An Untamed State (original 2014; edição 2015)

Amazing. Helps to answer what can we do to build trust with those we have hurt. ...with those we have allowed to be hurt while we stood idly by. ( )

Roxane Gay thanked Channing Tatum for his neck, in the acknowledgments for this novel. I thank him too, but also Gay, for this gorgeous, devastating book about the atrocities of man, and how sometimes, maybe, women survive them. ( )

Wow. An Untamed State is the tale of an American woman of Haitian descent who is kidnapped while visiting her parents in Haiti. Mireille and her husband, Michael, along with their son, Christophe, are headed to the beach when they are surrounded by SUVs. The men in the SUVs jump out and pull Miri away and keep her captive for 13 days while demanding a ransom from her father, a successful businessman.
The story tells of Miri and Michael’s idyllic life before the kidnapping and their struggle to find their way back to some kind of normalcy after the kidnapping.
The horror Miri experiences is detailed and truly terrible. Her PTSD after the kidnapping seems very real and is so heartbreaking. Michael’s struggle to grow up and accept his wife and her trauma was interesting to read. I enjoyed reading the perspective of Michael’s parents and Miri’s sister, and how they helped Miri and Michael.
I read this book almost without stopping, it held my attention so completely.
#AnUntamedState #RoxaneGay ( )

Until that moment, Michael had not understood the vastness of the world and how small a place he held in it...

Fuck, just... fuck. I knew just a few pages in that this would confirm Roxane Gay's presence on my list of favourite authors but I didn't know it confirm it this much. Like, I still have no words a week later, just... wow. It's haunting, it's raw, it's powerful and it's beautiful. And it's so fucking good. ( )

Title Says It All

I have no words to describe this book other than it was an excellent read. Never know what you would do in order to survive until you're backed against a wall. ( )