"Nothing is original"Still Life with Tornado is a thought-provoking novel written by an award winning and bestselling American author A.S King.The story features Sarah, a 16 year old girl who's trapped in her own tornado, while on the outside it looks like a normal tornado, it’s masking her own complications in her life, her own existential crisis. While her parents insist that she's a talented artist, but she can't find the desire to keep going, so instead she drops out of school prematurely, and starts aimlessly walking the streets of Philadelphia to avoid being emotionally neglected at home by her parents who constantly fight.
Sarah wanted one thing, she wanted to be original. She searches for things everyday that give her life a sense of originality, until one day she meets Earl, an insane, homeless artist who she immediately admired, he was original. She spends days wagging school to follow Earl, and while she did that she encounters past and future versions of herself, weirdly enough these weren't hallucinations but just people who talk with her day-to-day reminding her about things she never remembered about her past, mainly about her parents who presumably never loved each other and runaway brother Bruce who she hasn't talked to for six years.
The story as a whole was great, definitely the best novel I've ever read, considering I've only read five novels my entire life. Although, one problem I found was how repetitive it was, it was Sarah documenting what she did everyday (which for the most part, was pretty much the same thing) but the author managed to make it interesting enough to keep readers intrigued in the story as everyday she discovered more about her family through her past clones.
One thing I appreciated was how the author included bits of text from her mother's POV which was quite gruesome and surreal at some points, she talks about her husband and his abusive nature, and her job as a nurse working late hours.
The novel was extremely well-written as it was so poetic that it got you thinking about many aspects in Sarah's life and reading it was like being totally submerged in what was going on in Sarah's mind.
i'D GiVe iT a GoOd 4.5 sTaRs oUtTa 5.
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