After Me Comes the Flood // Review

If you saw my to-read list post, you might know I'm reading more - which is nothing but a good thing, if you ask me. I'm reading different authors, different genres, different styles, and my latest read has been After Me Comes The Flood by Sarah Perry, who I have followed on Twitter for ages.

I loved this book from start to finish, in the way that you might love a small child: I felt the urge to have it as close to me as possible, to spend as much time with it as I could. I thought about it a lot when I wasn't actively reading it, and I think that's the sign of a good book. It makes so much sense yet it makes so little sense - it's calm yet it's wild, it's happy yet it's so achingly sad.

The book is about John, who packs up one day to go and stay with his brother. Only, he never gets there and ends up at a large ornate house with people who seem to know him, who seem to be waiting on his arrival. His confusion at this, like all of his varying feelings throughout the book, is displayed so perfectly that I could feel it deep in my own heart.

Each character, each life story that comes alongside them, is weaved so intricately into the pages of the book that I truly felt as though I was in that house with them. Every person is so thoughtfully put together, and their surroundings equally so, and the lives they have led up until the moment we're let into their world make perfect sense.

After Me Comes the Flood is, ultimately, a book about madness - but I didn't realise that until halfway through, so wrapped up in the here and now and the beauty of the story. It is a portrayal so calm that the entire thing is almost a whisper in your ear; I found the plot confusing, but it's so delicately and impeccably written that it almost didn't matter. And madness and mental health is confusing, and so is everything that comes alongside it, and so are people and so is life and so is love - so it made sense that the story was confusing, really.

I'd definitely say give this a read, if you can, and I'm now dying to read Sarah's other book, The Essex Serpent, which has won a ton of awards and is generally raved about.