Lilibet Bombshell's Reviews > Here in Avalon

Here in Avalon is a literary fiction novel that exists in a liminal space: it’s a fantasy that’s not quite a fantasy novel, it’s a mystery that’s not quite a mystery novel, it’s a thriller but not quite a thriller novel, and it’s magical but not entirely magical realism. The best way I can describe Here in Avalon is it’s a love letter: to New York, to cults, to sisters, to beauty, and to love itself.

I’ve made it no secret that I adore Tara Isabella Burton. I own both of her other novels and adore them. So maybe I’m coming from a place of bias as I read this book and as I’m writing this review, but reading a Burton book is like sinking into a dreamscape. She simply doesn’t see the world the same as I do. Maybe it’s different for other people, but to me she writes the world like it still has mystery, magic, and enchantment to it. For a very cynical person like me who tends to fear everyone and think catastrophically, books like hers are like fairy tales. Maybe that’s by virtue of her academic background. Maybe that’s just intrinsically who she is at heart. Who knows? All I care about is that she keeps writing utterly beautiful books like these for as long as it makes her happy to do so.

The story of Rose, Cecilia, and The Avalon is compelling from the start, from Rose and Cecilia’s negligent childhood and their insistence that New York City raised them to Cecilia’s adult wanderlust that carries her all over the globe to Rose’s adulty-adultiness to the events that lead Cecilia and then Rose to The Avalon…It’s what happens once they get there that starts to whip your heart into a frenzy and turn page over page. The days bleed into nights into weeks into months. It’s so beautiful and sad and lovely.

When I came to the end I was both sad and satisfied. Sad because I had finished yet another Tara Isabella Burton novel and would have to wait for the next. Satisfied because it was perfect.

I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.

File Under: 5 Star Review/Cult Fiction/Literary Fiction