We Can Never Leave This Place

LaRocca (Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke) dramatizes a dysfunctional mother-daughter relationship in this floundering fable. Teenage Mara lives with her mother, who has always resented being forced to care for a daughter whom she despises, in an unnamed war-torn locale. Shortly after Mara’s father is killed in the ongoing conflict, Mara and her mother are visited by Rake, an oversize talking spider, who moves in and begins a perversely physical relationship with the mother. Rake is an escapee from the local circus and soon the household is overrun by a menagerie of other anthropomorphized creatures seeking refuge. Though LaRocca repeatedly tries to drive home themes of loss and personal sacrifice, these threads are often lost in the random surreality of the story’s events. A belated suggestion that Mara, an imaginative storyteller, has dressed up real characters and incidents fancifully, fails to satisfy. The resulting weird fiction tale is certainly weird, but fails to hit home. Agent: Priya Doraswamy, Lotus Lane Literary. (July)