The Girl in the Road

by Monica Byrne

A young woman called Meena wakes up one morning covered in blood. There are mysterious snakebites across her chest. She knows she's in danger but something has happened to her memory. All she can do is run - but why? And from whom?

As Meena plots her escape she hears of the Trail - an extraordinary, forbidden bridge that spans the Arabian sea, connecting India to Africa like a silver ribbon. Its purpose is to harness the power of the ocean - Blue Energy - but it also offers a subculture of travellers a chance for sanctuary and adventure.

Convinced the Trail is her salvation, Meena gathers supplies - GPS, a scroll reader, a sealable waterproof pod. And so begins her extraordinary journey - both physical and spiritual - from India to Ethiopia, the home of her birth. But as she runs away from the threat of violence she is also running towards a shocking revelation about her past and her family.

'It's transfixing to watch Monica Byrne become a major player in science fiction with her debut novel . . . Beautifully drawn people in a future that feels so close you can touch it, blended with lush language and concerns of myth. It builds a bridge from past to future, from East to West. Glorious stuff' - Neil Gaiman

• ISBN10: 0349004374
• ISBN13: 9780349004372
• Publish Date: 3 September 2015 (first published 1 January 2014)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
• Imprint: Blackfriars
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 336
• Language: English

Reviews

[empressbrooke]

I received a copy of this book from LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program. Unfortunately, I'm totally at a loss to come up with anything intelligent to say about it. It's complex and layered and I'm not even sure which genre it falls under - sci-fi for sure, with some magical realism thrown into this futuristic world?

It reminds me of [b:The Drowning Girl|11515328|The Drowning Girl|Caitlín R. Kiernan|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1404243835s/11515328.jpg|16451704] in some ways with its narrators whose mental illness make them unreliable storytellers, compelling, and ultimately tragic (it's never stated outright, but both women in this book appear to be experiencing bipolar disorder).

I think this book is going to blow up next awards season and become the next [b:Ancillary Justice|17333324|Ancillary Justice (Imperial Radch, #1)|Ann Leckie|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1397215917s/17333324.jpg|24064628] or aforementioned Drowning Girl. I was totally enthralled with the journeys both of the main characters went on, and every time I thought I'd predicted what was coming, the author threw another curve-ball.

[SilverThistle]

I was offered this one by the publicist and very nearly turned it down because I'm shallow and I judge books by covers.

But then I read the blurb and that pulled me back in.

"In a world where global power has shifted East and revolution is brewing, a young woman sets out from her home in India on a desperate, profound journey of escape and discovery."

Sounds a bit dystopian, no? Ok, I'm in.

And now I'm sitting here staring at the screen because I have absolutely no idea how to describe what I just read. Did I like it? Umm, kinda. Did I understand it? Nope.

I think I'm punching above my weight with this one, to be honest. I just don't know what to make of it..

I'm disappointed and a little beyond frustrated because in theory this should have been right up my alley. Futuristic/Dystopian with an unusual and interesting setting. But I just don't get it. It seemed too much like hard work.

The world building is very well done and I really felt like I was on 'The Trail' with Meena and Mariama (although I still can't work out why anyone would want to make that journey) . Sometimes it was a little hard to work out which of the two I was with but by that point I was just trotting alongside, trying to keep up and going with the flow. I usually like a dual timeline/POV story but there's a LOT of jumping around going on and that makes it a bit hard to follow at times. Maybe that's the point...they're very similar?

The language was sometimes a bit hard to warm to as a lot of it was unfamiliar to me and more than once I had to stop and roll the new words around for a bit to get a feel for them. (I think that's why I also don't read a lot of High Fantasy. I just can't get used to all the new names and language. But I digress...)

The futuristic technology was very well done. It felt like the gizmo's and gadgets were things that we probably have the technology for today, it's just that nobody has the expertise to make them yet. Most of it is familiar whilst being unfamiliar at the same time. It's like telling someone in 1990 what an mp3 player with 32GB of memory is about. They know what a computer is but even the fast one's have like 256MB of memory so a little thing the size of your palm with soo much memory is just too much for them to take in. They're there...but not quite there.

All in all I think my lukewarm reaction to this has more to do with me than with the book. The author is like a modern Margaret Attwood (if Margaret was edgier and gorier) and I think that maybe this will appeal to fans of The Handmaid's Tale, and similar stories. Personally I was never one of Margaret's fans :/

It's a tough one. It's a good story and there's no doubt the author has a way with words but it just lost me early on and I never really managed to get back on board.

If you're interested in this one then I'd definitely say to go for it. It's very different to a lot of what's out there already but I think it's possibly a marmite read so it's 50/50 on whether you get lucky. ( I'm on Team 'I Don't Like Marmite' :P )

*Note - I was sent a complimentary copy of this title by the publisher*