Constellations of Eve
- 2022 INDIES Winner
- Honorable Mention, Literary (Adult Fiction)
A grieving woman’s suicide launches an exploration into unexplored possibilities in Abbigail Nguyen Rosewood’s novel Constellations of Eve.
In this universe, the story of Eve, Liam, and Blue—mother, father, and son—does not end happily. But there are other possibilities, other ways that their lives could have fallen apart. In the moment of Eve’s suicide, a stranger bestows a gift that opens a doorway to these roads not taken. In one of them, perhaps, Eve will find the contentment that this universe denied her.
In her other lives, the concerned stranger becomes Eve’s friend, Pari, whose beauty attracts and repels Eve in equal measure. In every incarnation, through every twist of fate, Eve, Pari, and Liam remain connected through jealousy, insecurity, resentment, and infidelity, unhappy yet unable or unwilling to break free.
Each lifetime is a new chance to explore how easily love and hate can melt into a toxic, fatal morass. Each character aches for something they cannot name, much less achieve. They remain forever skeptical of the happiness in front of them. Small deceptions snowball into irrevocable catastrophes, with lies building upon lies until even the liar cannot distinguish fantasy from reality.
The story’s supernatural framing adds a haunting touch to the story, showing that no one’s destiny is set in stone. Eve’s life, in this universe or any other, did not have to end as it did: its conclusion is the result of the decisions she made, often without realizing how significant those decisions would be until it was much too late.
Bleak yet eloquent in showing that there is more than one way to attain peace, destruction, or both at once, Constellations of Eve is a turbulent novel about the infinite possibilities contained in a single life.
Reviewed by
Eileen Gonzalez
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. No fee was paid by the publisher for this review. Foreword Reviews only recommends books that we love. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
