Mostly Dead Things: A Novel

Jessa-Lynn Morton grew up happily at her father’s hip. Alongside him, she tanned hides, slit sinews, and stuffed sacks of once vibrant creatures until they became taxidermy-ed works of art. But her father’s suicide, her own drinking, and her mother’s recent interest in creating illicit art have turned Jessa-Lynn’s world upside down.

Kristen Arnett’s latest novel Mostly Dead Things is a dark and intricately detailed look at the grief of one woman. Jessa-Lynn mourns the loss of her father, the decline of her business, and the absence of Brynn, the one woman she ever loved who happens to also be her brother’s ex-wife. As Jessa-Lynn processes these losses, she also grapples with her own emerging identity as a woman on her own, without her father’s influence and without ties to Brynn. There are a few heavy-handed moments in the text, but for the most part, Jessa-Lynn’s journey is as surprising as it is sad. While she may work with mostly dead things in her shop, the relationships she forges ultimately bring Jessa-Lynn back to life and make Arnett’s novel so worth reading.