Staff Pick
This novel explores the dark and terrifying world of delusion and madness. Kimmel uses an unreliable narrator to chaotic, shocking, and surreal effect. While Trace descends into madness, the reader struggles to untangle the threads of this story, but is rewarded by prose that is achingly beautiful, intelligent, lush, and challenging. Iodine is an amazing, fantastic, whirlwind of a character study, with an explosive ending. An absolutely stunning five-star read! Recommended By Dianah H., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
#1
New York Times bestselling author Haven Kimmel makes an exhilarating foray into psychological gothic territory with the electrifying story of a young woman emerging from layers of delusion, fantasy, and lies.
With her astounding intelligence, fierce independence, and otherworldly lavender eyes, college senior Trace Pennington makes an indelible impression even as questions about her past and her true identity hover over every page. From her earliest years, Trace turned away from her abusive mother toward her loving father. Within the twisty logic of abuse, her desperate love for him took on a romantic cast that persists to this day, though shes had no contact with her family since she ran away from home years ago. Shes eked out an impoverished but functional existence, living in an abandoned house, putting herself through college—and leading a double life: at school she is Ianthe Covington, a young woman with no past.
Traces solitary life is upended when she and her literature professor fall in love. As it becomes apparent that he has his own dark secrets, shes forced to face herself and her past. After recovering a horrific, long-suppressed memory, Trace finally copes with the fallout from her brutal childhood. This unique portrait of the psychological effects of trauma is tantalizing, shocking, and ultimately hopeful.
Review
"In her fourth novel, Kimmel offers a beautifully wrought portrait of the brilliant and psychotic Trace Pennington, a runaway now scraping by in an Indiana farmhouse while completing her final year of college.... Trace is haunted by a disturbing personal history, hinted at via dreams, startling recollections and entries in her journal.... Kimmel skillfully weaves together Trace's lucid moments and her diminishing sanity, providing a full picture of a troubled woman whose identity, past and present are repeatedly called into question." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Synopsis
"New York Times"-bestselling author Kimmel once again draws on her exceptional powers of observation and empathy in "Iodine," a story in which she presents the electrifying chronicle of a young woman emerging from layers of delusion, fantasy, and lies.
About the Author
Haven Kimmel is the author of The Used World, She Got Up Off the Couch, Something Rising (Light and Swift), The Solace of Leaving Early, and A Girl Named Zippy. She studied English and creative writing at Ball State University and North Carolina State University and attended seminary at the Earlham School of Religion. She lives in Durham, N.C.
Table of Contents
Chapter One: Two Dogs
Chapter Two: Caduceus
Chapter Three: Pluto
Chapter Four: Oneirocritica
Chapter Five: Puella Aeterna
Chapter Six: Revenants
Chapter Seven: Nekyia
Chapter Eight: Kerberos
Chapter Mine: Eros
Chapter Ten: Familiaris
Chapter Eleven: Hekate
Acknowledgments Reading Group Guide
Group Discussion 1. The opening line of the first chapter is among the most shocking imaginable: "I never / I never had sex with my father but I would have, if he had agreed." What was your reaction to this confession? Did you make any assumptions about the narrator or anticipate what might follow?
2. What do you later learn about Trace's affections for her father? How does Colt respond to Trace's extreme adoration? Where do you think these feelings come from and do they carry into Trace's relationships in her adult life at all?
3. In their discussion about a man Candy hears on the radio claiming to have been abducted by aliens, the concept of "screen memory" is mentioned. Reread this passage (pp. 13-14) and define this term. Are there any examples of possible screen memories that Trace relays to the reader?
4. Describe Trace's relationship with her other immediate family members - her mother Loretta, her stepfather Marty, her brother Billy and her sister Dusty. What is your interpretation of the events that took place in regard to Marty in Trace's childhood? Do you view her as a victim, a martyr, a nymph, a hero, or simply an innocent little girl?
5. Just before Trace happens upon the Nation of Islam stockpiling center, Kimmel writes, "no one knew better than she how much there is to fear, and that the threat is never where you expect it to be." What are the threats in Trace's life? What does she fear? Do you think these fears represent a kind of paranoia or are justified?
6. In her dream journal entry on p.49 Trace writes, "the whole of the past, even what belongs to someone else, is not what happened but what happened to me; dreams are not autonomous, they are messages to me about me." What is Trace saying here about personal reflection and consciousness?
7. Trace records incredibly vivid dreams and memories, many of which include the presence of animals. What is the significance of these animal dreams? Are they comforting or frightening for Trace?
8. In the end we discover that Trace has seizures and a disassociative personality disorder. Is this something you suspected all along? How does this information color your reading of Trace's story? What is the traumatic event that launched her into this state?
9. Who is Ianthe Covington?
10. When the doctor asks Jacob and Trace how long they've been married, Trace thinks four months and Jacob says four years. What do you make of this gap in the perception of time?
Enhance Your Book Club
1. Contact your book club members a week before meeting and encourage them to keep a dream journal for a week. See what interesting images emerge.
2. Do your homework and look up the terms that head each chapter. What relevance do these words have to the novel?
3. Read a bit about James Hillman, the psychologist who Trace frequently mentions, at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Hillman.