Lark Ascending

Lark Ascending opens with our protagonist's harrowing journey across the Atlantic Ocean as he flees fire-ravaged America. It's a brutal voyage, rendered with mesmerizing imagery and soaked with angst. 

This is post-apocalyptic fiction, but House's no-frills, plainly-told story is a refreshing change of pace from similar novels that might get bogged down with worldbuilding about the fall of our civilization. It's visceral, heart-rending, but filled with hope and promise about the resiliency of a boy growing up under unspeakable conditions. 

I'd open my eyes and look out at the aching blue of the ocean–a color I had never seen in nature and that most likely only exists in the middle of the Atlantic, a gray blue like a storm cloud full of unspent lightning and unfallen rain.

I wasn't just seasick; I was undone in sorrow.

I waited for hours, until the day bloomed and eased itself over the sea.

Lark Ascending was the September pick for my book club. It's not necessarily a book I would select on my own, but I'm so glad I gave it a chance. I loved it! And that's why book clubs are awesome! (I just joined one after years of thinking about it and then letting my social anxiety get the best of me.. 10/10 recommend... the book club, not the social anxiety).

The story has the same general mood as Station Eleven (which I loved). For such a short book, there is intense emotional depth. Short scenes make it bearable though, which I found masterful from a writing perspective. I blazed through and cried and smiled and reflected and worried and sighed with relief. So heartwrenching at times, but so good.

I will definitely read more Silas House.