Week twenty-three of Lite Reads comes to a close, as we finish with our short story selection Mrs. Sorensen and the Sasquatch by Kelly Barnhill. Throughout the past two weeks, there have been questions as food for thought on social media as people had the chance to read it and think about it. Before I announce the next Lite Reads selection (January 27), I will be sharing my own thoughts here. Spoilers ahead for those who haven’t finished reading the story yet.
Mrs. Sorensen and the Sasquatch is a touching fantasy romance story that is both simply straight forward and pleasantly nuanced. As we follow the widow, Agnes Sorensen, and her community as she grieves for her husband and enters a relationship with a Sasquatch, we see a sweet love story surrounded by the complexities of grief, being in the public eye, the influence of religion on different folks, and societal expectations when it comes to love.
I generally really enjoy both fantasy stories and romance stories, so when the two are combined, it often hits me in all the right places. This is certainly no exception. Set in a world where Sasquatches are to be expected, even if they are fairly uncommon, starring a character who has a Disney’s Snow White level of affinity for animals, the fantasy aspects were quite prominent, but not overwhelming. The romance aspects follow a common romance plot trope where after losing a loved one, the character reunites and falls in love anew with a romantic interest from the past. In this case, Mrs. Sorensen reunites with a Sasquatch from her youth. This isn’t a main point in the story, but we do hear of a young Agnes asking is a Sasquatch may be baptised and crying when she hears there is no precedent allowing for it, as well as of a Sasquatch letting out pained cries on the night of her wedding. It was touching to see them get their happily ever after, especially after so long. I do wish the story had spent a bit more time viewing this more from the titular characters’ perspectives than it did the perspectives of the priest and townsfolk at large, but it still made for a lovely love story.
I think the community and society expectations for Agnes Sorensen are interestingly portrayed. I think it seems all too real that the community expects Mrs. Sorensen to remain single for a time before choosing a traditional partner as her new love, as this is typically what society expects of widowed women as a whole, especially when they are fairly young and attractive. I thought it was also interesting to see how different members of the community reacted to the new relationship, with reactions ranging from kindly and understanding, to confused but not angry, to pure outrage and disgust. I think many of these reactions fit the characters well, but also served to define them in many ways.
The ways that this story uses religion and religious characters is something I found interesting. The story is obviously set in a small and religious community, with Agnes Sorensen attending church regularly, even with all of her peculiarities making her a bit of a misfit by traditional standards. The priest plays an important role in the story, and he embodies many of the positive aspects of faith, such as love and acceptance and caring, without ever feeling like an inhuman or impersonal paragon. The trio of elderly sisters, widows themselves, seem to embody much of what can feel toxic about religion. I personally grew up in a small town with many churches, and these sisters reminded me of many of the more toxic church-goers from my childhood community. These sisters seem to represent much of what is wrong in conservative religious communities where people are more concerned with appearances than with love, acceptance, and the more positive aspects of spirituality.
The way the setting is described throughout the story does a lot to provide information about the place, the people, and the story. Barnhill does a brilliant job of applying “show not tell” in this way. The way she makes use of not just visuals, but intense scents associated with everything from the weather to the people, really impacts how the setting can be viewed as a reader. The weather and nature play a large part in how the scenery is viewed, but also in how we can view the story and the people living there. I found Barnhill’s setting descriptions allowed me to picture a small community in a way that made the plot seem more natural to me because it brought the characters to life as the folks who make up small-town life.
Overall, I really enjoyed Mrs. Sorensen and the Sasquatch. Seeing what truly was a sweet and tender love story form under such strange circumstances and between less than typical people was really nice to read, and it all happened in such an interesting fantasy setting surrounded by such mundane small-town residents. It isn’t complex, but it is written in a way that leaves you with a warm story and a lot to think about that, and I think that is often better than complexity.
I hope everyone who participated by reading the story and following along on social media enjoyed the story. If you have more thoughts to add, please feel free to comment on this post, or anywhere on The Feminist Bibliothecary’s social media. Week twenty-four begins tomorrow, January 27, with a brand new short story selection!
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