Genre : Speculative Fiction
Date Published : October 1st, 2018
Publisher : Dorothy
The Taiga Syndrome follows a detective/murder mystery novelist on her journey into the taiga, where she has been sent to find her client’s estranged wife and the wife’s new lover. The taiga is a place of wilderness, magic, and uncertainty, and as the longer the detective remains in the taiga, the more we begin to doubt her sanity. Many strange and inexplicable things happen on our detective’s journey into the wild northern forests – the more truth she uncovers, the weirder things get, and by the end there are more questions than answers. When the book finally came to a close, I was left feeling like I had just read a particularly chilling Grimm’s fairytale.
The overall vibe of this book is very folkloric in nature – it’s very lyrical and poetic, strange and unsettling, and a very quick read (it took me about 2 hours to finish). But Rivera Garza not only captures the feeling of fairytales – she also includes mentions of them throughout the story. The detective ruminates frequently on Little Red Riding Hood and Hansel & Gretel, tying her experiences with the taiga back to the foreboding forests of these stories. A prominent and recurring image is that of a wolf – this wolf, real or imagined, follows our detective both into and out of the forest, and left me with chills when I finally put the book down!
Overall, The Taiga Syndrome was such an odd and unsettling reading experience (in the best way possible). I was left with SO MANY QUESTIONS and am happy to say that none of them were answered during our book club discussion – in fact, I left our monthly meeting with even MORE QUESTIONS! (The big one being – WHAT THE HECK were those tiny elf creatures?! And were they real?!?). It’s been a while since I’ve felt so challenged and invigorated by a book, and I’m so grateful that Feminist Sci-Fi Book Club is constantly bringing new and strange speculative works like The Taiga Syndrome to my attention.
[Review originally published on Sistershelf.com]
Emory Noakes 