Review: Amatka, by Karin Tidbeck, 2012

Amatka by Karin Tidbeck
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Amatka, by Karin Tidbeck, 2012 

Name it! Mark it! Do not deviate!

Originally written in Swedish and translated to English in 2017, Amatka is a "soft" sci-fi novel that is "quiet," strange and has no clear ending. The story follows Vanya, who works for her city government of Essre.  While on assignment to study hygiene products used in the city of Amatka, she falls in love with Nina and moves in with her. 

Set in a world shaped by language, we quickly learn that things are not what they seem when Vanya's luggage melts into gloop when Vanya neglects it for too long, reciting the suitcase's name and physically inscribing it with the word "suitcase" to describe what it is. It's apparent the inhabitants of this world speak the names of things around them, calling on them to remain what they are and marking them for what they are.

Tidbeck's prose is easy to ingest and engenders the slow horror of a quiet atmosphere of slow decay, not much unlike the current state of society.

I rate this novel a 4.95 out of 5 stars.

#Amatka #KarinTidbeck #QueerLiterature #LGBTLiterature #Swedish #ScienceFiction

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Review: Paradise Rot: A Novel, by Jenny Hval, 2018

Paradise Rot by Jenny Hval
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Paradise Rot: A Novel, by Jenny Hval, 2018

Right off the bat, if bodily fluids, particularly urine, gross you out, this book isn't for you. The author is clearly obsessed with urine and intricately details activities involved in the act of pissing.

The story is a sexual self-discovery of a young Norwegian college girl, Jo, who is studying biology abroad in Britain. There she meets a girl, Carral, slightly older than her, who she becomes obsessed with. She shares an apartment in a converted brewery with Carral and starts a peculiar three-way affair with a studly male neighbor named Pym.

The writing is surreal and exquisitely detailed with the grotesque banalities of human existence: mold, decay, and urine. The prose evokes striking images, from rotting slimy apples to a man exposing himself on a train. 

I rate this book 4.75 out of 5 stars.

#MagicalRealism #LGBTliterature #LGBT

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