My Brilliant Friend

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Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Author: Heather Fawcett
Genres: Middle Grade, Fiction
Pub. Date: Jun. 2023

I finally finished it!

I’ve been working on this book for literal months. I’m shocked because it’s so beloved, but I found it incredibly slow moving and frankly boring. I was only able to finish it because I switched to a library audiobook for the last 100 pages. It did get a lot more compelling towards the end, but I’m not sure if it’s that the plot got more interesting or that it worked better as an audiobook. I listened to the sample months ago and thought I didn’t like the narrator at all, but actually, she did a pretty good job.

I do get why people like this book. I found it to be incredibly tedious, but I can still acknowledge that Ferrante is a perceptive author. I’m not ready to say she’s talented because of how slow the writing is, but her examination of relationships and conflict is very well done. I felt that she examined every facet of Lila and Elena’s friendship and every emotion that makes us human. Their relationship is very complicated, with both girls oscillating between admiration and jealousy. Elena’s infatuation with Lila results in an imbalance in their friendship and heavily influences the way she views herself. She wants to be like Lila, and her constant comparison between them only leads to her own unhappiness. Likewise, I believe that Lila knows she will never truly measure up to her brilliant friend and seeks to control Elena in other ways to maintain her own sense of self-worth.

At least, that was my interpretation of their friendship. But it’s so nuanced that I was never sure if these girls secretly loved or hated one another. I think there is a genuine friendship there, but it’s buried under many layers of conflicting feelings.

Ferrante goes incredibly in depth to the lives of Lila and Elena. While I found it quite boring for most of the book, I think it does contribute to the success of the story. Ferrante lives and breathes this world. It is incredibly well realized and nuanced, and I felt that I was living Elena’s life rather than just reading about it. This depth brings the characters to life, and I’ve always felt that a well realized set of minor characters is what makes a world so compelling.

I debated quitting this book around the 200-page mark and several people encouraged me to keep going. I wanted to finish, but I was pretty convinced I wouldn’t continue the series. I do admit to feeling the pull to continue now that I’ve finished. It reminds me of State of Wonder by Ann Patchett. The content couldn’t be more different, but it also took me months to finish State of Wonder, and when I did finish it, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Even though I didn’t enjoy most of the reading experience, it made for a memorable book. I have a sneaking suspicion that may be the case with this book, so I’ll give it a few days and see if I want to keep going. I’ll definitely be continuing with audiobook if I do – I am a little intrigued.

Side note: what kind of author names their main character their actual name? This mystified me.

The Islands of Elsewhere

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Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Author: Heather Fawcett
Genres: Middle Grade, Fiction
Pub. Date: Jun. 2023

Heather Fawcett amazes me so much. She’s a local (to me) author and she just keeps pumping out books at a wild pace! It’s been so great to see her first adult book, Emily Wilde, getting so much praise, but don’t sleep on her YA and middle grade books! She never disappoints and consistently knocks it out of the park with her settings.

I’m still working my way through her middle grade books, but I read this one was about Vancouver Island and bumped it up on my list. She writes mostly fantasy, but I would say this book is more magical realism or fantasy lite. There’s some ghosty references, but otherwise it’s pretty much fiction.

Anyways, she nails the setting as usual. The Islands Of Elsewhere is about the 3 Snolly sisters, who travel to their granddaddy’s property in coastal Vancouver Island for the summer to help their mom look after him as he battles dementia. They learn about a potential buried treasure that they believe would enable them to move to their granddaddy’s property permanently to look after him, so they set out to explore the nearby fairy islands.

It’s a nice family story, with just enough spookyness from the remote setting. It’s a fictional town, but it’s clearly modeled after Tofino, so I loved imagining the 3 sisters running around the beaches and exploring coves. It’s a fun and lighthearted read, my only criticism would be that it’s maybe a little too conveniently packaged in the end. Lots of children likely have had or will have exposure to their grandparents becoming forgetful and I would have liked to see that theme explored in a little more depth. It’s sad, but children are resilient.

Otherwise, a really quick and nice summer read (though I read it in December lol).

The Sweetest Remedy

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Rating: ⭐⭐.5
Author: Jane Igharo
Genres: Fiction, Romance
Pub. Date: Sep. 2021

I picked this up right away after really enjoying Ties That Tether, but unfortunately, it didn’t have any of the same charm. Both books are a bit overwritten and don’t do a very good job at “show don’t tell”. But the characters in Ties That Tether had a lot of chemistry, which I felt was really lacking from this story. The romance was very instalove and it didn’t feel organic to the rest of the story.

The central story is really about Hannah meeting her estranged family for the first time and discovering her Nigerian heritage. Hannah grows up bi-racial, living with her white mother and never knowing her Nigerian father. When he passes away suddenly, she is invited to attend his funeral and get to know the rest of her family, meeting an interesting family friend, Lawrence, along the way, to whom she is attracted.

Overall, I thought the story had a very strong central idea, with lots of really great themes to explore around identity, class, family, heritage, and racism. Even though this is labeled as a romance, I actually found the romance detracted from the rest of the story. While it had a great premise, it was lacking in depth.

All of the characters felt really one dimensional and there wasn’t real tension between any of them, despite the author continuously setting up barriers between each of the characters. In my opinion, none of the conflicts had any real emotional depth, and the characters were basically wealthy Nigerian royalty, so it was really hard to relate to them or feel any empathy for them. I empathized with Hannah, but I don’t think the author committed to the entire spectrum of grief that Hannah likely would have experienced. Where was the rage at her father and his family for casting her out? Where was the deep sadness about never having the opportunity to know her father? Even the children who did know him hardly seemed to be mourning him, so the entire thing just read like a fantasy.

Which is really the problem I had with this book. I felt like the author had lived Ties That Tether. She understood Azere’s interpersonal conflict and feelings. Even though Azere and I have almost nothing in common, her emotions and longing were still incredibly relatable. I’m not convinced the author really understood the content of what she was trying to say in this book. Everything about this story read like a self-insert fantasy to me. If you grew up disconnected from your heritage, I could see the longing of gaining a family and a culture and finally feeling seen. But how easily the siblings accepted Hannah, and how they were so rich, and how she immediately meets a sensitive and nice Nigerian man to instruct her in the ways of Nigerian culture, seemed so transparently a fantasy to me. Like the author was dreaming about being adopted into a rich and affluent family.

There was no tension between Hannah and Lawrence, and there was no tension between the siblings – except for Tiya. Everyone was too easily accepted and forgiven. Sure, everyone wants a happy ending, but this was too convenient. Give me some grit! It’s a fluffy read, but neither of Igharo’s books are really fluffy stories. Ties That Tether had a good balance, but it was lost in The Sweetest Remedy and the plotline felt detached from reality.

Anyways, I like it less now that I’ve written the review. It was a disappointment. Read Ties That Tether and skip this one. 2.5 stars.

Ties That Tether

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Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Author: Jane Igharo
Genres: Fiction, Romance
Pub. Date: Sep. 2020

I picked this book up a few years ago at Powell’s Bookstore as an impulse buy, but I’ve never felt much draw to actually read it. The only reason I think I finally picked it up was because I found the audiobook at my library and the narrator sounded really good, so I listened to it over Christmas while on my jigsaw puzzle kick.

I’m so glad I finally did read it, because it was a lot different and better than I was anticipating. Azere is Nigerian-Canadian. She grew up in Toronto and has been heavily influenced by Canadian culture, but her parents still cling to their Nigerian roots and raise her in fear that she will lose her connection to Nigeria. Her father passes when she is 12 and his dying wish is for her to marry a Nigerian man – a promise that holds Azere hostage for her entire adult life.

Her mother is particularly threatened by the potential loss of culture in her children and is a domineering presence in Azere’s life. Despite working for a successful marketing firm, Azere is characterized as a failure by her mother for not being married or having children. Her mother routinely tries to set her up with Nigerian men and doesn’t seem to care whether those men are actually well suited to her daughter or not. So one night Azere acts out after a bad date and has a one-night stand with a white man, who later resurfaces at her marketing firm as her new co-worker.

This is marketed as a romance, and it definitely has a romantic plot, but I would shelve it more as general fiction. I know this culture conflict is a common refrain for many immigrants, including many of my friends, so I think it makes for a compelling and nuanced story. The characters are frustrating, but you also know they’re coming from a place of love, so it’s hard to either accept or condemn their actions. That said, Azere’s mom definitely had some things to apologize for, but it was nice to see Azere finally take control over her own life and say, “enough is enough”.

My main criticism would be that I thought Rafael had some glaring flaws that I didn’t really like in a male love interest. He hid his past from Azere, and while I understood it was because of the trauma associated with what happened, I didn’t think it was very fair of him to rake her over the coals for not accepting him when we wasn’t willing to share his whole self with her. He also had temper issues that I didn’t have any tolerance for.

But overall, I was pleasantly surprised by this book and quickly rushed out to pick up a copy of her second book, The Sweetest Remedy. I’d definitely recommend the audio version, but I did switch back and forth between audio and paperback and enjoyed both!

Float Plan

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Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Author: Trish Doller
Genres: Fiction, Romance
Pub. Date: Mar. 2021

This was fine. Not the best, not the worst; a bit bland and ultimately forgettable.

While this is a romance, I’d say it’s more general fiction than romance, as it centers around a young woman trying to come to terms with the death of her fiancé by suicide. If that sounds like a heavy topic for a romance, it’s because it is.

It is handled well. I can only imagine how painful it would be to be in Anna’s shoes and this is primarily a book about her processing her grief and learning how to move forward with her life. One day she walks out of her job and her life and decides to take her sailboat on a 1700 mile trip through the Caribbean that she was planning with her fiancé.

Along the way, she hires Irishman/sailor Keane to support her on her journey, but he is battling his own demons after losing his leg in an accident and struggling to find work. The story follows these two individuals to beautiful locations around the Caribbean while they both attempt to move on.

The reason I didn’t love the book is because it felt like it had absolutely no tension of any kind. Even though the central themes are around grief, this is a feel good and lighthearted book. There are no conflicts, limited romantic chemistry, and no real depth in processing grief. I would expect both characters to feel anger and sadness mixed with the elation of exploring such beautiful locales. But everything is just bland.

Overall, I don’t think the writing is very sophisticated. Just because it’s a romance doesn’t mean there can’t be depth. There’s a lot of secondary characters, but no meaningful relationships. Everything was solved too easily and I would have preferred to read less about each island they visited in lieu of some real depth from the side characters.

Anyways, I could go in depth about how the narrative is lacking, but it’s not meant to be that type of book. It’s the first in a 3 part series and I bought the whole thing on book outlet, so I will pick up the next one, The Suite Life (which I read is the best one). It’s great if you want a feel good travel book, but don’t expect any real depth. Show don’t tell!