Things We Found When the Water Went Down

by Tegan Nia Swanson

In this dark and ethereal debut novel, a young woman tries to make sense of strange artifacts and unsettling memories in an effort to find her mother—missing since being accused of murder

When brutish miner Hugo Mitchum is found murdered on the frozen shore of a North Country lake, Beau Caelais's local officials and town gossips alike are quick to blame Marietta Abernathy, outspoken environmental activist and angry, witchy recluse. But Marietta herself has disappeared under mysterious circumstances during a blizzard.

Living on an isolated island with her father, Marietta’s sixteen-year-old daughter Lena begins sifting through her mother’s journals and collected oddities in an attempt to find her. While her father’s grief threatens to consume him and her adoptive Aunt Bea reckons with guilt and acceptance, it is the haunting town outcast Ellis Olsen who might have the most to lose if Lena fails to find her mother.

Part eco-Nordic noir, part magical realist examination of power, identity, and myth, Things We Found When the Water Went Down is a story that asks us to explore what it means to heal—or not—after violence.

Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Magical Realism, Thriller, Audiobook, Nature, Mystery Thriller

256 pages, Paperback

First published December 6, 2022

Reviews

[Maxwell · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of those books that I think is going to find its audience and really thrive. It's a very eclectic, unique novel told in an unconventional format. It takes the form of a dossier about the disappearance of a woman from a small Nordic town, 16 years after an incident that shook the town to its core. The novel is told from the woman's daughter's perspective as she investigates her mother's past and her present disappearance. There are transcripts from interviews she conducts with various citizens of their town, as well as court documents, journal entries and more. It's often written almost in a prose poetry format, with interesting line breaks and very evocative language. It blurs the lines between fiction and poetry in an interesting way and kept me turning the pages.

All in all, while I didn't love this book it was such a refreshing read that I just wish had come together a bit more. I think the format, especially when I first started reading it, was also a bit confusing. There are many footnotes in the book that reference other pages, and I was not sure at the start if I should skip to those pages to read what was being referenced. But as the story went on, I found that to distract too much from the main narrative and that if you just read the story in the order it's published, you will eventually get all the pieces and information you need to put the story together.

Trigger warnings for sexual assault and violence in this one, which is a main theme of the story.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

June 2023 Review (originally posted just on Instagram):

TWFWTWWD is unlike any other book. As reviewer Benjamin Percy aptly wrote, “Is Tegan Nia Swanson a novelist, poet, collagist, puzzle master, or sorceress? Is this book a northern noir or an eco-thriller or a mosaic colored by magical realism?” The novel is part mystery, part poetry, part encyclopedia. An assemblage of memories, evidence, narratives, images, and other mixed media, the book can be read linearly or non-linearly.

Cover to cover, the book catalogs a teen girl’s haunting journey to find her missing mother and unravel what happened after her mother is accused of murder. Readers can also follow the footnotes, directing to different pages. (But be careful if you want to experience this book as a mystery—the very first note/redirection is Чеховское ружье, Chekhov’s gun). Because, though the story is linear, the events are not. And neither is trauma.

Set in a fictional small northern (presumably Wisconsin) mining town, the novel juxtaposes preservation and destruction, protectors and perpetrators. It gives voice to those who are marginalized and those who experience violence—both survivors and the ones who did not survive. It creates a haven for queer folx in a hostile environment, calls for action now, yesterday, before it’s too late.

It’s hard to describe this ethereal composition with my clunky words. Things We Found When the Water Went Down is undefinable. A book of witches and mothers. Earth and water and sky. Unforgettable.

December 2022 Review:
magical
a book of witches, mothers
legacy

undefinable, between

sensory
an assemblage of words, images, materials
inferences, references
catalog, evidence recorded

violence and resilience
whose power

meaning in every word, letter, every blank space [a voice, loud]

earthy, grounded
moon and water


Add me on Instagram | StoryGraph | Fable

[Geonn Cannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I REALLY loved this. I thought I had my top books of 2022 all locked in, but this one is definitely going on the list. It's a great story (TW: it does include graphic descriptions of sexual assault) told in a fairy-tale way. I recommend getting the audio AND a digital copy so you can read along, not just because it helps keep the footnotes straight, but there's additional content in the form of newspaper clippings and artwork that help bring the story to life. It's a strange combination of prose, poetry, and song, and I think it worked beautifully.

[Sandi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book. It's dark and complicated and a middle-of-the-night-page-turner that binds you to the characters and outcomes in a way that reminds me of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz.

The main protagonist is 16-year old, Lena, whose complicated and powerful mother has been accused of murdering the well-connected and known toxic bully in a small northern town on the shores of Lake Superior. When her mother inexplicably disappears from the county jail, Lena begins piecing together a dark history and revealing the small town's deeply buried secrets. Lake Superior and the weather are their own unspoken characters in this book, and may be the two most grounding forces in the collapsing future Swanson has created.

Swanson has taken her experience as a professional advocate for survivors of domestic violence and Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Two Spirit Folks and imbued it into a work of magical realism that is kind and healing to it's characters and readers. This book touches on themes of climate change, generational trauma, queerness, and healing after violence.  It pushes the edge of the form of the novel, including aspects of poetry, play writing, found evidence, and collage art while still holding together as a rich, cohesive eco-noir mystery for the reader. 

If you like the works of George Saunders, Junot Diaz, and Emily St. John Mandel you will probably like this book.

[Martin Maenza · Rating 3 out of 5]

This debut novel by Tegan Nia Swanson will be out in December of 2022. Catapult Press provided an early galley for review.

The cover of this book immediately jumped out to me. The endless water and waves illuminated by the full moon is entrancing. This heralded something different, and indeed Swanson's book is just that. The narrative structure is a mix of fiction, poetry and end-noted comments that one might find in nonfiction. It is a very different kind of read indeed. Very ethereal and symbolic.

The subject matter of domestic violence is a serious one. Books relating to this can get dark and graphic. Swanson's way of addressing it comes across, to me, as a bit more removed and indirect. I couldn't help but compare it to David Lynch's Twin Peaks is some regards. Both have a stylistic way about them. Which, in turn, could mean that not every reader will necessarily connect to this story's approach.

As a big music fan, the soundtrack at the end was a very nice touch. Time to pull together a playlist to see how this music fits the tale.

[Angharad · Rating 4 out of 5]

4+ stars. Would love to read more books in this style/format and the themes were handled beautifully. Big props for the experimental writing. Just wish I'd read it around the Winter Solstice for the full effect!

[Dr. K · Rating 2 out of 5]

Less of a novel and more of a collage, poetry collection, and experimental epistolary (among other things) piece of fiction.

For certain parts, that really worked. I kept turning the pages, wanting to know more. This book made me play detective, and I do enjoy looking for clues. It's a book rife with footnotes, references to other pages, quotes from modern trauma literature (both Bessel van der Kolk and Judith Herman feature prominently), and general mixed media.

But as I kept going through this book, I realized that the format just wasn't working for me anymore. There was a lot of repetition in the places where I wanted more clarity and answers. I really wanted to like this book, as it touched on themes I seek in fiction (trauma, climate/ecology, generational stories) but, in spite of the objective beauty of the layout and design, the overall novel just didn't do it for me.

Recommended if you're into unconventional formatting (think House of Leaves, a book I DNF'd but that I know is loved by many) and themes of intergenerational trauma, community, and the more than human world. 2.5 stars rounded down.

[Angyl]

started this on audio until I realized that is absolutely NOT the way to consume this one. Will pick it up again at a later date lol

[Katie O’Reilly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This memorable, surreal story about a girl trying to understand why her mother was arrested for murder is a difficult one to review because it is non-linear and multi-media, so I will say the impressions/thoughts I had while reading:

- the community culpability of so many sexual crimes
- the searing pain of environmental destruction
- the difficulty of understanding others’ pain
- the way anti-LGBT prejudice leads to other crimes and compounds injustice
- the fact that brilliant people are sometimes very difficult to live with
- Patrick

I don’t know if the World Below was meant to be metaphorical or real, but the impression of a way to escape the worst parts of the world and build a new one was very powerful.

Very unique. Beautiful, painful. I wanted a little more resolution from the ending. I couldn’t bear to think of sweet solid Patrick in the house all by himself 💔

Also *SPOILER* did Ellis shoot Hugo??

[Madalyn Woodward · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was incredible! It is definitely one of my favorites this year. The writing was so beautiful and atmospheric, the characters were amazing, and the format was unique. I listened to the audiobook and I really enjoyed it, the narrator was wonderful, but I do think I may have enjoyed reading the physical copy of the book better.

Thank you NetGalley and HighBridge Audio for an advanced copy of the audiobook!

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you Netgalley for providing a digital ARC.

Beautifully written and emotional, Things We Found When the Water Went Down follows a young women trying to find her missing mother who was accused of murder. I really loved the way this story worked with "found" materials likes quotes and poems and interviews. It is so incredibly original, which I really loved. I listened to the audiobook, which was narrated well, but I could definitely see myself coming back to this book in its physical copy due to its regular referencing of footnotes. That being said, it's a great read, but definitely check the content warnings before diving into it. 

[Andria Potter · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm going to get a physical copy of this gorgeous book because it doesn't really translate well to kindle with all the pictures and odd spacing of the font and all, but what a lovely, haunting story! 5 ⭐!

[milo in the woods · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was haunting and extremely well constructed. i might try to write a more articulate review tomorrow, after i’ve slept on this.

[Jennifer Houselog · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s fiction, but your heart & mind believes it all to be true. What a transferable piece of art.

[Sarah B · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's not too often that a book confuses me but I felt totally lost while reading this. Huge chunks of the story made no sense. The characters were doing things that made no sense - and the footnotes under certain words didn't help any at all. The very fact that a novel needs footnotes tells you something about the plot. And if I may be so bold as to say "The footnotes have totally failed to explain the situation in here that I could actually understand it". But this whole book was like a surreal dream with bizarre stuff happening and you are only confused.

I find it impossible to like such a book. Because then I feel that the author has failed to explain things well enough.

So there are a few main characters in here. One is a grandmother. Near the beginning of the story it clearly states that this grandmother dies. But yet a bit later - maybe only 20 pages or so - it states that the granddaughter sees her grandmother climbing the cliffs! But how is that even possible? The story never mentioned ghosts or anything... My problem is that these confusing incidents are throughout the book and they are never explained in a way that I can understand it.

The book also hints at some huge disaster that had happened but once again nothing was explained in a clear way. So I feel like I am stumbling around in the dark trying to get somewhere but I have no idea where I am. After awhile this gets rather annoying! And unfortunately the whole book is that way...

The characters are busy engaged in rather bizarre activities and I didn't really understand that either. One involved the granddaughter diving into freezing water but yet there was no mention of hyperthermia or any other ill effects? It's like a bad episode of the Twilight Zone or something...

And I had thought this would be a missing person mystery. A person IS missing (the mother) but the story is SO bizarre that one cannot focus on that at all. Because you are just confused by the whole entire situation!

Nothing in here made sense.

I think it's a dystopian after some sort of ecological disaster??? But even trying to grasp that is difficult because nothing is clear... The whole thing is seen through a twisted fun house mirror.

And it's about the sea.

I have in the past read a book that used a totally made up language and I was able to follow that but this.... No. It's a fever dream.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice easy read, very enjoyable and entertaining. Like a witchy mystery. The chapters are usually a page or two long, meaning I was blowing through the pages, but lots of footnotes and referencing other pages which made me go back and forth at times. The ending was not very satisfying nor informative, so the mystery part didn’t really feel solved, only implied. Lots of questions left and I expected more pages, but overall I enjoyed my time reading this

[Abby · Rating 5 out of 5]

magic

[Alice LeFae · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this book was a unique experience. Loved it- took one star off because I felt I would have liked to have gotten to know the characters a bit more (which ultimately speaks to how much I enjoyed the book, that I wanted more from it)

[Lungstrum Smalls · Rating 4 out of 5]

An artfully scattered story about water, women, violence, trauma, birds, healing, trees, and many other things. I loved the themes and the magic and the illustrations in this book. I'd love to read whatever Swanson gifts us next.

[Jordan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of those kind of books that's just very beautifully written. I started reading it on Overdrive and the footnotes and formatting were a pain to read that way, but switched to Kindle about halfway through and that (and the footnotes becoming less frequent) helped some.

[Chelsea Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

On its surface, this story is a small town whodunnit about a murdered man. But it’s written in a dreamy prose that feels more prose poem than prose, composed of found materials, collages, and interviews. There’s a central plot that runs through the story - the murder - but there is also family history, meditations on motherhood, and a really thoughtful look at gender-based violence. Here too is a realistic look at work and survival, at the stranglehold companies have on livelihoods in isolated places, about the environmental chaos they wreak without punishment.

This book’s setting is powerful, evoking the austerity of the far north in a visceral way. The magical elements of the story give it a really dream-y and slippery sense. The characters are compelling and interesting, though I was sometimes a little confused by who was who. I particularly liked that the town included rural queer folks.

Would recommend this book for anyone who likes lush and rhythmic prose, and enjoys an eerie dream-like atmosphere. Probably not for you if you want a straight forward structure and fast-moving plot.

[Leda Bloomfield · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book (scrapbook?) is a meditation on trauma, heteronormativity, the patriarchy and climate disaster. I was drawn in thematically, but ultimately never felt emotionally connected to the book. I could not relate to the characters, or even like/dislike any of them much beyond the obvious villain. The format was also not for me. I also felt like there were one too many devices at play - defining common words, the newspaper clippings, the map, the footnotes (I'm generally not a fan of footnotes -- they have to be doing a lot to be worth it, and this wasn't), the collages, etc. Also, this book is difficult to read on kindle.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

As an audiobook this is nearly a zero: see last paragraph below. But I bought this book and finally, finally figured out a way to review it as the five star PRINT BOOK it is.

For the author's sake, because she deserves actual readers of the print book. I have been trying to figure out how to share my love of this novel since I read it in March 2023. It's hard to describe. First: Get the print version or read it on a device that permits you to see the illustrations in color. The illustrations are gorgeous and integral to enjoyment of this unique and fanciful story. Second: Do NOT skip reading the "Dramatic Personae" in the early pages, because Lena, our first person narrator, jumps all over creation as she tells the story of her life, her mother's life and her grandmother's life as outcasts/magical/respected people of the town. Plus, you get oriented to this wild ride if you read them, e.g., the focus of Lena's yearning, her mother: "Marietta Abernathy: my mother. She/her(s). Daughter of Ursa, the Hunter. Curator of the Paper Moon Menagerie. The One Who Drowned and Came Back." With a footnote, very common in the book but it's a good thing, promise. This one reads, "My mother had many names. For a complete list, see p. 13." The list on page 13 then includes, "The Loon Woman," "The town Hydratic; the One Who Could Not Contain her Tides: the One Whose Hair was Perpetually Tangled and Speckled with Ash" and the"One Whose Eyes Changed Color with the Seasons."

This story is Lena's investigation of what happened "20 June 1999" and all that came after. Her saga takes place at a time Marietta has disappeared in December 2016. Lena describes her sources as "found objects, excerpts of journals, letters, interviews and public records....." Each chapter starts with her latitude and longitude. She explains to us how to read her investigative journal. Read that too! It explains up front what we are about to explore. And so we open with a letter Marietta wrote on the first of December and a chapter titled "Beau Calais & the Inland Sea." This introduces us to Lena's, Marietta's and Patrick's home on an island on the Inland Sea in the North Country. To the South is Ruin Lake. Straight west is the town of Beau Caelais.

This book is about a company town and the dangers of challenging the Mesabi Mine Co. It is about the environmental damage the mine caused to the waters. It is about Marietta inviting people to send her damaged and living or dead items impacted by the destroyed waters. And her taking them beneath. It is about Ursa, who died giving birth to Marietta out in the cold, alone and how that changed everything. It is about violence against women. It is about redemption for all the women and children ever murdered in the town and forgotten. and about Marietta, living but hurt. It is about the women beneath. It is magical realism at its best, with Marietta living between two worlds, drawn more to safety beneath but also to her daughter, decidedly on land. It is a mystery. The characters are all deeply drawn and compelling, even the bad guys, even the less damaged people, and, of course, the damaged people. This book is just compelling.

I listened to the audiobook first and kept thinking, " I believe this might be a good book, BUT." Whoever decided to issue this as an audiobook, other than for people who cannot read print books showed poor judgment at best. When read aloud, with nonlinear timeline dates and constantly different voices providing information and the location of the narrator expressed by longitude and latitude, it is by far the most confusing audio book I've ever listened too. I am forever grateful that I listened to my instincts and bought a copy to read and that I read it one day on my phone and discovered the illustrations were in beautiful color. I hope, sometime, people discover this incredible book. People like me who will think and think and think about the transformative writing and the people. Also the ghostly dogs and the women beneath.e aware, this is not a book for people who cannot tolerate descriptions of violence against women, but it is well worth reading for those who can. It's not so much graphic in these scenes as painful to the imagination. Because it's so well written.

[Bookreporter.com Mystery & Thriller · Rating 4 out of 5]

At the bottom of Lake Ruin is a hole, perhaps a passageway. In it, Marietta Abernathy can hide away the items she collects from a dying world. And she can commune with the Women Beneath, all dead of violence. Perhaps it is to the hole at the bottom of the lake where Marietta flees when she disappears from her jail cell. Her 16-year-old daughter, Lena, is not quite certain. All she knows is that her mother, a second-generation pariah in their isolated northern town, is gone and has left behind only strange clues and a legacy of both suffering and resilience.

Lena narrates parts of Tegan Nia Swanson’s debut novel, THINGS WE FOUND WHEN THE WATER WENT DOWN, a work of speculative fiction composed of interviews, recollections, myths, poetry, dreams and visual collages, as well as Lena’s account of the search for her mother.

In November 2016, Beau Caelais’ local psychopath, Hugo Mitchum, was found dead in the water. Marietta was arrested for his murder two days later, which came as no surprise to anyone, not even to her daughter. She was an outspoken activist, railing against the environmental crimes of area businesses and standing up to figures like Hugo. However, Lena learns that Marietta and Hugo had a darker connection after she somehow escapes from or is moved from her jail cell, leaving behind only a puddle of water. Lena’s father, Patrick, slides into a deep depression, leaving the teen to fend for herself and search for her mother alone.

Lena begins to more fully understand Marietta and Marietta’s own mother, Ursa, who was murdered many years ago. Marietta created and managed the Paper Moon Menagerie, a museum that gathers natural ephemera of ecological and emotional import. She curates this collection of magical and devasting pieces with an obsession that Lena can only begin to understand and that gives some insight into her mother’s psyche.

Looking for Marietta is more than just trying to figure out where she may be. For Lena, it’s about truly understanding who her enigmatic mother really is and the beliefs and events that led to her arrest. It’s also about sifting through layers of story, secrets, nature and personal history to uncover what is hidden by Ruin Lake and generations of people along the Inland Sea. Marietta’s story is also Ursa's story, and Hugo’s story is also that of a quiet and damaged man named Ellis Olsen. Readers will discover, along with Lena, that Ellis plays a large part in the drama surrounding the missing and the dead.

THINGS WE FOUND WHEN THE WATER WENT DOWN has been called a “Nordic eco-noir,” and it is hard to pen a more apt description. Frozen lakes and rustic cabins, mining camps and rough bars, set the scene for this fantastical tale with its inventive composition. Swanson’s book is one of fragments and glimpses, metaphors and nightmares, violence and longing. There is beauty in her work, and patient readers will find much to admire and contemplate here.

Reviewed by Sarah Rachel Egelman

[readundancies · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars

This book is straight-up told using a mixed media format. As in the first page is technically artwork. Now, I have limited experience with mixed media in my reading, not out of avoidance on my part, but rather that it’s not necessarily something that I seek out when I’m looking to pick up my next read. So this book being my first fully-fledged mixed media read where there are images and lists and letters and diary entries and poems and interviews and quotes, etc. are scattered throughout the story was a pleasant surprise on many fronts. I was getting hyped just by reading through the Dramatis Personae.

My enjoyment was further enhanced by the realization that I kinda desperately wish that this was my first read of the year just based on the fact that there were footnotes present on the first page of this novel. Because hot damn, do I ever love a story told in footnotes.

Expectations; they had been risen.

It’s hard to get into detail about what this story is about without spoiling the experience, but if I had to summarize succinctly I’d probably go with a young archivist living in a world where the environment is quickly deteriorating away becomes embroiled in the mystery that is the disappearance of her notorious mother and goes off in pursuit of answers to questions she has not even pondered yet.

This is a bit of a slower-paced novel; it’s told in a non-linear fashion and implores the reader to take their time as they progress through the tale and I think it’s necessary to do so to really absorb everything as a whole. It discusses and explores themes surrounding murder and sexual assault especially that of Indigenous peoples, environmental degradation, trauma and healing and their vicious codependency, victim-blaming of women and queer folx, nepotism and power imbalances, the ruination of nature by men, the pursuit of solace by means of silence or solitude or savagery as well as holes, hollows and the fragility involved in filling them.

It had a wonderful thread of magical realism that heightened the mystery surrounding Marietta Abernathy’s disappearance and the way that the relationships between Marietta, Hugo Mitchum and Ellis Olsen were broken down and revealed was masterful. The prose drifted into poetry and back with ease, the characters were so rooted in the story itself and the imagery that the author evoked was spectacular.

And all as a debut novel? Pure aces.

This story won’t be for everyone, but it’s criminally under-read at the moment and I’m begging more people to pick it up, so if you’re looking for a story that will whisk you away into some rather dark places with writing that spills out a wild and untamed beauty, definitely consider picking this one up.

[Molly · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 stars rounded up. I picked up and put down this book too many times in the past month. When it’s already not the easiest book to follow. Still I really enjoyed how the author played with collage, interview, poetry, blackout poetry, news articles, diary entries, footnotes. It does have some similarities to House of Leaves in terms of formatting, but really I haven’t read anything quite like this.

As I said it is a little hard to follow, especially with the nebulousness of magical realism. But I think I followed it well enough. I read the entire second half this evening. It was pretty gripping all in all, and I got surprisingly invested in the characters. Even though they felt a little detached.

Not a huge fan of magical realism normally and as others have mentioned it isn’t the easiest formatting, but it was interesting! I am not sure if I would read another book like this one, but I do hope the author puts out more books! I would at least try another from her. I think there is certainly an audience for this. I also think this would be a fun read for a class in a university setting. Or a book club! I wish I had read this with my book club, I think it would have been a richer experience with discussion.

I started this book parked by Lake Superior in my new city. I purchased this book at Drury Lane in Grand Marais, determined and happy to find a local female author (or nonbinary. Was just trying to look for someone past the plethora of local male authors, as I would like to see a more even split in the future).

Coincidentally, when visiting my parents in Duluth I was in Canal with my fiancé and we happened to see the bridge go up for a boat. I haven’t watched a boat leave in a while and it just so happened to be the *Mesabi Miner* that we saw.

[Sonia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wow! Unfortunately, this is NOT my kind of book! And it has nothing to with underlying story, but more to with the writing style and layout. Okay, so first of all, I should say that I didn’t pick this book for myself at all & would probably not have picked it up at all if I hadn’t read it as part of a book club & it wasn’t my pick at all. In general, I’m not really a magical realism fan (not judging you if that’s your type of genre or anything; it’s just not for me). And, to be honest, if it wasn’t for the book club (and listening to the audiobook while reading it), I’d probably have given up on it before even finishing it (and that’s not something I do very often, either, trust me). Seriously, though if it wasn’t for the audiobook, I’d probably would have gotten lost multiple times while reading it! I actually DID get lost a few times! The layout and structure was very strange—to me, at least—and it seemed to not follow basic grammar rules & sentence structure a lot of the time (I am kinda a stickler for basic grammar rules). (I DO want to say that I was mostly reading the Kindle edition on my phone/iPad, so I don’t know what structure/layout the paperback/hardcover had, but I imagine it to be pretty the same.) There were only, like, 1 or 2 things I liked about the book (thus, giving it 2 stars instead of just just 1, or 0 stars). And I will also say that it deals with sexual abuse/assault, so there’s your TW for you.

[Brian Grover · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish I could remember how I found this book or why I read it - and it's sad I don't, since I just read it three weeks ago. It's billed as "Nordic eco-noir", which is quite niche! I was assuming when I read it that this book was set in some unnamed Scandinavian country, but after doing a little author research, this woman was born in Minnesota and lives in Madison, and I think she's writing about Lake Superior. Interesting!

Anyway, this is a book about a mysterious "witch" who goes missing shortly after being arrested for the murder of a total sh#tbag of a human being who raped her years ago. More specifically, it's a book about her teenage daughter and her attempts to find out what happened to her, which involves her delving into both local and family history. And also I guess it's a book about healing, or failing to heal, after an act of violence.

This is an eccentric book, and it's not the kind of thing I typically do well with... but I liked it, even if it wasn't fully resonant with me. I think I'd read more by Swanson (this was her debut novel). Looking at the Events tab on her website, looks like she does readings and appearances in Madison on the regular, maybe I'll run into her the next time I'm back in town!

3.5 stars.

[Sean Mann · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listened to the audiobook, but I wish I would have gotten a physical copy to read. The format of including research/documents/quotes from both characters in the novel and what I assume were real studies was sometimes confusing over audio and I had to pay close attention and skip back sometimes to distinguish the quotes from the narrative.

Otherwise, I this was a haunting and strangely fantastical novel, with complex characters. I appreciate that the author didn't try to box the characters in to fill different tropes, but allowed their full nuance to shine through. In the narrative sections, the prose often shone through and painted a grim picture of reality laced through with magical realism.

The main theme of patriarchal violence with an undertone of capitalist environmental exploitation made this book a lot darker than I expected. Focusing on revealing the past and coping with generational gender-based and sexual violence made for several graphic scenes, with the only glimmer of hope coming from an imagined, yet somehow real alternative world.

I look forward to future books by this author!

[Stacy · Rating 3 out of 5]

**Trigger warning for sexual assault and deomestic violence**

When the body of a ruthless miner is found on the frozen shore of a northern county lake, police blame the mother of 16-year-old Lena. When Marietta, Lena’s mother, goes missing in police custody that night, Lena is left to look through her mother’s journals to find her.

This story jumps between the present and the events leading up to something big that happened in the town 16 years ago. This was an interesting story that I think would be better read on the page rather than listening to the audiobook, due to the way it is written. I enjoyed this but felt a bit removed from the story. If the blurb of this book interests you, I recommend getting yourself a physical copy of the book!

Many thanks to NetGalley for providing me an audio ARC of this book.