Strange Loops by Liz Harmer

The characters, brought to life in Strange Loops through Liz Harmer’s precise and crisp dialogue, are passionate and flawed and tragic. So much so, that the novel practically pulses with want. Need. Desire.

 The story is told from alternating points of view between twins Francine and her brother Philip, while oscillating from the present to the past in a flawlessly executed structure. Brother and sister are drastically different people. Where Philip is quiet and passive, Francine is bold and daring. Despite their differences, they are both seekers, aching for something more, yearning to be filled up, to burn with the zeal of being fully alive. This hunger drives the twins towards people that inevitably disappoint and traps them in cyclical behaviours that ironically pulls them further from the fulfilment they ultimately crave. These characters are so believable in their desire and need for love and acceptance that the reader will either love them or hate them. Francine is tragically compelling in her constant tendency for self-sabotage, while Philip is maddeningly vindictive and stunted by an anger that is fed and nourished for over a decade. Harmer captures something of familial dysfunction in this novel, how the wounds we inflict on each other, both knowingly and unknowingly, can fester and turn to infection. But she also reveals the fragile vulnerability between siblings—those people who have known us the longest and, for that reason, perhaps know us better than anyone else ever will.

These characters … and that ending! … stayed with me well after reading. A great selection for a book club read; this novel will get you talking! Prepare to be ignited. Or inflamed.

 Thank you to Knopf Canada for sending me this book to read and review.

Strange Loops by Liz Harmer  Knopf Canada, 2023, pp. 246 ISBN: 978-0-345-81127-1