Lions | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ARC Review

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Lions

Written by Bonnie Nadzam

Published July 2016 by Grove Press, Black Cat

#Literary, #LitFic, #Contemporary

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(Read February 2016 to be posted in July 2016 around publishing)

Now because I am writing this review after just having read the book in February something weird is going to be happening.  I have ordered a copy of Bonnie Nadzam's first novel, Lamb and am planning to read that as well (which spoils a bit of what I'm going to say in this review, tldr; I liked it).  The reason I am saying this is because one book is called Lamb the other is called Lions they have to be connected somehow.  You don't name things like this unless they are meant to be in some sort of conversation with each other.  There is a chance that by the time this review goes up that I have read and reviewed Lamb... in which case you already know whether or not I was disappointed that there wasn't any repeating themes or super excited that both books gain deeper meaning when read and compared.

You aren't here for things that may or may not have happened already, you are here for a review of this book right here!  Like I said, I liked it.  I read it in one sitting despite the fact that is literary fiction.  That isn't to say this is a light read, its just an engaging one, or at least it was for me.  It does have several key words associated with it that I particularly love though so I may be a bit biased (ghost story, mysterious stranger, westerns ... yes please!)  It is relatively short being under 300 pages so it wasn't too much of a stretch to spend a couple hours curled up in my nice warm bed on a snowy February evening (HI JULY HOW ARE YOU? HOT AS BALLS? PROBABLY) and escape into a summery setting.

One of the things I found most enjoyable about this books is that there are these long prosaic descriptions of the setting and everything going around in this tiny little town in Colorado.  However, whenever anyone speaks its this clipped back and forth exchange of a handful of words.  It is as if the people in this town don't need to say a lot, everything is already known and understood, and what is unknown is left to the imagination or ignored.  For instance, the catalyst to most of the events in this novel, that mysterious stranger walking into town with his dog.  He is mostly ignored even when he stirs up a bit of trouble.

The other thing I think this book did incredibly well was to move around the idea of ghosts and haunting.  One of the character's father dies within the first couple pages of the novel and his father's dying wish was for him to continue his life's work.  Now we are not privy to what that is and neither is anyone else in the town beside the now deceased father and his son just about to step out into the world for the first time.  People speculate that their family has been tasked with taking care of a sick or injured ghost.  The mysterious stranger is believed to be a ghost.  Then of course there is the theme of this dying town with all of the inhabitants moving away to something larger, something better, something bigger creating the illusion of a ghost town because it is so empty.  This theme continues through the book in different ways including the haunting of regret, the haunting of past relationships and even insanity in some cases.  It was fully explored without being too heavy handed.

There was enough mystery involved in several aspects of the story and whenever something got resolved something new sparked up.  There is a lot of secrets in this town and a lot of inferring and gossiping.  There is always something new to try and glean from the sparse words you get or to parse out through the narrators description of this town and its few straggling inhabitants.

If you enjoy books about how our decisions effect us, tales of mystery, tales of young love and regret then this is definitely something you should pick up.  It creates a story through atmosphere and both gives and withholds information with perfect timing.  This was one of the best books I've read so far this year (reminder this is in February I could read something earth shatteringly good two months from now but as of the 22 books I've read so far, this was really freakin' good).