Review of “Heated Earth: Aedgar Moves In” by Miki Mitayn

Score: 89/100 (8.9 out of 10)

Heated Earth: Aedgar Moves In by Miki Mitayn crosses multiple genres (and dimensions)! It can probably be described as a new age, spiritual, LGBTQA+, multicultural, paranormal, surrealist drama. You could even make an argument that it has some horror elements. Wow! Phew! That's quite a blend!

This novel centers around two lesbian partners who leave the Australian desert-lands and move to America under some pretty extraordinary circumstances. Dr. Nerida Green is an Aboriginal woman whose life's calling seems to be to help and save as many people as possible, making her perfect for her career in healthcare.

One of the most unique aspects of Nerida is that, as one of the Aborigines, she grew up being viewed and treated very differently by others, often negatively. Those experiences are compared and contrasted very interestingly with those of the Jews and Gypsies from whom Nerida's wife, Mari, descends from, making this novel a fascinating look at minorities and other marginalized people. Speaking of marginalized people, those experiences are compared and contrasted with Nerida and Mari's LGBTQA+ status, which is heavily taboo in many societies.

In comparison to her wife, Mari, Nerida is much more of a realist, being what most of us would call “the rational” or “scientifically-minded” one—at least to begin the tale. As a medical doctor, it kinda comes with the territory. However, her relationship with Mari and subsequent experiences (some of which are paranormal and spiritual) gradually break down her walls.

Mari is a channeler/spiritual medium who actively attempts to communicate with beings beyond our mortal comprehension. Some might call Mari a psychic, shaman, or even a witch. While Nerida mostly deals with the tangible and physical, Mari deals with the spiritual and metaphysical. Mari is essentially a living Ouija board, something which is humorously alluded to. She enters a state known as a deep trance in which she attempts to communicate with other entities.

One such entity, who becomes the focus of much of the book, is Aedgar.

Aedgar claims to be a being who is millions of years old who was there in the beginning of the Earth. It is even said that he helped in its formation/creation. Aedgar is supposed to serve the role of what we'd call a revelator, a being with knowledge outside of the normal plane of existence that humans exist in. In other words, this is someone who reveals secret knowledge or wisdom to a human person. If this sounds a bit wild, it is, but it's not unheard of. Many major religions including Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism—the biggest faiths in the world—have included a being (or beings) who reveal secret, divine knowledge to humanity.

In a sort of paradox to this, Aedgar—despite fitting the mold of a revelator—actually rejects such faiths and religions, saying that the religions of the world are man-made constructions intended to control people.

Aedgar also has a lot more to say about human nature and the planet. For example, does the planet/nature actually need humanity or is it the other way around?

He also has interesting ideas about life, time, and memories, having lived for so long and having so many experiences. Aedgar, from what we gathered, also had a homosexual relationship with a being named Aiden at a time when such relationships were very taboo or even forbidden. This is something that compares and contrasts with the relationship between the two female leads.

Now, to be honest, we never felt like we fully trusted either Aedgar or Mari.

Even though she's a full-grown woman, Mari comes across like the creepy little girl in every horror movie who can't leave well enough alone and thinks she's made an imaginary friend; and, in the process, has summoned the devil into the house to disrupt and terrorize the family. We kinda got Paranormal Activity 2 vibes from this.

However, the biggest issues with this book are actually the pacing and lack of focus. It drags heavily in the middle portions. Part of that is that the author decided to tackle so many themes and issues all at once and all in one book. This is supposed to be a series, right? We highly recommend spreading all that stuff out.

We didn't even mention (yet) that Mari is disabled and uses braces on her legs like Little Forest Gump. That's because we didn't really have time or room to mention that earlier. There was so much going on. Both characters have all these layers and issues, yet they seem to clash with the flow and pacing of the narrative. It's like stop and go a lot of the time. One minute, the characters could be exploring and discussing their sexuality, the next minute they could be talking about some profound thing that Aedgar said about the existence of the universe or why climate change is bad, then the next minute you could get a discussion about how difficult it is to be Aboriginal. It just seems like too much all at once. It's like having a sardine can that's meant for five fish, but packing ten in there. It's like writing a research paper with eight different theses or “main points” and trying to defend all of them in the same paper.

Oh, and by the way, Nerida is also recovering from an eating disorder. We didn't mention that earlier because... well, where were we supposed to fit that in? That's like an entire different plot onto itself.

Now, we digress a little. Nerida's eating disorder might actually be the most interesting thing about her—even more so than the Aboriginal prejudice and medical stuff. It really gets into the psychology of her character, and it's actually something that we can sympathize and relate to. The problem, again, is that it doesn't seem to fit. There's no room for that plot-thread to breathe because it needs to coexist with the twenty other plot-threads that are running concurrently. Couldn't the author have just teased her having this disorder and maybe dove deeper into it in a different book? There isn't really space here for it, at least not without distracting and derailing from the main plot.

And what is the main plot supposed to be? Is it supposed to be that Aborigines are marginalized people who got screwed over by western colonialism? Cause that seems to take a back seat to the relationship and supernatural stuff. Is it whether or not Nerida will put aside her skepticism and realism to accept spirituality like she's spent a month on a magic island with John Locke? Cause that feels like a foregone conclusion. There was no way she was going to dismiss something that's so important to Mari.

Now, this book does have some bright spots. There are some memorable lines in here like:

“It’s just a matter of recalling, realising that your memories are the wrong ones and you have to focus on the right ones.”

There are also some tasty and even funny lines that could've only been spoken or written by someone from Australia like:

“Henrietta was thin as a dingo”

Look, this book is a bit odd, clunky, scatterbrained, and unfocused, but we did enjoy it. And you don't have to follow along and agree with any of the characters, especially Aedgar. In fact, you're free to draw your own conclusion and make your head cannon. In fact, this book seems to advocate for more freedom and for people thinking for themselves (rather than being manipulated and controlled by others).

Check it out on Amazon!