PositiveLos Angeles Review of BooksAcross...disparate projects, Locke’s work has been marked by a commitment to character and plots that delve into ugly and underexplored racial truths. Her latest, thankfully, is no different ... The extended scope serves the novel well; Heaven, My Home takes Bluebird’s interlocking histories and expands the concept both personally and professionally to build a denser novel with a larger cast of characters than before. Locke is deft enough to keep it working structurally and avoid chaos, though the sheer number of subplots means that some feel like they’re deliberately left open for further exploration in a sequel ... If Bluebird hinged on the idea that full knowledge/accounting of a previously unknown past can lead to understanding in the present, Heaven, My Home suggests that even a fully understood and comprehensible past doesn’t always bring clarity in the present day. Heaven, My Home presents different ways of moving forward, but ultimately abstains from suggesting we can know for sure what the right path is ... what makes Heaven, My Home a success is Locke’s willingness to explore what exactly it feels like when you’re wondering where you’ll land.
Rob Hart
RaveThe Los Angeles Review of BooksHart’s near-future worldbuilding is all the more effective for what it doesn’t show. There’s a functioning society somewhere out there, but we never go beyond the arid, nearly abandoned wasteland surrounding MotherCloud. We get a general sense of how Wells has captured political power through posts in which he mentions successfully lobbying for laws that allow Cloud to operate with zero regulatory oversight and pay workers in high-tech company scrip, but all this is secondary to the action in MotherCloud; Hart wants us to experience dystopia through Paxton and Zinnia ... polished ... Hart guides the action with a steady hand, showing an impressive command of pacing and structure that keeps the book moving at a speed between mystery and thriller ... avoids the easy out of painting Wells and the company he started as monstrous caricatures ... The high points of the novel come when our leads realize just how completely Cloud precludes the possibility of any real connection, and how radically things would have to change to allow for any improvement. Hart’s effective storytelling means the same connection exists between reader and character as well, making The Warehouse an enjoyable journey with a meaningful payoff.
Fuminori Nakamura, Trans. by Kalau Almony
MixedThe Los Angeles Review of BooksThere are a lot of moving pieces here, but...Cult X is more interested in ideas than actions ... Cult X is also very much about Japan and the country’s self-image in the aftermath of World War II and onward through the end of the 20th century ... The talent for character and existential themes that won Nakamura’s previous novels praise comes through here, but both are weakened by a plot that exists less to answer questions than to provide a framework for Nakamura to raise them ... Cult X’s relatively flat plot means that it is heavy on the musing, a structure that does a disservice to the ideas within it. Cult X’s length also begins to work against its goals near the end ... For all that goes on, perhaps the most unifying sensation across Cult X is one of being adrift and unmoored. At times even a generous reader will probably feel the same, but Nakamura’s talent for characterization and willingness to engage make this a novel worth wrestling with, flaws and all.
Attica Locke
PositiveThe Los Angeles Review of BooksThe term ‘tangled web’ gets thrown around a lot with these kind of novels, and for a moment I reflexively reached out to type that tired phrase before realizing that doing so would be doing Bluebird a disservice. Locke’s novel deals with such a small cast of characters that astute readers could probably guess who’s involved in the solution to the mystery midway through, but the plot is in no way lessened by not having an out-of-nowhere arrival in the third act. Instead, Locke uses history to add depth in a way that’s all the more compelling for how fundamentally simple it can be … Learning the full extent of the complicated relationships between characters is the best part of the book — Locke has a wonderful grasp of how to tell a story about the past.
