jethrien

Title: Mechanique
Author: Genevieve Valentine
Genre: Steampunk
Thingummies: 4.5

Synopsis: In a post-apocalyptic world, a circus of steampunk cyborgs try to escape from a sinister government agent while squabbling over their own greatest treasure.

Thoughts: This is written like my dreams.

I honestly cannot say whether this novel will resonate for others the way it did for me. The story is exceedingly nonlinear, the narration bounces from first person to second to third close to third omniscent between chapters. There are parts that do not quite make sense on a logical plane when examined closely, mysteries that are never explained or even justified. Many of the characters are not particularly likeable people.

But the writing aches.

I dream in deeply vivid imagery, often with a overwhelming narrative that has a strong internal logic that does not quite work upon waking. The worlds are mysterious and deeply strange, often a little disturbing, but so heartbreakingly beautiful that I cannot quite find the words to convey them when I wake.

Valentine did.

What doesn't connect in regular logic works on a dream logic level. And while not everything makes sense on a logistical sense (it's not supposed to), it does make sense emotionally. And the images--of tortured Alec with his singing wings, of Panadrome the human pipe organ, of broken Bird, and haunted Stenos, and the mercenary tumblers and the Boss who holds them all together, body and soul--I think they will haunt my dreams for some time to come.

Oddly enough, the work I think this reminds me most is Sleep No More. Not nearly that level of innovation, but that same hypnotic compulsion to abandon regular thought and revel in the surreal. It's lovely.