"Do not think madness can't cure you. I go mad all the time. Sometimes it's the only way out!"
This book wins best cover of 2020 in my opinion!
Linda moves to Brazil with her husband so he can work for the local university. She doesn't really want to move to Brazil, and in fact, she was contemplating divorce before her husband suggested the move. Linda decides that maybe Brazil will be just what she needs to rekindle their marriage. Because that always works right?
For awhile I feel like every book I picked up was a "coming of age" story. Now I feel like every book I pick up is of the "I'm of age... now what?" Variety. The latter is the existential big sister of the two that I relate more to because of the stage of life I am in, but that doesn't necessarily mean I love these slow moving, rebirthing, non-plot, storylines.
Maybe this didn't charm me the way I hoped it would because Linda's husband reminded me of Jamie from The Last Five Years Musical - if you know you know- and I had assumed that the drama in their marriage would be the driving plot. Spoiler alert, it isn't. Instead I felt bored with Linda's character and I felt like this book tried to say a lot but by time it gathered its thoughts I had kind of lost interest.
What did work for me was the strong sense of place this novel was grounded in. I loved the descriptions of the city of São Pablo and the way I felt so enmeshed in the city. By the end of the book my warm feelings were towards São Pablo, not the story's leading lady.
The best parts of It is Wood It is Stone for me were the backstories of the secondary characters. I desperately wish this storyline would have been about Marta and Celia. Instead, the author picked the blandest character to "show us around." That made for a rather slow-paced, unexciting, story in my opinion.
⭐⭐⭐stars
Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers at Penguin Random House for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!
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You can find It is Wood It is Stone on bookshelves near you on July 28th!
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