Title: We Were Restless Things Author: Cole Nagamatsu
Published: October 6, 2020
Genre(s): Magical Realism
Page Count: 416
Rating:
Summary from Goodreads:Last summer, Link Miller drowned on dry land in the woods, miles away from the nearest body of water. His death was ruled a strange accident, and in the months since, his friends and family have struggled to make sense of it. But Link's close friend Noemi Amato knows the truth: Link drowned in an impossible lake that only she can find. And what's more, someone claiming to be Link has been contacting her, warning Noemi to stay out of the forest.
As these secrets become too heavy for Noemi to shoulder on her own, she turns to Jonas, her new housemate, and Amberlyn, Link's younger sister. All three are trying to find their place—and together, they start to unravel the truth: about themselves, about the world, and about what happened to Link.
The lonely spirit of a shrinking forest haunts the town of Shivery, Minnesota. Link Miller died in the woods just last summer, drowned even though he was miles from the nearest body of water. Now, a motley assemblage of local teens—Link’s best friend, his sister, his almost-maybe-prom-date—are trying to muddle through a new school year and their grief. But the woods are singing, and a vanishing lake draws them together time and time again.
We Were Restless Things is literary magical realism (aka my favorite very niche subgenre). Appropriate comp titles include Brenna Yovanoff’s Places No One Knows, Bone Gap by Laura Ruby, and the novels of Nova Ren Suma. Cole Nagamatsu’s debut novel joins these stories built on bizarre imagery, breathtaking prose, and subtly complex interpersonal relationships. I really wish this was a more popular style of fiction, although I understand that “soft-spoken YA about occasional encounters with a magic lake” is never going match the commercial success of a more traditional fantasy—nor should it. Regardless, I am so so pleased to have found this title during my library perusing.
I have a lot of favorite things about We Were Restless Things. But my favorite favorite thing is Nagamatsu’s beautiful, rich prose. The author’s use of metaphor and imagery is expertly applied—enough so that the entire book is eerie and wistful, but not so much that she takes two paragraphs to describe an action as simple as shading your eyes from the sun. I think that if you write a book about the aftermath of a teenage boy’s mysterious death in the woods, the more obvious approach is to write an emotionally charged fantasy thriller with tight, crisp prose that propels the reader forward. Instead, the novel is introspective and deliberate; the plot isn’t concerned so much with figuring out what happened to Link Miller as it is to exploring the still-living characters’ personalities and building up the overall atmosphere of the forest, the town, the very specific form grief Link left in his wake. We Were Restless Things is a very pretty book; I love pretty writing—and maybe because I’ve been reading commercial fiction for a few years, the style of this book was enchanting. (Obviously, there is nothing wrong with mainstream fiction; we do not go in for book snobbery here.)
“Okay, but what the book is it about?” a reader of this review may ask, with some irritation. I don’t know, friends. Nothing really happens in We Were Restless Things. This book is about Noemi, who feels that Link’s death is her fault and is desperate to push others away before they can reject her for her all-too-newly-discovered asexuality. It’s about Jonas, who’s new to town and unwittingly becomes friends with those closest to Link Miller—and who falls in love with Link’s own unrequited crush. It’s about Link’s sister, Amberlyn; Noemi’s best friend, Lyla; and about local problem child Gaetan, who doesn’t know how to be kind but secretly wishes he did. These five teens are bound together by memories of Link, the aftershocks of his death, and the unsettling feeling that he isn’t really gone. Not yet.
We Were Restless Things isn’t a ghost story, exactly. And it’s not a story about uncovering what happened to Link in the woods. Are there ghosts in this book? Sure. Does Nagamatsu reveal the exact details of Link Miller’s odd death? Yes, eventually. But that’s not what this is about, nor are those the elements Nagamatsu focusing on. I suppose that at its very core, this is a story about growing up and figuring out what you want out of life—and how to be okay with yourself even when you mess up. And yes, there’s a haunted forest lake situation, too, and it’s important.
I never know how to review this kind of novel. The fact is that I will always and forever be a complete sucker for lyrical prose and deep-dives into the minds of complicated people. Throw in a couple of eldritch forest spirits, and I literally could not be happier. I dunno, folks. This book simply has my name on it. If the feudal patronage system were still alive and well, I’d probably commission a book very like this. (And since Cole Nagamatsu has done it here, I’m now saved the bother of trying and failing to write this kind of stuff myself.)
I do understand that a novel fueled by ~vibes~ isn’t going to be everyone’s cup of tea. But if you’ve ever wished for the 21st century YA answer to Angela Carter’s short stories, I humbly suggest We Were Restless Things. Queer teens, vanishing lakes, prophetic dream journals, mystical antlered creatures emerging from the woods. I love love love this, all of it.
