At the edge of the world, biologist Laurel Salter is hiding from everything she’s ever known. For ten hours a day, six days per week, she works as a dishwasher at McMurdo Station, an isolated research base in Antarctica. She tells no one that before she arrived, she was a renowned young scientist with a promising career and a family.
But even in this remote outpost, Laurel can’t escape her past. When a strange light appears across the ice—and draws a group of physicists to McMurdo—her former husband, Eli, won't be far behind. Laurel is captivated by the Arc: its surreal glow; the way it seems almost alive. And though Eli is reluctant to test her wildest theory, Laurel is convinced that the Arc leads down a rabbit hole and into a world they can barely imagine. Can she persuade him to risk everything to fix the burden that hangs between them—to turn back the clock and live their story a second time?
A breathless page-turner and a love letter to our planet, Under Story grapples with the great questions of our time: human hubris, the precarity of the natural world, and the mysterious webs of consciousness that bind us. A modern epic of science and soul, of bravery and redemption, it offers a vision of the future that demands we reckon with what we owe to one another, and to the earth itself. (Synopsis courtesy of Amazon.)
I am honestly all over the place with what I want to say in this review. I went into this one largely blind and while I am happy that I did, some may not be, and will want to know what they are getting into.
This story is just shy of five-hundred pages and it is a commitment. I found that it was almost like two different books in one. The first half was very different from the second half in my opinion. This isn’t a light read. It’s very dense in scientific information, some of which went completely over my head, but also is very character driven. I think if you are a fan of Wild Dark Shore and the movie The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, you’re going to enjoy this one.
I did an immersive read of this one. I was thrilled that the narrator was Maggie-Meg Reed, the same narrator as the main character Sybil in The Correspondent. She really, really knows how to bring a story to life and when some of the science stuff was getting a little daunting, her narration kept me on track.
I loved meeting Laurel and Eli and a good part of the story's setting is in Antarctica, which I also really enjoyed. There are so many themes explored that really, really make you think and I know that while this was a read that took me out of my comfort zone, it’s one I will really think about for some time. Let’s just say I held my family a little tighter after reading this one.
Thanks to Putnam for the book in exchange for an honest review. Purchase Under Story here.
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