Theo was looking to escape when he moved here. He didn’t want to live with the daily reminders of life with his mother anymore. But this move might have been a little extreme – the desert is unforgiving between the heat and the lack of water…until it comes in such an abundance it wipes the earth fresh like a clean slate. It was after one of these rains he first noticed the van and the couple who also came here looking to escape. Theo isn’t sure what to make of them when they show up on his doorstep with cartons of ice cream and looking for freezer space, but that one interaction will change the course of Theo’s life in so many ways.
Sunset Over Chocolate Mountains is Susan Elderkin’s debut novel. The author relies on her own experiences in writing this work – she taught English at the Slovakian factory mentioned in the book, she’s sold ice cream, and she took a course in the American Southwest where she saw desert life up close. This novel is about redemption and new beginnings, but also about how the importance of communication.
I give Sunset Over Chocolate Mountains 3 out of 5 stars. This novel was difficult to follow with two different plots as well as multiple timelines. The author does not identify clearly if you are in the current timeline or a flashback, and does not distinguish the events of Theo from the couple. The first time we encounter life in Slovakia, I was caught off guard and confused how we changed continents. I also found the characters mostly unlovable. I was offput by Theo’s habits, including drinking his own urine, and by how easy theft became for Eva, who was an upstanding citizen by all appearances before encountering Tibor. It felt as though the author was writing for a creative writing class and needed to check off a series of plot and theme boxes rather than building connections between the reader and the characters. I also did not appreciate the twist towards the end revealing where Eva ended up – that plot point could have been handled differently in a way that built an emotional connection with Theo that was needed.
With discussions of death, sexual relationships, and crime, this book would be best directed to more mature audiences over 13. I could see this being a book club pick – there is so much to unpack here. I’ve heard that the author is attempting to adapt this book for a movie. I would hope that the script fixes some of the challenges noted above, but would venture to guess the work would be rated at least PG-13.
I chose Sunset Over Chocolate Mountains for the US States reading challenge prompt “Arizona”. There are some other really great books set in the state – check out the Agenda post from Sunday for those recommendations. Another book I didn’t mention in that post is Diné Bahane’ – the Navajo origin story. If you are looking for an Arizona read more about indigenous cultures, this is a good pick for you!
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What I’m Reading
- Current print book: Murder in Tolland, David M Hamlin
- Current audio book: Woman of Light, Kali Fajardo-Anstine
- Book I’m most looking forward to: Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston
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