“The Box” by Mandy-Suzanne Wong

Mandy-Suzanne Wong’s 2nd novel, “The Box”, is sui generis. It is comprised of multiple stories with unique voices, settings, characters and narratives that are barely held together by a thread.

It is never terribly easy to find your footing. “The Box” is shrouded in mystery, at turns murky, dreary, bleak, and misty. Wong doesn’t provide many signposts. We rarely get to put a name or time to a person or place. Characters come and go, it is usually left to the reader to decide how they interrelate, if at all. It is not always clear if a cast member is dead or alive, or simply a figment of the present narrator’s unreliable imagination.

Each chapter is a new treat, a fresh world that demands close attention and re-reading. The segments are endlessly creative, wildly inventive. Stories cross genre, mixing mystery, crime, allegory, folk- and fairytale, performance art, and drug-aided fantasy. There are puzzles, riddles, illusions to solve, often with the barest minimum of guidance or clues.

And what is it that holds all this mania together? “The Box” that enigmatic, formidable, mysterious, scary object that everyone seems to want, no one can seem to find or hold on to, and everyone is pretty sure that opening it would lead to some advanced form of ruin. You may want to open it, but you do not want to see what’s inside. And there is snow, lots and lots of snow.

Wong is clearly a powerhouse writer — hyper imaginative, daring, provocative, bold. I for one can’t wait to see what’s next.

Thanks to Graywolf Press and NetGalley for the eARC