A Book Review: Follow me to Ground
Title of the book: Follow Me to Ground
Author: Sue Rainsford
Publisher: Black Swan
Publication Date: 5th of March 2020
Genre: Speculative Fiction & Fantasy
Why I picked up this book:
Follow me to ground is another gem that came to me as part of the Chocolate and Book subscription. Admittedly, I am not always one for the darker fairy-tale. I may or may not own a copy of the original Grimm fairy-tales that I have yet to read. I appreciate this may come as a shock, seeing as I am a true-crime junky. I just prefer my fantasy, my fictional worlds to be adventure-filled, with magic and mystery, not necessarily needing a happy-ending but not one cloaked in darkness either.
Yet, I kept being drawn back to Follow me to Ground. It may have been the fact that it is a relatively short book. It may have been a case that the, admittedly immense, wall of praise erected for this book piqued my curiosity. Whatever the case may be, I dove in, and I am all the more glad for it.
About the author:
Picture by Ali Rainsford
Sue Rainsford is a fiction and arts writer based in Dublin. A graduate of Trinity College, she completed her MFA in writing and literature at Bennington College, Vermont. She is a recipient of the VAI/DCC Critical Writing Award, the Arts Council Literature Bursary Award, and a MacDowell Colony Fellowship. When it was first published, Follow Me to Ground won the Kate O’Brien Award and was longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Award and the Republic of Consciousness Award.
Synopsis:
In a house in a wood, Ada and her father live peacefully, tending to their garden and the wildlife in it. They are not human though. Ada was made by her father from the Ground, a unique patch of earth with birthing and healing properties. Though perhaps he didn’t get her quite right. They spend their days healing the local human folk – named Cures - who visit them, suspiciously, with their ailments.
When Ada embarks on a relationship with a local Cure named Samson and is forced to choose between her old life with her father and a new one with her human lover. Her decision will uproot the town – and the Ground itself – forever.
Review of the book:
Full disclosure, for the first 30 odd pages of this book I was utterly lost. It was hard to follow Ada’s thoughts, figure out her inner workings and perhaps that is the point. We Cures are not like Ada and her father, we cannot begin to comprehend their biology let alone their phycological world. Which is why this is such a good book.
It lays out its themes and its musings right in front of you, without once spelling it out. Leaving just enough up to the imagination. Always leaving you wondering what exactly is going on, have you understood that correctly? It leaves you hanging on to every morsel of information, praying that will be the missing puzzle piece. Yet it never is, not 100% at least. As the reader you are left to fill in the gaps, creating a different experience for each and every one of us. Truly magical.
Rainford is also exceptionally talented at painting her scenes. At times you can all but smell the blueberry scent. Feel the saturated grass squelch between your toes as Ada steps outside after a particularly intense storm. Taste the metallic tang of blood on your tongue during one of the many medical procedures or ‘healings’, Ada and her father perform.
The sexual themes – the implications of something human bonded with something else, something different. It added to the disturbing sensations the novel manages to conjure. The slight prickling at the back of your neck. The unshakeable feeling you are reading something hidden and forbidden. Something utterly intimate. Whether it be descriptions of Ada and Solomon or the matter-of-fact summations of medical procedures, viscera and clotting, it feels wrong.
Overall this is a stunning novel steeped in folklore and legend. Drawing on the mistrust of powerful female figures, painting them as witches and pariahs. It draws you in from the first page, never to let go again. Unsettling, unapologetic and unconventional. It well deserves to be read.
What are your thoughts? Do you agree or was it too unsettling for you? Where the blunt descriptions of open body cavities enough for you to put the book down, never to be picked up again. Let me know in the comment section below and until then – Just one more page!