Geometries of Belonging

NOMINATED FOR THE 2023 URSULA K. LE GUIN PRIZE FOR FICTION

“We all are vessels of our brokenness, we carry it inside us like water, careful not to spill.”

Everybody is broken in Lemberg's Birdverse, and no book showcases this more than GEOMETRIES OF BELONGING. Most people in these stories and poems very much don't belong in their world. Gender and linguistics have always played a prominent role in the Birdverse stories but it felt most explicit here. Lemberg does unique stuff with the genre that I can only be astonished by and respect.

And yet... There's always something off about their style, making it a chore to read, as much as I want to love it. I had this problem with THE FOUR PROFOUND WEAVES (where I was reading it and didn't very much understand any of it) and found THE UNBALANCING to be more readable, but I once again had to power through it. A shame, because Lemberg seems like they should be one of my favourite writers.