JFC. If we can’t add a new subgenre JUST for Lauren Groff’s signature style — lushly grim and invigoratingly desolate — maybe I’d best acknowledge the teeny new chamber in my book lovin’ heart that Matrix, The Vaster Wilds and now Brawler have come to inhabit. I didn’t think I could handle bleak, but in her capable hands? “Under the Wave” is the best short story I’ve ever read. Within two paragraphs of beginning “The Wind” (and hence the collection), I was *there* and terrified. I haven’t even read the last two stories yet. Stay tuned.
Brawler by Lauren Groff, (List Price: $29, Riverhead Books, 9780593418420, February 2026)
Reviewed by Kat, novel. in Memphis, Tennessee