I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
The Survival of Molly Southbourne by Tade Thompson Series: Molly Southbourne #2
Published by Tor.com on July 9 2019
Genres: Adult, Horror
Pages: 112
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: Another strange and bloody tale, part horror, part sci-fi, and one hundred percent WTF.
The first book in the series, The Murders of Molly Southbourne, was a bloody, violent surprise of a story, a horror tale steeped in mystery where the reader is in the dark about what’s going on for quite a while. To catch unfamiliar readers up to speed, our protagonist Molly is a young girl who has a unique but terrible condition: every time she bleeds, she creates a new “molly” who immediately tries to kill her. Molly has been trained by her mother and father from a young age to kill these clones, or “duplicates” as she calls them, as soon as they appear, so Molly’s life has been filled with murder and plenty of strict rules to follow. Don’t bleed. Kill the mollys. Burn the evidence. What a life!
The sequel opens right after the events at the end of the last book. Molly has just escaped a burning house and has called a phone number tattooed on her arm. The phone number is a help line, where a team will come out and obliterate all traces of the fire and the blood. But something is wrong. Molly isn’t actually Molly, but a molly, a duplicate. The real Molly, or Molly Prime, died in the fire. Now molly must navigate a dangerous and unfamiliar world, armed only with Molly’s memories and the story she told her right before the fire.
One day molly runs into another of her kind, a woman named Tamara who also creates duplicates when she bleeds. However, Tamara has learned to live in peace with her tamaras, and they’ve formed a sort of commune where they take care of each other. But this raises so many questions, and Molly isn’t sure what to believe. Why can they create duplicates? And who is behind it? The answers may lie with Molly’s own mother, whose past she is about to discover.
Welcome to mind fuck territory, people! It’s hard to describe any more of the plot, for a couple of reasons. One, this is a very short novella and I don’t want to spoil this if you’re planning on reading it. And two, the plot is confusing and I’m still not sure I understand everything that happened. But as I mentioned in my review of Murders, the plot really takes a back seat to the horrific elements. Thompson does atmosphere really well, and this story is chock full of that.
There’s also a lurking horror behind everything that’s going on. There is a character from the first book named James Down, who is doing something terrible to himself in this book. I almost wish I had time to go back and reread Murders, because for the life of me I can’t remember why he’s doing this awful thing. The story is surprisingly violent at times, although maybe it’s not so surprising since this is a story about clones who are born out of a girl’s blood. Even more horrifying is the way the characters react to the violence, which is to say they barely react at all. Violence is a way of life, and that in itself makes you wonder what sort of life these duplicates can really have.
I did find that the story overall felt a bit fractured. Molly ends up in different kinds of trouble throughout the story, and sometimes wakes up in unfamiliar places. This jumping around was confusing, and the story at times felt like a series of vignettes rather than a cohesive tale. But because Molly thinks of herself as a duplicate, and therefore not a real person, this fractured storytelling sort of makes sense, especially since the story is from her perspective.
The ending circles back to the beginning of the first book, which I thought was a nice touch. I’m not sure whether Thompson has another book planned for this series, but it feels finished, in my opinion, and I don’t think another book is necessary. Although—we still don’t have complete answers about Molly’s and Tamara’s condition, so who knows, maybe we do need one more book? Please read The Murders of Molly Southbourne first, otherwise you will be lost. I love Thompson’s writing and the way he conveys a sense of menace and unease, even if not every part of the story made sense.
Big thanks to the publisher for supplying a review copy.
I love the premise of this series. Thanks for the review. I’m going to check out The Murders of Molly Southbourne.
Priscilla Bettis recently posted…One Sentence Reviews: My 2nd Quarter 2019 reads
Hope you enjoy it, Priscilla:-)
Great review. Loved the first book.
Me too, and this one is pretty good as well:-)
Oh, interesting! I keep seeing this book cover, but didn’t realize it was a second book. Your review is terrific, makes me want to read the 1st!
It’s really trippy, sort of a horror/mystery!
It sounds like I need to check out the first book, Tammy. I don’t know why I’m drawn to “WTF books!” Terrific review!
Ha ha, sometimes WTF books can be a lot of fun:-)
I just read the first… Great to read your review. I’ll pick this one up as soon as it comes out.
I hope you enjoy it!
Oh wow, this sounds absolutely wild! That’s also cool that it does tie back to the first book. Great review!
Suzanne @ The Bookish Libra recently posted…Top Ten Tuesday – A Trip Down Memory Lane to Revisit Favorite Books from My Childhood
Wild is an understatement!
For some reason I thought I’d read the first one but after a quick check on goodreads and on my blog, I guess not! I’ll have to catch up, because I love the sound of this 🙂
100 percent WTF! Now I am very excited to read this. LOL
Laura Thomas recently posted…The Shifter Chronicles by Michelle Areaux ~ Spotlight and Giveaway
I also love the sound of this but haven’t read the first one either. Will have to try and pick these both up at some point.
Lynn 😀
Tor has the first book, which I haven’t read yet, free for their download this month. I haven’t seen a lot about it before so now I’m doubly excited to read it. Also, love this: “one hundred percent WTF”. Lol- sold!
oooh, nice! I thought the first book looked interesting, but wasn’t really into it enough to add to my TBR, but this sequel is killing me softly with the duplicate twist! I LOVE doppelgangers when they’re developed and the writer explores their conflict about their identity/individuality and all that good stuff! I might be naughty and start with this one, haha
I’ve heard great things about Tade Thompson and this series sounds intriguing. I do love a good mind fuck, lol!
The craziness with the clones sounds pretty original! It sounds like a good read!
Ok, this sounds weird. But interesting.
The title kind of tells me it would probably be a WTF book. But there’s been a lot of those lately for me. 🙂