This was a funny old book; it felt in a lot of ways like A Wizard of Earthsea, and in general her earlier quasi-YA stuff; it's not exactly YA (YA as a genre descriptor did not exist lol) but it's the same sort of solemn and thoughtful bildungsroman and coming of age story. It was very heavy-feeling, sad in a lot of ways; often a lot of Le Guin's writing is but I felt it very strongly here, in a way I kind of haven't since maybe The Farthest Shore? Differently handled though; the way Le Guin reflects modern capitalistic detachment and the ensuing displacement from one's self, one's land and world, and one's family and community into even the ain country and the fantasy elements was super admirable. It's depressing it still applies in 2026 as it did in 1980, even if it was specifically USAmerican in a lot of ways (reliance on cars, endless suburbs, the price of the hospital) it still echoes out in general. As usual, her prose is faultless, when is it not? Even discounting the technical skill, there's such a dignity to the way she writes. I think I could do with a reread of it at some point in the future, there would definitely be a lot of bits I'd like to pick up on again. It's not my favourite by her but I do think it seems somewhat underrated.

[proof/ARC received from publisher]

Surreal and experimental litfic to the nth degree; not something I usually read very often, but it was nice to try it out and it certainly didn't lack on the prose— the work both Ojeda and Booker have done here is extraordinary. I think I liked Ernesto and Pamela's bits best; Pamela I found very frank and enjoyable as a character, and to me she had the strongest voice of all the POVs. I liked the contrasting theming of Ernesto's segments with the taxidermies and hunting and so on, crashing up against the rest of the nature theming which was more vital. It could maybe have done with a few less points of view (I felt Antonia lost relevance very quickly, for example), but the chaos of them all becoming increasingly fragmented and blending together towards the end was very effective. Strong on the sense of the sublime and the natural world crashing up against a lot of psychological horror hallmarks; I also really enjoyed the songstress interludes. Possibly a little bit too fragmented at times, but nonetheless a very powerful read, if a bit heavy.