My review, therefore, touches on these topics as well. It is important to note that the majority of the themes explored in this book deal with sensitive subject matters. What they find there could change them forever. Marissa’s unique and, some may think, macabre work is her salvation, but it’s pulling her further and further away from Patrick.Īs the two couples confront the fraught intersection of science, death, and human emotion, they venture into the darkest corners of each other’s lives.

But as he spirals ever deeper into Amanda’s illness, his own homelife crumbles as his wife, Marissa, struggles to cope with her own loss.

Patrick understands the strange twists and turns of the human mind better than anyone. Betrayed by her mind and body and her marriage strained, Amanda turns to neuroscientist Patrick Davis for answers. Her diagnosis is a rare, mysterious condition called pseudocyesis. Even though her doctors tell her otherwise, Amanda believes she’s still pregnant. The early weeks of her first pregnancy are a mixture of joy, anticipation, and uncertainty as she and her husband prepare for the journey ahead. Washington’s riveting debut novel dives into the raw emotions of a grieving mother whose quest to heal from a mysterious condition threatens to unravel the lives of those around her.Īmanda Jackson has always longed to be a mother. The timeline can be confusing, and the lyrical quality of the writing is bogged down by the vocal performances by Jordan Cobb, Will Damron, Andrew Eiden, and Megan Tusing.C.J. The writing is rich and complex, though at times ventures into the hard-to-follow scientific language of high-level academia. The four characters’ lives are intertwined when Patrick, a neuroscientist, is enlisted to support Amanda with an additional complication of her miscarriage, pseudocyesis, or “phantom pregnancy.” What follows is a story of love, loss, science, and the search for answers to life’s big questions. An interwoven story of two marriages, the novel follows Amanda and Derrick, struggling with a recent pregnancy loss, and Patrick and Marissa, who are dealing with a crumbling marriage and a traumatic loss of their own. These subjects are nuanced and difficult under the best of circumstances, and are complicated further in Washington’s story by trauma, grief, and questions of what it means to be human. Washington’s cerebral debut delves into the complex territory of intimacy and relationships.

The Intangible by C.J. Washington