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In Veritas
"Things that are and are not, she thinks, and the dog is a snake."
In this fantastic and fantastical debut, C.J. Lavigne concocts a wondrous realm overlaying a city that brims with civic workers and pigeons. Led by her synesthesia, Verity Richards discovers a hidden world inside an old Ottawa theatre. Within the timeworn walls live people who should not exist--people whose very survival is threatened by science, technology, and natural law. Verity must submerge herself in this impossible reality to help save the last traces of their broken community. Her guides: a magician, his shadow-dog, a dying angel, and a knife-edged woman who is more than half ghost.
With great empathy and imagination, In Veritas explores the nature of truth and the complexities of human communication.
In this fantastic and fantastical debut, C.J. Lavigne concocts a wondrous realm overlaying a city that brims with civic workers and pigeons. Led by her synesthesia, Verity Richards discovers a hidden world inside an old Ottawa theatre. Within the timeworn walls live people who should not exist--people whose very survival is threatened by science, technology, and natural law. Verity must submerge herself in this impossible reality to help save the last traces of their broken community. Her guides: a magician, his shadow-dog, a dying angel, and a knife-edged woman who is more than half ghost.
With great empathy and imagination, In Veritas explores the nature of truth and the complexities of human communication.
352 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2020
10 people are currently reading
360 people want to read
About the author
C.J. Lavigne
4 books21 followersC. J. Lavigne is a Canadian speculative fiction writer. She is also a professional communications scholar who has, additionally, been a freelance editor, an English teacher, a marketing manager, a tech support supervisor, a barista, and even — briefly — a radio DJ. She grew up in multiple hometowns, but she most often claims Ottawa, Ontario, or Red Deer, Alberta, with a little Nova Scotia thrown in. Wherever she is, she probably has a cat with her, and she’s never terribly far from her next coffee.
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
March 5, 2020
This is a hard book for me to rate, because there were things I liked and I think that overall plot of a story was really imaginative. It is kind of magical realism story and I always have hard time with this kind of novels. Why? First of all, the prose. It is very specific and I think some people will be put off by it, as I was a little. It is kind of flovery but in places that it doesn't need to be. And because of that a pacing of the story is too slow, at least at first few chapters. For example, we have our main character who goes somewhere to meet someone, but before she gets at the place I forgot where she was going because she passes those and that and something else. It improves a little at times, and I think that people who like that kind of lyric language will love this. I personally like faster novels.
But it doesn't mean that it isn't worth trying. Though at first I had no idea what I am reading about and I was totally lost with who Verity is, why she has a new job every day and why she can taste things that she sees, it was a mystery that I wanted to explore and it kept me going. It is definitely original story, so I'd recommend it for people who long for something new in fantasy genre.
But it doesn't mean that it isn't worth trying. Though at first I had no idea what I am reading about and I was totally lost with who Verity is, why she has a new job every day and why she can taste things that she sees, it was a mystery that I wanted to explore and it kept me going. It is definitely original story, so I'd recommend it for people who long for something new in fantasy genre.
December 17, 2019
I love reading books by new authors. One of my favorite things as a reader is following an author through their career and seeing the ways in which their writing grows and changes, so getting in on the ground floor, as it were, is a charge. Of course, you run the risk of a first book being disappointing - but when they aren't? It's such a damned priviledge.
'In Veritas' is that kind of wonderful. It was an absolute joy to read.That said, I'm going to be super honest, here. This book will not be everyone's cup of tea. But for those who like this kind of tea, it's going to be amazing.
The story itself takes a little while to get going, but there's a purpose behind this. CJ needs you to understand Verity's world, at least as much as those of us without synaesthesia can. And she manages it. The words are lush, they have a rhythm that sings off the page. A *flavor*. It reminds me, in a way, of Tanith Lee or Catherynne Valente. Some people get impatient when the plot doesn't kick in immediately, but I think the wait is worth it for this one. The story is a fairly simple one - two sides of an eternal conflict, and is there *any* way to resolve it? There's trust broken, trust earned and trust regained along with a host of characters I want to know more about. It's woven throughout with Verity's way of experiencing the world, and *that* is where CJ's talent shines. She draws you into that world - makes you see the beauty of it, and the pain. I am sure there are other characters out there in other books also dealing with this, but this is the first time I've read a book in which the main character had synaesthesia, *and* the book was written from her perspective, allowing the reader a glimpse.
Some readers may be put off by the style of prose. Those who prefer a sparer style may not enjoy it, but I would hope even they would give it a chance, because the deeper I got into the story the more it caught at my imagination. Once the plot gets going, it is very well done. I think the pacing really suits the plot and the character development. I was particularly impressed because the leap from roleplay to writing can be a difficult one to make. The pacing and the style used in both are very different. CJ managed it quite well, though, and I cannot wait to see what she comes up with next. Hopefully we'll get more on some of the side characters, because I'd really like to see them again.
'In Veritas' is that kind of wonderful. It was an absolute joy to read.That said, I'm going to be super honest, here. This book will not be everyone's cup of tea. But for those who like this kind of tea, it's going to be amazing.
The story itself takes a little while to get going, but there's a purpose behind this. CJ needs you to understand Verity's world, at least as much as those of us without synaesthesia can. And she manages it. The words are lush, they have a rhythm that sings off the page. A *flavor*. It reminds me, in a way, of Tanith Lee or Catherynne Valente. Some people get impatient when the plot doesn't kick in immediately, but I think the wait is worth it for this one. The story is a fairly simple one - two sides of an eternal conflict, and is there *any* way to resolve it? There's trust broken, trust earned and trust regained along with a host of characters I want to know more about. It's woven throughout with Verity's way of experiencing the world, and *that* is where CJ's talent shines. She draws you into that world - makes you see the beauty of it, and the pain. I am sure there are other characters out there in other books also dealing with this, but this is the first time I've read a book in which the main character had synaesthesia, *and* the book was written from her perspective, allowing the reader a glimpse.
Some readers may be put off by the style of prose. Those who prefer a sparer style may not enjoy it, but I would hope even they would give it a chance, because the deeper I got into the story the more it caught at my imagination. Once the plot gets going, it is very well done. I think the pacing really suits the plot and the character development. I was particularly impressed because the leap from roleplay to writing can be a difficult one to make. The pacing and the style used in both are very different. CJ managed it quite well, though, and I cannot wait to see what she comes up with next. Hopefully we'll get more on some of the side characters, because I'd really like to see them again.
February 6, 2021
I have decided that I would rather read prose that sings, or burbles, in rich streams, than just anything. That makes it hard to find books I want to invest the time to read. Most classics work, but among the moderns, so much never lifts from the page. The story might be good, even hold you to your seat, but if the language doesn’t lift me, I am less interested. This book is an exception to that. It reads like early Delany (Samuel), that kind of attention to language and its internal poetry. As with all good writing, it flows easily, hiding the years of effort that went into making the experience of reading so compelling. Chip Delany said once that he is no good at writing. Where he soars is in the rewriting. This, I think, is also true of CJ Lavigne.
As some of the other reviewers indicate, this may not suit everyone. Some call the language ornate. I dunno. I think it is ornate because of what it does. Like many others, I am fascinated by synaesthesia, the condition whereby some people’s sensory perceptions are switched, partially or fully, so the sight becomes smell, and music taste, while smells have color. Lavigne allows us to experience synaesthesia directly, through her writing. Never mind that the story itself is dark and intriguing, urban fantasy at its best, moving through the pages of this book is like moving through an amazing landscape, experiencing the world from the inside out. I love it!
This is a small book, that is, it feels small. It is focused inwards onto a small, albeit strange world. This is not a criticism, but an observation. I would like to see the author tackle a larger subject next time.
As some of the other reviewers indicate, this may not suit everyone. Some call the language ornate. I dunno. I think it is ornate because of what it does. Like many others, I am fascinated by synaesthesia, the condition whereby some people’s sensory perceptions are switched, partially or fully, so the sight becomes smell, and music taste, while smells have color. Lavigne allows us to experience synaesthesia directly, through her writing. Never mind that the story itself is dark and intriguing, urban fantasy at its best, moving through the pages of this book is like moving through an amazing landscape, experiencing the world from the inside out. I love it!
This is a small book, that is, it feels small. It is focused inwards onto a small, albeit strange world. This is not a criticism, but an observation. I would like to see the author tackle a larger subject next time.
March 25, 2022
I am not a particularly fast reader, but I did spend an unprecedented amount of time immersed in C.J. Lavigne’s debut novel, In Veritas.
It is a story ostensibly about communication in which the major character, named Verity, is pretty much unable to communicate in the usual manner. The crossed-wires in her brain give her a severe case of synesthesia which locked her into her own somewhat non-sensical world and contributed strongly to making her an outcast from a very young age. – with the added complication that people have an impossible time lying in her presence.
She escapes from incarceration in a mental health facility with Jacob, a wealthy young man who seems to be somewhere in the autistic spectrum. Having been cheated out of control of his family fortune, he does pretty well on the stipend he receives. Jacob and Verity live together in an affectionate - although emotionally distant and seemingly platonic - relationship where he switches career paths every five minutes and Verity goes along for the ride.
When Verity discovers the between, everything changes. The Between appears at first to be a rock band that everyone has heard of, but no one has actually heard. There are rumours of long ago concerts and impossible to find, limited edition albums. All of their concerts are cancelled before they happen, which builds the buzz even bigger.
Verity runs into a young street magician named Santiago. who has a strange talent he developed as a child, of conjuring beasts out of shadows – a snake and a dog that are both aspects of him and independent creatures at the same time.
He reluctantly takes her to the crumbling McLuhan Theatre where he shows her how to enter a magical space behind and between walls that he refers to as the between.
She meets the inhabitants of the between, including an angel and a ghostly, knife-bearing woman/demon named Jihan. Verity is both one of them and apart from them. But the journey of discovery she is on strongly suggests that she has a looming role in their lives – which in turn gives her a sense of purpose she has never had before. As her abilities start to make sense, she begins to feel valued.
Those who live in the between are a magical people – whose existence is threatened by forces that threaten to exterminate them. Their power has dwindled over the ages and is now almost gone.
Along the way, Verity meets Privya, whose power the reader is told about – but none of the characters in the book can possibly comprehend. Privya is bent on destroying humanity in order to preserve ‘her people.’ The angel and the magician are trying to stop her, while Verity is appropriately caught somewhere in between. And although she doesn’t understand why, she knows that her role is vital.
There is a very powerful moment just before the climax where Jacob realizes that Verity has been lying to him – a discovery that shakes him to his core, because he didn’t believe she was capable of it.
Communication may be the main theme, but In Veritas is also about the nature of truth, and about belonging.
It’s a very odd novel in many ways in that few of the characters have much agency of their own and yet things that need to happen get done.
I’m not sure what happens in the end – or more precisely, I know what happened but am unsure how. Given the themes of this book, this state of affairs is not only appropriate – but inevitable. I suppose. That’s what happens when you have a protagonist for whom roses whistle, tension smells like shattered glass, and dead hippogriffs wash up in the canal.
The themes are all enormously relevant, perhaps even more so because of the seemingly never-ending pandemic that has convoluted our normal means of communication in interesting ways.
In the end, this book didn’t take me those months to read because it was a difficult book. It took me so long because I was luxuriating in the prose and learning a whole new method of processing information.
In Veritas is an amazingly assured first novel that has fascinating things to say and an intriguing way of saying them.
Highly Recommended.
It is a story ostensibly about communication in which the major character, named Verity, is pretty much unable to communicate in the usual manner. The crossed-wires in her brain give her a severe case of synesthesia which locked her into her own somewhat non-sensical world and contributed strongly to making her an outcast from a very young age. – with the added complication that people have an impossible time lying in her presence.
She escapes from incarceration in a mental health facility with Jacob, a wealthy young man who seems to be somewhere in the autistic spectrum. Having been cheated out of control of his family fortune, he does pretty well on the stipend he receives. Jacob and Verity live together in an affectionate - although emotionally distant and seemingly platonic - relationship where he switches career paths every five minutes and Verity goes along for the ride.
When Verity discovers the between, everything changes. The Between appears at first to be a rock band that everyone has heard of, but no one has actually heard. There are rumours of long ago concerts and impossible to find, limited edition albums. All of their concerts are cancelled before they happen, which builds the buzz even bigger.
Verity runs into a young street magician named Santiago. who has a strange talent he developed as a child, of conjuring beasts out of shadows – a snake and a dog that are both aspects of him and independent creatures at the same time.
He reluctantly takes her to the crumbling McLuhan Theatre where he shows her how to enter a magical space behind and between walls that he refers to as the between.
She meets the inhabitants of the between, including an angel and a ghostly, knife-bearing woman/demon named Jihan. Verity is both one of them and apart from them. But the journey of discovery she is on strongly suggests that she has a looming role in their lives – which in turn gives her a sense of purpose she has never had before. As her abilities start to make sense, she begins to feel valued.
Those who live in the between are a magical people – whose existence is threatened by forces that threaten to exterminate them. Their power has dwindled over the ages and is now almost gone.
Along the way, Verity meets Privya, whose power the reader is told about – but none of the characters in the book can possibly comprehend. Privya is bent on destroying humanity in order to preserve ‘her people.’ The angel and the magician are trying to stop her, while Verity is appropriately caught somewhere in between. And although she doesn’t understand why, she knows that her role is vital.
There is a very powerful moment just before the climax where Jacob realizes that Verity has been lying to him – a discovery that shakes him to his core, because he didn’t believe she was capable of it.
Communication may be the main theme, but In Veritas is also about the nature of truth, and about belonging.
It’s a very odd novel in many ways in that few of the characters have much agency of their own and yet things that need to happen get done.
I’m not sure what happens in the end – or more precisely, I know what happened but am unsure how. Given the themes of this book, this state of affairs is not only appropriate – but inevitable. I suppose. That’s what happens when you have a protagonist for whom roses whistle, tension smells like shattered glass, and dead hippogriffs wash up in the canal.
The themes are all enormously relevant, perhaps even more so because of the seemingly never-ending pandemic that has convoluted our normal means of communication in interesting ways.
In the end, this book didn’t take me those months to read because it was a difficult book. It took me so long because I was luxuriating in the prose and learning a whole new method of processing information.
In Veritas is an amazingly assured first novel that has fascinating things to say and an intriguing way of saying them.
Highly Recommended.
July 21, 2024
No one has to tell Verity that the world is a strange place. For her, the world has always been strange. What the protagonist of C.J. Lavigne’s trippy contemporary fantasy novel, In Veritas, doesn’t know is that there are others who are out of step with reality. Likewise, Verity doesn’t know that she’s about to be asked to be a hero to those who don’t fit into our mundane world...
Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, for review consideration.
Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, for review consideration.
July 30, 2020
Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.
In Veritas is a cross genre magical realism urban fantasy by C.J. Lavigne. Released 1st May 2020 by NeWest Press, it's 352 pages and available in paperback and ebook formats.
This is an exquisitely well written dark fantasy which doesn't immediately capitulate to the reader. The vast (vaaaaast) majority of books I've read lately (and I've read most of the "buzz" books in the F&SF and mystery genres for the last umpty-zillion years) have been easy to read, very accessible, passive books. You can read them, the plot is spelled out for you, and they are what they are. This book is emphatically not that. There are multiple levels to the narrative. The layers have layers. Additionally, the main character Verity has synesthesia so she smells and tastes colours and experiences senses differently than most people and the way the author describes these interactions adds another layer of obfuscation to the story.
The characters themselves are wildly variant and not easily characterizable as hero or villain, ally or enemy. It adds an uneasy tension to the whole book and I don't think I really relaxed at all during the reading. There are a few graphic body-horror scenes (not gratuitous) which were integral. The denouement of the whole was worth the difficult journey.
This is an -astonishingly- gifted author. The book is extremely well written but not easy to read and I can certainly understand that many readers won't want to make the effort. This work doesn't really lend itself to direct comparisons, I'm not sure I've ever read anything quite like it. If forced to pluck out some names, I would say that Tanith Lee and Jane Rosenberg LaForge wouldn't be completely wrong (especially LaForge).
Five stars, even though there will be a lot of DNFs and it took me so long to read that I had to go back and reread the whole start to finish before I managed to get the whole thing.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
In Veritas is a cross genre magical realism urban fantasy by C.J. Lavigne. Released 1st May 2020 by NeWest Press, it's 352 pages and available in paperback and ebook formats.
This is an exquisitely well written dark fantasy which doesn't immediately capitulate to the reader. The vast (vaaaaast) majority of books I've read lately (and I've read most of the "buzz" books in the F&SF and mystery genres for the last umpty-zillion years) have been easy to read, very accessible, passive books. You can read them, the plot is spelled out for you, and they are what they are. This book is emphatically not that. There are multiple levels to the narrative. The layers have layers. Additionally, the main character Verity has synesthesia so she smells and tastes colours and experiences senses differently than most people and the way the author describes these interactions adds another layer of obfuscation to the story.
The characters themselves are wildly variant and not easily characterizable as hero or villain, ally or enemy. It adds an uneasy tension to the whole book and I don't think I really relaxed at all during the reading. There are a few graphic body-horror scenes (not gratuitous) which were integral. The denouement of the whole was worth the difficult journey.
This is an -astonishingly- gifted author. The book is extremely well written but not easy to read and I can certainly understand that many readers won't want to make the effort. This work doesn't really lend itself to direct comparisons, I'm not sure I've ever read anything quite like it. If forced to pluck out some names, I would say that Tanith Lee and Jane Rosenberg LaForge wouldn't be completely wrong (especially LaForge).
Five stars, even though there will be a lot of DNFs and it took me so long to read that I had to go back and reread the whole start to finish before I managed to get the whole thing.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
April 15, 2022
I came to C.J. Lavigne's debut novel through the recommendation of a friend, with expectations I would find this tale one into which I could immerse and engage. But, alas, it was not to be.
Certainly this is an ambitious novel in that Lavigne chooses to tell this story from a foreign and difficult point of view, that of a young woman who experiences her world through the lens of synesthesia. While Lavigne certainly achieves that experience for the reader, it also works against the narrative of the story to the point someone who is not a synesthete finds themselves lost. What is known is in fact unknown in this story. The fact a car horn tastes like chocolate mint is irrelevant, unrelatable. Does the fact the horn tastes like chocolate mint mean that chocolate mint is a warning? A threat? Or just background, um, flavour? But, then, how do you find the voice for such a story with such a character? I'm not sure. I just know that for me, this voice didn't work. It was too much. Too foreign. Unrelatable.
And because of that alien experience, Verity, whose voice commands the story, remains a foreign character, one for whom it is difficult to feel pathos, even though you are aware she is worthy of your empathy. Yet even while she is this unknown, unknowable person, she is also one who lies despite the assertion Lavigne makes in the novel that Verity does not lie. But she does. In the beginning it's lies of omission. In the end it's outright falsehood. And she's a thief.
So, that's all strike one for me.
The second problem for me was the lack of world building. In this story (spoiler alert), people who are gifted with abilities often deemed mental illness by society, are somehow physically and mortally threatened by the world. Just how that is a fact is never really quite made clear. Is it like having an allergy to electricity? Again, who knows? It just becomes a tale of of US against THEM. Apparently Them (who would be people like me) are killing Us (people like Verity). Their lives are in danger. So much that there are secret, magical retreats these gifted people have created between walls, places of sanctuary, however shabby and reminiscent of ghettos.
And that's where the whole story really falls apart for me, and we come to a big fat third strike. There are scores of people in this story who open a door that isn't there, step into the between, and live there in the walls. But how is that achieved? How do they live? There is never any mention of kitchens, or plumbing, or bathrooms. While there is a pseudo angel of healing, who cannot fly and is lame, there is never any mention of how those beds and mattresses and couches come to exist in the between where this angel performs his miracles in his miserable misericordia. Who set up this hospice? Who set up these dormitories?
And while food arrives in plastic bags, there is never mention of how meals are prepared, things like ranges for cooking, or ovens, kettles or microwaves, toasters or can openers, or how to wash dishes. Let alone bodies. Do people eat at tables? On the floor? Is this canned food slurped with spoons from the tin? And where does the garbage go? How do they relieve themselves? What about menstruating women? How are clothes cleaned? Or are there no problems in this magical between regarding lice or bed bugs, rats or cockroaches?
Again, how do they live? There are lights, but from where does the power come? Or are these places between lit by candles or gas, or some other? This world of Lavigne's has never been fully realized. It simply exists between the walls (how much space is there between walls, or is this alternate reality something like a Time Lord's tardis?) How do you get a bed between walls?
I won't even begin to touch upon Lavigne's apparent tacit support of anti-medication for mental illness. That's another whole issue which left me twitching with anger and outrage. And my fourth problem with the novel.
The fifth problem is short passages in which Lavigne completely breaks the tension of the narrative for an intrusive character soliloquy, written in first person, present tense, typeset in a different colour (at least in the ebook version) and different typeface. It's such a bad formatting gimmick, like someone new to layout and agog with all the thousands of choices of typefaces. I remember editing one such book in which the author had chosen no fewer than six different typefaces to denote different characteristics. Just no. And there is no identifiable reason for these character intrusions. It all just completely arrests the tension. In my opinion, the novel would have been stronger without these flashy, pretentious attempts at the avant garde.
Then we come to the great denouement, the sixth problem, which is so utterly predictable: the big battle between the Big Bad and the Great Good and the Pathetic Good (sounds like a D&D game), or put another way: the power-hungry and angry disenfranchised gifted people, the meek and suffering other gifted people, and society at large. It's a three way war. The Great Good are going to bring it all down: the gifted meek, the ignorant and maliciously oppressive society. All of it. Wipe it into -- what? That's never made clear. We just have people standing around invoking magical energy that threatens to bring everything down. Snowstorms. Ice everywhere. I was minded of a novel by Charles de Lint. Maybe it has something to do with Ottawa snowstorms? Who knows?
It's all just so silly. So predictable.
Yet I have friends and colleagues who quite liked the story, some of whom thought it was brilliant, others as simply entertaining. Which is why art is so very subjective. Lavigne's story worked for them. For me it didn't.
But, I suppose, if you've read enough of my reviews, you'll know that I'm not easily pleased, a critical and grumpy reader always looking for the flaw.
Still, seriously, how did that society work?
Certainly this is an ambitious novel in that Lavigne chooses to tell this story from a foreign and difficult point of view, that of a young woman who experiences her world through the lens of synesthesia. While Lavigne certainly achieves that experience for the reader, it also works against the narrative of the story to the point someone who is not a synesthete finds themselves lost. What is known is in fact unknown in this story. The fact a car horn tastes like chocolate mint is irrelevant, unrelatable. Does the fact the horn tastes like chocolate mint mean that chocolate mint is a warning? A threat? Or just background, um, flavour? But, then, how do you find the voice for such a story with such a character? I'm not sure. I just know that for me, this voice didn't work. It was too much. Too foreign. Unrelatable.
And because of that alien experience, Verity, whose voice commands the story, remains a foreign character, one for whom it is difficult to feel pathos, even though you are aware she is worthy of your empathy. Yet even while she is this unknown, unknowable person, she is also one who lies despite the assertion Lavigne makes in the novel that Verity does not lie. But she does. In the beginning it's lies of omission. In the end it's outright falsehood. And she's a thief.
So, that's all strike one for me.
The second problem for me was the lack of world building. In this story (spoiler alert), people who are gifted with abilities often deemed mental illness by society, are somehow physically and mortally threatened by the world. Just how that is a fact is never really quite made clear. Is it like having an allergy to electricity? Again, who knows? It just becomes a tale of of US against THEM. Apparently Them (who would be people like me) are killing Us (people like Verity). Their lives are in danger. So much that there are secret, magical retreats these gifted people have created between walls, places of sanctuary, however shabby and reminiscent of ghettos.
And that's where the whole story really falls apart for me, and we come to a big fat third strike. There are scores of people in this story who open a door that isn't there, step into the between, and live there in the walls. But how is that achieved? How do they live? There is never any mention of kitchens, or plumbing, or bathrooms. While there is a pseudo angel of healing, who cannot fly and is lame, there is never any mention of how those beds and mattresses and couches come to exist in the between where this angel performs his miracles in his miserable misericordia. Who set up this hospice? Who set up these dormitories?
And while food arrives in plastic bags, there is never mention of how meals are prepared, things like ranges for cooking, or ovens, kettles or microwaves, toasters or can openers, or how to wash dishes. Let alone bodies. Do people eat at tables? On the floor? Is this canned food slurped with spoons from the tin? And where does the garbage go? How do they relieve themselves? What about menstruating women? How are clothes cleaned? Or are there no problems in this magical between regarding lice or bed bugs, rats or cockroaches?
Again, how do they live? There are lights, but from where does the power come? Or are these places between lit by candles or gas, or some other? This world of Lavigne's has never been fully realized. It simply exists between the walls (how much space is there between walls, or is this alternate reality something like a Time Lord's tardis?) How do you get a bed between walls?
I won't even begin to touch upon Lavigne's apparent tacit support of anti-medication for mental illness. That's another whole issue which left me twitching with anger and outrage. And my fourth problem with the novel.
The fifth problem is short passages in which Lavigne completely breaks the tension of the narrative for an intrusive character soliloquy, written in first person, present tense, typeset in a different colour (at least in the ebook version) and different typeface. It's such a bad formatting gimmick, like someone new to layout and agog with all the thousands of choices of typefaces. I remember editing one such book in which the author had chosen no fewer than six different typefaces to denote different characteristics. Just no. And there is no identifiable reason for these character intrusions. It all just completely arrests the tension. In my opinion, the novel would have been stronger without these flashy, pretentious attempts at the avant garde.
Then we come to the great denouement, the sixth problem, which is so utterly predictable: the big battle between the Big Bad and the Great Good and the Pathetic Good (sounds like a D&D game), or put another way: the power-hungry and angry disenfranchised gifted people, the meek and suffering other gifted people, and society at large. It's a three way war. The Great Good are going to bring it all down: the gifted meek, the ignorant and maliciously oppressive society. All of it. Wipe it into -- what? That's never made clear. We just have people standing around invoking magical energy that threatens to bring everything down. Snowstorms. Ice everywhere. I was minded of a novel by Charles de Lint. Maybe it has something to do with Ottawa snowstorms? Who knows?
It's all just so silly. So predictable.
Yet I have friends and colleagues who quite liked the story, some of whom thought it was brilliant, others as simply entertaining. Which is why art is so very subjective. Lavigne's story worked for them. For me it didn't.
But, I suppose, if you've read enough of my reviews, you'll know that I'm not easily pleased, a critical and grumpy reader always looking for the flaw.
Still, seriously, how did that society work?
September 3, 2022
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.
My Review: A novella with a fascinating conundrum at its heart: Do we ever really know what it is that others are experiencing? Can even the most earnest desire to understand someone who isn't yourself to fully get you? Now, make the head you're occupying for this story one organized differently from you. And make it impossible for those around the head to emit the usual clouds of lies we all fog up the welkin with.
Oh boy. This will be good.
Luckily it was good indeed, though very deliberate in its action. The point is that we're in a world that isn't consensus reality because of a wiring difference. Not expecting a fast-paced series of events will make this a better reading experience. Going with the lovely, lush prose will help your enjoyment build as well.
What matters all occurs in The Between. It is, and isn't, a semi-mythical rock group; it is, and isn't, a place in a theater called the McLuhan (!) that Verity (!!) reaches with the help of Santiago (!!!), whose difference is more materially oriented than Verity's. (Shadows aren't just shadows in his care.)
Each of these, um, aptly yclept entities is carefully, almost lovingly, drawn. The action isn't very exciting for the adventure seeker. This is more ayahuasca journey than meth motormouth mainline. Go with Verity, be in her head; it's not like most people's and it's such a fascinating experience to be outside the outlier for a change. I think the world Verity finds is as true and as factual as any world is. I'm also old enough to believe that consensus reality isn't, so there's that point of commonality between me and Verity. Mostly, though, go on the journey because learning how Othering works when it's your own interior processes that cause it.
What stakes the story posits are, in a word, apocalyptic. The missing fifth star I wanted to give the story lies in that mismatch of affect and effect. When the Fate of the World is on the line (with examples of what can and will happen if Verity fails) I expect to have that make things move right along, please. They don't...they can't, given the processing speeds of the main character.
But the events Verity has become integral to haven't made the single slightest sense of hurry in her. And they shouldn't. Because one thing that Verity is, like her namesake, is inexorable. Everything is put right, right enough, and there are no existential threats to Verity or the world that she has so much difficulty navigating. At her gift, the world goes on; life keeps happening; and there is no one but Verity who has all the pieces of how and why.
She's not talking.
My Review: A novella with a fascinating conundrum at its heart: Do we ever really know what it is that others are experiencing? Can even the most earnest desire to understand someone who isn't yourself to fully get you? Now, make the head you're occupying for this story one organized differently from you. And make it impossible for those around the head to emit the usual clouds of lies we all fog up the welkin with.
Oh boy. This will be good.
Luckily it was good indeed, though very deliberate in its action. The point is that we're in a world that isn't consensus reality because of a wiring difference. Not expecting a fast-paced series of events will make this a better reading experience. Going with the lovely, lush prose will help your enjoyment build as well.
What matters all occurs in The Between. It is, and isn't, a semi-mythical rock group; it is, and isn't, a place in a theater called the McLuhan (!) that Verity (!!) reaches with the help of Santiago (!!!), whose difference is more materially oriented than Verity's. (Shadows aren't just shadows in his care.)
Each of these, um, aptly yclept entities is carefully, almost lovingly, drawn. The action isn't very exciting for the adventure seeker. This is more ayahuasca journey than meth motormouth mainline. Go with Verity, be in her head; it's not like most people's and it's such a fascinating experience to be outside the outlier for a change. I think the world Verity finds is as true and as factual as any world is. I'm also old enough to believe that consensus reality isn't, so there's that point of commonality between me and Verity. Mostly, though, go on the journey because learning how Othering works when it's your own interior processes that cause it.
What stakes the story posits are, in a word, apocalyptic. The missing fifth star I wanted to give the story lies in that mismatch of affect and effect. When the Fate of the World is on the line (with examples of what can and will happen if Verity fails) I expect to have that make things move right along, please. They don't...they can't, given the processing speeds of the main character.
But the events Verity has become integral to haven't made the single slightest sense of hurry in her. And they shouldn't. Because one thing that Verity is, like her namesake, is inexorable. Everything is put right, right enough, and there are no existential threats to Verity or the world that she has so much difficulty navigating. At her gift, the world goes on; life keeps happening; and there is no one but Verity who has all the pieces of how and why.
She's not talking.
June 18, 2023
Despite it taking me a year to read In Veritas, it was one of the most memorable reading experiences I have had.
I came across this book at an independent bookstore in Sackville, NB. It looked like something not widely distributed yet the premise sounded intriguing to my tastes. When I first started reading I was startled by the unique writing style; especially the main perspective which is of a girl named Verity who has synesthesia. This book plays with one of my favourite tropes which is that people with mental illness are really suppressed individuals with mythological powers. Verity is one such individual who has the ability to perceive reality simultaneously as it once was and now is. The way the author writes her perceptions of her environment are is something I have not encountered before and makes the experience of reading In Veritas unique.
The main story moves fairly slowly, which is perhaps why it took me a while to get through but at the same time I never became disinterested and I wouldn't necessarily judge the pacing as a deficit of the work. Interspersed within the main story however, are chapters that take place back in time as origin stories for each of the main characters. Along with the ending, these were my favourite sections; each one offered something fascinating and I could see the author being a very talented short story writer as a result. The first origin story of Privya was perhaps my favourite and I am most tempted to go back and read this section on its own. The origin for Jacob was extremely difficult to read emotionally and triggered many memories of my own dealings with the mental health system, but I accredit the writing for being able to evoke this experience.
As I went through the story I could imagine that it all could all be leading up to a very satisfying conclusion but I wondered also if it would be pulled of to my satisfaction. I am happy to say that it exceeded all of my hopes. The ending was full of unexpected twists, cinematic scenes, and callbacks to previous events that were indeed leading to the climax.
I heartily recommend this book to anyone who can access it and will be doing my best to spread the enjoyment of it to others.
I came across this book at an independent bookstore in Sackville, NB. It looked like something not widely distributed yet the premise sounded intriguing to my tastes. When I first started reading I was startled by the unique writing style; especially the main perspective which is of a girl named Verity who has synesthesia. This book plays with one of my favourite tropes which is that people with mental illness are really suppressed individuals with mythological powers. Verity is one such individual who has the ability to perceive reality simultaneously as it once was and now is. The way the author writes her perceptions of her environment are is something I have not encountered before and makes the experience of reading In Veritas unique.
The main story moves fairly slowly, which is perhaps why it took me a while to get through but at the same time I never became disinterested and I wouldn't necessarily judge the pacing as a deficit of the work. Interspersed within the main story however, are chapters that take place back in time as origin stories for each of the main characters. Along with the ending, these were my favourite sections; each one offered something fascinating and I could see the author being a very talented short story writer as a result. The first origin story of Privya was perhaps my favourite and I am most tempted to go back and read this section on its own. The origin for Jacob was extremely difficult to read emotionally and triggered many memories of my own dealings with the mental health system, but I accredit the writing for being able to evoke this experience.
As I went through the story I could imagine that it all could all be leading up to a very satisfying conclusion but I wondered also if it would be pulled of to my satisfaction. I am happy to say that it exceeded all of my hopes. The ending was full of unexpected twists, cinematic scenes, and callbacks to previous events that were indeed leading to the climax.
"Turning the knife, she opens the door."
I heartily recommend this book to anyone who can access it and will be doing my best to spread the enjoyment of it to others.
May 1, 2020
I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review!
First of all, I thought it was really fun to read an urban fantasy set in Ottawa. It's a pretty rare occurrence for me, and I found it fun to know exactly where things were happening and to be able to picture things much more vividly. So that was cool!
I found that the book started a little slowly. Probably the first 50-100 pages, I wasn't especially latching onto the story - I'm not entirely sure if that was due to me being distracted (pandemic-related stress is sometimes doing bad things to my ability to concentrate) or not. It could've been a style thing, as well - at first it did remind me a little bit of "A History of Glitter And Blood" which I reviewed........sometime in the last year, and did not enjoy.
Anyway, after that, though, I did genuinely get invested in the story and the characters. In particular, I thought the character of Colin was really interesting, and that Verity made for an interesting and unusual protagonist. Once I had a good grasp on the characters, I did want to keep reading, and I warmed up to the style quite a bit as well, which was good.
By the end of the book, I was having a really good time reading, and I was surprisingly emotionally affected by certain aspects of the climax. When I started reading, I didn't expect to get so caught up, which was a really pleasant surprise. I did find a few aspects of character motivation to be a bit confusing at times, but again, that may just be because my attention span is a little shot at the moment.
All in all, I was really satisfied by this book, and I had a good time!
First of all, I thought it was really fun to read an urban fantasy set in Ottawa. It's a pretty rare occurrence for me, and I found it fun to know exactly where things were happening and to be able to picture things much more vividly. So that was cool!
I found that the book started a little slowly. Probably the first 50-100 pages, I wasn't especially latching onto the story - I'm not entirely sure if that was due to me being distracted (pandemic-related stress is sometimes doing bad things to my ability to concentrate) or not. It could've been a style thing, as well - at first it did remind me a little bit of "A History of Glitter And Blood" which I reviewed........sometime in the last year, and did not enjoy.
Anyway, after that, though, I did genuinely get invested in the story and the characters. In particular, I thought the character of Colin was really interesting, and that Verity made for an interesting and unusual protagonist. Once I had a good grasp on the characters, I did want to keep reading, and I warmed up to the style quite a bit as well, which was good.
By the end of the book, I was having a really good time reading, and I was surprisingly emotionally affected by certain aspects of the climax. When I started reading, I didn't expect to get so caught up, which was a really pleasant surprise. I did find a few aspects of character motivation to be a bit confusing at times, but again, that may just be because my attention span is a little shot at the moment.
All in all, I was really satisfied by this book, and I had a good time!
February 13, 2021
I got a paperback copy and read this for the second time, after getting the ARC last year, because this book is great.
As the book began, I was thinking it might just be too dark and depressing. It isnt! Wait until the part. I was hooked and had to drag myself away from my kindle to go to bed, several times.
I only experience a fraction of the synesthesia the protagonist does, but this book is great. This will definitely remain one of my top books of the year, even though it's only February.
The writing style may seem unusual to some, but it was an exhilarating, intense experience for me. This is a beautiful and sad magical realism tale of people waking up to ancient abilities. And yet the way it is written makes it seem so natural, like everything in this book, or at least some of it, could be happening for real. It's not one of those novels where everything is fixed easily. Save this for later if you are in the mood for a light read. This is the only time I can remember really enjoying a novel that was written in the present tense.
I may seem a bit biased because I live in the city this book takes place in. It was fun to read about places I have walked many times. Another thing is that I don't read horror novels. But this book was so great that the few explicit scenes drew me into the story, and they are important so that we can understand the characters motivations. They don't seem gratuitous at all. I'm glad I didn't quit early on, because that ending was worth it!
As the book began, I was thinking it might just be too dark and depressing. It isnt! Wait until the part. I was hooked and had to drag myself away from my kindle to go to bed, several times.
I only experience a fraction of the synesthesia the protagonist does, but this book is great. This will definitely remain one of my top books of the year, even though it's only February.
The writing style may seem unusual to some, but it was an exhilarating, intense experience for me. This is a beautiful and sad magical realism tale of people waking up to ancient abilities. And yet the way it is written makes it seem so natural, like everything in this book, or at least some of it, could be happening for real. It's not one of those novels where everything is fixed easily. Save this for later if you are in the mood for a light read. This is the only time I can remember really enjoying a novel that was written in the present tense.
I may seem a bit biased because I live in the city this book takes place in. It was fun to read about places I have walked many times. Another thing is that I don't read horror novels. But this book was so great that the few explicit scenes drew me into the story, and they are important so that we can understand the characters motivations. They don't seem gratuitous at all. I'm glad I didn't quit early on, because that ending was worth it!
July 22, 2020
I found myself enraptured by the world of Verity. The immersive and atmospheric story telling shows a unique new voice in the world of urban fantasy. As someone who knows Ottawa well, I loved the setting in the city I grew up in, but it was the characterizations of the cast and the rich plot that kept me reading. The story is neither fast-paced or slow, rather it pulls you into the world with Verity as she discovers the world Between.
In a world that is full of diversity but not included enough in stories, In Veritas features a diverse cast that never resorts to tokenism for which I am grateful. While it may take readers a chapter or two to better understand Verity's (the protagonist) way of experiencing the world and communicating, it is so very worth that wee bit of extra effort/adjustment. The story was such a rich and rewarding experience (for me). Unique, many times the tale is grim and gritty, while at other times scintillating with light and hope. It brought me to tears and made me smile at different turns. Like the world of Verity, the world of In Veritas is full of contradictions - realism contrasted with the fantastical, despair and violence exists alongside hope and kindness. I think fans of Neil Gaiman may enjoy C.J. Lavigne's In Veritas.
In a world that is full of diversity but not included enough in stories, In Veritas features a diverse cast that never resorts to tokenism for which I am grateful. While it may take readers a chapter or two to better understand Verity's (the protagonist) way of experiencing the world and communicating, it is so very worth that wee bit of extra effort/adjustment. The story was such a rich and rewarding experience (for me). Unique, many times the tale is grim and gritty, while at other times scintillating with light and hope. It brought me to tears and made me smile at different turns. Like the world of Verity, the world of In Veritas is full of contradictions - realism contrasted with the fantastical, despair and violence exists alongside hope and kindness. I think fans of Neil Gaiman may enjoy C.J. Lavigne's In Veritas.
February 10, 2025
It isn’t often that I’m left astonished by a book but there’s simply no other word for it. The world, the characters, the story itself just left me breathless. The author’s attention to detail and overall control of the narrative are masterful. Every action by a character, every step they take through the plot, each piece of dialogue they say, all are placed carefully and deliberately within the narrative.
A great deal of thought went into portraying Verity’s synesthesia and how to tell the story from the perspective of a character who has it. Everything about the world Verity struggles to exist in and navigate through - it’s physicality as well as its intangibility like the emotions, feelings, impulses, and intentions of the people in it - is saturated with descriptions of the colours, tastes, textures, and sounds that assault her every sense. For Verity the world is a sea of depthless sensations in which she has to fight every minute of every day to just keep from drowning in it.
I think Lavigne’s success in capturing this experience is what makes the whole thing work. First off, Lavigne’s commitment to descriptive detail puts the reader on the same level as Verity. Much as Verity has to slowly and carefully navigate through her world, so too does the reader have to slowly and carefully proceed through the text. Both the Verity and the reader will get overwhelmed at times but that’s not a bug of the writing, it’s a feature (to borrow a phrase). It’s how Lavigne puts the reader in Verity’s head.
Second, you are left in no doubt as to what it costs Verity to simply exist in an empty room, let alone to go outside and interact with people. So when Lavigne introduces the central conflict of the story, you fully understand what’s driving Privya and her faction. But we understand where that anger is coming from because we’ve been inside Verity’s head as she struggles to process the incoming sensations from a simple conversation with one other person. There’s another side to the conflict, of course, and Lavigne plays it such that we see and empathise with both.
Lavigne’s ultimate resolution is terrific and right up until it happened I didn’t know which way it was going to go. It’s one that ties together earlier events in a way that made me go, “Ooohhhh, NEAT.”
In Veritas is one of those books that stays with you, and allows you the space to play around with aspects of the story. I know I’ll be mulling this one over for awhile. I’m already looking forward to reading it again and no doubt will pull out other bits and pieces I missed the first time through. Just a tremendous read that I can’t say enough good things about (which extends to this: Finally, I've thanked coffee in every acknowledgment I've ever written. I'm not about to stop now. That's worth a half-star bump all on its own.)
A great deal of thought went into portraying Verity’s synesthesia and how to tell the story from the perspective of a character who has it. Everything about the world Verity struggles to exist in and navigate through - it’s physicality as well as its intangibility like the emotions, feelings, impulses, and intentions of the people in it - is saturated with descriptions of the colours, tastes, textures, and sounds that assault her every sense. For Verity the world is a sea of depthless sensations in which she has to fight every minute of every day to just keep from drowning in it.
I think Lavigne’s success in capturing this experience is what makes the whole thing work. First off, Lavigne’s commitment to descriptive detail puts the reader on the same level as Verity. Much as Verity has to slowly and carefully navigate through her world, so too does the reader have to slowly and carefully proceed through the text. Both the Verity and the reader will get overwhelmed at times but that’s not a bug of the writing, it’s a feature (to borrow a phrase). It’s how Lavigne puts the reader in Verity’s head.
Second, you are left in no doubt as to what it costs Verity to simply exist in an empty room, let alone to go outside and interact with people. So when Lavigne introduces the central conflict of the story, you fully understand what’s driving Privya and her faction. But we understand where that anger is coming from because we’ve been inside Verity’s head as she struggles to process the incoming sensations from a simple conversation with one other person. There’s another side to the conflict, of course, and Lavigne plays it such that we see and empathise with both.
Lavigne’s ultimate resolution is terrific and right up until it happened I didn’t know which way it was going to go. It’s one that ties together earlier events in a way that made me go, “Ooohhhh, NEAT.”
In Veritas is one of those books that stays with you, and allows you the space to play around with aspects of the story. I know I’ll be mulling this one over for awhile. I’m already looking forward to reading it again and no doubt will pull out other bits and pieces I missed the first time through. Just a tremendous read that I can’t say enough good things about (which extends to this: Finally, I've thanked coffee in every acknowledgment I've ever written. I'm not about to stop now. That's worth a half-star bump all on its own.)
June 6, 2020
I straight up loved the setting and the characters brought to life in this beautiful urban fantasy. Set in a cold and colourless Ottawa winter, the story of a fantastic just-one-degree-from-reality world of others in our midst is told through the eyes (and ears, nose and tastebuds) of a protagonist struggling with synesthesia. As a reader, I struggled a bit at first too with the crazy onslaught of description coming at her (and me) even from an everyday trip to the store - but that's the point. You can quickly orient yourself to the world she experiences, where logos shout, sounds can cut and words have a flavour. And then...you realize that what she experiences is perhaps not all a mistake or hallucination. I found love and sympathy for all the characters, even the 'bad' ones, and was left wondering what comes next in this beautiful world.
November 27, 2020
Verity Richards, who has synesthesia, discovers there are others living in "The Between" in an old theatre, including an angel boy with wings, a magician, and his shadow-dog.
This was an unusual novel, the exposition comes very gradually so there are many unknowns at the beginning of the story, and coupled with Verity's afflictions - synesthesia and trouble elucidating, makes for a difficult read at times.
But the strangeness of the setting and the characters, and the quality of the writing makes up for this to a degree. I'm not sure about this one - impressive for a debut and there's some originality about it, but the obliqueness of the narrative made it not a free-flowing novel. Will be looking out for her next book though to see what it's like.
This was an unusual novel, the exposition comes very gradually so there are many unknowns at the beginning of the story, and coupled with Verity's afflictions - synesthesia and trouble elucidating, makes for a difficult read at times.
But the strangeness of the setting and the characters, and the quality of the writing makes up for this to a degree. I'm not sure about this one - impressive for a debut and there's some originality about it, but the obliqueness of the narrative made it not a free-flowing novel. Will be looking out for her next book though to see what it's like.
January 14, 2022
It's a brilliant book, and I am genuinely surprised that this is this author's debut novel.
It's an urban fantasy book set in a world where the is magic around every corner, in the margins, which is also where so many people live.
It's also incredibly sensitive to the experiences and perceptions of people who are on the outside of society, people struggling with mental health challenges, people who see the world differently than we do.
On a technical level, it's pretty complex how there's an unreliable narrator retelling a story as told to him by an unreliable POV character. It's not an easy read, but it's a rewarding one.
It's an urban fantasy book set in a world where the is magic around every corner, in the margins, which is also where so many people live.
It's also incredibly sensitive to the experiences and perceptions of people who are on the outside of society, people struggling with mental health challenges, people who see the world differently than we do.
On a technical level, it's pretty complex how there's an unreliable narrator retelling a story as told to him by an unreliable POV character. It's not an easy read, but it's a rewarding one.
March 27, 2020
Love love loved this book! It is an atmospheric urban fantasy/magical realism story that haunts you with characters like none other I’ve ever read. Even months after reading it I still think of the characters and wonder where how they are doing. I catch myself looking at pigeons and cats and wondering (you’ll know when you read it).. The story is like none other I’ve ever read - definitely something new here! Fans of Maggie Stiefvater’s writing but who want to read about grownups will love CJ Lavigne!
November 24, 2025
Take your time.
I did. This is a book with rich imagery, startling insights, and constant flips between a reality you think you know (ie believe) to what might be, in the minds of others. I'm a speed reader but this was like savouring dark chocolate. Nibbles. Pauses. Unable to resist going back and glad I did.
IN VERITAS isn't for every reader. It isn't meant to be, of course. But the journey will reward you.
And you'll never look at a pigeon the same way again. I promise.
A wondrous accomplishment.
I did. This is a book with rich imagery, startling insights, and constant flips between a reality you think you know (ie believe) to what might be, in the minds of others. I'm a speed reader but this was like savouring dark chocolate. Nibbles. Pauses. Unable to resist going back and glad I did.
IN VERITAS isn't for every reader. It isn't meant to be, of course. But the journey will reward you.
And you'll never look at a pigeon the same way again. I promise.
A wondrous accomplishment.
January 8, 2022
Though the characters are interesting, the plot crawls along at a snail’s pace.
For chapter after chapter, nothing seems to happen as similar scenes get played over and over, just switching out a couple of characters. By the time the action starts in the last few chapters, it’s too generic and predictable. Overall, disappointing.
For chapter after chapter, nothing seems to happen as similar scenes get played over and over, just switching out a couple of characters. By the time the action starts in the last few chapters, it’s too generic and predictable. Overall, disappointing.
April 28, 2020
I'm in two minds about this book: I loved the plot but I found the style of writing too distant from my taste.
All in all it was an engrossing and entertaining read, recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.
All in all it was an engrossing and entertaining read, recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.
May 3, 2020
When there is a world just beyond sight, filled with tastes and sounds and smells, ancient and terrifying creatures and hope between walls. In Veritas was an ambitious book with fascinating characters. Having read Lavigne's first work has changed the way I think about experiences.
July 14, 2020
In Veritas follows the intriguing story of Verity, a young woman with synesthesia who can see beyond our world. The characters feel real and you care about what happens to them. I loved this book.
July 17, 2023
Unfortunately, I couldn't get into this book. The writing was well done, but the pace was too slow for me to get truly interested in it, so I had to dnf it.
January 28, 2021
I've been fortunate over the last few months to have read more outstanding books tan is my share. In Veritas is the most recent one.
One can read it several ways: as an urban fantasy (set in Ottawa, the city where modern urban was 'invented' in the 1990s), as magical realism, and as a fictional demonstration of the difficulties of communication. Read any one way it's a good book; read all three ways and it's a masterful book. From a first time novelist!
You can read a precis above; the precis - although accurate - cannot begin to point to the book's strengths. And I don't think I'm fully equipped to try. Just read it. You can thank me for the recommendation later.
One can read it several ways: as an urban fantasy (set in Ottawa, the city where modern urban was 'invented' in the 1990s), as magical realism, and as a fictional demonstration of the difficulties of communication. Read any one way it's a good book; read all three ways and it's a masterful book. From a first time novelist!
You can read a precis above; the precis - although accurate - cannot begin to point to the book's strengths. And I don't think I'm fully equipped to try. Just read it. You can thank me for the recommendation later.
February 13, 2021
First, thanks C.J. Lavigne, Netgalley and NeWest Press for the ARC.
As the book began, I was thinking it might just be too dark and depressing. It isnt! Wait until the part. I was hooked and had to drag myself away from my kindle to go to bed, several times.
I only experience a fraction of the synesthesia the protagonist does, but this book is great. This will definitely remain one of my top books of the year, even though it's only March.
The writing style may seem unusual to some, but it was an exhilarating, intense experience for me. This is a beautiful and sad magical realism tale of people waking up to ancient abilities. And yet the way it is written makes it seem so natural, like everything in this book, or at least some of it, could be happening for real. It's not one of those novels where everything is fixed easily. Save this for later if you are in the mood for a light read. This is the only time I can remember really enjoying a novel that was written in the present tense.
I may seem a bit biased because I live in the city this book takes place in. It was fun to read about places I have walked many times. Another thing is that I don't read horror novels. But this book was so great that the few explicit scenes drew me into the story, and they are important so that we can understand the characters motivations. They don't seem gratuitous at all. I'm glad I didn't quit early on, because that ending was worth it!
As the book began, I was thinking it might just be too dark and depressing. It isnt! Wait until the part. I was hooked and had to drag myself away from my kindle to go to bed, several times.
I only experience a fraction of the synesthesia the protagonist does, but this book is great. This will definitely remain one of my top books of the year, even though it's only March.
The writing style may seem unusual to some, but it was an exhilarating, intense experience for me. This is a beautiful and sad magical realism tale of people waking up to ancient abilities. And yet the way it is written makes it seem so natural, like everything in this book, or at least some of it, could be happening for real. It's not one of those novels where everything is fixed easily. Save this for later if you are in the mood for a light read. This is the only time I can remember really enjoying a novel that was written in the present tense.
I may seem a bit biased because I live in the city this book takes place in. It was fun to read about places I have walked many times. Another thing is that I don't read horror novels. But this book was so great that the few explicit scenes drew me into the story, and they are important so that we can understand the characters motivations. They don't seem gratuitous at all. I'm glad I didn't quit early on, because that ending was worth it!
October 18, 2021
Living in a city is difficult for Verity, it’s too noisy, too loud. At times, it overwhelms her. But she manages. She sees dragons instead of pigeons and rats, and cats with six legs instead of four. She avoids things no one else can see. She can taste lies; touching people gives them the inability to lie. For her, voices have color and shape. She discovers spaces between the wall and the people within. They are dying.
Diving into Verity’s head was very interesting. She’s synesthetic, this is my first book with a protagonist who has synesthesia. I liked how the author portrayed her, I found the imagery and vivid descriptions throughout the book good. I thought C.J Lavigne really knew what she was writing. I liked the characters and their unique backstories as well. So what made me give three stars? I thought the plot wasn’t very strong (it was very slow-paced too) and the ending, unsatisfying. I also thought there wasn’t a lot of character development, except for one, maybe. Despite those, I still think people should pick this book up.
Diving into Verity’s head was very interesting. She’s synesthetic, this is my first book with a protagonist who has synesthesia. I liked how the author portrayed her, I found the imagery and vivid descriptions throughout the book good. I thought C.J Lavigne really knew what she was writing. I liked the characters and their unique backstories as well. So what made me give three stars? I thought the plot wasn’t very strong (it was very slow-paced too) and the ending, unsatisfying. I also thought there wasn’t a lot of character development, except for one, maybe. Despite those, I still think people should pick this book up.
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