Review: The Girl in the Road

The Girl in the Road by Monica Byrne
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Disclaimer: I received a free e-galley copy of this book through Netgalley.

This is one of the best books I have ever read. Fair warning, though, there are some scenes that will make some readers incredibly uncomfortable and if you are squeamish or easily offended this is not the book for you. I'm not going to address the scene of particular contention in this review at all, but be warned that one exists.

It's always hard for me to write reviews of books I absolutely love. Maybe it's easier to explain what I didn't like, what was problematic. Maybe I don't want to write down why I like it because that will take away the magic, or I'll suddenly see I was wrong.

So things I loved about this book:

The beautiful prose! So rich and vigorous and colorful! I've read some negative reviews that say she sounds young and inexperienced (condescension much?) but I say it's fresh and original.

The world building! It's full of near-future tech that's easily extrapolated from today's pervasive technology, as well as some cool renewable energy source alternatives that I imagine are informed by Byrne's multiple degrees in chemistry. She does an excellent job of creating this rich, detailed world in the first quarter or so of the novel - in my mind, laying down horizontal layers of the world - and then building the rest of the story vertically on top of those foundations. It's also a world where climate change is not just a near-future bogeyman, but an actual reality that they live (something emphasized throughout the novel, as very imminent threats of giant waves loom over the world, endangering the already-changed coastlines). I think this world-building is helped by the fact that it's in a location that Western authors usually ignore, embedded in these cultures that add another layer of depth, especially for Western readers who are not already familiar with them. It was occasionally difficult for me to parse whether something was an invented thing/place/idea or just something totally unfamiliar to me, and I made liberal use of my good friend Google. More on this later.

The characters! Both of the narrators are the definition of unreliable. One is in the midst of a manic episode, and the other is relating her childhood and freely admits there were many inconsistencies she doesn't understand even to this day. Both of those unreliable features, though, are central to the characters and their development. It also serves to create some vivid and unforgettable voices, and adds to the sense of fantasticality and magical realism. Meena's craziness is especially fascinating. I read another review where the reviewer criticized the half-page list of authors on Meena's scroll, but that's a realistic portrayal of some peoples' manic episodes, and things similar to that, rooted in the characters' idiosyncrasies, are some of the most compelling parts of the book. I suppose with all the questionable reality that you could probably interpret the whole story as unreal or the imaginings of one character or another, but not only is that not a very interesting reading, I also don't think think that it's at all what the author intended. More on this later, too, but be warned: there will be spoilers.

Things I liked, with caveats:
The treatment of gender and sexuality! Meena, you find quickly, is a very sexual person (again, characteristic of people going through manic episodes) and her sexuality is fluid. Her girlfriend, Mohini, is trans. There's very frank discussion of both the act of sex, Mohini's biological sex, and sexual preferences, which may offend some but I found enriched the novel in most cases. I do want to take the author to task a bit for having Meena refer to her potential sexual partners as "men, women, and trans" - as if transgender people were a separate gender or sexual preference, which is something I don't think that the author (having graduated from Wellesley) should nor Meena (being pretty embedded in a culture of sexual fluidity) would imply. It could've been rectified with something as simple as "men, women, and genderfluid" or "men, women, and people who identified as neither" or any myriad of ways that would have made me cringe a little less.

The plot. The story alternates between Meena and Mariama, two girls who both begin journeys away from their home, fleeing a traumatic event. Both of their journeys take them through hard terrain - one a desert, one the ocean - toward Ethiopia. For a while, though, I expected Meena's journey to finish much sooner, and kept wondering when she was going to get off the bridge. I got pretty antsy waiting for that. But once I figured out the parallel journey structure, things made more sense and I settled into the groove. I also didn't understand the last scene and had to look up an interview with the author to make it make sense (but my boyfriend read it and understood, so that may have just been me).

Things I didn't like at all: pretty much nothing.

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