Mud Vein by Tarryn Fisher
Paperback, 292 pages
Published March 8th 2014 by CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
When reclusive novelist Senna Richards wakes up on her thirty-third birthday, everything has changed. Caged behind an electrical fence, locked in a house in the middle of the snow, Senna is left to decode the clues to find out why she was taken. If she wants her freedom, she has to take a close look at her past. But, her past has a heartbeat... and her kidnapper is nowhere to be found. With her survival hanging by a thread, Senna soon realizes this is a game. A dangerous one. Only the truth can set her free.
I would like to write a novel that every, single person loves, but not even J.K. Rowling could do that. Instead, I try to write stories that pull on people's emotions. I believe that sadness is the most powerful emotion, and swirled with regret the two become a dominating force. I love villains. Three of my favorites are Mother Gothel, Gaston and the Evil Queen who all suffered from a pretty wicked case of vanity (like me). I like to make these personality types the center of my stories. I love rain, Coke, Starbucks and sarcasm. I hate bad adjectives and the word "smolder". If you read my book-I love you. If you hate my book-I still love you, but please don't be mean to me; I'm half badass, half cry baby.
I was recommend by a fellow book reviewer and blogger friend, The Fettered Matriarch, to give Tarryn Fisher a try and to start with Mud Vein (you can read her review here). She did give me a warning that I will extend. There is rape, self-harm, and someone in a very dark place throughout this book. This book is not filled with rainbows and happily ever afters.
I follow Colleen Hoover on social media and therefore have witnessed the love feud between Colleen (blonde pictured above) and Tarryn (the one choking her). I was always intrigued by the badassery of Fisher's titles like F*ck Love, Atheists Who Kneel and Pray, and Bad Mommy, but maybe felt like if I gave Tarryn a try after falling in love with Colleen I would be going over to the dark side and betraying my first love. If you haven't guessed already I went over to the dark side and I liked it.
I will start out with saying by the end of the book, WTF might have been uttered subconsciously at least a few dozen times. Mud Vein doesn't start out light and fluffy and slowly get darker, it starts dark and remains dark. The writing style was short and crass but somehow intimate. The brisk, rushed words with each chapter being brief and to the point captured the frantic tone that fit this book well. I've never felt like I've known an author more after finishing one of their books. I hope I don't know her so well that she's actually been through any portion of what these characters have been through, but just like in the book you can get to know people by reading in between the lines and hearing what they don't say. I felt like I could relate to this darkness and the mud vein the author exposed in these characters.
I think I have found my favorite character. I didn't realize how much some people truly need persistence and hard love until Isaac brought light back into Senna. It wasn't well received, but he put his pride aside and got to know her so that she could get to know herself. I see Isaac in my husband. I had a similar Christmas Day experience that shut me down and hardened me for years until someone came along and persistently asked me questions that made me think about how I was feeling and made me feel anything again. He had the patience to have a lot of one-sided conversations before I felt comfortable enough to know he honestly cared.
I don't know if you have to be a little screwed up inside to like this type of sadistic read, but I enjoyed it and it was a little addicting. I don't think I could give this five stars only because it is not suitable for all audiences and I wouldn't recommend it to everyone. Mud Vein makes you feel and not everyone is going to like this dark, emotional rollercoaster. I might have to space out my next read from her with some light and fluffy romances before giving Marrow a try.
“You’ve been silent your whole life. You were silent when we met, silent when you suffered. Silent when life kept hitting you. I was like that too, a little. But not like you. You are a stillness. And I tried to move you. It didn’t work. But that doesn’t mean you didn’t move me. I heard everything you didn’t say. I heard it so loudly that I couldn’t shut it off. Your silence, Senna, I hear it so loudly.”
“I was sitting in a white room hating myself, until you breathed life back into me. You loved me so much that I started to love myself.”
“I heard everything you didn’t say. I heard it so loudly that I couldn’t shut it off. Your silence, Senna, I hear it so loudly.”
“But there is something about the process of convincing yourself that you don’t care that just confirms even more that you do.”
And for those who have read Mud Vein, a significant song that is
mentioned that I stopped to listen to: