Thank you to Flatiron Books for giving me a copy of The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands in exchange for an honest book review.
About The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands by Sarah Brooks
In the late 19th Century, amid a world filled with wonders, the most astonishing is the Wastelands. An eerie expanse between Beijing and Moscow, it’s untouched by humanity except for the Great Trans-Siberian Express. A diverse group of passengers—a grieving woman, a famous child and a disgraced naturalist—board the train, heading for the Great Exhibition in Moscow.
As they travel through the Wastelands, rumors spread that the train is no longer safe. Soon, the old rules governing the journey unravel. Secrets emerge among the passengers and crew, and they must unite to survive the unknown dangers of the Wastelands. An unsettling force is stirring, threatening to disrupt their voyage — and their lives — in ways they can’t imagine.
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An Ambitious Debut
The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands reads like a combination of The Night Circus, Murder on the Orient Express and Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation. Sarah Brooks’ debut is an ambitious, genre-bending novel with a unique style and plot. Part historical fiction, part mystery and even part steampunk, this novel expertly builds tension, creating a sense of dread and wonder at the same time.
The most successful elements of The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands are the world-building and atmosphere. Brooks combines familiar historical elements with truly strange imagery. Instead of focusing on dialogue, this book is very description-heavy. Readers will understand the train down to the very last element. Everything from the glass of the windows to the steam that powers it gets attention.
It’s interesting, then, that the descriptions of the Wastelands beyond the train are so sparse. This adds a stressful element of horror, allowing the readers — and the passengers — to imagine the horrors outside. As a result, I never quite knew what was happening in the Wastelands, but that worked for me. The feeling of the unknown added to the claustrophobia of being trapped in a train as a hostile environment surrounds you.
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The Characters and Other Elements
Additionally, there isn’t much character development, but this largely works in the book’s favor. Each character travels for their own reason, some of which the reader finds out. However, I appreciated the air of mystery Sarah Brooks created by not describing everyone in detail.
There are also elements of eco-fiction present. Thanks to unknown human actions, a rot has taken hold of this landscape, and now wild, dangerous forces are taking it back. Brooks subtly asks the reader to reconsider humanity’s role in the natural world and the effects capitalism and empire have had.
If you’re looking for an uncanny summer read, check out The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands. This is a great book for anyone who enjoyed Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi or Babel by R.F. Kuang.
The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands comes out on June 18. It’s available for preorder from your local independent bookstore or Bookshop.org.
TW: blood, body horror, chronic illness, classism, confinement, death, drowning, forced institutionalization, gaslighting, grief, injury/injury detail, medical content, medical trauma, misogyny, racism, sexism, violence, xenophobia
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