Review: Event Factory

Event Factory by Renee Gladman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

To start off, this is a weird book. Not "weird," not Weird, but weird and different. It's a pseudo-traditional narrative about a woman in a city that is utterly foreign, not only in language and culture but seemingly in all aspects. There is an exodus of sorts happening, but there's really just a lot happening that is strange and weird and unsettling but still compelling throughout, and the experience of the book is the exploration and immersion into this place and society.

A lot of the talk about the architecture and such gives it a bit of Lovecraftian flavor, but the idea behind it, at least on my reading, seems to be more about the experience of being in such an oddly foreign place. There seems to be a lack of fear that comes about (especially in one strange aside of a scene), but also a sense of longing and a sense of attraction to this place that isn't fully explored (but may be in the sequels).

This is a book that's ultimately a hard nut to crack, but I've started to come to expect that from the Dorothy Project books at this point. Still, I bumped the sequels up on my shelf and I'm really looking forward to exploring this setting further.

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