Carla

3 1/2 ⭐️The narration for this audiobook is top notch, but I would still recommend against it, because this story is complicated. Extremely. Harwood is quite talented in weaving disparate details into a multilayered mystery. This one is particular has not only several moving parts, but many, many characters and two generations. I think I got a little lost in parts due to its complexity, the audio format, and the switching of narrators.
That being said, it also has the most creative seance cabinet ever, and it is extremely evocative of mid-19th century London.

I think this subject matter (possible epidemic, possible problem with vaccine) was a little too on-the-nose to be enjoyable right now. There was also something...missing from this novel. Can't quite put my finger on it.

I wonder if the unusual name Deenie was a callback to the Judy Blume novel about scoliosis—disease and difference and mean girls?

I wanted to finish this novel. The narrator, Amy Landon, has a soothing voice, and understood Beth's emotional remove from others and what that might sound like. The author, Walter Tevis, has given us other important American stories turned into landmark films such as The Hustler, The Color of Money, and The Man Who Fell to Earth. 

But.

I truly believe you need to understand chess to follow this novel's progression. Many of Beth's plays, and tournaments' rules and activities, are given without any explanation, which is frustrating. Plus, there is so much alcohol abuse, without it pressing forward the story. Both Beth and her mother drink beer like mother, often in physically impossible quantities and in a method of communication with each other and with other people. I am not sensitive to alcohol abuse or alcoholism per se, but even I became very uncomfortable with the frequency of it. I became so hyperaware of it that it took me out of the book.

Chet Williamson, the horror author, (and my friend—full disclosure) carries this story so beautifully, juggling the sounds of so many different voices with ease with his lovely deep voice. And he remembers the precise sound for each character, something I can't imagine how to do. He needs to narrate more books.

The story is a true epic, down in the dirt and up the heavens with creation and sex and the nature of the world(s), and I am so looking forward to reading its sequel, Everville, also narrated by Williamson.

Review: We Were Liars This review is short and sweet, mainly because I read this novel in one sitting and am still reeling, book-drunk.
 
More of a confession than a review, really. Can a book be violent? If so, I have been pummeled by this book, dragged all about the house in a fiery embrace.
 
And I enjoyed it. The ache is delicious.