State of Paradise

by Laura van den Berg
State of Paradise cover
Good Books rating 4.12
Literary Fiction
Technical:
  • ID: 475
  • Added: 2025-09-12
  • Updated: 2025-09-12
  • ISBN: 9780374612214
  • Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
  • Published: 2024-07-09
  • Reviews: 3

In Laura van den Berg’s State of Paradise, a ghostwriter returns to her mother’s home in a small Florida town amid soul-crushing heat, torrential rains, and unsettling changes. As missing persons posters multiply and a virtual reality device called Mind’s Eye spreads through the community, the narrator grapples with family secrets, her own troubled past, and mysterious physical transformations. When her sister disappears during a violent storm and returns speaking of another dimension, the boundaries between reality and the uncanny begin to unravel. The novel is a richly atmospheric exploration of Florida’s psychogeography, blending elements of ghost story, speculative fiction, and psychological thriller. It probes themes of selfhood, storytelling, and the elusive nature of reality itself, all set against a backdrop of pandemic-era isolation, cult dynamics, and the uncanny disruptions of technology. Van den Berg’s intricate narrative weaves together memory, loss, and the strange undercurrents of a place where nothing is quite as it seems.

Reviews
chireviewofbooks.com · 2024-07-31
haunting 4.00

The novel is a richly detailed, fractally complex exploration of personal and environmental apocalypse, blending uncanny natural disasters with deep internal reflection. It balances dark themes of family secrets and mental health with vivid depictions of Florida’s unique landscape and unsettling phenomena.

This review praises the novel’s ability to intertwine external calamities like sinkholes and floods with the narrator’s introspective journey through grief, mental illness, and family revelations. The anonymity of characters adds a layer of universality and metafiction, making the story feel both personal and enigmatic. The reviewer notes the author’s careful, dispassionate handling of intense subjects such as suicide attempts and betrayal, which contrasts with the wild, unpredictable Florida environment. The novel’s pacing and detail create a compelling atmosphere of constant unease and reflection, making it a compelling read despite its elliptical narrative style.

Quick quotes

    Each chapter, each sentence is no less fascinating and bewildering than the whole.

    There’s a lot that’s pretty dark here... her reflections on her past suicidal ideation and institutionalization are both intense and elliptical.

    One of the many uncanny-but-normal threats in the novel is sinkholes: the fear that our house, our little world, might be swallowed up unexpectedly.

southernreviewofbooks.com · 2024-07-12
intriguing 4.25

The novel explores the shifting reality of mental illness intertwined with pandemic surrealism, blending speculative elements and personal trauma without judgment. It offers a layered narrative about memory, loss, and uncanny transformations during a pandemic summer.

The reviewer highlights how the novel intricately weaves the narrator’s mental illness and institutional past with the disorienting effects of the pandemic, creating a reality where nothing is quite as it seems. The story's speculative aspects—such as physical changes and disappearances—serve to deepen the sense of unease and mystery, reflecting the narrator’s internal wilderness and the external chaos around her. They appreciate the lack of moralizing tone, focusing instead on the raw, fragmented experience of the narrator as she navigates family dynamics, memories, and the eerie changes in her town. The novel’s blend of mental health struggles with pandemic-era speculative fiction offers a profound meditation on transformation and uncertainty.

Quick quotes

    I thought that I was pretty well acquainted with the world I lived in, but then the pandemic happened and that world transformed into something else.

    The break between the narrator’s wilderness and the outside world’s reality is complete and frightening.

    During lockdown, MIND’S EYE headsets were delivered door to door. They help people cope with the isolation by allowing them to slide down into other worlds.

goodreads.com · 2024-07-09
captivating 4.10

The novel is praised for its vivid portrayal of Florida’s strangeness and its uncanny, reality-warping storytelling. The reviewer found the book insightful with many memorable quotes, capturing the chaotic blend of pandemic, politics, and personal memory.

The reviewer, a longtime Floridian, resonates strongly with the novel’s depiction of Florida's eccentricities and weirdness, from extreme weather to supernatural elements. They appreciate how the narrative punctuates each paragraph with sharp insights about life, technology, and the pandemic’s aftermath, which are thought-provoking even when challenging to digest. They also highlight the protagonist’s complex emotional journey, including memories of mental health struggles and family dynamics, which are woven seamlessly into the larger story of a state and society in flux. The book’s blend of dark humor, mystery, and vivid atmosphere left a strong impression, prompting the reviewer to seek out more works by the author.

Quick quotes

    Van Den Berg punctures each paragraph with insights that are hard to argue yet sometimes also hard to swallow.

    So many great quotes.

    As a Floridian for over 20 years—we all know how weird and crazy this state is.

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