Colleen Mondor Reviews The Wonder State by Sara Flannery Murphy
The Wonder State, Sara Flannery Murphy (MCD/Farrar, Straus, Giroux 978-0-374-60177-5, $28.00, hc, 371pp) July 2023.
Arkansas writer Sara Flannery Murphy sets her latest novel, The Wonder State, in familiar territory as she tells the story of five former friends called home in response to foreboding letters each received, declaring ‘‘You promised.’’ Jay, Charlie, Hilma, Matt, and Iggy have found varying degrees of personal and professional success since they left Eternal Springs following high school graduation. But their friend Brandi stayed behind and struggled for years with personal demons that saw her battling addiction and despair. Now she has disappeared, and the others have no choice but to answer her call and return to Eternal Springs. They all made a promise 15 years before, and that promise, sworn in blood, will not let them go. They must find out what happened to Brandi while also trying not to be arrested, or worse, in the process.
The book’s narrative is split between two periods: ‘‘then,’’ which takes place when the group were teenagers, and ‘‘now,’’ when Brandi disappears and the rest return to Eternal Springs to find out what happened. ‘‘Now’’ is more frantic, as concern for Brandi, whose home is splattered with blood, is matched by mistrust between the other five, who question one another’s motives and actions. ‘‘Then’’ is where the supernatural action takes place, and Murphy unfolds her story of a long dead local architect who designed and built magical houses that Hilma cajoles the others into finding. Using the architect’s journal, they locate the Luck House, the Mirror House, the Oath House, the Truth House, etc., all of which promise something different to those who cross their thresholds.
The group’s goal is to find the last house, which promises a portal to another world. Teenage Jay is certain this is the only way to save Brandi from her mother’s abusive boyfriend, who has become her de facto guardian since her mother left. But a sojourn in the Forever House has left Brandi in unexpected trouble that none of her friends are able to handle. When danger shows up, Brandi is compelled to do something dire and blows apart all the grand plans they have for another world. The group splinters, with everyone swearing to keep secrets and leave the houses behind. But the lure of all that magic is too hard to resist, and apparently some have been taking chances to access it as adults, which makes their current situation that must worse. And where is Brandi? What happened to her? And which one of them is lying about what happened then, and trying to run from what is still happening now?
The Wonder State is so much dark, delicious fun! The ‘‘then’’ chapters have a solid teen detective vibe with each character fully formed, although Brandi and her best friend Jay, who serves as the narrator, loom large over the story. Eternal Springs, which manages to be both charming and sinister, is an outstanding setting, and the houses delight and terrify with equal measure. (Along with Quinn Connor’s Cicadas Sing on Summer Graves, I am officially ready for more Arkansas towns in my paranormal reading queue.) While they bring all their grown-up baggage, and angst, back home for the ‘‘now’’ chapters, (where the characters quickly find themselves very much trapped by that long ago promise), it is the teens who set out on the ever-more-serious quest that carries the novel. Young adult readers will find the novel an excellent read, and adults will likely see some of themselves in all that Jay, Charlie, Hilma, Matt, and Iggy left behind, and Brandi must contend with on her own. I can’t recommend The Wonder State enough; it delivered on all its ‘‘gothic supernatural Nancy Drew’’ cover blurb promise, while giving readers so many complex characters (both in people and houses), that it injects new life into the perennially popular teen detective genre.
This review and more like it in the August 2023 issue of Locus.
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