The Utterly Unacceptable Atrocity of Isabelle Marsden: A Novel

by Nan Sanders Pokerwinski

Fans of  Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine  will be drawn to this tale of a woman whose search for a healing refuge leads instead to entanglements, discovery of untapped talent, and a found family that steers her back from the brink of madness.

All Isabelle Marsden wants when she moves from Chicago to Kansas is a place to retreat, reassess, and regain control of her life after an ugly #MeToo experience. But after a chance encounter with a free-spirited artist who carries a wallaby in a baby sling and makes assemblages from roadkill, she’s drawn into a community of eccentrics who soon have her lobbying to rescue their Summer Solstice parade, conducting surveillance at a roadside zoo, and visiting an outsider artist’s strange, yet intriguing, sculpture garden. 

Inspired by that wild creation, Belle starts her own peculiar assemblage, convinced it’s the key to repairing her fractured life. As she uncovers her hidden creativity—and madness—her project lands her in trouble with her landlady, the city zoning department, and even the police. Ultimately, her only way through is to rely on help from her found family of oddball characters—and on her newly redefined self. 

Genres: Fiction

280 pages, Paperback

Expected publication March 17, 2026

About the author

Nan Sanders Pokerwinski is the author of The Utterly Unacceptable Atrocity of Isabelle Marsden (She Writes Press, 2026) and Mango Rash: Coming of Age in the Land of Frangipani and Fanta (Behler, 2019).

Previously, she held the position of science writer at the Detroit Free Press for more than a decade, after which she worked as a science writer for the University of Michigan News Service for fourteen years. In her freelance work, she has been a contributing editor to Health and Alternative Medicine magazines and has written for More, Fitness, Dallas Morning News, and other print and online publications. (Her journalistic work carries the byline Nancy Ross-Flanigan).

A national engineering society once awarded her first place in their writing contest for a piece on potholes. Her work has garnered other awards—from groups as diverse as the Magazine Association of the Southeast and the American Motorcyclist Association—and a Pulitzer nomination.

MANGO RASH won first place in the memoir/nonfiction category of the 2018 Pacific Northwest Writers Association literary awards. In addition, excerpts were finalists for the 2015 and 2017 Tucson Festival of Books Literary Awards, the 2015 Northern Colorado Writers Top of the Mountain Book Award, and the 2017 New Millennium Writings Literary Awards, and have been published in Colere.

When she's not writing, Nan takes photographs, makes collages, and wanders the woods around the West Michigan home she shares with her husband Ray Pokerwinski.

Reviews

[Gail · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved reading The Utterly Unacceptable Atrocity of Isabelle Marsden. The clever story, starring Belle, had me laughing and page-turning to see what happens next. The writing is inviting and drew me right in to the story and characters.

It’s a story about starting anew: beginning to overcome trauma, finding one’s true self, breaking out of a comfort zone and finding one’s people and passion.

Isabelle (Belle) moved to “a randomly selected Kansas town” thinking she’d isolate herself and get some needed R&R. Instead, from Day One she chats with Reba at a quilt show she visits. Between Reba’s persuasiveness and Belle remembering her best friend’s advice to try new things and “color outside the lines,” Reba becomes her new, kooky, artsy friend. Reba gets Belle involved in town activities and introduces Belle to her friends in the Soulstice gang, an interesting and free-spirited bunch. Through these new associations, Belle discovers new aspects of herself and begins a new and surprising art project that helps her heal from a recent trauma.

Reba has a wallaby for a pet, who, along with a fox they rescue from a roadside zoo, become sweet and lovable story characters. There’s even the possibility of a budding romance for Belle.

Artists, creatives, and readers who love something fresh and new will enjoy the ride. I’d love to read a sequel.

[Ellen Barker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this book for inspiration, as a respite, or just because it has a capybara.

Many of us dream of starting over somewhere – a place that sizzles if we’re in a rut, or a simpler place if we’re burnt out. In Atrocity we can ride along with Isabelle as she retreats to a quiet place. But of course anyone who’s been to Lawrence, Kansas, could have told her that Lawrence does not fit the vision that “Kansas” evokes. Dorothy doesn’t live there anymore, and she never lived in Lawrence. Along with Isabelle, we discover that Lawrence is a quirky place and right away we see why this novel has such a quirky title. And so the fun begins. The author has filled her story with colorful, eccentric, delightful characters who do whimsical, unconventional, and amusing things. Soon enough, so does Isabelle.

[Neha Thakkar · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a delight, a hootenanny, turquoise fever dream that was the perfect book to end 2025!

[Shelley's Book Nook · Rating 2 out of 5]

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⭐⭐
The Utterly Unacceptable Atrocity of Isabelle Marsden
Nan Sanders Pokerwinski
Publication Date: March 17th, 2026
Nancy Pokerwinski | She Writes Press
280 Pages
Amazon | Bookshop.org
Genre: Arts & Photography | General Fiction | Women's Fiction

This book is just plain weird. First of all, there is the genre, listing it as Arts & Photography, General Fiction, and Women's Fiction. Then we have the title character herself. Don't get me wrong, I love weird or quirky characters, but this one was just too out there, even for me. Belle goes from bad to worse when it comes to her social faux pas. You could even claim they are morally wrong and—yes—even unforgivable. Some may find it humorous, but I found her to be repugnant. I ended up questioning everything she did or didn't do. Is she eccentric or unbalanced? In my humble opinion, she should have been taken to a hospital and been involuntarily committed.

I know the author was going for an Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine type of vibe, but this just didn't gel with me for some reason. Maybe because I didn't like Belle very much. I found her too chaotic and frustrating. There were too many supporting characters to keep track of, and they had their own little side plots. Like I said: chaos. They were weird in their own way, so it felt like the field trip to the baseball game scene from the One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest movie—more chaos. Every social interaction and mundane observation started to grind on my nerves, and I found the "atrocities" a little too literal to endure. I had a visceral reaction to this book. There is a very fine line between "charming misfit" and "genuinely alarming," and Belle leaped right over it for me. Comparing a quirky fiction novel to the chaos of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a pretty damning (and hilarious) indictment of the vibe.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

[Kirsten Voris · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Utterly Unacceptable Atrocity of Isabelle Marsden is a warm hug of a page-turning novel about finding inspiration and healing through creativity and community.

Isabelle, is a hyper-methodical party organizer from Chicago. Eager for a reset after a sexual assault, she chooses to isolate in what is for her the middle of nowhere, Lawrence, Kansas. After a random encounter with a kangaroo-toting woman at a quilt show, Isabelle falls in with a crowd of outsider artists who, sensing her planning skills, enlist her help to pull off the rowdy annual solstice parade.

To get Isabelle into the proper spirit, the solstice gang suggests a trip to Lucas, Kansas to see the art environment, The Garden of Eden, by Civil War veteran SP Dinsmoor. Entranced, Isabelle, begins returning to Lucas to commune with the cement cherubs and winged woman, even as her rational mind devises a plan to wrest the parade permit from a reluctant official and rescue a fox from the local roadside zoo her friends hope to close down.

Isabelle quickly becomes the Gang’s resident grown up, yet the Garden of Eden works away at her unconscious mind. Her friends, including the neighbor who is sweet on her, have already seen through Isabelle’s “I’m fine” act. As they ply her with snacks and encouragement, Isabelle begins to connect with her trauma through broken china, oceans of cement, and chicken wire she pulls from her neighbor’s shed until she finds herself on the other side of the law: an outsider, accused of creating a china-flecked atrocity on the front lawn of her rental house.

Throughout the novel, Pokerwinski provides readers with insight into the materials and methods of artists without formal training who are engaged in creating idiosyncratic folk art, name checking a few real life figures in the movement, notably SP Dinsmoor.

Although the cast of characters is long enough to inspire a Dickens-like list of players at the beginning of the novel, each of them are so well drawn and colorful that this reader never felt the need to consult it.

And it was with Mary Tyler Moore Show theme, “Love Is All Around,” ringing in my ears that I landed on Pokerwinski’s pitch perfect end to this gentle story of opening to love after a wounding.

[Gerald L.]

“The Utterly Unacceptable Atrocity of Isabelle Marsden”
By Nan Sanders Pokerwinski

Five stars

In the immortal words of Dorothy Gale, “I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.” But wait! We are in Kansas. It’s just not the black-and-white, grayscale Kansas from where Dorothy came. Welcome to a technicolor Kansas full of fascinating characters (even one named Olive Pickle) imaginative artwork, a nosey neighbor, a community solstice parade, a misplaced murder charge, and even a Wallaby named Wallace. And don’t even ask about the glass eye.
The story begins with highly organized Isabelle Marsden (Belle) deciding to move from her career as an event planner in Chicago to far-away Lawrence, Kan., in part to leave behind a personal ugly chapter of her life. She rents a house but doesn’t find the solitude she was seeking. Instead, she quickly becomes acquaintances of a zany posse of friends and neighbors, each of whom have their own inner artistic spirit. They, along with her visit to a very strange nearby sculpture garden, inspire Belle to search within herself to find her own artistic creativity.
What results is Belle beginning construction of her own front-yard sculpture — and then adding on to it, and adding on to it, and adding on to it. Each element is inspired by past experiences, current friendships, and even her one friend’s pet wallaby. The artwork (Belle is never quite certain you can call it that), eventually grows to take up her entire front yard.
But is it art, or is it an atrocity? Will the community condemn it and have it demolished (Belle’s landlady would love that), or will they come to appreciate it fully as a work of art? Will Belle find healing in her newfound artistic expression?
Come along on this twisty adventure. It’s a story of family found in friends, and of the challenges of opening up oneself to criticism or acceptance. The weirdly wonderful wordsmith, author Nan Sanders Pokerwinski, will have you wondering about all of that, and wandering in a strange but colorful community in Kansas. The story will inspire you to search for and possibly express your own artful creativity.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

When we meet Belle, we learn right away that anything unconventional makes her woozy. She is all about solace, which is why she left behind a career she loved in Chicago to escape the male boss who made her life hellish.
Right away this new resident of Lawrence, Kansas wanders into a quilt show, because why not? Quilts are soothing. Maybe less soothing is the woman with an untamable tangle of hair who’s wearing a mix of wildly colorful clothes and carrying over her shoulder a wallaby named Wallace. Yes, a live wallaby. This is Reba and it’s where our adventure begins.
There’s a whole gang that comes with Belle’s new life, from Reba the artist to Roscoe the Penitentiary Poet to Jax and Lakshmi who work at the roadside zoo to Mae (aka Aquamaureen) whose clothes match the sound of her name … And that’s just for starters.
Along the way they put on a fabulous Soulstice parade, set out to save the denizens of that roadside zoo and fight city hall to save the “atrocity,” among other things. (An aside: Detroiters will love the reference to Tyree Guyton and his local creation/atrocity.)
For our Belle, there’s a lot of growth, even as it seems she’s heading for a crash until the misfits rally around her. As she said early on: “These people took some getting used to but once you acquired a taste, they were irresistible.”
The author got that so right.

[Lauren Bayne · Rating 2 out of 5]

The real atrocity was how no one actually provided Belle with mental health care as she was having a full-on manic episode and psychotic break??

It's not "the brink of madness" to feel as if sculptures are actually talking to you and as if you have the identity of a concrete sculpture. It's not "the brink of madness" to not do laundry in weeks, brush your hair, or pay bills. It's an actual issue, and while I appreciate how her found family did check on her and make sure she ate, the book awards "madness" without realizing that manic episodes are incredibly scary and deserve proper treatment. That's not art, and that's not art as healing. That's a crisis.

As for those found family members, this book tried so hard to make the characters as quirky as possible, in a way that was almost dehumanizing. Case in point: Reba having a wallaby in a baby sling (I liked the discussion about private zoos, but those animals are not and should not be treated as pets, even if it makes the characters seem quirkier!).

I try to save one star reviews for when I feel compelled to write essays about how bad it is, but I don't feel compelled with this one. I was just worried for Belle.

Thank you to NetGalley and She Writes Press for an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

[Pam Tucker · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Utterly Unacceptable Atrocity of Isabelle Marsden
By Nan Sanders Pokerwinski

The Utterly Unacceptable Atrocity of Isabelle Marsden is a multi-layered read. From the beginning chapters when the reader is introduced to a cast of unconventional characters, the plot grows in multiple, unexpected directions. The well paced plot is laced with themes of romance, loss, anger and joy.

Pokerwinski’s writing makes the inner workings of character’s minds believable as well as community celebrations, sleepy neighbourhoods in summer heat waves and high intensity career situations.  The story takes place in the real neighbourhood of North Lawrence, Kansas, which is described as off beat and full of creatives. I was pleased to learn that the S. P. Dinsmore Garden of Eden, an art park in Lucas, Kansas which is an inspiration for the main character, is also an actual place.

A major theme is the main character’s emotional tension between memories of an assault and her present day ability to deal with the aftermath. The trauma begins to be resolved through a creative project that follows an unpredictable and dangerous path, keeping the reader transfixed.

The book is original in plot, setting and character types. It is an interesting, satisfying read.

[Valerie Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

In The Utterly Unacceptable Atrocity of Isabelle Marsden by Nan Sanders Pokerwinski, the protagonist, Belle, escapes her stressful life in Chicago for Lawrence, Kansas. Her relocation isn't just a career change but a desperate attempt to find some balance and emotionally heal from being a victim of rape. This backstory serves as the catalyst for her extreme desire for privacy and her initial struggle with trust.
The atrocity of Chicago simmers quietly in the background throughout the story. On the surface Belle deals with her recovery by creating what others call an artistic atrocity near her home. Actually this new art activity leads to meeting an array of creative and interesting friends including a collection of unexpected animals that all drive the plot forward to a point where Belle has faced herself and healed.
To say the plot was full of unexpected twists and turns is an understatement. But the journey through Bell's recovery leads to a thoughtful appraisal of the power of art and friendship and honesty.

[Pynkbyrd · Rating 5 out of 5]

I work with artists and often struggle to understand where some of them are coming from. I am always curious to ask about their vision, how they can look at something that is obviously an ordinary object or scene and turn it into something magical. How do they know when a piece is done? I'm always asking this because of the time an artist came to an opening, looked at her piece after we had it for several months but had just hung the week before and she walked in, looked at her painting, went out to her car, came back in with her supplies and proceeded to work on the piece -- while it was on the wall and two hours before opening -- and announced it was finished. So this book resonated with me as Belle created her art and we got to see her vision, her madness, her creative process, and along the way, we are drawn in by the people she meets and befriends, a sort of Greek chorus who also fill us in on Belle's art.

The book is funny, heartbreaking, hopeful and entertaining. It's about found family, giving back to the universe, and healing from trauma. I cannot wait to read more books from this author.

[Cynthia McDonald · Rating 5 out of 5]

I normally read mystery books, but was asked to be an Advance Reader. I am glad that I was asked!

The colorful (literally and figuratively) characters are vividly described, as are the various locations and events, into which Belle immerses herself. You feel as though you are there.

Belle Jardin's creation and additions mirror the emotional phases that Belle experiences. And it takes a village, the Soulstice Gang, to help her heal and open herself up to the reality that she had healed and, indeed, found her family and home.

Pokerwinski's brilliant use of words draws the reader into the characters' worlds, making this a delightful book to read. I appreciated the inclusion of a list of the Cast of Characters.

[Mary McCarty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kudos to Nan Sanders Pokerwinski for creating the story of Isabelle Marsden (known as Belle to her friends). Belle seeks, and eventually finds, a new life through new neighbors, and new friends—artsy, amiable, and unique ones—in the college town of Lawrence, Kansas. 
Belle lands in Lawrence seeking haven from an abusive #Me Too experience  in Chicago. Through her new life in Kansas, Belle discovers her own untapped talents as an artist; not utterly unacceptable at all, and she gains new perspective on how to seek justice and how to heal.
After enjoying the book, I can see this story being developed as a movie or mini-series in which the colorful, unconventional characters and Belle’s artistic creation (Belle Jardin) come to life on the screen.

[Jeri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very unique book! Isabelle (Belle) Marsden leaves Chicago after an unfortunate experience at her former employer’s. Landing in Lawrence, KS, planning to lick her wounds in silent, solitary misery, she is dragged into a warm and welcoming group of unusual artistic characters, where she also finds her own artistic muse. Working through her past traumas one scoop of concrete at a time, she creates outdoor art that is unique and has supporters and detractors. At the same time, a roadside zoo is in need of a fundraiser, and Belle IS an organizational genius. Chaotic, fun, and loving. I received the ARC of this book at no charge from BookSirens and the author, but all opinions are mine.

[Sandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like beans, broth, peas, potatoes, carrots, cabbage, and tender chunks of Kansas-raised beef, the idiosyncratic characters in Pokerwinski’s latest book simmer into a warm and satisfying found-family stew. Why Kansas beef? The story begins there, with an outsider moving into a small town, becoming a reluctant insider, believing she’s escaping but learning she’s finding herself. If, like me, you enjoy a woman-starting-over story, pick up a copy of “The Utterly Unacceptable Atrocity of Isabelle Marsden.” Inspired in part by the author’s visits to the Garden of Eden in Lucas, Kansas, it’s utterly delightful.

[Madae · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book. The title and concept are clever. There were way too many characters and too many side plots that did not enhance the story. Every character was so eccentric that characters became caricatures. Belle was easy to like in the beginning and I was rooting for her, but her behavior was manic and, frankly unlikeable, towards the end. Other readers may enjoy this book, but it was a miss for me.

I received an advanced copy from Netgalley for my review.

[Justine King · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a cute and quirky story, humorous at times but also makes you feel a little bit sad for Isabelle and throughout the book all you want is for her to be settled and happy. Not giving away any spoilers away though you will have read and find out. Very enjoyable and I'm now on the search for a pet wallaby now !

[Sally Pobojewski · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fleeing memories of a traumatic event, Isabelle Marsden seeks refuge in a small Kansas town where she discovers the power of art and friendship. This charming novel has eccentric characters, plot twists and a heart-warming ending. Belle’s story shows that it’s never too late to unleash your creativity.

[Julia Richardson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Belle moves from Chicago to Kansas to get away from the events that have left her shattered. This move will prove to be the best decision she’s ever made! I will say if you get through the first 1/4 of this story, it really starts to come alive! I loved then watching Belle’s story unfold!

[Kathryn]

After escaping a traumatic experience while living in Chicago, Isabelle Marsden picks a random spot on the map, leading her to a found family fever dream in Lawrence, Kansas. This was a lovely, feel-good story filled to the brim with quirky characters, wild mishaps, and proof of the value of art and community in times of crisis.

[Jackie Muske · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved how Nan weaved in everyone has unique talents and to shine with the talents. You do not have to chose one talent over another. Plus people that get you, do not want to change you or judge. I plan in buying copies of this book to give to share with others.