Melissa Albert: "The Children" (ARC Review)

Title: The Children [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Melissa Albert [Instagram | Goodreads]
Genres: SPOILER - revealing the genre(s) would ruin your reading experience...If you want to go into the book without knowing anything vital about it, I recommend not reading the Labels at the end of my review either. No need to worry though - the review itself will be spoiler-free...
Year: 2026
Age: 18+ (but it can be read by mature teens)
Stars: 5/5
Pros: Visceral, immersive, haunting, with a denouement you won't see coming. Makes you care deeply for the characters (especially the protagonist's younger self).
Cons: The writing gets too purple at times.
WARNING! Death, murder, suicide, self-mutilation, fire, bugs. Child neglect/exploitation, pedophilia, infidelity, alcohol abuse.
Will appeal to: Those who like a familial saga with a twist. Those who muse about the relationship between life, art and fame.

Blurb: Guinevere's late mother, Edith Sharpe, needs little introduction. Bestselling author of the unendingly successful Ninth City series, her books brought so much joy and inspired the imagination of countless children the world over. Guin's childhood with her mother, brother Ennis and her actor father was a blissful, bohemian affair, filled with continuous laughter and surrounded by artistic types in their Vermont barnhouse. At least, this is the story Guin presents as she prepares for the press tour for her upcoming memoir about life in the Sharpe family. Now estranged from her brother and her parents long dead after a devastating fire, strange events threaten the veneer of serenity and familial harmony Guin is keen to project. Ennis, now a notorious artist with a troubled past, announces a new installation – his first since a disastrous last show one year prior – simply entitled Mother. And Guin can't help but worry that the truth behind their idyllic childhood is about to blow her world apart. (Goodreads)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on NetGalley. Thanks to Bloomsbury Publishing Plc (UK & ANZ) for providing a temporary ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

GRIM(M) AND GORGEOUS

I have a confession to make: The Children was my first Albert book. I took a chance on it based by the synopsis alone, not really knowing what to expect (except for dark-fairy-tale vibes, according to the reviews of her backlist) - but upon parting with the last page, I immediately proceeded to add all her previous novels to my TBR list, top priority. Yes, it's THAT good. But you want to know what, precisely, is so good about it, and it's not easy to explain without entering spoiler territory. Anyhow, I'll try...

So: I won't tell you if The Children is a contemporary book with an unreliable narrator, or an exquisite (if dark) exercise in magical realism, or a straight-up supernatural tale, or all these things combined. But I will tell you this: The Children is an ode to the power of art - the power to save, or the power to damn, depending on certain circumstances. It's a dark fairy tale (yeah, indeed - in the vein of Albert's past books) unleashed in the real world. It's the story of a dysfunctional family and a predatory house. It's horrifying and spellbinding, bitter and beautiful, very meta yet unmistakably human (with all that entails). If you're like me, these things alone will probably seal your deal with this novel. But in case you need more practical details, feel free to read on... [...]

DOUBLE EXPOSURE

The story, told from the point of view of Guinivere Sharpe - daughter of an iconic children book author and a former actor turned amateur painter; sister of a controversial artist who fell into disgrace after tragedy stroke at one of his installations; lately, poster child for her dead mother's legacy - alternates chapters set in the present and in the past (starting when the titular children were four and six) that will both morbidly fascinate readers and make them want to give younger Guin and her brother Ennis (but Guin especially) a hug. In the present, Guin (now 31) has to maintain the facade of a well-adjusted adult whose childhood was the most unconventional thing, yet for all purposes magical; except that facade is cracking both under the pressure of her having to perform a scripted role, and her childhood's having being mined - along with Ennis' - for writing material by her mother. Add to it that Guin hasn't been able to reconnect with her brother since when their parents died, and not for lack of trying on her part - but he seems to have perfected the art of disappearing, all while his infamous installations are very hard to miss (by the way, some of them are included in the story, and they took my breath away...especially, ahem, the last one). In the past, the siblings are having a quirky, yet deeply dysfunctional childhood, neglected by their parents, exposed to very apparent or more subtle horrors, and thrust into the public eye by their mother's books, in which they unwittingly feature. Chapter by chapter, Albert peppers the narrative with clues that SHOULD make her readers figure out what's happening, except they CANNOT be prepared for what the last leg of the journey will throw at them. It's both gutsy and earned, and I swear it's the only possible ending, but I didn't see it coming AT ALL, and so won't you.

MARK MY WORDS

In conclusion, I want to address the author's stylistic choices, that seem to be very divisive - and I can see why. At its best, Albert's writing style is both evocative and sharp as a knife; in many other instances, her prose gets purple for the sake of it, devolving into awkward metaphors. I'm going to quote from my ARC copy, so I don't know if all these sentences will make it to the finished book, but here are some of the similes she uses: "leaves moved in green waves, shushing like librarians", "mosquitoes flashed like loose change in the trees", "She flicked the dark lake bed of the bruise". As a rule, I would detract at least half a star for these - except I inhaled this story in the course of three (feverish) days, and I would have read it in a single sitting if I could, and sure, that must count for something. I already can't wait to read all the books Albert has put forth so far, and to buy a physical copy of this one both for my shelves and for reread. Yes, it's THAT good.

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