RaveNecessary FictionThe novel’s opening line serves as a kind of thesis, a sentence crafted as much for its poetry as for its meaning. 'Tell me what you can’t forget, and I’ll tell you who you are,' Buntin writes, giving her protagonist a voice that sounds at once meditative but also slightly uneased ... That divide, echoing the first line of the novel, continually makes Marlena such a fascinating exploration into how one’s life evolves from traumatic beginnings. As a narrator, Cat continually reveals herself to be an intriguing study in how one overcomes — and remains tied — to the past, and as a novel, Marlena demonstrates an author’s deft ability to capture such a condition.
