Book Review of St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves by Karen Russell

By: Jessie Davis

Karen Russell’s arresting first novel entitled St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves has received rave reviews from the likes of People Magazine and The New York Post, and for good reason. Each tale in this darkly surreal collection transports the reader to the murky heat of the Florida Everglades and continues to haunt them even after moving on to the next story.

Creepy, fantastical and sparkling with whimsy, each story shares a small connection with the rest but still seems light years away from the idea of real life. In Girls Raised by Wolves, young women are romanced by spirits (Ava Wrestles the Alligator), spectral diving goggles make ghost-watching a viable hobby (Haunting Olivia) and narcoleptic children go to sleep-away camp with ones who relive historical disasters in their dreams (Z.Z.’s Sleep-Away Camp for Disordered Dreamers).

As the fables unfold, Russell establishes a thick, otherworldly haze that doesn’t lift - even between stories. An adults-only blizzard-themed skating party goes terribly wrong when the children come in search of their parents and unintentionally release the ice skating apes from their enclosures (Lady Yeti and the Palace of Artificial Snows). A little girl disappears with the tide while riding a crab shell (Haunting Olivia). A retirement community whose residents live in discarded ships must befriend teenage criminals (Out to Sea), and a young girl abandons her school trip in favor of getting trapped in a giant conch shell (The City of Shells).

Each story is stands alone in magnificence; together, they form an anthology of modern-day mythology fit for every cynical fairy tale lover.

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