Something that compels you to complete and utter attention, attention without compromise. You begin to spin out of control, but there’s a pull, a coaxing, in the mesmerizing assuredness of Pulley’s lines, in the extreme specificity and intricacy of the world, in the intense emotional internality of the characters and the complexe shaping of the time travel narrative. This is not a novel of spills and thrills, not your regular definition of "page-turner." You begin to read and for several pages, there is very little that makes sense there is only the feeling that something very important is being withheld from you, something within your grasp but still desperately out of reach, something lying at the edge of breaking. Like all Pulley’s novels, The Kingdoms is a very slow read, a book that unfolds like a blooming flower, revealing itself in its own time. So without spoiling anything of what occurs in this novel, this review is my attempt at understanding the strange alchemy that makes up Pulley’s books. There is an intoxicating subtle magic in her books, and I spent the last few hours trying to wrap words around it. Her storytelling is so distinctive, so utterly inimitable in its style. That is to say-Pulley has a voice unlike any other. In the end, I am certain-if I may borrow some of Coleridge’s words-that I'd know a Natasha Pulley story if I found it wandering the desert. Lines that float back to me like bits of poetry.
There are treasured passages I still recall, clear as day. It’s been months and I still can’t shake the rhythms and cadences of these stories out of my brain. After reading The Kingdoms, I immediately purchased Pulley’s earlier novels, and recently raced through The Watchmaker of Filigree Street, The Lost Future of Pepperharrow and The Half Life of Valery K as if someone might take them from my hands at any moment. Natasha Pulley wrote this book specifically for me: everything about it was designed to fit precisely, perfectly into the contours of my heart. What a joy to feel that you are the writer’s intended reader.
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