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3.0 

Unraveling

By Karen Lord
Unraveling by Karen Lord digital book - Fable

Publisher Description

The search for a notorious serial killer takes a therapist on a nightmarish quest to an alternate world to find the sinister secret behind his crimes, in a dark fantasy inspired by Caribbean urban myth, from the award-winning author of The Blue, Beautiful World.

“The natural heiress to Octavia Butler and Ursula Le Guin.”—Financial Times


Dr. Miranda Ecuovo works as a forensic therapist, helping traumatized witnesses recover their memories so that they can testify about the crimes they observed. Her most famous case resulted in the conviction of the serial killer Walther Gray, a pathologist’s assistant known as the Butcher of the City.

One day Miranda is seized by Chance, one of the spirits known as the Undying, and transported to a fantastical dreamlike world. There she is greeted by an Angel and presented with an unusual mission: Help catch the rogue Undying who was the true mastermind behind the Butcher’s crimes.

Now Miranda and Chance must stop the murderer before he kills again. Together they will race through a surreal otherworld of magical labyrinths and wondrous spirits—but also into the maze of Miranda’s own memories when they retrace her original investigation.

As Miranda draws closer to the truth, she finds herself confronted by even bigger questions than the killer’s identity. How could his victims’ deaths be forgotten so easily? And what can she do to create a world where the vulnerable can be safe and have their lives treated as precious?

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7 Reviews

3.0
“I had to DNF this one for the 1st time in my life. I only made it 28 pages in and had literally no clue what was happening because it made 0 sense to me”
“Lyrical and strange, reading this story feels a lot like floating through the pools that feature so heavily in this story. I know other reviews have complained that this book relies heavily on the knowledge that it connects to a fuller universe, present in some of Lord's other works. And while I can appreciate that frustration, I was so utterly absorbed and enthralled by this story that the idea of getting to read more in this universe is the most amazing thing I've heard all month. I absolutely adored this book. The mythology of the world it created was weird and intriguing, and I just found it incredibly inviting. I fell deep into this book and it was magical.”
“I wasn't sure what to expect when I started reading this book. To start I found this in the Fantasy section when it should be Speculative fiction. It combines mystery, science fiction, and some fantastical elements. There is also a dash of philosophical elements that makes the story beautiful but a little difficult to comprehend at moments. I really enjoyed the story and the characters. I love the mythological build to it all. I would like to try reading more by Karen Lord in the future. I would like to add that this book isn't for everyone but I loved the experience.”
“'Tricksters should never trick themselves' -the Trickster Blink, miss a word and you'll be left with dangling threads. Lord begins and continues a story that draws from ancestral storytelling style using shifts and slights to build a mystery around which her characters converge and her readers revolve. Think of #Unravelling as a interdimensional, inter-temporal crime mystery, but crafted with folklore and a deep and wonderful imagination. Like the title suggests, there is something to be solved, answered, unwound and Lord has expertly laid the threads within the maze that wind, twist, and contort to elevate the narrative. An imaginative and ingenious collision of the known physical and the unspoken supernatural worlds. Lord has such control over the progression, the 'unravelling' of the story that she carefully takes the reader along each path/thread, veering unto a new one only when necessary, leading to a reveal that serves to enhance her world-building, further immersing the reader. As I read, I could not help but see Lord as each sister who are the Fates, weaving, combining/unravelling, and cutting the cords of destiny and happenstance of her characters; taking this strand here and that strand there, unravelling there, to combine in this time and to be cut in that time, so expertly executed was this story that even after reading, you will want to dive back in to see just what you might have missed. This is a thrilling, engaging, spectacular crime fiction that blends folklore, science with a bit of time and space manipulation. The story is nothing short of magnificent.”

About Karen Lord

Barbadian writer Dr. Karen Lord is the author of Redemption in Indigo, which won the William L. Crawford Award and the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature, and was nominated for the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel. Her other works include the science fiction novels The Best of All Possible Worlds and The Galaxy Game, and the crime-fantasy novel Unraveling. She edited the anthology New Worlds, Old Ways: Speculative Tales from the Caribbean.

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