This is a beautifully written novel that tackles some really important topics, and I know a lot of people will and have adored this. I read McLemore’s debut The Weight of Featherslast year and absolutely devoured it. It was probably the first magical realism novel I read and remains one of my favourites. That is why the rating is lower for this one as I couldn’t help but compare the connection I felt to Miel and Sam’s characters, with the connection I felt to Cluck and Lace in The Weight of Feathers. It wasn’t until the Lake of Dreams chapter that I truly felt for Miel and Sam as a unit (I felt for them both on an individual level), which I thought was a little late in the novel to be really drawn in.
All things aside though, this is just as beautifully and lyrically written as is McLemore’s usual style. The way she describes colours, tastes, and smells is truly stunning and incomparable so far in my reading experiences. I could smell the cloves, taste the bergamot oranges, and see the reds and coppers so vividly. The way she describes everything is truly magical:
From a scarlet oak tree, he took down one that was the dark blue of an indigo milk mushroom’s gills, the slice of a crescent moon almost lavender. From maple trees, he took down another the gray of an overcast but rainless day, and another the soft gold of the beech tree outside Miel’s window. He found the lilac and pink moons of late spring, the green and yellow ones of the planting season, the amber of fall and the crisp, pale blue of winter. He found ones so small Miel could have hidden them in drawers, and others big enough that he’d forgotten how hard the metal or glass had been to take up the wooden ladder.
The imagery McLemore conjures is breathtaking too:
But now she was too broken and brittle to take it. She wasn’t a soft place he could fall. She was all edges, all fierce rivers and panels of stained glass. Only joints of rose brass held her together.
McLemore also describes transgender in such a sensitive and real way. From the first page I knew Sam as the boy he is and always has been. McLemore helped me to understand what it’s like to be transgender and I can’t say many authors could accomplish this in such a gentle way. The intimate moments between Miel and Sam were my favourite part of this book:
He had mapped her body like a new sky. He had known even then that this night was something perfect, without jagged corners to catch themselves on. But it was only now that he knew why. That day, with the foil stars, there was both a reason for him to be touching her, and no need for a reason.
The way their relationship and Sam’s sexuality is explored in this is truly special. That it is a not a person’s body that makes them a particular gender but what is inside and in their heart. The way McLemore describes Sam struggling with and coming to terms with his sexuality is so incredibly important, and the magical realism setting was such a unique way to tell this story. So although I didn’t quite connect to Miel and Sam as much as I did Cluck and Lace, this in no way diminishes how important this book is and how beautifully executed. McLemore is still yet to disappoint me and I cannot wait for her next.
*Thanks to Netgalley for the advance copy*
*Note: Quotes were taken from an advance copy and are subject to change in the final edition*
the adelaide librarian. 