The Doloriad by Missouri Williams

Missouri Williams' The Doloriad is a cruel, brutal, post-apocalyptic look at the bonds of family and the inherent disaster of being born

Book Review by Katie Goh | 03 Mar 2022
  • The Doloriad
Book title: The Doloriad
Author: Missouri Williams

If only they weren’t alone. Born after a mysterious, world-altering, cataclysmic event, an incestous family carves out a pitiful existence in the post-apocalypse. Humanity has begun again, born from the Matriarch, the family’s mother who rules over her dysfunctional brood with an iron fist and television set. Her children – biting, bullying, binding characters with equal parts hatred and devotion in their hearts – ache for something more than just survival in this poisoned wasteland.

After one of the children, the legless, ostracised Dolores, is left in the forest to die – sacrificed after the Matriarch dreams of another group of survivors – her miraculous return the next day marks the end of the new world order. What if there’s something more out there, existing beyond the shadows? And what if that something more could feel like salvation? 

Told with brutal lyricism, The Doloriad is a novel about the inherent disaster of being born. As the siblings work to break each others’ spirits (and bodies), the archaic blood bonds of family are pulled taut. Missouri Williams writes with winding, weighty prose, as the novel’s sentences anchor themselves to these depraved human souls. A strong stomach – and stronger heart – may be required for The Doloriad’s world, but living amongst the cruelty, the disgust and the despair is a formidable novel about the ancient beauty of just staying alive. 

Extreme close up on a grinning face with curly hair. Text overlaid on image reads 'The Doloriad, Missouri Williams'


Dead Ink, out now, £9.99
https://deadinkbooks.com/product/the-doloriad/