TW/CW: Death, death of a baby, sexual assault, child sexual abuse, body horror, post-apocalyptic

REVIEW: Desert Creatures is the story of Magdala, a young girl/young woman who is trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic world in the American southwest.

This book is trigger heavy and very dark. It’s also not a happy story, although it ends on a slightly upbeat note.

I can’t say that I loved this book, but it wasn’t terrible. It was very strange, and although I could follow the story, the jumps in time (there are two major ones) and the changes in viewpoint make it a little difficult to follow at spots. When I finished this book, I wasn’t sure exactly what the point of it was. I understood what was happening, but I’m not sure how it all fit in to a understandable story, especially as the ending seemed to go in a completely different direction in the last five pages.

Anyway, I didn’t hate this book, but I didn’t love it either. I would have liked to have finished it feeling a little clearer about the whole idea and purpose of it. ( )

This post-apocalyptic novel was oftentimes equally harrowing and heartbreaking. The story gripped me, and I felt immersed in the weird and wonderful world of the Remainder. The stuffed men were super creepy and I will never look at a cactus the same way again! ( )

5 stars for the cover artwork. I am normally a fan of post-apocalypse/dystopian novels. Reading this, I felt like I had somehow missed big parts of the story. I had a lot of "why" and "what" questions. More description would have helped me visualize better what the author was trying to say. The story really meandered and I finished the book wondering what I was supposed to take away from it. ( )

The story of a young girl and an exiled priest in a mystical, altered, post-apocalyptic version of the American southwest, a place of wandering monstrosities, outcast saints, bizarre fruit that grows from bizarre cactus that grows from corpses, and a desert that wants to get inside you.

I find it really hard to describe the feeling of that landscape and what Chrosnister does with it, the restrained way she creates a place of deep, dry strangeness and lets it work its way under your skin. Nor can I quite say why it works as effectively as it does. But it's certainly fascinating, in its own weird way. ( )

http://speculiction.blogspot.com/2023/04/review-of-desert-creatures-by-kay.html ( )