Juliana Hyrri

(Full disclosure: I received a free e-ARC for review through Edelweiss. Trigger warning for animal abuse, child abuse, sexual assault, and the accidental death of a child.)

THE NIGHTINGALE THAT NEVER SANG is a series of six interconnected stories, scenes from a young girl's life (the author's, presumably?). Each vignette begins innocently enough: a class trip to a water park. Buying a new doll to play house with your friend Jenny. Burying a clam box in the darkness of the woods. Yet they all go sideways seemingly in a heartbeat, and in the most sinister, terrible ways possible: the accidental drowning death of a young boy. Play-acting sexual assault and unplanned pregnancies. Recounting your father's emotional abuse.

THE NIGHTINGALE is a difficult book to review: it's certainly well done, in that it deftly portrays the many cruelties, casual and calculated, that both adults and children can devolve into. The artwork, while not really my style, underscores the young age of the narrator - and makes her sometimes adult observations that much more shocking. Yet it's not a book I enjoyed reading, even in the slightest: it's uncomfortable at best, distressing at worst (and possibly triggering to some, for multiple reasons).

I found the two stories centered around animal abuse especially troubling: in addition to the titular nightingale who the narrator and her friend "rescue" from the comfort of his mother's nest - only to dispose of him in the river the following morning - there's a scene in which mom drowns their cat's newly born kittens in a bucket of water. This after kiddo recounts, during "nightingale," how her mom used to lure stray cats home with hot dogs when she was a kid, presumably as though she was doing them a kindness ("with friends like these...").

Or perhaps the point is that humans graduate from accidental to intentional harm as they transition into adulthood?

Either way, I wish I'd read CHEER UP this afternoon instead. (Happy Pride!)… (altro)