Sorrowland

A TIME 100 Must-Read Book of 2021

A New York Times Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Book of 2021

The Stonewall Book Award winner of 2022

Named a Best Book of 2021 by NPR, The New York Public Library, Publishers Weekly and more!

A triumphant, genre-bending breakout novel from one of the boldest new voices in contemporary fiction.

Vern—seven months pregnant and desperate to escape the strict religious compound where she was raised—flees for the shelter of the woods. There, she gives birth to twins and plans to raise them far from the influence of the outside world.

But even in the forest, Vern is a hunted woman. Forced to fight back against the community that refuses to let her go, she unleashes incredible brutality far beyond what a person should be capable of, her body wracked by inexplicable and uncanny changes.

To understand her metamorphosis and to protect her small family, Vern has to face the past and, more troublingly, the future—outside the woods. Finding the truth will mean uncovering not only the secrets of the compound she fled but also the violent history of America that produced it.

Rivers Solomon’s Sorrowland is a genre-bending work of gothic fiction. Here, monsters aren’t just individuals but entire nations. This is a searing, seminal book that marks the arrival of a bold, unignorable voice in American fiction.

These book club discussion questions were provided by Macmillan Publishers.

Book club questions for Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon

Use these discussion questions to guide your next book club meeting.

When we first encounter Vern, she’s alone in the woods and giving birth to Howling and Feral. The wilderness that surrounds her is a perilous place, yet Vern prefers such overt dangers to Cainland and “the covert violence of life beyond the trees” (page 4). Discuss how this passage sets the stage for Sorrowland. What does it tell you about the Blessed Acres of Cain, about Vern, and about the world in which she and her children live?

Vern proudly defies convention and superficial constructs. She’s “wild through and through” (page 9) and believes it “better not to belong at all than belong in a cage” (page 8). Consider the many factors that make Vern the unique person she is. When does she draw strength from her singular characteristics? When is she made vulnerable by them?

The Blessed Acres of Cain began as a Black nationalist group focused on survivalism, selfreliance, and “education as a tool of liberation” (page 10). Discuss the origins of the Cainland community. What prompted its founding? What did it aspire to be? What did it end up becoming under the control of Eamon Fields and Sherman?

In a heated phone call with her mother, Vern makes it clear that she won’t be returning to Cainland and letting her children “anywhere near the likes of Sherman” (page 56). Ruthanne’s position, meanwhile, is far less straightforward: “I can’t click my heels together and be somewhere else,” she says, “because there is nowhere else . . . I can’t just leave” (page 55). Discuss Vern’s motivations for breaking free from the Blessed Acres. Contrast this with Ruthanne’s reasons for staying. Where do your sympathies lie?

On page 93, Vern tells a haunting tale to Howling and Feral: the fable of Brother Jon. Discuss this story within a story. How does it amplify Sorrowland’s key themes of race, identity, subjugation, and transformation? In what ways does it speak to real-life legacies of colonialism, displacement, and state-sanctioned brutality against Black communities?

As Vern prepares to leave the woods and guide her children into the outside world, she tells Feral that together they’re like the triple-star system Polaris: “Three stars in orbit with each other . . . All joined up. Like you, me, and Howling. Bound” (page 118). Discuss the remarkable bond shared by Vern, Howling, and Feral. In what ways do Howling and Feral take after Vern? In what ways do they resemble Sherman? In what ways are Howling and Feral their own extraordinary beings?

When Vern and her children finally emerge from the forest, they encounter an electric world of bright lights, fast cars, and fried foods. Reflect on what they see and whom they meet. In what ways do their experiences confirm Sherman’s warnings about the outside world as a place “of filth and contradiction, poison and lies” (page 5)? In what ways do their experiences contradict Sherman’s dire depiction?

Vern undergoes an extraordinary transformation over the course of Sorrowland, one that’s both frightening and empowering. At certain points, Vern’s passenger is invasive, like a “creature inside her, lurking, trying to bust through her bones” (page 138); at other points, it’s a source of strength and endurance that brings her “as close to invincible as a living being [can get]” (page 210). Discuss Vern’s metamorphosis, her supernatural gifts, and the intense hauntings she experiences. When do her powers help her? When do they threaten to overwhelm her?

Gogo believes that “what people need to live is other people” (page 255). Vern, meanwhile, is wary of a world that includes folks like Ollie, Sherman, and Eamon Fields. Discuss the deepening relationship that Vern and Gogo share. Where do their hearts meet? Where do they diverge?

As Vern and Gogo race back to Cainland to rescue the Cainites, Vern expects “fear to set in, but [feels] only anticipation” (page 331). Then the poetry of Langston Hughes echoes through her mind, and she knows she’s “not alone.” Who do you think is with Vern at this critical moment?

Reflect on Vern’s identity as a mother to Howling and Feral. In what ways does it change over the course of the novel? What other forms of motherhood—both conventional and radical, destructive and protective—do you see in Sorrowland?

Discuss the power dynamic between Ollie and Queen and the circumstances that led to Barbara James’s transformation into an otherworldly being “tethered to a leash made of trauma and pain” (page 335). In what ways does Ollie control Queen? When is Queen in control? What does Vern see when she looks upon Queen?

Discuss your reaction to Ollie’s disclosure that she was an “essential asset” (page 316) in the human experimentations at Cainland. How do her actions mirror historical atrocities like the Tuskegee studies and the experiments of James Marion Sims?

Chapter 26 offers a sweeping look at the life of Ruthanne Josephine Nicolette Riley, from her bohemian youth and relationship with Andre Wilder to the birth of Vern and their fateful relocation to the Blessed Acres. Does witnessing Ruthanne’s life story change your understanding of her character? Do you think it changes Vern’s?

Discuss Sorrowland’s climactic final scenes. What motivates Vern to save the community and people she once rejected? What do you make of the fact that it takes Vern’s supernatural gifts and Gogo’s medical expertise to bring the Cainites back to life?

Sorrowland Book Club Questions PDF

Click here for a printable PDF of the Sorrowland discussion questions

“Sorrowland is a tremendous, riveting work, sinking long, deep roots into the nightmare soil of American history in order to grow and feed something new.” —Amal El-Mohtar, The New York Times Book Review

"Sorrowland [is] a gothic techno-thriller in which the trauma of the past is parried with defiance and a thirst for understanding, as embodied by an electrifying young hero." —Hephzibah Anderson, The Guardian

“Sorrowland is a fully engrossing story that fully embraces its characters and beautifully engages with their lived experiences of gender, queerness, disability, racialization, power and corruption, and relationship with the land.” —Sarah Neilson, Shondaland

“If you’ve read Rivers Solomon’s previous work, you’ll be familiar with their fearless explorations of transformation, identity, oppression and power, and Sorrowland continues this investigation with fantastic, terrifying sci-fi brilliance.” —Karla Strand, Ms.

“Sorrowland is a powerful story about motherhood, survival, and the cruel treatment of Black bodies.” —Taiwo Balogun, Marie Claire

“Riveting and harrowing . . . This novel vividly portrays how Black bodies have been used for unethical experiments while it also celebrates queer love, motherhood, and vengeance. It’s gorgeously written and sure to be one of my favorite books of the year.” —Margaret Kingsbury, Buzzfeed

“A story you simply won’t see coming. You might think you’ve figured out the pillars of its structure after a few chapters, or come to truly understand its protagonist after walking a few dozen pages with her, but to read this powerful, moving and terrifying novel is to enter into a constant state of change. The story envelops you slowly, like a cocoon, wrapping you in its ever-increasing depth and heart until you emerge, at the end, transformed.” —Matthew Jackson, BookPage

“Science fiction and Gothic horror collide in Solomon’s ambitious third book... Haunting and hopeful, Sorrowland makes expert use of the fantastical to hold a righteous mirror to the very real traumas visited on Black bodies.” —Adrienne Westenfeld, Esquire

“Solomon once again stretches the boundaries of speculative fiction in this distinct and visceral exploration of the trauma of Black and queer bodies in an all-too believable near future.” —Anna Mickelsen, Booklist

“Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon contains so much wisdom and insight, wrapped in an abundance of passion and fury and tenderness. This is the first book I've read in ages that I'm certain I will come back to again and again, because there are rich gorgeous passages that I already know will mean more to me on subsequent readings. There is so much going on in this book, too: the spectre of what happens when rebellion is co-opted, our longstanding practice of using Black bodies for cruel and unethical experiments, the audacity of queer love. The arc of this book takes Vern and her babies away from civilization and then back to it — but they return changed, and they change everyone else, and this book restored my faith in our potential to transform just when I needed it most.”—Charlie Jane Anders

"Sorrowland, from Rivers Solomon, is a fantastical, fierce reckoning. It is the story of Vern, a young girl fleeing the only life she has ever known, her abusive husband, the cult he leads, to create a life for herself and her babies. But the tentacles of Cainland, the home she left, are always following her as she grows into a young woman and something more, something terrifying and powerful that just might allow her to break free from all that haunts her. Sorrowland is gorgeous and the writing, the storytelling, they are magnificent. This country has a dark history of what it’s willing to do to black bodies and Rivers Solomon lays that truth bare in a most unexpected, absolutely brilliant way." —Roxane Gay

“Sorrowland delivers! Black Power cults. Government conspiracies. Post-Human transformations. A mother willing to defy everything and everyone—even nature itself—to protect her family. Rivers Solomon has once again created an engrossing, emotional, and original read with pages that demand to be turned. The writing is visceral and soul-clenching. The characters--bold, creative, and memorable. The action, heart-stopping. This is imaginative storytelling at its finest. Once I started, I could not put down Sorrowland until I reached the end. And then I wanted more!” —P. Djèlí Clark, author of Ring Shout

"A furious utopia. Utterly compelling, brilliant and terrifying. Sorrowland seizes the history of white supremacy, racist medical experimentation, and the dream––and danger––of the commune, and gnashes it into something magnificent and truly reparative. An epic fantasy that interweaves righteous, large-scale confrontations with power, extremely sexy and moving erotic gothic horror, and exquisite, meticulous renderings of the daily life of parenting. This is a fairy tale for adults, spangled in the wreckage of the world. A gorgeous, singular, and profound work." –Jordy Rosenberg, author of Confessions of the Fox

“Sorrowland is a wonderland of fantastical and frightening, magical and real, in a world refreshingly unlike ours, yet scarily the same. At the center of this world and leaping off the page is Vern: unstoppable, unforgettable, and unlike anyone you have ever seen before.”—Marlon James, author of Black Leopard, Red Wolf

“Sorrowland is a raw, powerful, and visceral read. With Vern, Rivers Solomon has created a woman who simply side-steps her damage, and level after level of difficulty—young, Black, queer, blind, alone in the woods with two newborns and pursued by monstrous government agents—to assume her own power. Nature, joy, science, belonging, human metamorphosis, generational oppression, strength, and sheer lust for life: if Toni Morrison, M. Night Shyamalan, and Marge Piercy got together they might, if they were lucky, produce something with the unstoppable exhilaration of this novel. Sorrowland is sui generis.” —Nicola Griffith

“Sorrowland is intense and raw. But in the end it was beautiful in a bittersweet way . . . This book should be read. It was truly spectacular.” —The Fantasy Inn