Book Notes: Swamplandia

Swamplandia! by Karen Russell

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Don't read this review if you think you might want to read the book!

Audiobook Version: Karen Russell is a gifted author, and who doesn’t appreciate a single-word book title with an exclamation point?! The premise is exciting and mysterious; a family owns and runs a Swamp-themed park whose star act is a woman wrestling and swimming with the alligators (“seths”). The book is narrated by Ava, the youngest of three children. Older siblings sister Osceola and brother Kiwi are also main characters. After the star of the show (mother to the three children) dies of cancer, the park and family begin to fall apart. The tourist stop coming and the family has a hard time figuring out what to do next. Osceola decides to summon the spirits and falls in love with a ghost, Lewis Thanksgiving. She then runs off to marry him. Kiwi runs off to make money for the family and ends up at The World of Darkness, the new rival park that is taking all of their tourists. Dad, “the Chief” runs off to make money/meet investors on the mainland. Ava runs off with “the Birdman,” a tourist, to find Osceola, and maybe even her mom, in the underworld.

I was totally on board with all of this, until the characters all miraculously happen upon each other through chance encounters after venturing around the great beyond, the women in the swamps and the men on the mainland. I suppose this was supposed to be somewhat divine, but to me the circumstances just seemed highly unlikely and I couldn’t get into it. Maybe there just wasn’t enough leading up to the divine crossing so it felt sloppy. I was also ticked that Russell had “the Birdman” rape sweet pre-teen Ava which I feared would happen for many chapters.

Russell shines at describing the mystery and lore of the swampland and it was certainly different than other books I’ve read lately but that doesn’t mean feel like it was as good as it could have been!





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