Always, Clementine by Carlie Sorosiak

Always, Clementine by Carlie Sorosiak

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

When I finished reading Always, Clementine for the first time, all I could think of was if I was nominating a book for the Carnegie then this would be it. There is something very special here and it might even be one of the best books I’ve read this year.

It begins at the back of your head, thoughts like that. That little tingle on your spine that creeps all the way up until all of a sudden you realise that you’re reading something good, something good and beautiful and heartbreaking and wonderful all at once. That’s this book. That’s the way it works and I fell in love with it entirely.

Clementine is a lab mouse who escapes. She is also a genius. This book is as much about her life in the free world, with a team of human helpers at her side, as it is her journey towards selfhood. Her life has meaning. She has meaning. And even though there’s a lot of people trying to recapture her and send her back to the lab, there’s also a whole world of new friends to be made and family to be found. It’s time for Clementine to live.

Told in a series of letters to somebody I shall not spoil yet (for their relationship will break your heart), Clementine shares her entire soul on the page. She is a genuine and optimistic and warm-hearted soul who, despite seeing the worst of the world, is so ready and willing to see the best of it. Sorosiak writes her with such love. And such poetry! There are some beautiful moments here where Sorosiak’s writing somehow embraces such a poetic form that it almost shimmers.

This is a book for your heart, and I loved it entirely.

My thanks to the publishers for a review copy.



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