Sacha's Reviews > State of Paradise

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.