We Are Wormwood by Autumn Christian
“When I was fourteen years old the cats in the neighborhood started losing their eyes”
Eeeeeh! How’s that for a teaser? We Are Wormwood isn’t a straightforward kind of read and it might not be a book that everyone will love equally so know what you’re getting into. It’s dreamy, the narrator and the world around her are basically 100% unreliable and the story and the prose are exquisitely poetic. I love this type of writing when I’m in a mood to sit down and be transported somewhere weird and unpredictable. If you’re like this as well, you’ll want to read it when you have some time to fall into its world.
A book like this is difficult to review because there is a very fine line between saying just enough and saying a little too much and spoiling its surprises. Basically it’s about a young girl named Lily and her strange and dark coming of age journey as she lives off and on with her schizophrenic mother and experiments with drugs. There are some strange sights to behold and Lily spends the majority of the story stumbling through life in a hazy otherworldly hallucinatory state. The reader and Lily are never quite sure what is real and what isn’t. It’s about fear and trauma and it reads like a nightmare. At times lucid, mostly not, the imagery and savagery and monsters on her back are all vivid, dirty and create scenes of disgusting beauty. I loved this book about a young girl growing up with madness nipping at her heels.
I also enjoyed all of the dark imagery within these pages and can’t wait to find some time to sit down with more from this author.
“Once you invade someone’s dreams you’re a part of them forever. For the rest of their life they’ll be spitting out little pieces of you.”
*I was given an e-Arc by the author. This in no way alters my thoughts on the story.
