our narrator.
This book was just so deliciously weird. It's a fabulous mashup of grief fiction, sci-fi post-pandy fiction. Much like Florida and the pandemic itself, State of Paradise is a humid and feverish thing and oh gosh I was sooo there for it!
It's a post covid Florida, in which the goverment took advantage of everyone while they were isolating and got them hooked on a new meditative, immersive technology called MIND'S EYE, and where people are suffering strange side effects that are believed to have been caused by the crazy high fevers they survived. Our narrator herself discovers that her outie is becoming a cavernous innie and her sister's eyes have completely changed color.
As she deals with these subtle physical changes, and ignores her mom's strange antics, and puts off urgent requests from the assistants of the author she ghosts for, MIND'S EYE users all around town begin mysteriously disappearing, as though into thin air... her sister being one of them. Some of the missing begin reappearing days later, a little dazed, not much worse for the wear, but with strange stories of where they've been. And our narrator's sister is one of the ones who've returned. She swears she entered another reality at their dead father's bidding and she's determined to return, with or without our narrator.
This book was just so deliciously weird. It's a fabulous mashup of grief fiction, sci-fi post-pandy fiction. Much like Florida and the pandemic itself, State of Paradise is a humid and feverish thing and oh gosh I was sooo there for it!
January 18, 2024
A whirlwind, a rollercoaster, a crazy train and maze of mirrors.
The ghostwriter is our protagonist, and she has returned to Florida with her husband post Covid to assist her mother. Her father has recently died, her sister lives next door and her husband is struggling as he continues to try to complete a book on Pilgrims. Van Den Berg punctures each paragraph with insights that are hard to argue yet sometimes also hard to swallow.
The Ghostwriter is stuck, she hasn't moved on from her stint in a mental institution after high school, and she never made peace with her family. She is now in her childhood home writing ridiculous thrillers for famous named-authors. When a storm hits and her sister goes missing, the world is truly put on it's end and we are all forced to deal with what is actually happening in the world today.
It's a carefully wrought crazy burst of sanity, this is the ride you need to take - Read States of Paradise!
#fararstruss&giroux #lauravandenberg #stateofparadise
The ghostwriter is our protagonist, and she has returned to Florida with her husband post Covid to assist her mother. Her father has recently died, her sister lives next door and her husband is struggling as he continues to try to complete a book on Pilgrims. Van Den Berg punctures each paragraph with insights that are hard to argue yet sometimes also hard to swallow.
The Ghostwriter is stuck, she hasn't moved on from her stint in a mental institution after high school, and she never made peace with her family. She is now in her childhood home writing ridiculous thrillers for famous named-authors. When a storm hits and her sister goes missing, the world is truly put on it's end and we are all forced to deal with what is actually happening in the world today.
It's a carefully wrought crazy burst of sanity, this is the ride you need to take - Read States of Paradise!
#fararstruss&giroux #lauravandenberg #stateofparadise
June 17, 2024
3.5 stars
This was an absolute trip, featuring both highs and less-than-highs for this reader.
The narrator, a ghost writer, has experiences that anyone who has spent significant time in Florida will understand are perfectly placed there (don't come for me - I HAVE spent a lot of time there). Along with the setting, the unsettling, potentially unreliable narration makes for an exciting jaunt through a variety of past and present scenes and leads readers to reflect on how much we're still learning about pandemic impacts in every way. All members of the narrator's family are struggling (or have struggled) in some way, and the narrator is not exempt from this. Her at times nearly apathetic, factual recollections of traumatic events are both sound in the traumatic response realm and deeply disturbing since some of them reveal just how harmed she is.
I loved the concept, the sentiment, and so many of the details, but I did struggle with the style and organization. Transparently, this may be fully related to listening to an audio version rather than reading by sight, as for me, the latter tends to result in more effective processing. I still enjoyed the work and am interested in reading more from this author.
*Special thanks to NetGalley and Spotify Audiobooks for this alc, which I received in exchange for an honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
This was an absolute trip, featuring both highs and less-than-highs for this reader.
The narrator, a ghost writer, has experiences that anyone who has spent significant time in Florida will understand are perfectly placed there (don't come for me - I HAVE spent a lot of time there). Along with the setting, the unsettling, potentially unreliable narration makes for an exciting jaunt through a variety of past and present scenes and leads readers to reflect on how much we're still learning about pandemic impacts in every way. All members of the narrator's family are struggling (or have struggled) in some way, and the narrator is not exempt from this. Her at times nearly apathetic, factual recollections of traumatic events are both sound in the traumatic response realm and deeply disturbing since some of them reveal just how harmed she is.
I loved the concept, the sentiment, and so many of the details, but I did struggle with the style and organization. Transparently, this may be fully related to listening to an audio version rather than reading by sight, as for me, the latter tends to result in more effective processing. I still enjoyed the work and am interested in reading more from this author.
*Special thanks to NetGalley and Spotify Audiobooks for this alc, which I received in exchange for an honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
March 23, 2024
State of Paradise starts off in a familiar place in the recent past; a ghostwriter and her husband move to her childhood home in Florida during the early days of the pandemic. This quickly evolves into something much more surreal and wonderful in this fantastically weird novel that I couldn’t put down and was lucky enough to read in the Miami sun.
I would be hesitant to describe the plot, even if I could, because it was such an enthralling experience to see how this story unfolds. There’s the mysterious author the main character writes for, a sister that’s increasingly escaping into a virtual world to outrun her grief, bodies changing in strange ways after infection, and this is all set during an epic deluge that might wash away an entire state.
Can’t recommend this one enough and honestly can’t wait to read it again. Somehow this was also the first book I have read by van den Berg and I look forward to diving into her back catalogue as soon as possible. Many thanks to Farrar, Straus and Giroux and NetGalley for providing the ARC in exchange for my honest review.
I would be hesitant to describe the plot, even if I could, because it was such an enthralling experience to see how this story unfolds. There’s the mysterious author the main character writes for, a sister that’s increasingly escaping into a virtual world to outrun her grief, bodies changing in strange ways after infection, and this is all set during an epic deluge that might wash away an entire state.
Can’t recommend this one enough and honestly can’t wait to read it again. Somehow this was also the first book I have read by van den Berg and I look forward to diving into her back catalogue as soon as possible. Many thanks to Farrar, Straus and Giroux and NetGalley for providing the ARC in exchange for my honest review.
July 2, 2024
Thank you to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for the eARC of State of Paradise by Laura van den Berg – available July 9, 2024.
State of Paradise TL;DR:
🦠 Twisty Dystopian Adventure
🤖 Technology vs. Human Condition
😵💫 Disorienting and Complex Narrative
State of Paradise by Laura van den Berg is a mind-bending trip into a pandemic-ravaged Florida. Buckle up for a story that's unsettling, original, and will leave you pondering long after the final page.
The protagonist, a ghostwriter seeking refuge at her childhood home, finds herself entangled in a world teetering on the edge. Reality itself seems warped, with the lines between virtual reality (courtesy of the mysterious MIND’S EYE) and the physical world blurring. The narrative is unsettling, but in a way that keeps you glued to the pages.
Be prepared, though, for a story that doesn't hold your hand. Van den Berg throws you headfirst into this strange Florida, trusting you to keep up. Some readers might find this disorienting, but for those who enjoy a challenge, it's part of the novel's charm.
If you're looking for a straightforward beach read, this isn't it. But if you're craving a thought-provoking exploration of technology, reality, and the human condition, State of Paradise is a must-read. Just be ready for the weird.
State of Paradise TL;DR:
🦠 Twisty Dystopian Adventure
🤖 Technology vs. Human Condition
😵💫 Disorienting and Complex Narrative
State of Paradise by Laura van den Berg is a mind-bending trip into a pandemic-ravaged Florida. Buckle up for a story that's unsettling, original, and will leave you pondering long after the final page.
The protagonist, a ghostwriter seeking refuge at her childhood home, finds herself entangled in a world teetering on the edge. Reality itself seems warped, with the lines between virtual reality (courtesy of the mysterious MIND’S EYE) and the physical world blurring. The narrative is unsettling, but in a way that keeps you glued to the pages.
Be prepared, though, for a story that doesn't hold your hand. Van den Berg throws you headfirst into this strange Florida, trusting you to keep up. Some readers might find this disorienting, but for those who enjoy a challenge, it's part of the novel's charm.
If you're looking for a straightforward beach read, this isn't it. But if you're craving a thought-provoking exploration of technology, reality, and the human condition, State of Paradise is a must-read. Just be ready for the weird.
February 7, 2024
oof, I absolutely adored this one!! such a fun creative read, I was fully invested from start to finish. I love books that have a dystopian but realistic feeling to them, where things are just barely worse than they are now. in 'state of paradise', our unnamed protagonist (come to think of it, I think every character in this book is unnamed) lives in a post-pandemic, slightly apocalyptic Florida and reckons with her own past, present & inner-world. this book deals with family, self, escapism & disaster - all things I am v into so suffice it to say, I ate this right up.
4.5 rounded down because the middle-ending area got kinda weird and hard to follow, but it came together well in the end.
thank you netgalley and FSG for the arc! <3
4.5 rounded down because the middle-ending area got kinda weird and hard to follow, but it came together well in the end.
thank you netgalley and FSG for the arc! <3
July 2, 2024
State of Paradise is stifling and stormy. Lush with memories and warped realities, a distinctly Floridian apocalypse. Laura van den Berg reminds us of the power of novels and stories over human consciousness and our uncanny ability to resile after trauma.
July 4, 2024
Ghosts fill this speculative auto-fiction-ish novel. It's set in that strange state that is Florida, with its bizarre politicians, its right-wingers, its swamps and humidity and insects and snakes and cats and more, set after the pandemic, or a pandemic, where those stricken, like the unnamed first-person narrator and her sister, experienced serious fevers and strange reactions afterwards. The narrator, in her late 30s, a ghost writer for a famous and rich mystery writer, and the narrator's husband, a long-distance runner and historian writing about medieval pilgrimages, came to Florida from upstate New York where he was teaching, to care for her dying father, and stayed on, in her mother's house when the pandemic struck. They are still there. The ghosts are plentiful - all the narrator's prior selves, including the one that was committed to an institution, the ghost pal of her young niece, the pictures of those who apparently have gone missing, perhaps because of the mysterious AI device called Mind's Eye that takes you where you need to go. If that weren't enough, there's snakes galore, grasshoppers in force, a major weather event of ceaseless rain and flooding, an accidental cult created by the narrator's mother. For most of the novel, I was right there, intrigued by the narrator's voice that is cool and a bit disassociated, her observations keen about the state of the world, about the state of the novel, about the state of one's story, but when another plot point was introduced, having to do with twin sisters, and the identity of the famous mystery writer for whom the narrator is one of many ghosts, and the existence of the different realities afforded by Mind's Eye, I got tired of it and less interested as the narrator became her own secondary character in the story of her life. Still, an engaging read, often unnerving, and also sometimes funny. Really, who today hasn't been warped by, isn't now living a warped reality, caused by our own lives and collective lives, pandemic and politics and weather and technology and our minds in what is our new normal, and how do we forge on trying to create our connection to the new realities?
Thanks to Farrar, Straus and Giroux and Netgalley for the arc.
Thanks to Farrar, Straus and Giroux and Netgalley for the arc.
June 14, 2024
Weird things are happening in this South Florida town; our main character can hardly make peace with it all.
I am so thankful to Spotify Audiobooks, Laura van den Berg, FSG, and Netgalley for granting me an advanced audiobook and physical copies of this eerie tale before it hits shelves on July 9, 2024.
After moving home to take care of her sick father, our ghostwriter main character and her husband find themselves stuck in this South Florida home, even after his death, due to the limitations of the pandemic. Surrounded by violence and Confederate flag appearances, they realize this place is not their home and so unlike anything they are used to. Moreover, our MC's sister becomes slowly entranced by her MIND'S EYE VR device, where she escapes reality and goes elsewhere every day, leaving her problems behind, until one day, she indeed does go missing, leaving her family to worry about her state.
After suspecting that her mother is the overseer of a cult right in their backyard, and the list of missing persons' posters continues to grow, it's safe to say that there is something really off about this town. Our MC is doing her best to remain the glue that keeps everything together.
I am so thankful to Spotify Audiobooks, Laura van den Berg, FSG, and Netgalley for granting me an advanced audiobook and physical copies of this eerie tale before it hits shelves on July 9, 2024.
After moving home to take care of her sick father, our ghostwriter main character and her husband find themselves stuck in this South Florida home, even after his death, due to the limitations of the pandemic. Surrounded by violence and Confederate flag appearances, they realize this place is not their home and so unlike anything they are used to. Moreover, our MC's sister becomes slowly entranced by her MIND'S EYE VR device, where she escapes reality and goes elsewhere every day, leaving her problems behind, until one day, she indeed does go missing, leaving her family to worry about her state.
After suspecting that her mother is the overseer of a cult right in their backyard, and the list of missing persons' posters continues to grow, it's safe to say that there is something really off about this town. Our MC is doing her best to remain the glue that keeps everything together.
January 27, 2024
Oh maaaaan I hope this book reaches the audience it deserves. It was weird and trippy and introspective and I loved it. The author absolutely nails the feral, swampy atmosphere of Florida right now both physically and politically. As someone who practically grew up there and am very familiar with its current political and social climate, this was spot on. The only almost-negative I could see is some people wishing that more of the speculative elements were more developed, but I think it would have made the pacing of the rest of the book feel wonky. It did delve more into the themes of navigating mental health issues and trauma than I expected, so if that is something that is a potential trigger, I’d keep that in mind. That being said this was my type of literary fiction and I really enjoyed this!
May 23, 2024
Little review of State of Paradise 4.5/5 ⭐
Okay this was SO good but definitely a VERY different read for a few reasons:
I'd rate the first half 3 ⭐ but the second half 5 ⭐. The first half is VERY no plot just vibes and I just didn't know where the book was going, but the writing was easy and witty.
The SECOND half. PLOT!! SO MUCH PLOT!! It goes from mild lit fic slipping toe into slight horror - to wild sci-fi thriller!!
You can read the full synopsis online/back cover but basically its about post-pandemic life, a weird tech company with virtual reality goggles, and an influx of missing persons.
If you like fantastic realism, this one's for you!
Thank you @fsgbooks for the ARC - out 7/9/24
Okay this was SO good but definitely a VERY different read for a few reasons:
I'd rate the first half 3 ⭐ but the second half 5 ⭐. The first half is VERY no plot just vibes and I just didn't know where the book was going, but the writing was easy and witty.
The SECOND half. PLOT!! SO MUCH PLOT!! It goes from mild lit fic slipping toe into slight horror - to wild sci-fi thriller!!
You can read the full synopsis online/back cover but basically its about post-pandemic life, a weird tech company with virtual reality goggles, and an influx of missing persons.
If you like fantastic realism, this one's for you!
Thank you @fsgbooks for the ARC - out 7/9/24
January 23, 2024
Thanks to Netgalley and FSG for the ebook. A ghostwriter for thrillers, moves, with her husband, back to the small Florida town of her youth during the pandemic. She moves in with her mother and with her sister next door. Everyone deals with the pandemic in their own ways. Her husband runs miles and miles every day, her sister loses herself in a virtual reality game, her mother starts a cult that advocates the extinction of the human race. The ghostwriter is challenged by her employers to write an original story. She decides to write about the time she was institutionalized when she was a teen. And things get odder and odder from there in this funny and wild ride.
February 13, 2024
This book is spectacular. I finished it and immediately wanted to reread. It's so rich, surprising, and original.
May 29, 2024
Lauren van den Berg strikes again with a parallel universe contemporary Florida, in the midst of post-pandemic political upheaval, inconceivable climate disaster, and the crux of popularity of a new tech, MIND'S EYE.
Van den Berg's writing makes contemporary fiction feel closer to philosophical parable, and State of Paradise is just that. Through grief, inundating and supernatural summer storms, and impossible circumstances breaching virtual and physical reality, the narrator remains at all times impartial, clear eyed--as if no event has not already been felt, or could surprise any more. The circumstances have made her numb, however compassionate and curious she still remains in her inner world. It's a grounding way to frame the strange and surreal experience she undergoes.
ARC from my former place of work, Oxford Exchange Bookstore
Support indie bookstores and preorder on bookshop.org
or, find the audiobook on libro.fm
Van den Berg's writing makes contemporary fiction feel closer to philosophical parable, and State of Paradise is just that. Through grief, inundating and supernatural summer storms, and impossible circumstances breaching virtual and physical reality, the narrator remains at all times impartial, clear eyed--as if no event has not already been felt, or could surprise any more. The circumstances have made her numb, however compassionate and curious she still remains in her inner world. It's a grounding way to frame the strange and surreal experience she undergoes.
ARC from my former place of work, Oxford Exchange Bookstore
Support indie bookstores and preorder on bookshop.org
or, find the audiobook on libro.fm
March 25, 2024
State of Paradise is a surrealist nightmare of near-future / arguably current Floridian post pandemic apocalypse. The writing mirrors the state of the setting, a beautiful flood that you cannot seem to escape from. I reread the last sentence a dozen times.
March 12, 2024
This is going to be the summer book I hand to all my customers. Unnerving, odd, sometimes spooky, sometimes very funny. Here is a world of warped reality; by grief, by pandemic, by Major Weather Events, by technology, sometimes even by our own minds. I love the way Laura van den Berg tells and twists a ghost story, and this is one of her best.
July 1, 2024
Rating: 2.5/5 Stars
•
When I read the synopsis of State of Paradise I was intrigued and figured it would be a quick listen that I would really enjoy. It however was a bit of a mishmash of a bunch of different concepts that sort of worked but also didn’t?
•
First, let me get my rambling out of the way…. I cannot express enough how tired I am of hearing about COVID. The amount of times this book mentioned the pandemic or during quarantine… lets just say I was ready to toss my air pods across the room. Again, I sound like a broken record, but can we just not please?
•
Second, this is the second book this year that I read that none of the characters have names. That drives me absolutely bonkers. Why doesn’t anyone have a name? I like names.
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Third, this was such an interesting concept with bringing in virtual reality with world hopping. I thought it was such a unique idea and I was really vibing with it, I just felt that the execution was a bit choppy. There are a lot of different things that happen within this story that it kind of seemed like someone mashed together a bunch of thoughts. But, it still worked? If that even makes sense..
•
I listened to this one via audiobook and Megan Tusing was a phenomenal narrator. I really like what she did with this story.
•
Overall, this had a great premise, cool concept, interesting jumble of thoughts, but the execution was lacking, I am tired AF of COVID and I need my characters to have names. This one was both a hit and miss. I have seen rave reviews – take mine with a grain of salt.
•
State of Paradise releases on 7/9 be sure to check this one out. Huge thank you to NetGalley, Laura van den Berg and Spotify Audio for the ALC in exchange for my honest review!
•
When I read the synopsis of State of Paradise I was intrigued and figured it would be a quick listen that I would really enjoy. It however was a bit of a mishmash of a bunch of different concepts that sort of worked but also didn’t?
•
First, let me get my rambling out of the way…. I cannot express enough how tired I am of hearing about COVID. The amount of times this book mentioned the pandemic or during quarantine… lets just say I was ready to toss my air pods across the room. Again, I sound like a broken record, but can we just not please?
•
Second, this is the second book this year that I read that none of the characters have names. That drives me absolutely bonkers. Why doesn’t anyone have a name? I like names.
•
Third, this was such an interesting concept with bringing in virtual reality with world hopping. I thought it was such a unique idea and I was really vibing with it, I just felt that the execution was a bit choppy. There are a lot of different things that happen within this story that it kind of seemed like someone mashed together a bunch of thoughts. But, it still worked? If that even makes sense..
•
I listened to this one via audiobook and Megan Tusing was a phenomenal narrator. I really like what she did with this story.
•
Overall, this had a great premise, cool concept, interesting jumble of thoughts, but the execution was lacking, I am tired AF of COVID and I need my characters to have names. This one was both a hit and miss. I have seen rave reviews – take mine with a grain of salt.
•
State of Paradise releases on 7/9 be sure to check this one out. Huge thank you to NetGalley, Laura van den Berg and Spotify Audio for the ALC in exchange for my honest review!
June 21, 2024
State of Paradise
Laura van den Berg
A ghost writer moves back to Florida to live with her mother, and her sister next door – the story starts off pretty conventionally, and you can virtually see the cookie-cutter strip malls, laundromats, and typical Florida scenery pass by, feel the heat and humidity. This is my first book by this author, and it is evident that her storytelling is crisp and engaging. In a parallel narrative, the author takes you back to her childhood – dealing with an abusive, alcoholic parent, to her troubled adolescence culminating in her running away from home. Continuing downhill to institutionalization for early adulthood mental health issues. The gradual character development makes you slowly realize that things are not always what they seem. And I think this is a central theme of this novel. To paraphrase: No one is interested in reading about the truth. The truth is what people read to get away from.
Then the story starts to get weird – there is a VR headset townspeople are getting addicted to using, then they start disappearing. There are “ghostly” apparitions of people long-dead or vanished. The famous author the protagonist/narrator takes on a more mysterious and sinister role. Altered reality, parallel universes – sci fi, horror…hang on to your seats!
My appreciation to NetGalley, to the author, and to the publisher, for providing me with a digital Advanced Reader Copy for review, in exchange for an original, unbiased, independent review.
Laura van den Berg
A ghost writer moves back to Florida to live with her mother, and her sister next door – the story starts off pretty conventionally, and you can virtually see the cookie-cutter strip malls, laundromats, and typical Florida scenery pass by, feel the heat and humidity. This is my first book by this author, and it is evident that her storytelling is crisp and engaging. In a parallel narrative, the author takes you back to her childhood – dealing with an abusive, alcoholic parent, to her troubled adolescence culminating in her running away from home. Continuing downhill to institutionalization for early adulthood mental health issues. The gradual character development makes you slowly realize that things are not always what they seem. And I think this is a central theme of this novel. To paraphrase: No one is interested in reading about the truth. The truth is what people read to get away from.
Then the story starts to get weird – there is a VR headset townspeople are getting addicted to using, then they start disappearing. There are “ghostly” apparitions of people long-dead or vanished. The famous author the protagonist/narrator takes on a more mysterious and sinister role. Altered reality, parallel universes – sci fi, horror…hang on to your seats!
My appreciation to NetGalley, to the author, and to the publisher, for providing me with a digital Advanced Reader Copy for review, in exchange for an original, unbiased, independent review.
June 23, 2024
I received this book as an ARC. I absolutely adored it and read it in one sitting. I am 100% the exact target reader for this sort of book so I expected to love it. I love Florida lit, I love things that are a little magical realism-esque, I love environmental fiction, I love it when things go a bit haywire and the reader is like WTF. This reminded me of lots of Lauren Groff’s earlier work mixed with the almost dystopian and swampy atmosphere of Brutes by Dizz Tate.
Where this novel really hit the mark was the way it teetered just beyond the edge of reality. The political extremism, Florida governor, AI, environmental catastrophe and pandemic often feel like the world in which we live today. Just when you forget this is a fictional world something wild happens to remind you this is almost science fiction. You’re constantly trying to decipher what’s escapist and what is commentary on our reality. For me this was most effective in the physical changes following the pandemic, the clever use of the term “ghosts” and The Wilderness.
The only place this novel fell short for me was how close it got to science fiction in the end. That is not my typical genre. However the good things far outweighed that for me.
Where this novel really hit the mark was the way it teetered just beyond the edge of reality. The political extremism, Florida governor, AI, environmental catastrophe and pandemic often feel like the world in which we live today. Just when you forget this is a fictional world something wild happens to remind you this is almost science fiction. You’re constantly trying to decipher what’s escapist and what is commentary on our reality. For me this was most effective in the physical changes following the pandemic, the clever use of the term “ghosts” and The Wilderness.
The only place this novel fell short for me was how close it got to science fiction in the end. That is not my typical genre. However the good things far outweighed that for me.
June 25, 2024
A writer finds herself back at her mom's house in swampy Central Florida during the pandemic, where epic storms, a popular virtual-reality device, and the mysterious disappearance of her sister threaten to send everyone around her into a tailspin. While the strangeness swirls, her own past bubbles up to haunt her in unexpected ways. Sure, there are sinkholes and mysterious portals and sweatsuit-wearing extinction cults - but "State of Paradise" manages to steer clear of the usual, dismissive Florida tropes. Instead, humor gives way to humanity and family and loss in surprising and beautiful moments. The events of the book don't advance so much as they slink, wrapping around you slowly. That is, until the last third of the book, which hurtles straight through surreal into something strangely transcendent. I want more books like this, where the wildness of our home state is part of the story and a character of its own - containing memes and multitudes and the complex characters van den Berg lets shine on her pages. This is the book I'll be putting in everyone's hands this summer.
Read
June 29, 2024DNF at 52%, so I’ll consider it read.
It’s hard to say what this one is about. The narrator is a ghostwriter who is reflecting on life in Florida, her past, family relationships, etc. It’s a fragmentary, meandering first person narration that is definitely more about *vibes*.
I quit the book before the fictional tech became the focus, but my sense is that things get weird. I just was not enjoying the narration style, so I decided to accept that and stop reading.
I’m definitely an outlier so far on this one - so perhaps if the premise appeals, give it a go. But know that the first half is very plotless and more about the narrator’s thoughts on a range of things. I assumed that the narration style wasn’t going to make a 180 before the end, and I was not getting along with it, so that’s that!
I’ve read Laura van den Berg before and had mixed success, so I think she’s just not for me.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.
It’s hard to say what this one is about. The narrator is a ghostwriter who is reflecting on life in Florida, her past, family relationships, etc. It’s a fragmentary, meandering first person narration that is definitely more about *vibes*.
I quit the book before the fictional tech became the focus, but my sense is that things get weird. I just was not enjoying the narration style, so I decided to accept that and stop reading.
I’m definitely an outlier so far on this one - so perhaps if the premise appeals, give it a go. But know that the first half is very plotless and more about the narrator’s thoughts on a range of things. I assumed that the narration style wasn’t going to make a 180 before the end, and I was not getting along with it, so that’s that!
I’ve read Laura van den Berg before and had mixed success, so I think she’s just not for me.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.
July 5, 2024
This slim novel packs worlds into its 224 pages. It begins in a familiar fashion. Our narrator is a ghost writer (for a "very famous thriller author"), she and her husband come south to Florida to help her mother out during an unnamed pandemic. Her sister lives over the fence. There's history between them. There are tornadoes.
There's a ton of atmosphere - the storms, the grasshoppers, cats, a wolf. More than a few times I was reminded of Lauren Groff's short story collection Florida. There is even a "Florida Man" anecdote.
Our narrator frequently alludes to falling back on the quote "Everything is not as it seems" in her writing. This is the title of the second part of the novel. Enough said.
A unique story that dances with both horror and sci-fi, State of Paradise subverts expectations and takes the reader on a wild ride.
My thanks to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for the digital ARC.
There's a ton of atmosphere - the storms, the grasshoppers, cats, a wolf. More than a few times I was reminded of Lauren Groff's short story collection Florida. There is even a "Florida Man" anecdote.
Our narrator frequently alludes to falling back on the quote "Everything is not as it seems" in her writing. This is the title of the second part of the novel. Enough said.
A unique story that dances with both horror and sci-fi, State of Paradise subverts expectations and takes the reader on a wild ride.
My thanks to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for the digital ARC.
February 5, 2024
I loved Laura van den Berg’s fever dream of a novel, State of Paradise. At one point, the unnamed narrator’s father says of her writing, “This is some weird shit, but I think you should keep going.” I cackled because it is exactly how I felt while reading this book. I did not want to put it down. I was so caught up in the beauty of van den Berg’s language and in the astuteness of her observations, I did not even notice the fact that none of the main characters are ever named until I began writing this review. As a Florida native, I particularly enjoyed van den Berg’s characterization of my home state (and the state does indeed loom large enough to feel like an actual character in the novel): from the sinkholes, manatees, and Nextdoor messages to the Cro-Magnon governor and Extreme Weather Events, it is both surreal and spot on. I am excited to check out more of van den Berg’s work!
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