Publisher: Avid Reader Press Page Count: Year Published: 2020
Thank you, Avid Reader Press and Netgalley for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!
Kings County follows Audrey Benton, a woman who arrived in early 2000s Brooklyn on a bus from nowhere ready to make a name for herself. Audrey finds ways to survive as a broke young woman and soon finds success in the indie music scene. Flashing backward to Audrey’s beginnings in Brooklyn and chronicling her present in Occupy Wall Street New York, this novel synthesizes the things that make New York what it is — endless possibilities, art, sex, violence, and attempts to make a secure future in a ever-transforming landscape that can get the best of people.
As I started Kings County, I knew I would love this book. There’s a moment, early on, when the writing is so engrossing and I love the rhythm of it, especially because music plays such a large role in the novel. The moment that got me is when Theo, Audrey’s book editor boyfriend, is standing in a bar, waiting to order drinks, and Goodwillie is describing the atmosphere: “Patience. Positioning. Incremental gains. God, this really was like football … Shaking and pouring, shaking and pouring, ice, ice, ice, and no one looking up. At least at him. It was the paradox at the center of Theo’s life.” I love the musicality of the storytelling, I love that you can hear and see the bar, and are also learning about the characters through a mundane interaction with their world—such as grabbing drinks at the bar.
This story offers a commentary on choices made, opportunities forgone, and combating the demons we bury. Specifically, what happens when vibrant and enticing city life brings together unlikely characters then pulls them apart and then brings them back together? Audrey and Sarah’s relationship is particularly compelling as a contemplation on female friendship. Audrey is the grittier of the two, having a more complicated past and desire to remain in Brooklyn’s music scene. Sarah and Audrey became friends through circumstance but morphed into roommates and then best friends. But as friends who became friends out of convenience, sharing an unknown bond, know, when the circumstances that bring people together change, the glue loosens and melts away until two people are just floating in each other’s orbits, but are no longer connected.
Sarah always saw her life roaming Brooklyn streets until the wee hours of the morning, downing drinks, and getting laid as temporary. When she meets Chris, the financier from a well-off family who finds excitement in dating a woman with a little roughness, Sarah decides to upgrade her life, which results in a distorted view of her best friend. Suddenly, the things she used to bond with Audrey over becomes the things she judges her for – staying in Brooklyn, her involvement in the music scene, and the fact that what Sarah always saw as temporary, Audrey made permanent.
Theo and Audrey fell in love quickly and unexpectedly – unexpectedly in so far as they don’t necessarily seem to fit together, but fit together they do. However, when a friend from Audrey’s past goes missing, the disappearance shines a light on secrets Audrey’s kept hidden and complicates her present. Theo and Audrey must reconcile the person they were the people they are and evaluate if the differences they find diminish their relationship.
This novel is a love story, a mystery, and a consideration of the paths we take that lead us away from people and back to them. Each character is genuinely imperfect, with things they hide and things they amplify in an effort to live the life they want. As soon as you begin reading, you’re in it. You feel like one of the gang, deep in early 2000s Brooklyn.
I highly recommend this book, particularly if you enjoy novels set in New York City, but want one that feels different from just another NYC novel.
Read It Like Rory 