Book Review: Shae
by Grace Grocholski
In Mesha Maren’s third novel, Shae, the pain of first love, addiction, queerness, and coming of age intermix in a devastating, fast-paced read. The reader is pulled in immediately as Shae tells her story in her own voice, recounting her story growing up in West Virginia. Shae introduces the concept of subjectivity in the opening pages. “I thought it meant something deeply bad, the fact that we don’t remember it the same way,” Shae recalls meeting her first romantic partner, Cam. “But sometimes now I picture Cam’s version and it feels more real. I can smell the rain on the concrete and the way if fuzzes up the air, the heat turning rain into steam.”
The reader later finds out why this framing is being used: she is recalling events as she writes an assignment for her drug rehabilitation program in prison. The reader learns about the events in Shae’s subjective retelling as they unfold throughout her young adulthood. As an adolescent, a fateful summer introduces Shae to a new face in her town: Cam, who presents as female. Shae is intrigued by Cam’s style, androgynous and punk. They bond one afternoon when Cam introduces Shae to heavy metal music with the band Neurosis, played in Shae’s empty house while her mother is at work. A spark is lit and the two become inseparable, quickly forming a relationship whose impacts will prove life-altering and consequential for Shae. In a pivotal scene, Shae realizes she is pregnant with Cam’s child.
Shae has their daughter Eva while still in high school, dropping out to care for the newborn. Although supportive of Shae, Cam is strong in her individuality and begins her gender transition. After a traumatic childbirth and subsequent infection, Shae is given Oxycontin for her pain. New motherhood and the formation of a drug dependency set the stage for the book’s remaining chapters. As Cam pulls away and becomes her own person, Shae is left to chart her own path, with little guidance. As her dependency deepens, she finds work with Kandice, a woman for whom she babysits occasionally. Kandice introduces her to Southern X-Posure, a seedy club off of the interstate, and Shae begins dancing as a hustle to get cash for her habit. As she spirals, her relationship with her mom, Cam, and Eva is strained. Eventually, Cam takes custody of Eva, which sends Shae to the very edge.
In the familiar downward spin of addiction, the drugs dissolve Shae’s pain temporarily but create problems of their own. Shae travels to dark places further and further away from Cam and from her family, but the reader empathizes with her path of destruction, and wills her to succeed in the end. The last chapter sees Shae finding success in a drug rehabilitation program from prison, a sceneinspired by Maren’s own work as a teacher at a correctional facility.
Heartbreaking and raw, Maren’s prose is masterful: concise and knife-sharp. In his book blurb, author Carter Sickels accurately says, “The sentences shimmer with precision, elegance, and grit.” Each chapter could be a stand-alone short story—they are that complete. From the raw beauty of Appalachia to the dark struggle of its characters, Maren creates a space of empathy, and the book is saturated with evocative prose. In the end, Shae’s dire situation still has room for hope, as she begins to tell her own story. Readers will find redemption in the retelling and feel for all the characters in this heart-breaking and un-put-downable novel.
Grace Grocholski is a part-time librarian, full-time bookworm. In her spare time, she enjoys running, baking, and feeding her online chess addiction.
