Bewilderness

Starred review from March 22, 2021
Tucker astonishes in her devastating debut, a harrowing account of addiction, friendship, and loss. Irene, an isolated 19-year-old in rural North Carolina, meets Luce, a fellow server at a grimy pool hall. They form an intimate friendship that becomes nearly addictive: within hours of their meeting, Irene believes Luce “understood me better than anyone, maybe even my own mother.” Both also battle an opiate addiction. They look at the moon and see an OxyContin pill, “a giant 30 just waiting for someone to reach up and snatch it.” Throughout, they find themselves in scenarios that are equal parts devastating and funny, as they scam and grift to fund their pill habit by committing return fraud at Walmart and selling placebos from their birth control packs to college kids. But their bond begins to break after Luce meets Wilky, a sergeant at the nearby military base who is set on getting clean from a pill addiction of his own and moving with Luce to Florida for a fresh start. Tucker does a wonderful job locating Irene’s and Luce’s desire to live a better life beneath their tough exteriors, as when, while buying pills from an old woman, Irene offhandedly remarks, “Bodies are such fragile things.” This keen awareness consistently adds depth and devastation. No matter the characters’ genuine longing to change, they are bound to their cyclical, unrelenting patterns. This is a stunning accomplishment. Agent: Molly Atlas, ICM Partners.

April 15, 2021
Two best friends struggle with opiate addiction and poverty in North Carolina. Irene is mourning the impending loss of her best friend and roommate, Luce, who's preparing to move to Florida with her boyfriend, Wilky, as the two have planned for a life far away from the opiates, users, and dealers they know. But after leaving Luce's goodbye party, the two women find out that Wilky has been found dead after overdosing in his car outside the bar where he worked. When Luce has an asthma-induced panic attack, the ensuing treatment from paramedics ends a year of sobriety for both girls. Luce spirals in her grief, and Irene follows her back into the world of pills and increasingly dangerous situations. Narrating in both the present moment following Wilky's death and through intermittent flashbacks, Irene recalls how she and Luce initially bonded over abusive customers while waiting tables and how casual usage and hustles were suddenly much more serious when Luce fell in love with Wilky, a former addict who wanted to have a life together after he left the Army. Irene recalls her resentment of Wilky's plans to take Luce away and how that warred with her desire for all of them to have a fresh start. "And yet," Irene thinks while sitting with Luce outside Wilky's bar, "as I watched her sink back into that numb bliss we used to spend all our time chasing, another pang for the old days went flaring through me. So what if I was clean, if I was also lonely and frightened?" This debut novel is filled with sharp, vivid descriptions of back roads and seedy meet-ups, which contrast with Irene's dedication to Luce and her fervent belief in the future that might be possible if only the two of them can avoid thinking about Wilky's death and whether his fate, chosen or not, might also become their own. Absorbing and unflinching.

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June 1, 2021

DEBUT Best friends Irene and Luce have been through a lot together. They live together, work together, become addicted and hustle for pills together, and get clean together. Irene is so attached to Luce that when Luce's boyfriend suddenly overdoses and dies and she relapses in despair, Irene goes back to drugs after 11 months of sobriety--to be with Luce. Luce's boyfriend is dead, and that's terrible of course, but it means that Luce is no longer going to leave Irene in the North Carolina mountains to move with him to Florida, and they are together again, just the two of them. Their relapses very quickly drop both women back into a world of chaos, of scamming, lying, and relying on strangers. Their downward spiral is difficult to read about, with graphic descriptions of Irene and Luce's drug use and the desperate, disturbing, dangerous decisions they make in pursuit of their next high--of a fleeting feeling of euphoria. VERDICT Tucker holds nothing back in this debut novel, describing addiction in unflinching terms, as well as human connection, vulnerability, and perseverance. The subject matter and descriptions in this book won't be palatable to every reader, but those who finish this work won't soon forget it.--Shaunna E. Hunter, Hampden-Sydney Coll. Lib., VA

Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from May 1, 2021
Irene knew her best friend, Luce, was ready to move to Florida with her boyfriend, Wilky, but she couldn't have anticipated what would happen between the U-Haul being packed and the next morning, when Wilky is found dead in his car from a drug overdose. Though they've both been sober for nearly a year, Irene and Luce are no strangers to the continued allure of pills. Luce is heartbroken by Wilky's death, and the two women find themselves spiraling into relapse. Questioning her outlook on the world and her inner strength, 19-year-old Irene is a troubled, complex narrator. Tucker's debut follows the women through their drug-induced skid to rock bottom, highlighting their easy access to drugs in rural North Carolina and their complicated friendship. Raw, powerful, and unflinching, the novel immerses readers in the minute-by-minute mindset of addiction. Tucker skillfully flips between past and present, swapping the language of sobriety for the slang of active addiction to give readers a full picture of the pair's mental state. A natural fit for fans of Julie Buntin's Marlena (2017), Tucker's novel champions the strength it takes to stay clean when every other decision is so much simpler.

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