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We Were the Universe
The trip was supposed to be fun. When Kit's best friend gets dumped by his boyfriend, he begs her to ditch her family responsibilities for a quick, idyllic weekend in the Montana mountains. They'll soak in hot springs, then sneak a vape into the local dive bar like old times. But it's soon clear that this getaway only gets Kit closer to something dire and unfathomable that's been building inside her for years, ever since her sister Julie died.
Back in the Dallas suburbs, Kit tries to settle into her usual long afternoons spent taking care of her irrepressible young daughter, going on therapist-advised dates with her concerned husband, and reluctantly taking her mother's phone calls. In the secret recesses of Kit's mind, though, she's dreaming of an impossible threesome with her kid's pretty gymnastics teacher and the cool mom she just met at the playground. She's reminiscing too much about the band she used to be in-and how they'd go out to the desert after shows and drop acid. Keyed into everything that might distract from her surfacing pain, Kit longs to be anywhere but inside the confines of her own life. As her already thin boundaries between reality and fantasy blur, Kit begins to Is Julie really gone?
Neon bright in its insight, both heartbreaking and laugh-out-loud funny, We Were the Universe is an ambitious, inventive novel from a revelatory new voice in American fiction-a fearless exploration of sisterhood, motherhood, friendship, marriage, psychedelics, and the many strange, transcendent shapes love can take.
Back in the Dallas suburbs, Kit tries to settle into her usual long afternoons spent taking care of her irrepressible young daughter, going on therapist-advised dates with her concerned husband, and reluctantly taking her mother's phone calls. In the secret recesses of Kit's mind, though, she's dreaming of an impossible threesome with her kid's pretty gymnastics teacher and the cool mom she just met at the playground. She's reminiscing too much about the band she used to be in-and how they'd go out to the desert after shows and drop acid. Keyed into everything that might distract from her surfacing pain, Kit longs to be anywhere but inside the confines of her own life. As her already thin boundaries between reality and fantasy blur, Kit begins to Is Julie really gone?
Neon bright in its insight, both heartbreaking and laugh-out-loud funny, We Were the Universe is an ambitious, inventive novel from a revelatory new voice in American fiction-a fearless exploration of sisterhood, motherhood, friendship, marriage, psychedelics, and the many strange, transcendent shapes love can take.
289 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 14, 2024
287 people are currently reading
22386 people want to read
About the author
Kimberly King Parsons
4 books277 followersKIMBERLY KING PARSONS is the author of the national-bestselling novel We Were the Universe, number two on TIME Magazine’s Best Books of 2024 and a Dakota Johnson Book Club pick the New York Times calls “a profound, gutsy tale of grief’s dismantling power.” Parsons’s debut collection, Black Light, was longlisted for the National Book Award and the Story Prize. A recipient of fellowships from Yaddo and Columbia University, Parsons won the 2020 National Magazine Award for “Foxes,” a story published in The Paris Review. She lives with her partner and children in Portland, Oregon, and teaches fiction in the MFA Writing Program at Pacific University.
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October 5, 2025
SHORTLISTED FOR THE 37TH Lambda Literary Awards for Bisexual Fiction.
Real Rating: 4.75* of five
The Publisher Says: A young mother, in denial after the death of her sister, navigates the dizzying landscapes of desire, guilt, and grief in this darkly comic, highly anticipated debut novel from Kimberly King Parsons, author of the story collection, Black Light (longlisted for the National Book Award).
The trip was supposed to be fun. When Kit’s best friend gets dumped by his boyfriend, he begs her to ditch her family responsibilities for an idyllic weekend in the Montana mountains. They’ll soak in hot springs, then sneak a vape into a dive bar and drink too much, like old times. Instead, their getaway only reminds Kit of everything she’s lost lately: her wildness, her independence, and—most heartbreaking of all—her sister, Julie, who died a few years ago.
When she returns to the Dallas suburbs, Kit tries to settle into her routine—long afternoons spent caring for her irrepressible daughter, going on therapist-advised dates with her concerned husband, and reluctantly taking her mother’s phone calls. But in the secret recesses of Kit’s mind, she’s reminiscing about the band she used to be in—and how they’d go out to the desert after shows and drop acid. She’s imagining an impossible threesome with her kid’s pretty gymnastics teacher and the cool playground mom. Keyed into everything that might distract from her surfacing pain, Kit spirals. As her already thin boundaries between reality and fantasy blur, she begins to wonder: Is Julie really gone?
Neon bright in its insight, both devastating and laugh-out-loud funny, We Were the Universe is an ambitious, inventive novel from a revelatory new voice in American fiction—a fearless exploration of sisterhood, motherhood, friendship, marriage, psychedelics, and the many strange, transcendent shapes love can take.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.
My Review: First novel by my 2019 six-stars-of-five delight's author (see link above).
Any novel about grief, grieving, loss, or aging will alienate some readers. It is a requirement of Life that we experience these things. It is not, for some, cathartic to experience them in fiction. I'm not one of those people, but if you are, this is not the read for you.
I'm very much not a member of the Cult of Mother, but motherhood...from both sides, mothered and mothering ("Our spheres are almost entirely our mothers’ doing, for better or worse")...is another central fact of Life for us all. (Yes, choosing not to Mother or being unable to give birth is also in this life-equation.) The way Author Kimberly uses this in her novelistic debut is to explore it while living her own life. When Julie dies, too young, Kit is pregnant. We meet Kit after her daughter turns three, thus not having to deal with the Terrible Twos, an arrangement decidedly superior to the real-life one. In the intense whirl of mothering as a stay-at-home parent, Kit is torn into mother, sister, spouse gobbets by the powerful emotions each of these elicits...requires...of her. It's no surprise that she needs some time off. Don't all mothers? Haven't they needed time off they never got throughout history? I digress.
Kit was a wildchild earlier in her life. That identity never really leaves one, once adopted, it can only be suppressed not expunged. It's clear to me this identity was powerfully rooted because dead-by-overdose Julie ("I cannot fucking believe she's not here, that she's not anywhere") never bothered to suppress it. When her GBFF from days gone by calls on Kit to ditch her life after he suffers setbacks that hurt, she tingles with the old urge to cut loose. It takes spousal support, granted, but it also requires she consider her child's feelings.
This is the single greatest strength of Author Kimberly's stories. Complexity is baked in, not slapped on. It's not the point; it's not handwaved away; it's part of the reality of Kit's life as spouse and mother, so it's in the story. I resonate with this because complexity is what Life is. Part of that complexity in this story is the way the narrative (told from Kit's PoV) is in two timelines, present and revolving like a slide carousel among her memories. Like all adults the world Kit lives in is built on the bumpy earth of memory. At different times the present will pitch one up to see the future from a hill, will spine one around to see the past, or knock one flat to study the ground for a while: "It seems to me these lost pastimes—being a psychonaut and being slutty—are connected. Maybe because they're two things I enjoyed being that I'm not allowed to be anymore. Identities that induced a feeling of security, false as it might have been. My old coping mechanisms have become incompatible with my life choices. "It's just growing up," Yes says. "Easier for some of us than others." Unlike books with a different set of timelines that benefit from carefully signposted offramps into the others, this story is about the lived experience of an adult's reckoning process. Look at the title. The memories of life as it was, and as it can never be again, are accurately presented as they happen. Never once did I think "what in tarnation brought that up?"
Speaking of tarnation, Author Kimberly is exiled Texan as am I. It felt so much like going home to the place that made me but doesn't want me to read the memories...it was healing for Kit and it was healing for me to look at the way things were before there was another place to call home. In the course of her escape with her GBFF, which we know will be temporary, her inner monologue gets searingly honest: "Nobody knows me, but they still need me, all of them. Nobody wants a mother too sad to make a sandwich, a wife too crazy to fuck, a friend who sounds insane. They need me in the grocery store, in the bedroom, at brunch. They need me to be available and so I am, or my body is. The body goes around fulfilling my obligations. The body makes grilled cheese and gives blow jobs and gets ready to fly off to god knows where with her brokenhearted best friend."
It is motherhood. It is adulthood, it is caretaking, it is being the one who knows how to fix stuff. This tells the entire history of how one adult is trapped into, trapped by, the needs of others intersecting with the need in one's self to give what one never got. Many are the ones who want to receive this gift, few care to offer it:
Simple truth. Hard to argue with it, and often too easy to use as a weapon against one.
I'm describing a five-star read. I don't have five stars up top. What happened there? The ending. I don't mean, as I usually do when I type those words, that I did not like how the story ended, or felt that it did not end so much as stopped. I am actually stumped. I feel a bit stupid...what just happened here?...and why? So I had to wonder where to go with my pleasure in the read until those last ~75pp.
I realized as I sat with my thoughts that I was *having* thoughts...I was wondering why Kit chose straightness (ugh) why she never opted for...you get the point. No story that makes me think this hard this long after reading it means it needs most of that fifth star in acknowledgment of that power in the storytelling.
Real Rating: 4.75* of five
The Publisher Says: A young mother, in denial after the death of her sister, navigates the dizzying landscapes of desire, guilt, and grief in this darkly comic, highly anticipated debut novel from Kimberly King Parsons, author of the story collection, Black Light (longlisted for the National Book Award).
The trip was supposed to be fun. When Kit’s best friend gets dumped by his boyfriend, he begs her to ditch her family responsibilities for an idyllic weekend in the Montana mountains. They’ll soak in hot springs, then sneak a vape into a dive bar and drink too much, like old times. Instead, their getaway only reminds Kit of everything she’s lost lately: her wildness, her independence, and—most heartbreaking of all—her sister, Julie, who died a few years ago.
When she returns to the Dallas suburbs, Kit tries to settle into her routine—long afternoons spent caring for her irrepressible daughter, going on therapist-advised dates with her concerned husband, and reluctantly taking her mother’s phone calls. But in the secret recesses of Kit’s mind, she’s reminiscing about the band she used to be in—and how they’d go out to the desert after shows and drop acid. She’s imagining an impossible threesome with her kid’s pretty gymnastics teacher and the cool playground mom. Keyed into everything that might distract from her surfacing pain, Kit spirals. As her already thin boundaries between reality and fantasy blur, she begins to wonder: Is Julie really gone?
Neon bright in its insight, both devastating and laugh-out-loud funny, We Were the Universe is an ambitious, inventive novel from a revelatory new voice in American fiction—a fearless exploration of sisterhood, motherhood, friendship, marriage, psychedelics, and the many strange, transcendent shapes love can take.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.
My Review: First novel by my 2019 six-stars-of-five delight's author (see link above).
Any novel about grief, grieving, loss, or aging will alienate some readers. It is a requirement of Life that we experience these things. It is not, for some, cathartic to experience them in fiction. I'm not one of those people, but if you are, this is not the read for you.
I'm very much not a member of the Cult of Mother, but motherhood...from both sides, mothered and mothering ("Our spheres are almost entirely our mothers’ doing, for better or worse")...is another central fact of Life for us all. (Yes, choosing not to Mother or being unable to give birth is also in this life-equation.) The way Author Kimberly uses this in her novelistic debut is to explore it while living her own life. When Julie dies, too young, Kit is pregnant. We meet Kit after her daughter turns three, thus not having to deal with the Terrible Twos, an arrangement decidedly superior to the real-life one. In the intense whirl of mothering as a stay-at-home parent, Kit is torn into mother, sister, spouse gobbets by the powerful emotions each of these elicits...requires...of her. It's no surprise that she needs some time off. Don't all mothers? Haven't they needed time off they never got throughout history? I digress.
Kit was a wildchild earlier in her life. That identity never really leaves one, once adopted, it can only be suppressed not expunged. It's clear to me this identity was powerfully rooted because dead-by-overdose Julie ("I cannot fucking believe she's not here, that she's not anywhere") never bothered to suppress it. When her GBFF from days gone by calls on Kit to ditch her life after he suffers setbacks that hurt, she tingles with the old urge to cut loose. It takes spousal support, granted, but it also requires she consider her child's feelings.
This is the single greatest strength of Author Kimberly's stories. Complexity is baked in, not slapped on. It's not the point; it's not handwaved away; it's part of the reality of Kit's life as spouse and mother, so it's in the story. I resonate with this because complexity is what Life is. Part of that complexity in this story is the way the narrative (told from Kit's PoV) is in two timelines, present and revolving like a slide carousel among her memories. Like all adults the world Kit lives in is built on the bumpy earth of memory. At different times the present will pitch one up to see the future from a hill, will spine one around to see the past, or knock one flat to study the ground for a while: "It seems to me these lost pastimes—being a psychonaut and being slutty—are connected. Maybe because they're two things I enjoyed being that I'm not allowed to be anymore. Identities that induced a feeling of security, false as it might have been. My old coping mechanisms have become incompatible with my life choices. "It's just growing up," Yes says. "Easier for some of us than others." Unlike books with a different set of timelines that benefit from carefully signposted offramps into the others, this story is about the lived experience of an adult's reckoning process. Look at the title. The memories of life as it was, and as it can never be again, are accurately presented as they happen. Never once did I think "what in tarnation brought that up?"
Speaking of tarnation, Author Kimberly is exiled Texan as am I. It felt so much like going home to the place that made me but doesn't want me to read the memories...it was healing for Kit and it was healing for me to look at the way things were before there was another place to call home. In the course of her escape with her GBFF, which we know will be temporary, her inner monologue gets searingly honest: "Nobody knows me, but they still need me, all of them. Nobody wants a mother too sad to make a sandwich, a wife too crazy to fuck, a friend who sounds insane. They need me in the grocery store, in the bedroom, at brunch. They need me to be available and so I am, or my body is. The body goes around fulfilling my obligations. The body makes grilled cheese and gives blow jobs and gets ready to fly off to god knows where with her brokenhearted best friend."
It is motherhood. It is adulthood, it is caretaking, it is being the one who knows how to fix stuff. This tells the entire history of how one adult is trapped into, trapped by, the needs of others intersecting with the need in one's self to give what one never got. Many are the ones who want to receive this gift, few care to offer it:
It seems to me these lost pastimes—being a psychonaut and being slutty—are connected. Maybe because they’re two things I enjoyed being that I’m not allowed to be anymore. Identities that induced a feeling of security, false as it might have been. My old coping mechanisms have become incompatible with my life choices. 'It’s just growing up,' Yes says. 'Easier for some of us than others.'
Simple truth. Hard to argue with it, and often too easy to use as a weapon against one.
I'm describing a five-star read. I don't have five stars up top. What happened there? The ending. I don't mean, as I usually do when I type those words, that I did not like how the story ended, or felt that it did not end so much as stopped. I am actually stumped. I feel a bit stupid...what just happened here?...and why? So I had to wonder where to go with my pleasure in the read until those last ~75pp.
I realized as I sat with my thoughts that I was *having* thoughts...I was wondering why Kit chose straightness (ugh) why she never opted for...you get the point. No story that makes me think this hard this long after reading it means it needs most of that fifth star in acknowledgment of that power in the storytelling.
November 29, 2023
Kimberly King Parsons is here to stay. She knocked us out with her National Book Award longlisted short story collection Black Light full of lovable crazies, and now, with her debut novel, We Were the Universe, she proves that she's a contender for the belt in the long form as well. Hysterical, stirring and resonant, Parsons shares the story of a young mother absorbed in the budding life of a bright child while stifling her grief over an enormous loss in her life. In lesser hands this novel could fall into sappiness but Parsons eschews sentimentality with horny abandon. She explores what binds family with empathy, wit, and a unique eye for detail. Her sentences are forces of nature. They will water your soul. You will love this book as much as I did and long for her next.
January 8, 2024
3.5 / Our spheres are almost entirely our mothers' doing, for better or worse. This book follows a young, bisexual, stay at home mom to a wild and precious 3-year-old while she struggles with the loss of her sister. We go back and forth between her present daily caretaking and her past childhood and teen years with her younger sister who died while she was pregnant with her daughter. I did really enjoy this; it's heartbreaking and complicated and funny, but at times just felt like a slog to get through. Daily life is so monotonous and frustrating, so it's a testament to the author that this came through, but I still struggled to pick it back up a few times.
July 31, 2024
Grief, sisters, motherhood, memory and drugs. Kimberly King Parsons cracks open all of these themes without shying away from all their challenges and gratifications (yes, even grief), and what happens when any of these four mix in any combination. Kit, mother to Gilda and wife of Jad, lives in her head remembering her sister, Julie now dead. She manages to get a weekend off from child-rearing and goes away with her best friend but of course her memories come too. Wonderful writing, funny and sharp with great characterisation. Maybe I would have liked a slightly stronger 'present day' story.
May 14, 2024
We Were the Universe is the kind of novel I’m always searching for. It’s not just that it’s so fucking funny, that it made me laugh out loud and made me ugly cry. It’s not just that it captures the cartooning psychedelic darkness of grief or that Parsons always writes kids so well — how it feels to be with them, impossible and heartbreaking and hilarious — or that the book has a very good soundtrack-in-allusions. It’s not even that when I finished, tears still streaming down my face, I immediately wanted to read it again. It’s that We Were the Universe is the kind of magic, inexplicable book that gives the secret/unsayable parts of you a home. It walks right off its pages in glimmers. It’s got that thing I’m always searching for in art, that thing that feels inevitable and outsizing, that makes you feel less alone, that knows you back.
Parson feels to me like a writer’s writer, and I also loved studying the fractaling structure of this novel and enjoying how much reverence she has for the sentence. We Were the Universe made me remember that writing a novel could be a fun and hopeful thing, and reminded me (cos we all need reminding sometimes) how very much art matters, if reading a novel can feel like this.
Parson feels to me like a writer’s writer, and I also loved studying the fractaling structure of this novel and enjoying how much reverence she has for the sentence. We Were the Universe made me remember that writing a novel could be a fun and hopeful thing, and reminded me (cos we all need reminding sometimes) how very much art matters, if reading a novel can feel like this.
March 16, 2024
I don’t know, I just didn’t connect with this one as much as I thought I would. It seems right up my alley on paper, but I wasn’t crazy about the main character Kit and I felt the story was a bit disjointed and depressing (for me, at least!) I definitely see this working for a lot of people, especially within the vein of sad, weird girl lit fic.
I did feel for Kit, juggling raising an adorable but precocious 3 year old, grieving the loss of her sister 3 years earlier, and dealing with a hoarder Mom. But I felt the plot was weak and it was sometimes a slog to get through. I think I’m in the way minority though, according to Goodreads! Might have just been the wrong book for me at the wrong time.
I did feel for Kit, juggling raising an adorable but precocious 3 year old, grieving the loss of her sister 3 years earlier, and dealing with a hoarder Mom. But I felt the plot was weak and it was sometimes a slog to get through. I think I’m in the way minority though, according to Goodreads! Might have just been the wrong book for me at the wrong time.
July 14, 2024
We Were the Universe is a contemporary novel about a stay at home mother, Kit, dealing with the challenges of raising a toddler on top of the grief she is experiencing after the loss of her sister. While there’s uneasiness and sadness as the character is processing everything, but bits of humor are present throughout.
I’ll freely admit the full scope of what the author was going for went over my head but there was enough here for me to appreciate the originality. I think it’s a case of you either quickly latch on to Kit or you don’t feel a connection at all. Unfortunately it was a disjointed reading experience as a whole but there were some highlights along the way.
Worth taking a chance on as there are quite a few positive review and it’s definitely a unique read.
Thank you Knopf for sending me a free copy! All thoughts expressed are my honest opinion.
I’ll freely admit the full scope of what the author was going for went over my head but there was enough here for me to appreciate the originality. I think it’s a case of you either quickly latch on to Kit or you don’t feel a connection at all. Unfortunately it was a disjointed reading experience as a whole but there were some highlights along the way.
Worth taking a chance on as there are quite a few positive review and it’s definitely a unique read.
Thank you Knopf for sending me a free copy! All thoughts expressed are my honest opinion.
May 23, 2024
Kit is a reckless, unsupervised teen-turn-grownup, a wife and mother seemingly in her mid-twenties, who returns constantly to her childhood in the form of memories of her beloved dead sister. The story toggles from her present day to her past as easily as if it were your own meandering daydream; she moves from thoughts of wanting to fuck a hot, married, neighborhood dad to recollections of the bland and exhilarating chaos of growing up with a single addict mother and her sister as her best friend in nowhere, Texas, with ease and a direct tenderness.
I’m such a sucker for a dirtbag with a heart of gold; perhaps because of my firmly held worldview that embracing our inner dirtbags, being aware of them and indulging them sometimes, is vital to our growth. There’s a part of Kit that a big part of the book focuses on that longs for and romanticizes the self she was before motherhood, all the drugs and sleeping around it entailed, but there’s also a part of her that cherishes that she made it out of her hometown and settled down with a family of her own, despite how she struggles with feelings of leaving her sister behind to die. The novel ends with Kit coming out of a long fog of grief to, put simply, make peace with her inner dirtbag and leave it behind, knowing it’s what she wanted for her sister, what she wants for herself, and maybe most of all, who both of them needed as children, who she deeply, more than anything, wants to be for her daughter.
I’m such a sucker for a dirtbag with a heart of gold; perhaps because of my firmly held worldview that embracing our inner dirtbags, being aware of them and indulging them sometimes, is vital to our growth. There’s a part of Kit that a big part of the book focuses on that longs for and romanticizes the self she was before motherhood, all the drugs and sleeping around it entailed, but there’s also a part of her that cherishes that she made it out of her hometown and settled down with a family of her own, despite how she struggles with feelings of leaving her sister behind to die. The novel ends with Kit coming out of a long fog of grief to, put simply, make peace with her inner dirtbag and leave it behind, knowing it’s what she wanted for her sister, what she wants for herself, and maybe most of all, who both of them needed as children, who she deeply, more than anything, wants to be for her daughter.
August 30, 2024
could not get into this one or connect with the main character in the slightest. arguably nothing happened except kit masturbating, complaining about motherhood, missing her sister, and reminiscing about doing drugs. the same thing for almost 300 pages gets old after awhile, especially when there’s no plot to carry it.
May 17, 2024
This is not a humorous book. It's heavy and filled with some daunting themes. I couldn't connect with the character and I'm not sure if it was that she's so much younger than I am or if I just didn't like her. Probably both. But this novel is ALL up inside her head, which I found to be burdensome to me. It's stream of consciousness mostly and meanders at times and jerks quickly at others. I don't think of myself as a prude but I was overwhelmed at how much she thinks about sex with just about everyone in her orbit. And the drug usage contributed to the convoluted feel of the book. I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
November 30, 2025
Weird and funny and strange and honest and different from my grief but so similar all the same.
The idea that sisters are connected by underground wires will stick with me for a long time.
The idea that sisters are connected by underground wires will stick with me for a long time.
March 4, 2024
“Any knee is a gift.” This is the kind of gem sentence you’ll get so many of when you read We Were the Universe by Kimberly King Parsons. I’ve been waiting for this book since I read her story collection Black Light back in 2018. This novel is weird, wild, sad, sexy and hilarious all at the same time. If you're psychedelics-curious like I am, it's a great way to expand your mind without having to put anything on your tongue. Pink rugs and cacti will never be the same. No flashbacks, but I will remember things about this book for years to come.
July 2, 2024
This novel came into my life when I needed it most. Kimberly King Parsons was able to write something that balances the darkly hilarious and the deeply heart-wrenching aspects of life so incredibly adeptly. She subtly slips undeniable universal truths onto each page as her characters grapple along to the soundtrack of grief and complicated love. I cannot wait to recommend this special book to as many people as I can.
January 31, 2025
💫“We store our childhood homes in our bodies—we know just where on the wall to feel for a light switch, which of the floorboards creak.”
Oh, I loved this novel. It was admittedly sitting on my shelf for a few months because I kept picking it up, reading the first chapter, and then setting it back down. I was convinced it had to be the perfect moment. I thought it would be a piece of comedic relief (which I say fondly!)
And while I did find this book very funny, I found it devastating, too.
Kit is a new mother. Right before her daughter is born she loses her sister, and is faced with the impossible task of rushing her grief, compartmentalizing it for the sake of motherhood. And then her friend invites her on a trip after experiencing his own loss. A commiseration trip! The time alone provides her with something she’s needed all along: the ability to really feel her loss.
It’s a story told non-linearly, but it isn’t plotless. The plot IS the grief, split up all over the place. Kit walks us through a life shared with her sister, allowing us to truly feel the loss along with her.
If you’ve ever experienced an event which shatters your entire life, and then struggled to figure out where to put all of that grief/how to keep going, then you know—bits of it smash into your life at random, all the time. There’s no escaping it. Just living with it. I thought this book demonstrated that so well.
And, though I don’t have children myself, I thought the little silly little bits we got from her daughter were hysterical.
Oh, I loved this novel. It was admittedly sitting on my shelf for a few months because I kept picking it up, reading the first chapter, and then setting it back down. I was convinced it had to be the perfect moment. I thought it would be a piece of comedic relief (which I say fondly!)
And while I did find this book very funny, I found it devastating, too.
Kit is a new mother. Right before her daughter is born she loses her sister, and is faced with the impossible task of rushing her grief, compartmentalizing it for the sake of motherhood. And then her friend invites her on a trip after experiencing his own loss. A commiseration trip! The time alone provides her with something she’s needed all along: the ability to really feel her loss.
It’s a story told non-linearly, but it isn’t plotless. The plot IS the grief, split up all over the place. Kit walks us through a life shared with her sister, allowing us to truly feel the loss along with her.
If you’ve ever experienced an event which shatters your entire life, and then struggled to figure out where to put all of that grief/how to keep going, then you know—bits of it smash into your life at random, all the time. There’s no escaping it. Just living with it. I thought this book demonstrated that so well.
And, though I don’t have children myself, I thought the little silly little bits we got from her daughter were hysterical.
August 25, 2024
This really was an odd and eccentric novel. To be honest, this book kind of felt like some sort of weird fever dream or hallucinogenic drug trip. Actually, I can only imagine the result if you were to read this book under the influence...
ANYWAY. At its core, this book is the story of grief and living (or attempting to) in the midst of it. It's also the story of life. Yes, a somewhat privileged one but also one without glamour really. It's the 'average' life and one filled with what some would call mediocrity.
This was a good read and I'm sure for those that enjoy a really deep and complex literary fiction, they will like this one as well.
ANYWAY. At its core, this book is the story of grief and living (or attempting to) in the midst of it. It's also the story of life. Yes, a somewhat privileged one but also one without glamour really. It's the 'average' life and one filled with what some would call mediocrity.
This was a good read and I'm sure for those that enjoy a really deep and complex literary fiction, they will like this one as well.
February 2, 2024
This book enveloped me in its words, characters, genuineness, pain. I think this is a must-read for anyone with sister issues. It's like salt in the wound yet cleansing.
The writing in this book was beautiful. Not over-complicated, but you get wrapped up in Kit's emotions. Normally I'd say she's an insane lady (my favorite genre) but I get it. She's grieving. She's valid in everything she does ngl.
I'm not usually a highlighter but there were so many good quotes in this book. Kimberly King Parsons gets it.
I highly recommend this book and can't wait to see everyone's thoughts when it's released.
*NetGalley ARC
The writing in this book was beautiful. Not over-complicated, but you get wrapped up in Kit's emotions. Normally I'd say she's an insane lady (my favorite genre) but I get it. She's grieving. She's valid in everything she does ngl.
I'm not usually a highlighter but there were so many good quotes in this book. Kimberly King Parsons gets it.
I highly recommend this book and can't wait to see everyone's thoughts when it's released.
*NetGalley ARC
June 26, 2024
If you need a book with a solid plot where a lot of things happen, this is not the book for you. But if you like flawed characters, really astute observations of what it's like to be a sister, friend, daughter or young mother, you might find yourself loving this.
I loved the Texas vibes, specifically the sentences about bleak DFW urban sprawl. Spot on.
I also enjoyed the parts where she's describing what psychedelics feel like. I've never dabbled myself, but now I don't really feel the need to.
Kit felt very real to me — flaws and all. I found myself wanting the best for her, as though I know her. I hope she's doing well.
I loved the Texas vibes, specifically the sentences about bleak DFW urban sprawl. Spot on.
I also enjoyed the parts where she's describing what psychedelics feel like. I've never dabbled myself, but now I don't really feel the need to.
Kit felt very real to me — flaws and all. I found myself wanting the best for her, as though I know her. I hope she's doing well.
Read
October 27, 2024what a complicated read this was. i spread it over five entire months, and yet i don’t have that much to say. there were a lot of hard-hitting lines, and i underlined some entire paragraphs, but i’m not taking much away from this book. it didn’t really do anything. i also think the last chapter was wholly unnecessary. so…who knows!
one time a professor gave me feedback on an assignment that said something along the lines of “i can see you struggling to understand the law, not always successfully, but i like to see the struggle.” and that’s how i feel here. i could see the narrator struggling to process the grief, not always successfully, but i liked to see the struggle.
one time a professor gave me feedback on an assignment that said something along the lines of “i can see you struggling to understand the law, not always successfully, but i like to see the struggle.” and that’s how i feel here. i could see the narrator struggling to process the grief, not always successfully, but i liked to see the struggle.
February 5, 2025
Kit escapes to the Montana mountains for a weekend with her best friend, hoping for a carefree trip, but instead, she’s confronted by all she’s lost—her wildness, independence, and most painfully, her late sister, Julie. Back home in the Dallas suburbs, she struggles to settle into her routine as a mother and wife, while secretly longing for her past life of music, rebellion, and recklessness. As she fixates on distractions—memories, fantasies, and temptations—her grip on reality begins to slip, leaving her questioning whether Julie is truly gone.
Only got about 30 pages and just felt the book was super random and disjointed and to be honest I had no clue what I was reading so I just didn't finish it.
Only got about 30 pages and just felt the book was super random and disjointed and to be honest I had no clue what I was reading so I just didn't finish it.
May 14, 2024
thank you to Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor and NetGalley for the advanced digital copy!
this one comes out May 14th, 2024.
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i'd like to preamble this review by saying that this was a dnf for me, but i think that kimberly king parsons is a very skilled, compelling writer and i WILL be picking up more of her work.
my problems with this book are:
1.) i was expecting something about a lesbian character
2.) i didn't realize how much of this book would include motherhood
as far as our main character kit, we're introduced to her and she's married to a man. she's clearly attracted to women (there was one she mooned during a scene early on). i don't know why i was expecting a lesbian character, but this was a disappointment, though not really a dealbreaker for me as i love reading about queer characters of all kinds.
the maternity/motherhood stuff for me is a no-go. there's this trend in fiction that whenever a character is a mother, they want to smell their child (in this book) and like, describe their smell as milky (can't remember if in this book, but wouldn't be surprised), or lick their ear to cure ear infections (not in this book that i know of but Traumatic). i hate this. i hate the way women in books talk about their kids and being a parent.
this book gave me the extra ick of including a child who i think might be an incarnate of satan (in the way all kids are, not literally in the prose) and who was always trying to merge her sticky-ass body with her mom. i don't blame her mom for being fed up.
obviously this is a super personal thing for me and why i had to dnf, though when i left the story kit was on a roadtrip without her kid (naturally, the child's father is useless and can't functionally parent without kit at home which is just straight-up more ick for me).
this book seems to be delving into the death of kit's dead sister and perhaps kit reclaiming some sense of autonomy on a drug-filled trip into the woods with her bff without her family. i hope kit somehow gets her happiness.
and you, if you read this book and feel seen, i'm really happy for you. anyway, three stars because at the end of the day kimberly king parsons' prose was lush and compelling, but no, not the book for me.
this one comes out May 14th, 2024.
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i'd like to preamble this review by saying that this was a dnf for me, but i think that kimberly king parsons is a very skilled, compelling writer and i WILL be picking up more of her work.
my problems with this book are:
1.) i was expecting something about a lesbian character
2.) i didn't realize how much of this book would include motherhood
as far as our main character kit, we're introduced to her and she's married to a man. she's clearly attracted to women (there was one she mooned during a scene early on). i don't know why i was expecting a lesbian character, but this was a disappointment, though not really a dealbreaker for me as i love reading about queer characters of all kinds.
the maternity/motherhood stuff for me is a no-go. there's this trend in fiction that whenever a character is a mother, they want to smell their child (in this book) and like, describe their smell as milky (can't remember if in this book, but wouldn't be surprised), or lick their ear to cure ear infections (not in this book that i know of but Traumatic). i hate this. i hate the way women in books talk about their kids and being a parent.
this book gave me the extra ick of including a child who i think might be an incarnate of satan (in the way all kids are, not literally in the prose) and who was always trying to merge her sticky-ass body with her mom. i don't blame her mom for being fed up.
obviously this is a super personal thing for me and why i had to dnf, though when i left the story kit was on a roadtrip without her kid (naturally, the child's father is useless and can't functionally parent without kit at home which is just straight-up more ick for me).
this book seems to be delving into the death of kit's dead sister and perhaps kit reclaiming some sense of autonomy on a drug-filled trip into the woods with her bff without her family. i hope kit somehow gets her happiness.
and you, if you read this book and feel seen, i'm really happy for you. anyway, three stars because at the end of the day kimberly king parsons' prose was lush and compelling, but no, not the book for me.
January 5, 2025
I suppose this debut novel will not be for everyone. It almost wasn’t for me. I had to start it twice. Kimberly King Parsons can write circles around most current commercial fiction authors and she does not shy away from disturbing topics, but she also evokes empathy. So important: empathy.
Kit is the mother of a rambunctious toddler whom she cares for day and night, a stay-at-home mom who is often miles away in her mind. She lost her beloved sister to a drug overdose induced accident during her pregnancy and she cannot get past her grief.
Set in a small Texas town, the story covers Kit and her sister’s life in an even smaller Texas town navigating a dysfunctional family. Since Kit is the one who got away and her sister is the one who died, she is filled with guilt. Despite some humorous incidents and dialogue, the story is dark and grim. Still, she won me over.
Sex, psychedelics, music, motherhood, marriage and friendship. Quite a combustive mix. Every woman needs a way to make sense of what happens to her in life. I suspect the story grew out of the author’s own experiences. She found her way to make sense of being born and raised in Lubbock, Texas and ending up as a writing mom in Portland, Oregon.
Kit is the mother of a rambunctious toddler whom she cares for day and night, a stay-at-home mom who is often miles away in her mind. She lost her beloved sister to a drug overdose induced accident during her pregnancy and she cannot get past her grief.
Set in a small Texas town, the story covers Kit and her sister’s life in an even smaller Texas town navigating a dysfunctional family. Since Kit is the one who got away and her sister is the one who died, she is filled with guilt. Despite some humorous incidents and dialogue, the story is dark and grim. Still, she won me over.
Sex, psychedelics, music, motherhood, marriage and friendship. Quite a combustive mix. Every woman needs a way to make sense of what happens to her in life. I suspect the story grew out of the author’s own experiences. She found her way to make sense of being born and raised in Lubbock, Texas and ending up as a writing mom in Portland, Oregon.
July 7, 2025
Not gonna lie, I’m not sure how I feel about this one. I did finish it half asleep while on a red eye flight but I digress. It was a wild exploration on grief, psychedelics and motherhood? Great combo right? I had a hard time keeping up with the past vs present timelines the main character was jumping between but overall I got the gist. It was fine, maybe just not for me and that’s okay!
May 4, 2024
Sigh, I simply loved this. Sad it’s over.
May 10, 2024
I’m still not sure if I loved this or didn’t like it. But I know I’m going to be thinking about it for a long time. The book is the story of Kit, who is a new-ish mother and who is struggling to processes the death of her younger sister. We live mostly in Kit’s head, and different timelines and focuses shift, with no clear start and stop or beginning or end, they are all just woven in like a braid. Being in Kit’s head is tricky at times, and honestly, just tough to get through at certain points.
Some of the descriptions of how she thought about her own child and motherhood are some of the most real that I have read. And while I did not share a similar headspace with Kit after the births of my children, I did find small nuggets that really hit in a way that other books have never.
The ending was not what I was expecting, but I also don’t know how I would have done it differently. I didn’t love it, in that it seemed to just push a little too quickly after this long, languid (at times a bit of a slog) narrative.
Thanks NetGalley for the ARC!
Some of the descriptions of how she thought about her own child and motherhood are some of the most real that I have read. And while I did not share a similar headspace with Kit after the births of my children, I did find small nuggets that really hit in a way that other books have never.
The ending was not what I was expecting, but I also don’t know how I would have done it differently. I didn’t love it, in that it seemed to just push a little too quickly after this long, languid (at times a bit of a slog) narrative.
Thanks NetGalley for the ARC!
July 15, 2024
“Big Large asks if he can be a part of our band- of our universe- and we say no. No way. Sorry.”
This is not bad, I just didn’t enjoy it or find myself caring about the story or characters. It’s extremely character-driven (which is usually hit or miss for me). I really enjoyed the author’s voice and style, but that’s about it. Unfortunately I was just waiting for it to end. It reads like one big rambling diary entry from the FMC, with no real point or sense of direction. I can see how some people will like it but it’s just not my taste!
“People will show you everything you need to know about them by the way they do something ordinary.”
Content warnings: death, grief, sexual content, drug use and abuse, brief mentions of car accident and stillborn birth
This is not bad, I just didn’t enjoy it or find myself caring about the story or characters. It’s extremely character-driven (which is usually hit or miss for me). I really enjoyed the author’s voice and style, but that’s about it. Unfortunately I was just waiting for it to end. It reads like one big rambling diary entry from the FMC, with no real point or sense of direction. I can see how some people will like it but it’s just not my taste!
“People will show you everything you need to know about them by the way they do something ordinary.”
Content warnings: death, grief, sexual content, drug use and abuse, brief mentions of car accident and stillborn birth
July 29, 2024
a funny, observant, empathetic, moving look at grief, desire, family, and motherhood. i adored every bit of this novel, from its stunning cover to its witty and memorable voice to its vivid and poignant writing to, above all, the messy, loving, heartbreaking relationship between sisters kit and julie that lies at the heart of this novel. kimberly king parsons does a splendid job at painting kit's simultaneous love and resentment for julie and the way her grief impacts every part of her life. just so, so good overall and definitely a fave of the year. got me excited to pick up more of parsons's work in the future
December 19, 2024
Lovely piece of literary fiction! I went in expecting a much more straightforward plot/storytelling method and was pleasantly surprised by the beautiful motifs and trippy-ness.
Lots of very real, sad, content. But also lots of very real, beautiful, happy content too. Definitely not a total bummer of a book haha.
As a debut novel, I think this was really great. I’d definitely lean 3.5 stars. I enjoyed the read but felt like I wanted a little more of a plot arc than we got. I don’t think it was the point nor purpose of the book, just something that I think would have really hooked me more.
Lots of very real, sad, content. But also lots of very real, beautiful, happy content too. Definitely not a total bummer of a book haha.
As a debut novel, I think this was really great. I’d definitely lean 3.5 stars. I enjoyed the read but felt like I wanted a little more of a plot arc than we got. I don’t think it was the point nor purpose of the book, just something that I think would have really hooked me more.
February 29, 2024
Kimberly King Parsons is an exquisite writer, and it’s a novel that, while it explores tried and true themes of new motherhood and loss, does so in an entirely new way. The book is the epitome of the concept of grief being non-linear; new memories keep popping up, scattered throughout the novel, and they slowly reveal a picture that is as messy as it is heartbreaking.
December 22, 2023
What a fresh and unique novel. It’s hard to believe this is Kimberly King Parsons debut!
January 5, 2024
Hey all! This one was spectacular and a great novel! I utterly loved the characters and even when it got surrealist at points it all had very strong points. Thanks for the arc and cheers!
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