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The Sturgeon's Heart
Three people in the same northern city of Duluth, Minnesota, are vanishing in different ways. Howard Wright finds his skin turning transparent, revealing the bloody workings of musculature beneath. His body becomes otherworldly and insistent, spinning him into visions that echo trauma from his childhood. Sarah Turnsfield is living under an assumed identity, on the run from her past as a meteoric scientific prodigy. Content to work as a grocery clerk, she is determined to live a life on her own terms, where the landscape of her mind is hers alone. Jo Breckmier seeks a new start in Duluth after a bitter divorce. She moves into the apartment unit across from Howard’s, leaning on alcohol and a stubborn will to reinvent herself. The woods and the lake seem to call to her as she laments her shipwrecked life. When instinct, the swiftly warming spring, and Howard’s monstrous body conspire to bring the three together, each will discover how long they can hide―Jo from her loneliness, Sarah from her rising paranoia, and Howard from his intensifying transformation. On one remarkable night along the rugged shore of Lake Superior, the lines between reality and legend intersect. Identities are broken and remade. In this contemporary monster story, the earth itself amplifies both the grotesque and the beautiful. Reading group guide available to download from publisher's website.
- GenresFiction
184 pages, Paperback
First published February 8, 2022
6 people are currently reading
107 people want to read
About the author
Amy E. Casey
1 book11 followersAmy E. Casey is the author of the novel The Sturgeon’s Heart. She lives and writes in Wisconsin, near the cold freshwater shore of Lake Michigan. From there, she dreams up stories of quiet monsters and wild landscapes. Her short fiction and poetry has been published in literary magazines across the United States. She does a large portion of her writing on a Smith Corona Classic 12 manual typewriter from 1964.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
June 23, 2022
I cannot give this book an unbiased review because the author is someone who has made a huge impact on my life. That being said, I read it in 2 hours. I could not put it down nor could I keep up with my practice of maintaining a swipe file for this text (à la Austin Kleon—Steal Like and Artist) since I would have most likely been writing down every other sentence. Gorgeous. Moving. Un-put-down-able.
August 29, 2023
beautifully written. an interesting concept that made me reflect on ideas of self-identity, coping mechanisms, and change while remaining engaged in the characters’ stories. the descriptions of the physical environments were lovely and I ended the book invested in each character’s ending.
April 4, 2023
The Sturgeon's Heart is beautiful and lyrical, and it made me want to visit Duluth, the city was it's own character here, making this book almost noir-ish gothic (just roll with it). I liked the different POVs, though I would have liked more from Sarah. Give me more recalcitrant characters with a murky past. I am here for it. This book is real quiet-slice of life type- where the horror is really your life being disrupted from its routine and knowing that change is hard. I felt the need to listen to The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald by Gordon Lightfoot on loop while reading this, and honestly now I want to read ghost stories based on Lake Superior's Shipwrecks.
April 30, 2022
This is the only book, ever, that I dreamed about the night I finished reading it. What a beautiful story this was.
Casey is clearly an expert in understanding the human condition. I was reminded of Elizabeth Strout in the way Casey creates her characters. Each one unique. Each one real. Each one fully compelling. She even managed to make me want to learn much more about sturgeon!
The tone was gorgeously haunting throughout. I felt like I was being sung to, the most lulling song but in a minor key. Even the frantic climax of the story has a sad poignancy to it. It was nothing short of genius.
Casey clearly knows wordcraft and storycraft. There were sentences I read several times just to hear them again in my head. There were images so vivid I could feel them in my body.
Believe me when I say that there has never been a character like Howard in any book before. Whoever thinks that everything in literature at this point is just a variation on a theme has not been in Casey’s imagination. This book is absolutely BEGGING to be made into a film.
Please let this be only the first of many novels, Ms Casey.
Casey is clearly an expert in understanding the human condition. I was reminded of Elizabeth Strout in the way Casey creates her characters. Each one unique. Each one real. Each one fully compelling. She even managed to make me want to learn much more about sturgeon!
The tone was gorgeously haunting throughout. I felt like I was being sung to, the most lulling song but in a minor key. Even the frantic climax of the story has a sad poignancy to it. It was nothing short of genius.
Casey clearly knows wordcraft and storycraft. There were sentences I read several times just to hear them again in my head. There were images so vivid I could feel them in my body.
Believe me when I say that there has never been a character like Howard in any book before. Whoever thinks that everything in literature at this point is just a variation on a theme has not been in Casey’s imagination. This book is absolutely BEGGING to be made into a film.
Please let this be only the first of many novels, Ms Casey.
September 19, 2022
A gifted young author here attempts to invent a composite fiction genre---young women running from the past, science fiction, horror, Beauty and the Beast, the mystical wilderness, freshwater fish (surely you are familiar with the freshwater fish genre). Well written and held my attention---heck if it hadn't been well written and hadn't held my attention, why would I have advanced past the first three pages? Everything I finish is well written and holds my attention. Though I lost patience in the last patchy chapters--as did the author, I suspect. She rushes to come up with some kind of an ending, and fails (I thought) quite spectacularly.
December 4, 2021
I am beyond grateful for the chance to read this book. Every aspect/ element was done with finesse. The plot flows at a steady pace that holds engagement and wonder. The characters are realistic and human, making them easy to connect with on emotional and psychological levels. The truth behind each character's dilemma is thought-provoking. The story's tone is an excellent mix of seriousness and reflection. The details are not overdone and help foster a dynamic setting without taking away from the main concepts. The correlation between the characters and the setting is poetic, making the story even more emotional. Overall, this is a literary and life journey that I strongly recommend everyone takes. It will leave you feeling strangely emotional and yet more self-aware.
July 15, 2022
Fascinating premise--what if you woke up and your skin was see through?--followed by an interweaving of narrative threads that tie this hurting mysterious see-through man to both a lonely young woman navigating life post-divorce and a once-scientist on the run from her past. As someone who loves Duluth and Lake Superior's north shore, the setting pulled me in immediately, and I enjoyed discovering the ways these characters lives intersected and how they influenced each other. Thank you for taking the reader on this unexpected journey, Amy!
July 25, 2022
Probably more like a 3.5. Inventive story, well-written, story moved along, but I never got the sense of *why* the "change" was happening, which i think would have helped the story. Or a little more background on Jo or Sarah. The story was not super-predictable, though, I was expecting a kind of "big fish" ending but it went in a different direction entirely. Which is fine, although i feel like it took a long time setting up a romance, a friendship, a community that didn't come together in the end. Appreciated the setting in Duluth and the sturgeon history/biology lesson.
April 27, 2022
This is a most intriguing story, so beautifully written and crafted. It brings you into the inner lives of the characters rather than making you wonder why they make the choices that they do. The same attention is given to the North Shore of Lake Superior where the story is set. It will make you want to schedule a trip there soon!
November 15, 2023
If you like intriguing characters, unique story plots, and engaging narrative, this is an excellent book. This sat on my night stand for too long as I had other books ahead of it. I should have moved it to the front. Such a well written book, it’s surprising it is the authors first novel. If you want an interesting and engaging new read, I highly recommend this it.
May 31, 2023
Entrancing book with eerie narrations of 3 interesting mains. My jaw was open, intrigued and horrified. Short enough to swallow each chapter without feeling the need to take a break from the imagery presented.
October 1, 2021
Readers, thanks for being here. Sharing this story with you brings me such joy.
August 21, 2022
One of the most original and interesting books I've read in a long time, with a thought-provoking, heartbreaking ending.
August 26, 2022
slow paced, chill. not your average monster book — calm, peaceful, etc. i read this in one day, felt like i needed more from it.
March 28, 2023
Loved the book - well written and fascinating, mysterious without being too "misty"
April 7, 2023
Beautiful language! An excellent debut novel
February 3, 2022
The book description for "The Sturgeon's Heart" is very apt, but for that reason I'm glad I forgot the particulars of it when I finally got to reading the book itself. All I knew was that it featured a man whose skin was turning transparent, and I really really loved going into it almost completely blind.
"Three people in the same northern city of Duluth, Minnesota, are vanishing in different ways."
Howard and Sarah want to disappear; in contrast Jo is struggling to find her place in the world and inadvertently brings them together. I found the story to be a lovely meditation on loneliness, the ways it can hurt and comfort, and the healing power of nature. I loved the writing as well, which is so well-wrought and vivid, whether it was describing flower arrangements, shipwrecks, or the grotesque beauty of muscle and veins and blood. I held my hand up in front of my face at one point and tried to imagine what it would look like if my skin was transparent too.
LTER once again has introduced me to an amazing indie book I would've otherwise never heard of, thank you!
btw if you're like me and don't trust adult fiction when a cat or dog is introduced and end up worrying whether it's going to be killed in some horrible way for drama, don't worry. Nothing happens to Jo's cat Ike <3
"Three people in the same northern city of Duluth, Minnesota, are vanishing in different ways."
Howard and Sarah want to disappear; in contrast Jo is struggling to find her place in the world and inadvertently brings them together. I found the story to be a lovely meditation on loneliness, the ways it can hurt and comfort, and the healing power of nature. I loved the writing as well, which is so well-wrought and vivid, whether it was describing flower arrangements, shipwrecks, or the grotesque beauty of muscle and veins and blood. I held my hand up in front of my face at one point and tried to imagine what it would look like if my skin was transparent too.
LTER once again has introduced me to an amazing indie book I would've otherwise never heard of, thank you!
btw if you're like me and don't trust adult fiction when a cat or dog is introduced and end up worrying whether it's going to be killed in some horrible way for drama, don't worry. Nothing happens to Jo's cat Ike <3
December 26, 2022
6.9/10
What would you do if you woke up without skin? How would you react if your skin were suddenly transparent? Maybe you’ve felt like you were disappearing before, or fading away. What if it literally happened?
This is the horror explored in Amy E. Casey’s The Sturgeon’s Heart. The misleading surface of this story is the beautiful nature in a calm, cozy Minnesota town nestled beneath the Great Lakes. Hidden under that surface is an ancient terror.
Three characters’ lives cross paths in Duluth, Minnesota. Jo works a seasonal job as a florist. Sarah works at the local supermarket. Howard works from his apartment as a freelance writer. Then, one day, Howard wakes up without skin. He looks into his bathroom mirror and sees straight through his own face into the entire spheres of his eyes, the muscles, veins, and arteries working to keep him alive.
The Sturgeon’s Heart shows us what happens when myths meet modern reality—when the surface disappears and we see the blood flowing through the muscles underneath.
For me, the ending didn’t quite live up to the shocking, interesting way this novel began. But, that’s a big myth to live up to.
It almost made it into the good category for me—if only the ending hadn’t let me down a bit.
[I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a review]
What would you do if you woke up without skin? How would you react if your skin were suddenly transparent? Maybe you’ve felt like you were disappearing before, or fading away. What if it literally happened?
This is the horror explored in Amy E. Casey’s The Sturgeon’s Heart. The misleading surface of this story is the beautiful nature in a calm, cozy Minnesota town nestled beneath the Great Lakes. Hidden under that surface is an ancient terror.
Three characters’ lives cross paths in Duluth, Minnesota. Jo works a seasonal job as a florist. Sarah works at the local supermarket. Howard works from his apartment as a freelance writer. Then, one day, Howard wakes up without skin. He looks into his bathroom mirror and sees straight through his own face into the entire spheres of his eyes, the muscles, veins, and arteries working to keep him alive.
The Sturgeon’s Heart shows us what happens when myths meet modern reality—when the surface disappears and we see the blood flowing through the muscles underneath.
For me, the ending didn’t quite live up to the shocking, interesting way this novel began. But, that’s a big myth to live up to.
It almost made it into the good category for me—if only the ending hadn’t let me down a bit.
[I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a review]
May 1, 2022
This was a new purchase at my library and I decided to give it a try. I probably should have kept going.
This is advertised as an American Midwest monster story. And I guess?? It pulls a Kafka with its, what if you woke up one day and you were see through. Then it spends 100+ pages boring you with the most mundane details of characters that aren't really all that interesting.
The cast can be basically summed up as Gregor Samsa, former wunderkind, and lonely divorcee. There is some interesting scenes where Gregor learns to wear makeup to deal with his see through problem, but that was it.
I started skimming after page 90 because I was just so bored. I am sure there is something profound I am supposed to take away from this novella, but it fell completely flat for me.
This book might have been more interesting with some tighter editing and half the page length.
This is advertised as an American Midwest monster story. And I guess?? It pulls a Kafka with its, what if you woke up one day and you were see through. Then it spends 100+ pages boring you with the most mundane details of characters that aren't really all that interesting.
The cast can be basically summed up as Gregor Samsa, former wunderkind, and lonely divorcee. There is some interesting scenes where Gregor learns to wear makeup to deal with his see through problem, but that was it.
I started skimming after page 90 because I was just so bored. I am sure there is something profound I am supposed to take away from this novella, but it fell completely flat for me.
This book might have been more interesting with some tighter editing and half the page length.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews