Harare Review of Books

304 pages.

Expected publication date: Sept 6, 2022.

Genre: Fiction.

Thank you to NetGalley and to Dutton/Penguin Group for access to this eARC.

I finished reading this unusual story yesterday, and I’m still a little unsettled by it. It’s a fairly quick and undemanding read.

Unleashed opens with Lu and George driving their daughter, Philippa (Pippa to her mother, but she wants to be called Phipps) and her cat, Alice, to college (UCLA). Right from the start, Phipps comes across as somewhat strange and disconnected from the world—teenage angst, maybe, or possibly more. The family lives in Sonoma, where George is a vintner. Lu has mostly been focused on raising Phipps, but used to be George’s employee at the winery, and she still occasionally helps out.

Lu is experiencing disaffection, and initially it appears that this is stemming from her separation from Phipps, to whom she is perhaps unusually close. However, the feeling builds, until she feels alienated from her husband—which feeling is worsened by him confessing to an almost-affair. In addition, it is fire season in their wildfire-prone area; and when the worst happens, Lu is alone at home, George having travelled to Florida. After her evacuation to the local high school, she does something I found really terrible—and then something exceedingly strange happens.

There are interesting characters in the book, but I could not connect with any of them, and found none of them likeable—not even Phipps, who is the one I felt the most empathy for. I found Lu really very annoying and selfish, and am not sure if she was supposed to read that way. There is some mention of Lu’s ethnic background, but that isn’t really explored—for whatever reason—and, in the end, it feels gratuitous. After giving up on the characters, I tried to connect with the story. Possibly because I have been reading a lot of climate fiction recently, I found elements of it in the book, but the author didn’t explore that angle. The focus is rather on the characters’ reactions to the stresses they are under. I was also fairly disappointed by the lack of resolution for most of the characters—although I do confess that there was really only one resolution I would have been satisfied with (which I can’t explain here as it would give the story away).

Altogether, not the book I expected, and that was fairly disappointing. I think Unleashed may be enjoyed by a very specific subset of people. I found the author’s note enlightening; be sure to read it, because it makes a connection between what happens in the book and what was happening in her life at the time, and, in a way, explains the strangeness of the plot. Is this Weird Fiction? Not quite, but it skates very close to it.

An unsatisfying review for what was for me a less than satisfying read; but, I would love for people to read the book, and tell me what they think.

My rating: 6/10.