The Strange

By: Nathan Ballingrud

Narrated by: Sophie Amoss

Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins

Publisher's summary

1931, New Gavleston, Mars: Fourteen-year-old Anabelle Crisp sets off through the wastelands of the Strange to find Silas Mundt’s gang who have stolen her mother’s voice, destroyed her father, and left her solely with a need for vengeance.

Since Anabelle’s mother left for Earth to care for her own ailing mother, her days in New Gavleston have been spent at school and her nights at her laconic father’s diner with Watson, the family Kitchen Engine and dishwasher as her only companion. When the Silence came, and communication and shipments from Earth to its colonies on Mars stopped, life seemed stuck in foreboding stasis until the night Silas Mundt and his gang attacked.

At once evoking the dreams of an America explored in Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles and the harder realities of frontier life in Charles Portis True Grit, Ballingrud’s novel is haunting in its evocation of Anabelle’s quest for revenge amidst a spent and angry world accompanied by a domestic Engine, a drunken space pilot, and the toughest woman on Mars.

Nathan Ballingrud’s stories have been adapted into the film Wounds and the Hulu series Monsterland, The Strange is his first novel.

©2023 Nathan Ballingrud. All rights reserved. (P)2023 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

Critic reviews

“The most enjoyable novel I’ve read in years, no contest. Before The Strange, I never realized I wanted to be marooned on the dustbowl of Mars, joining an epic quest through ghost towns haunted by the living. Ballingrud is already a master of literary horror, his short stories consistently brilliant. But in his page-turner of a debut novel, that talent radiates brighter than ever before.” —Mat Johnson, author of Invisible Things and Pym

“Ballingrud’s brilliant fiction brims with imagination, integrity (I do not use that term lightly), and an authentic world-weary dread that bores directly into your heart.” —Paul Tremblay, New York Times bestselling author of The Cabin at the End of the World and The Pallbearers Club

“Ballingrud is one of my favorite contemporary authors. His work is elegant and troublingly, wonderfully disturbing. —Victor LaValle, award-winning author of The Changeling and Lone Women

Unique and engaging

I’ve never read anything like this. A whole new world with gritty and flawed heroes, mysterious dangers, and enchanting descriptions. The narrator was fantastic and I found myself taking the long way home so I could hear what came next. Sally is my favorite person now. ❤️

Great story

i loved every minute of it. i would be interested to see more stories in this universe.

good writting not great story

The writing is good. But I don't really feel like it was worth the time. Story really didn't go anywhere. And I certainly don't feel like I was elevated or all that entertained in the end

Good start for a budding writer, but tons of flaws.

It’s an exciting and fresh premise that literally goes nowhere. The story is so small and not interesting it takes away from all the questions and stories the reader actually wants to hear about. The author has an excellent feel for description but uses it like a hammer in every scene. The effect is the books drags on as you hear every detail about everything in expansive metaphors. I’d read another book as there is definitely talent and creativity here. Maybe needs a co-writer with some actual stories to tell?

Unexpected story and perfect narrator

I fell right into this mystery adventure on another planet and in another era. Quite imaginative and swept me away throughout. I felt the main characters emotion and reactions to those of others and understanding them traveled with her. The experience was not perfect but it was compelling and enjoyable.

Pretty strange ride

This was a pretty strange ride. Weird, to say the least, and in the best of ways.

Worth a read

A beautiful, simple story of a girl on Mars. It’s science fiction, but more of a Western. I never found it slow though, the characters and prose keeps it going. It holds mystery but answered enough to more than satisfy. There is a strong Coen brothers True Grit parallel, but as that is a wonderful movie it doesn’t detract. If an interesting, likable, and fleshed-out main character is important to you as a reader, then I definitely recommend this book.
4.5 stars: Earned the last half a star with the end, a rare feat. The narrator elevated the book, despite irking me at first.

Great story

I never knew the sci-fi western genre could be so good.
The narrator is great too. I’ll get more books that she reads.

Excellent

Just a very solid unique and well crafted piece of writing. Definitely one to recommend

Original, Strange, Enjoyable

A really cool setting and atmosphere for this book. Sophie Amos has a great voice for this kind of novel.