I received an Advance Reader Copy of this book thanks to NetGalley and the publisher. All opinions are my own. Pub Date: August 15
Five Poems Lake is remote town deep in an almost impenetrable desert and the sun is disappearing overhead. Piece by piece, at an unsteady rate, chunks of the sun are vanishing. As Five Poems Lake gets colder and colder, its people are moving further into despair.
Our narrator is a young woman who works at the family pharmacy. Her sister, Dong Ji, works at a wellness parlour across town and dreams of leaving Five Poems Lake but has never actually attempted. Their father and their grandfather died several years ago. When night, after a bizarre and alarming attack, a man’s head turns into a bright and burning orb, a sort of mini sun. Soon after, more of these Beacons begin to appear. People whose heads have been replaced with their own personal suns. The temperature in Five Poems Lake begins to rise again but what do these Beacons want? Why is this happening? When the narrator and her sister find an old photograph that their father hid before he died, they realize that they may be more connected to the Beacons than they thought.
Obviously, this is a bizarre story. It’s not a book you pick up unless you’re intrigued by this premise. It might sound a little like a mystery but it’s not the type of story that you should expect a satisfying ending from. Overall, it has more of a metaphorical feeling. What drives people? What makes them stay in a place? How well do we know the ones we love?
The setting here is both a strength and a frustration. There’s a very Chinese feeling to the whole thing, which I liked and added to a strong sense of place. Yu grew up in China but writes in English. No country is ever mentioned and it works but it also left me with a lot of questions. Where exactly is Five Poems Lake? Can people leave? We’re told that some do but it’s not clear what exactly is beyond the desert? Do those who leave simply die in the desert? And (my biggest question) what’s going on with the rest of the world? Obviously in our world, if the sun started to disappear, that would have global consequences. But here there’s a sense that this is something only happening in Five Poems Lake. Is there anything else out there? Is this place the whole world?
Maybe, after all, that’s the question we all ask about the places we come from.
Karissa Reads Books 
A few years ago I read Yu’s first novel to be translated into English, Braised Pork, and it was juuuuust about on the right side of the surrealist line for me, but it sounds like she’s headed at full speed into that territory, which is definitely not for me!
I had Braised Pork on my TBR but actually took it off after reading this!
It’s always somehow just a little pleasing when that happens. So many books/authors, it can be nice to know that there’s one you can stop paying attention to.
There really is a sense of relief to it!
Normally this would be way too far into fantasy for me, but I loved Braised Pork, despite the fact that it shouldn’t have been my kind of thing either. Thanks for highlighting this one – I hadn’t spotted that she has a new one out, and have now added it to my wishlist. I promise I won’t blame you if it all goes horribly wrong… 😉
That surprises me! I had Braised Pork on my list but took it off after not really loving this one. I’ll be curious to hear what you think of this.
My initial response: “Uhhhh, what?” 😅
Totally fair! That was my response to a lot of the book. It’s one where you have to be willing to suspend a lot of disbelief and not think too hard about the logistics of it all.
Ohhhh, so like an M. Night Shyamalan movie.
Hahaha, kind of!