Sip

May 22, 2017
Carr’s jumbled and unsatisfying first novel depicts a dystopian future in which much of the dwindling U.S. population is addicted to consuming the shadows cast by natural light. Mira, a young woman with poorly defined supernatural powers, spends much of her time caring for her shadow-addicted mother. Years before, those seeking to escape the addicts and the hardscrabble life outside gathered in artificially lit domes, but recently, for nebulous reasons, the “domers” have been establishing outposts. Bale, a soldier banished from one of these outposts, joins Mira and her addicted friend Murk as they cross the desolate landscape in hopes of hunting down a particular shadow thief before the impending return of Halley’s Comet, which will cast particularly potent shadows. The parameters of the addiction and its variations are frustratingly opaque, and the passages addressing the addiction’s history and the way it shaped the world just raise further questions. Numerous side characters and events add complexity without clarity. Interesting ideas form the core of the novel, but their development leaves much to be desired.

June 15, 2017
A post-apocalyptic sci-fi Western, short story writer Carr's (The Shape of Every Monster Yet To Come, 2014, etc.) debut novel traces a brief and hobbled journey across the enduring landscape of the end of the world.Around the year 2017, a terrible new addiction afflicted humanity. People discovered they could sip shadows, ingesting a darkness more powerful than the strongest drug. Predictably, the other side of the high is abuse, withdrawal, desperation, depravity. In short order, society crumbles; tribalism reigns; all becomes violence and stark waste. A century and a half later, the addiction has come to its finale. In the precisely realized landscape of southern Texas, Mira (the daughter of a shadow-stolen mother), Murk (an appealingly foul, shadow-addict amputee), and Bale (a "domer" raised in a hermetically sealed settlement that eliminates natural light) embark on a muddled quest across the Texas scrub to...do something. Ostensibly, their mission is clear--they must find and kill Joe Clover, the addict who stole Mira's mother's shadow, before Halley's comet returns--but, as with so much else in this exuberant book, their motive is overwhelmed by the sheer number of characters and side plots. We meet the ferocious women of the Shadowless Army; the Faulkner-ian Doc; the Dr. Strangelove-esque Capt. Flamsteed; Bale's doomed brother, Drummond, and more and more and more besides. This, coupled with an uneven tone which borrows just as heavily from Flannery O'Connor as it does from Chuck Palahniuk and an even more unfortunate tendency toward the exploitative grotesque (amputees are an endless source of sight gags and are sometimes beaten to death with their own peg legs; a saloon piano player is a waddling one-eyed midget possessing a "voice, quasi-maniacal"), conspires to create a book whose allegiances tend toward the shock and awe of its conceit and shy away from the coherent development of either its world or its main characters. A promising premise and intriguing core characters but, ultimately, not enough cohesion between the plots to stick them all together.

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Starred review from August 1, 2017

One hundred and fifty years ago, a child learned to sip its own shadow, which resulted in an ecstatic high better than any other drug. The addiction quickly spread, as crowds of young people gathered to take others' shadows, from both the old and young. Eventually, towns, cities, and governments fell apart, and those who wished to survive went to live in domed metropolises protected from natural light and natural shadows. Others, both sippers and survivors, lived outside, foraging for what they could in a hard, wild world. Mira lives in rural Texas, chasing mouthfuls of shadows for her addict mother. Her friend Murk is also addicted, slowly drinking his shadow away. Ex-domer Bale joins them on their quest to find a possible cure for shadow sickness, the rumors of which have been passed down in myth and song. But the trio must complete their mission before Halley's Comet returns--in less than seven days. VERDICT Fans of postapocalyptic fiction will find it difficult to put down Carr's haunting debut, which richly details its world's harsh history while leaving readers enough hope for the future. The title also has excellent YA crossover potential.--KC

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2017

One hundred and fifty years ago, a child learned to sip its own shadow, which resulted in an ecstatic high better than any other drug. The addiction quickly spread, as crowds of young people gathered to take others' shadows, from both the old and young. Eventually, towns, cities, and governments fell apart, and those who wished to survive went to live in domed metropolises protected from natural light and natural shadows. Others, both sippers and survivors, lived outside, foraging for what they could in a hard, wild world. Mira lives in rural Texas, chasing mouthfuls of shadows for her addict mother. Her friend Murk is also addicted, slowly drinking his shadow away. Ex-domer Bale joins them on their quest to find a possible cure for shadow sickness, the rumors of which have been passed down in myth and song. But the trio must complete their mission before Halley's Comet returns--in less than seven days. VERDICT Fans of postapocalyptic fiction will find it difficult to put down Carr's haunting debut, which richly details its world's harsh history while leaving readers enough hope for the future. The title also has excellent YA crossover potential.--KC

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.