A thought provoking, deep story that presents a question and follows several characters through the answer. At it’s core, The Poppy Fields is about grief, and about how everyone experiences grief differently, even when grieving the same person.
Somewhere off the grid is a treatment facility called The Poppy Fields. It is for those going through a grieving process, mostly those who have lost a loved one. There are also those that now have a disability- a skilled surgeon who can no longer perform surgery, and more than one person who has been betrayed and divorce. But the vast majority are those that go through a screening process only to be put into a deep sleep that lasts a month or two.
When the sleepers awake, they feel different- usually better- they have lived through and skipped through the gut wrenching part of the grieving process.
They are not without their detractors- there are people who protest their choice.
We follow several characters- Sasha, who lost her fiance and was rejected by The Poppy Fields, Ray, a firefighter whose brother chose the treatment after mourning a boy on his shift as an EMT. Also we meet Ada, who is traveling there to find her sister, and her dog PJ. It is great there is a dog in this because it can be heavy and depressing at times, and honestly the book just needs a dog.
I was fortunate enough to be able to read an E-ARC of this title at the same time as the audiobook. I like to use audio and then go back to the text and scan through to see if there are any important plot points I missed while listening to audio (there always are, no matter how attentive I am to audiobooks!)
What I liked- this is a deep and moving story, I liked every single one of the characters. I love that with Nikki Erilick’s stories, you learn things as time goes by, there are plot elements revealed every so often and short chapters that will have your pages turning. I loved this, even more than her first novel, The Measure.
This book is great for book clubs, if your book club is good about being personal and transparent, because at its core, this is about how people grieve differently. Some people want to numb out the grief, others need to sit in it. Some people use unhealthy coping strategies. There is no “one size fits all,” and the treatment center is not portrayed as perfect nor as evil. It is a choice some people make, and that has repercussions in their lives. There is also a “side effect” that affects 25% of the sleepers, which I won’t reveal, but it adds an element to people’s choice to enter The Poppy Fields.
This book can be heavy at times, and you may not be up for a book about grief, so bear this in mind. But I found the book to be extremely readable, accessible and has extraordinary pacing. It is a road trip that occurs when strangers are brought together by a travel disruption and is a journey for each of them within their cross country journey.
The Poppy Fields is going to be one of the best Speculative Fiction books of 2025.
Audiobook review- this book has a lot of characters and also many narrators. I found the performances to be top-notch. On audio it can be difficult to follow so many characters as well as time jumps and interspersed with interview transcripts and magazine article clips. It can be a bit confusing to follow on audio, I would suggest a piece of scratch paper with character names. As mentioned I was able to read along with audio which is a luxury for those with ADHD or other learning challenges. I did enjoy the audio and would highly recommend it.
Thanks to Netgalley, Harper Audio and William Morrow for the E-ARC and ALC. Book will be published June 17, 2025.
