#womanhood at its most grievous

[ahb-writes]

Book Review: ‘I Am Still Alive’

"I don't know how to be properly afraid yet... "I don't know how to tell the difference between one kind of fear and the next. The fear that makes you fast." (Cooper)

But for fiction with only one substantial character, I AM STILL ALIVE is nevertheless beautifully written.

Marshall's work has a consistent voice and honors a long and distant tradition of plain-spoken novel-writing that pulls the most exquisite from the most naive: "My body's a bit broken, but it doesn't mean I'm a broken person" (p. 127), "In this moment, I am that empty girl, the girl who can do whatever she has to" (p. 211), "I haven't seen a human being in weeks — months — but I've gotten good at watching" (p. 278). Jess is strong. She cracks and nearly breaks, on multiple occasions. Death and fear and the cold nearly take her life more than she can count. But she perseveres. For herself. For the memory of her family. For revenge. And so much more. The strength and fascination one finds with this character is due as much her endurance as with her abject willingness to admit her faults and to acknowledge each and every untimely brush with the end: "I think I am going to die here" (p. 82).

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