Southing

by Lily Darling

Southing follows a cast of four characters who are all, either tangentially or directly, involved with the murder of a teenage girl, Jaime. Atticus is a young boy striving to see even the smallest forms of beauty in his crumbling hometown of Carrabelle, Florida. Categorically resisting labels of innocence or naivete so often associated with youth, Atticus harbors a profound capacity for empathy that grants integrity to his observations that most are incapable of. Dewey, Atticus's older brother, loved Jaime from afar. Dewey continues to struggle in hiding his grief from his cohort of ne'er-do-well friends, all of whom played a key role in ostracizing Jaime from the community before her death. Callie is the new girl in town, and her observations about Carrabelle's community are unobstructed due to her disinterest in integrating into the community. Fleeing a home as equally troubled as her past, Callie forms an unlikely friendship with her classmate, Annabelle Fairchild, who is the daughter of a rehabilitation facility tycoon. Then there's Newbury, an unknown man who arrives at Carrabelle with a stolen car, a pair of mirrored aviators, and a stomach filled with the pills he chews to keep his nightmarish visions of the apocalypse at bay. The four narrators, all strangers in one way or another, set out to discover the mysterious circumstances surrounding Jaime's murder and deal with the repercussions of her death.

124 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 2, 2019

Reviews

[Lissa Sangree-Calabrese · Rating 5 out of 5]

Southing is truly a wonderful read. It is a relatively short novel but is packed full of beautiful imagery, interesting characters, and a mystery that will take you on a twisting journey. Darling has a stylistic flair that made reading so enjoyable and didn't allow me to put the book down. Definitely recommend.

[mo · Rating 5 out of 5]

i will always love the way that darling writes: with beautiful, emotional prose and compelling characters. there are few authors that keep me as engrossed as she does, and i am so excited to read what she publishes next.

[Mackenzie Finklea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poetic and brutal indeed. I could not put it down! It’s a wonderfully unique spin on what I thought would be a cliché “small town, dead body” plot. Far from cliché – definitely worth the read.

[Emma Ghalili · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredibly atmospheric, Darling manages to take hold of an experimental narrative voice without losing sight of her characters or the accessibility of the story itself.