Book Review

Beautiful Wreck by Larissa Brown

Beautiful Wreck by Larissa Brown is not a perfect book, but it was exactly the book I needed. It was this beautiful, restful story that transported me somewhere else and soothed my brain. It’s the literary equivalent to just floating in a warm pool, listening to soft noises.

First of all, Beautiful Wreck is a time-travel historical, which is my shit. It opens in the near future, a time when people immerse themselves in sophisticated virtual reality scenarios:

Now in the 22nd century, everyone lived–to some degree–in a world that happened before. We studied and debated and reanimated the words and fashions of a hundred yesterdays and adopted them as though we’d run out of things to be. In the aughts and teens, being part of an anachronistic culture had been unusual. Now it was norm. Everyone had a place and time they loved, and they lived it every moment they could.

Basically, the SCA has taken over. I bow to my new overlords.

The heroine, Ginn, is part of a company that’s building a cutting edge virtual reality immersion device called The Tank. Her time period of choice is Viking-age Iceland, and she’s working to create a simulation of a working farm from that era. Ginn feels like an outsider in the “real” world. Somehow, even though she can enter any time period she wants, everything feels fabricated and false to her. She longs for the real past.

People spent their days and nights, to varying degrees of fanaticism, in authenticated settings. They were in lust for their worlds. They shared them with a fervor.

But the truth always comforted them–that they were playing. They wanted ale feasts and spears and Valkyries, not the messy beauty of a real farm, the stink of animals and work of many hands. They wanted to sacrifice a barrel of mead, not a horse, and they wanted someone clean up after.

Ginn isn’t doing a great job of fitting in or making friends. She is devoted to her work though. She’s dressed (conveniently) in period-appropriate clothes when she enters The Tank to test the VR program. Except she wakes up half-drowned on a beach, literally in 10th century Iceland.

Ginn is rescued and taken to the farm/homestead of Heirik, a young chieftain. In order to explain her presence and why she has no idea what the fuck is going on, Ginn claims she can’t remember anything, a lie that the people of Heirik’s farm seem to accept. She’s immediately taken in by the women–the family members, distant relatives and thralls. She’s given a place on the farm, and given work to do. (We must wink and believe that she’s totally fluent in their language because of her job as a researcher/developer.)

Ginn is immediately drawn to Heirik, who remains distant–a mystery who is unraveled over 459 pages. Heirik has a large birthmark covering half his face and much of his upper body. He believes that the mark is a curse, and correlates the tragic deaths of his parents to it. He will not touch another person, certainly not a woman, as he thinks that it will curse her to die. So, yes, ladies and gentlemen, we have a virgin hero here.

Heirik is quiet and fearsome. He’s a terrifying warrior and his appearance frightens some of the other women. A few think he’s ugly. Ginn isn’t afraid though, and she’s deeply attracted to him. While Heirik is broody and tough, he’s never an alphahole. He’s almost shy and often very gentle.

Heirik wants Ginn, too. She’s the first woman who has made him question his self-imposed celibacy. At times Heirik is so obviously lonely that I wanted to hug him, and I am not a hugger. We’re talking a big hug here–crush him to your boobies hug–because this dude just needs a friend so damn bad.

The courtship in this book takes place over the course of a year, and because the book is almost 500 pages long, it goes very, very slowly. It’s a looooooong ass time before these characters even touch, and because Heirik considers that touch so forbidden, as a reader I longed so badly for it to happen. The UST in this book is exquisite.

A lot of Beautiful Wreck is immersive detail into how daily living was conducted on a 10th century Icelandic farm. A big part of Ginn’s life is daily chores. She shows up in spring, so she has all of spring and summer to help prepare for a long winter. As a reader, I love this shit. My favorite scenes in Outlander were always, “Claire does shit around the castle.” I could read about Ginn spinning wool or making soap or washing her hair in a hot spring for hours and hours. Seeing how the seasons unfolded, how daily life was shaped around work that had to be done and traditions tied to that work, was just incredibly soothing.

It also doesn’t hurt that the writing is beautiful:

One day it was just a little too cold outside. I stood by the poles in the yard, hanging damp skeins of apricot thread. Even though they had cooled in the pot, steam came off them in languid clouds. My skirt lifted and whipped in a sudden wind. A thousand land wights exhaled ice, and it rose around my ankles like a stream.

I was lost in the wool.

The wind had knocked one of the poles over, and I got snagged and bundled up in damp yarn. It’s smell enclosed me, almost smothering, as sleepy and brown as the coming of autumn. I struggled to get free, to put the pole right, but the strands of yarn and lines of string were tangled in my hair and across my face.

“Some help?” the offer was almost lost in the rushing of wind. A man’s voice.

“Ja!” I laughed, struggling to stand the pole up, and then I looked out from among the strands and saw it was Heirik himself.

Part of what made the day-to-day of this book so lovely was the fact that the people of the farm had to function as a community to survive. Everyone has work to do. Everyone is important. Even as a total stranger, Ginn is given a place and given value.

Lovely as it is, Beautiful Wreck isn’t perfect. The 22nd century scenes weren’t super well developed and were initially a little confusing. I still don’t understand how the world functioned as a place where everyone is in their own little VR historical diorama. How does the economy work? What do people do for a living?

If I’m being objective, the romance between Heirik and Ginn is too drawn out. A lot more happens in the last three-quarters of the book than in the beginning. I didn’t care though. I was cool with a year long “sigh and stare” courtship because I found the world I was reading about super fascinating.

If you like historical detail, slow burn romance, and virgin heroes, you need to click buy right now. Some readers will definitely find Beautiful Wreck too slow or dislike the futuristic element, but for me, this book was exactly what I needed.

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Beautiful Wreck by Larissa Brown

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  1. Rachel says:

    Okay, you’ve sold me. I could definitely use a long, languid, beautiful read right now. Thanks for the great review!

  2. Patricia says:

    Take my money. A nice big historical with lots of UST? I am so there.

  3. SeventhWave says:

    I’m glad to see you reviewing this! I read it a couple months ago and rather unexpectedly loved it. It definitely had its little issues – pacing here and there, times where I was nearly screaming at my Kindle because the h or H were being TSTL – but all in all I am so glad I bought it.

  4. Linda says:

    This sounds really lovely, but I’m heavily reminded of this old article I read (maybe on the Toast?) where they’re like “let’s be real, the best era to be alive is the present because for the rest you would be oppressed and/or diseased” so I’m side eye-ing the VR premise a little. Maybe it would be more believable if the whole of society wasn’t living in their own VR fantasy worlds.

  5. This book sounds perfect for a long weekend. I might put it on my to read book. I actually like the concept someone being trapped in their own virtual reality and having to choose between the virtual reality and real life. It’s a really nice conflict, although from what you said the author didn’t quite execute it all that well.

  6. Anony Miss says:

    There is a special reward in heaven for positive book reviews when the Kindle book is only 99 cents!

    So THANK YOU, THANK YOU.

  7. garlicknitter says:

    So all the VRs were historical settings? ‘Cause if I were living a VR lifestyle, I’m pretty sure I’d want to live on the starship Enterprise.

  8. Joanna says:

    @garlicknitter – I’m with you (although the death rate for Star Fleet officers in the recent Star Trek movies has been pretty high!) But when I think of going back in time very far I just remember Thomas Hobbes – that life “nasty, brutish and short!” And I think most modern people are way too soft to survive.

  9. Anne says:

    I was surprised how much I loved this book, although I’m a sucker for the setting. The historical details are fantastic, and the author based the farmstead on a real one known from archaeological record – including the tunnel to the hotspring!

    Both the author and her heroine also clearly have some background in linguistics, so somehow the “future person goes back in time and can miraculously speak fluent ancient” wasn’t as jarring as I was expecting. Usually that twists my knickers fairly immediately.

    I also really appreciated that it wasn’t just about the H/h romance, but about the heroine finding her one true BFF too. A solid, empowering female friendship is what really propels her in spoilery directions.

  10. morganlf says:

    I loved this book SO MUCH. I wish that she would have expanded the science behind the VR a little bit, but otherwise, I thought it was great. And the language was well-researched and (at least in this medievalist’s opinion) was quite accurate!

    Seriously, one of the best books I’ve read in a long time.

  11. Ellielu says:

    I really enjoyed the book. Especially the lovely, lyrical writing. This is a really talented author with a lot of potential.

    But I wouldn’t have chosen first person narrative for a first novel. It’s really easy to write in the first person, but incredibly difficult to do it well. I thought that the book lost a lot of potential depth by having only the heroine’s POV.

  12. Jewely says:

    I absolutely ADORE this book! For many of the reasons you name – especially the UST and the historical accuracy. if you are hesitating, stop!! 🙂

  13. Tana says:

    I read this book when it came out and was blown away. It is lyrical and the anticipation of their joining is the sexiest thing ev-ah!

  14. Elspeth says:

    Very excited about one-clicking this book. I LOVE reading about people doing housework (doing it myself, not so much.) And only $1.31 in Australia.

  15. I’m so happy this book is finally getting some attention! I thought it was a beautiful read, thoughtful and organic, considering the characters involved. And I took those virtual reality villages to be more entertainment facilities – like an amusement park – and not the whole of their community in the 22nd century.

    Anyway, this was an A in my view – thanks for highlighting such a fab story!

  16. Monique says:

    This book was like drinking hot chocolate in the cold and feeling that delicious, comforting warmth radiating out and filling you a sense of satisfied well-being. I could comfortably dismiss the meh future bits because I loved the story so much. Every now and again, I catch myself smiling when I randomly remember a beautiful character in a playfully sexy voice saying Spin that fleece… lol.

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