Sarah O'Connor

I received this book from River Street Writing in exchange for an honest review.

“The land would always return to its feral character; the trick is to place your bets on when and how. But the bust is inevitable. As sure as the sun fades with the silvering of the day,” (Welsh 84).

As the Klondike Gold Rush comes to an end, unsuccessful prospector Steve Ladle takes a job from a con artist to go to the top of a mountain where he finds a giant, seemingly alive, human ear. The Ear follows Ladle back to Sawdust City to the great enjoyment of the town where tourism starts to thrive again, not knowing that these events will bring about the towns end.

Most reviews I’ve read of Ley Lines describe it as a fever dream, and it truly is the best way to talk about this novel. The summary gives a starting point of what’s to come, but even that doesn’t prepare you for all that happens in the story. It’s strange and bizarre, and with a large cast of characters it took me a bit to understand what all the strangeness was trying to tell me, because it isn’t clearly spelled out for readers even by the end. With a large benevolent floating Ear, a large destructive Nose, throw in some giant Teeth, and it’s not exactly easy to understand how they exist and why the people who live in and visit Sawdust City aren’t put off by them. But the acceptance of the weirdness is part of the charm.

I enjoyed the characters, especially Sasha. I liked how fleshed out she was and enjoyed seeing where her story went. The cast of characters as a whole each have their own reasoning and circumstance for coming to Sawdust City and I liked how determined many of them were towards their goals and seeing how they developed throughout the novel, in good ways and bad, because that’s really what’s at the heart of this novel. The presence of giant sentient roaming severed appendages acts as a metaphor for the Gold Rush itself, the excitement it brought, the boom to the economy and then the poverty and sadness when it dropped off. Despite the strange, dreamlike quality of the novel it’s a story of survival.

Ley Lines is a weird fever dream of a book with a whole lot of heart. I look forward to seeing what kind of journeys Welsh will take readers on next!

Publication: May 1 2025
Publisher: Guernica Editions
Pages: 311 pages (Paperback)
Source: Owned (Thank you River Street Writing!)
Genre: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Canadian
My Rating: ⛤⛤⛤.5
Summary:

Set in the waning days of the Klondike Gold Rush, Ley Lines begins in the mythical boom town of Sawdust City, Yukon Territory. Luckless prospector Steve Ladle has accepted an unusual job accompany a local con artist to the unconquered top of a nearby mountain. What he finds there briefly upends the town’s fading fortunes, attracting a crowd of gawkers and acolytes, while inadvertently setting in motion a series of events that brings about the town’s ruin.
In the aftermath, a ragtag group of characters is sent reeling across the Klondike, struggling to come to grips with a world that has been suddenly and unpredictably upturned. As they attempt to carve out a place for themselves, our protagonists reckon with the various personal, historical and supernatural forces that have brought them to this moment.