RaveThe BelieverAs an opening to her first novel, Kristin Allio opts for a quietly stunning revelation, old-fashioned and filmic at once, wherein the body of young Frances Giddens is discovered by the town’s postman in a local brook ... If Garner, the town, is the soul of this mystery, then Frances is its spirit ... Generically less novel than long scrapbook-poem, this first section is a patchwork—of poetic musings, town-meeting transcripts, dream sequences, lists of native plants, local lore and aphoristic proclamations—which successfully cobbles a sense of the civil ordinances and Puritanical strictures underpinning the town’s mores ... It is rare to feel so truly transported by a work of fiction ... I dub Garner a masterly, multi-voiced, mood-altering mystery—and a debut so wise, certain, and cleverly empathetic as to seem the work of a sure-footed pro.
Lauren Groff
RaveThe Toronto StarAlligators, panthers, snakes and the state’s often vicious, climate-change-induced weather butt up against the wilderness that lives inside of people: their surging-strong emotions and the inevitable tide of their realizations. This creates a compelling meld of the metaphysical and the physical, with Groff’s keen eye infusing everyday particulars with a sense of peculiar magic that evokes both the smallness and urgency of our concerns. Groff’s characters—mainly women—are thoughtful, searching, and frequently unsettled, but the stories never feel weighted down by their yearning or sense of melancholy. Instead, her people find meaning and odd, ballooning respite in moments of impending doom ... This is mesmerizing storytelling from a consummate writer with insight and vision to spare.
