Here in Avalon by Tara Isabella Burton is a literary psychological thriller (3.5/5 stars)

Here in Avalon by Tara Isabella Burton is a literary psychological thriller. I listened to the audiobook, which was narrated by Devon Sorvari.

I initially picked this up because I heard the buzz words “NYC fairy tale” and “magical realism,” and the cover did evoke a light fantasy feel for me.

It feels almost a bit spoilery for me to say this, but there is no magical realism here (though some sections of the book hint like there is).

The publisher actually lists “related books” with coming of age, psychological thrillers, and literary fiction, which I can totally see. However, for some reason fantasy is the first listed on Goodreads, with magical realism as #3.

I am personally not a big general fiction girlie, and this one unfortunately coasted a bit too close to that genre for me. The first 30% is set-up before the potential magical realism element is even introduced.

It is written very well, and I enjoyed the prose a lot. I just wish the plot had a bit more of a speculative element to it (since that’s kind of what it was pitched as, with magical realism). The ending was also pretty underwhelming to me.

If you like contemporary fiction and cults, you might like this one more than I did! I definitely plan to check out other things this author puts out in the future, and her fiction backlist.

I received a copy of this book to review. Thank you to NetGalley, LibroFM, and Simon and Schuster for the complimentary review copies. All opinions contained herein are my own.

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