alexis schaitkin – Pleasant Nights

Title: Elsewhere

Author: Alexis Schaitkin

Genre: fantasy, dystopia

Thank you NetGalley for this book!

I read Saint X a while ago and was really impressed by it. The story was excellent, and the language was just gorgeous. So, when I saw this one on NetGalley, I requested it in eager hopes that it was just as good. And it’s not. It’s BETTER! I absolutely loved every minute of reading this book. And it’s one I will think about for a long time.

From Goodreads: Vera grows up in a small town, removed and isolated, pressed up against the mountains, cloud-covered and damp year-round. This town, fiercely protective, brutal, and unforgiving in its adherence to tradition, faces a singular affliction: some mothers vanish, disappearing into the clouds. It is the exquisite pain and intrinsic beauty of their lives; it sets them apart from people elsewhere and gives them meaning.

Vera, a young girl when her own mother went, is on the cusp of adulthood herself. As her peers begin to marry and become mothers, they speculate about who might be the first to go, each wondering about her own fate. Reveling in their gossip, they witness each other in motherhood, waiting for signs: this one devotes herself to her child too much, this one not enough—that must surely draw the affliction’s gaze. When motherhood comes for Vera, she is faced with the question: will she be able to stay and mother her beloved child, or will she disappear?

Provocative and hypnotic, Alexis Schaitkin’s Elsewhere is at once a spellbinding revelation and a rumination on the mysterious task of motherhood and all the ways in which a woman can lose herself to it; the self-monitoring and judgment, the doubts and unknowns, and the legacy she leaves behind.

The story is told in first-person from Vera’s perspective, so you know you’re going to be with her for the duration of the book. That said, this book had me guessing a lot. I had no idea what to make of the disappearances, and when a stranger comes to town (not a spoiler, happens very early on in the book) the reaction to her of the townspeople is really interesting. The story comes full circle, and, by the end, I was really happy to see how Vera’s story turned out. I absolutely loved this and will be recommending it.

Saint X

Title: Saint X

Author: Alexis Schaitkin

Genre: literary thriller

I like a good murder mystery, but this wasn’t one exactly. However, it was really great in its own unique way. The story deals with an unexplained death (was it murder? was it an accident?) and the aftermath of the people surrounding it. The language was just beautiful, which is why I added “literary” to the genre. And for a debut novel, I was really blown away by how great this book was.

From Goodreads: Claire is only seven years old when her college-age sister, Alison, disappears on the last night of their family vacation at a resort on the Caribbean island of Saint X. Several days later, Alison’s body is found in a remote spot on a nearby cay, and two local men – employees at the resort – are arrested. But the evidence is slim, the timeline against it, and the men are soon released. The story turns into national tabloid news, a lurid mystery that will go unsolved. For Claire and her parents, there is only the return home to broken lives.

Years later, Claire is living and working in New York City when a brief but fateful encounter brings her together with Clive Richardson, one of the men originally suspected of murdering her sister. It is a moment that sets Claire on an obsessive pursuit of the truth – not only to find out what happened the night of Alison’s death but also to answer the elusive question: Who exactly was her sister? At seven, Claire had been barely old enough to know her: a beautiful, changeable, provocative girl of eighteen at a turbulent moment of identity formation.

As Claire doggedly shadows Clive, hoping to gain his trust, waiting for the slip that will reveal the truth, an unlikely attachment develops between them, two people whose lives were forever marked by the same tragedy.

As Claire dives deeper into her sister’s life and death, you really get to see just who Alison was. Claire gets access to some of her sister’s audio diaries and gets an unfiltered Alison. And as you get to see Alison through the lens of her sister, you see who Claire is deep down as well. And Clive. Oh, Clive. I’m certainly not going to tell you whether or not he was involved in Alison’s death, but as Claire gets to know him, you really feel for him. I thought this book was excellent. I was expecting just another thriller, but it’s so much more than that. I definitely recommend this one.