Palimpsest by Catherynne M. Valente

 Doing occasional reprints of reviews of books I really, really loved. This one is so sad and so very gorgeous. I wouldn't recommend it for everyone: it's sort of adult. At the same time, it's a book that's not like anything else I've read in recent memory, and if you think it might be your cup of tea, you should try it, too. --Kristen

Palimpsest by Catherynne M. Valente
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Long ago, I was at a writers' meet-up during NaNoWriMo where I met an older woman of the Probing Question Asking sort. She wanted to know what everyone was writing, and if each story had "a sense of longing" to it. To her, a story that instilled a deep sense of longing in the reader was a GOOD story. Her earnestness in this opinion made me uncomfortable, and I squirmed as I answered her questions about my post-apocalyptic vampire story with killer pagan nuns. Stories that hollow us out and make us hungry, I thought, are not the only stories worth reading...

And here I find a story that would completely satisfy PQA lady. It hollowed me out. It made me sad for the characters. It filled me with a deep sense of longing that they would prevail in their quest. It had as much or more sex than most books I read (and I read Jacqueline Carey!) but none of it felt prurient. Little of it was hot. It just filled me with a desire for the connection that these characters were reaching for, as well.

I'll try this author again, though first I might do a little time with escapist fiction, until I need to be hollowed out again.

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