Tag: book review

The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea

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Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Author: Axie Oh
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult
Pub. Date: Feb. 2022

I really loved this book! I’ve been hearing a lot of really good things about it and after reading and loving Daughter of the Moon Goddess, I decided to pick this one up. It’s a short standalone fantasy and I really wish there were more books like this out there. You rarely find standalone fantasy books and I think it’s really special when you find a beautifully written one like this.

The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea is about a 16 year old girl who sacrifices herself to be the Sea God’s bride. Her village has been at the mercy of the sea for 100 years and every year they sacrifice a young and beautiful bride to try and please the Sea God and stop the storms. This year’s bride, Shim Cheong, is in love with Mina’s brother, so Mina jumps into the sea in her place and enters the Spirit Realm. There she discovers that things aren’t quite as they seem on the surface and she starts searching for a way to free the Sea God from a deep slumber and save her village.

The writing is definitely the first thing I want to comment on because it is really beautiful. The story of Mina’s journey through the Spirit Realm is interspersed with stories that her grandmother shared with her as a child. The author connects myth to reality and uses the medium of stories to uncover the truth of the spirit realm. The story is filled with magic and the beautiful prose used by the author only elevates the setting.

It’s hard for me to say whether it’s a character or plot driven novel because I think it is such a good blend of both. The story starts off with a bang and we’re quickly introduced to a whole new world. There is lots of action throughout the book and the world building is very well realized without being confusing. We’re introduced to lots of new characters, but it’s never overwhelming. The book has a lot of depth and Mina’s character not only grows throughout the story, but her storytelling also inspires growth in others.

Overall it’s just a really smart book. There are a few twists within the story, some of them are easy to see coming, while others surprised me. I loved the inclusion of the ancestors in the story and even though I saw the main twist coming, the how and why were still a mystery to me until the very end. It’s a smart book and together all of the elements add together to build something truly magical.

With a 16 year old protagonist, it sounds like YA, but it didn’t read that way to me. There are definitely books out there that feature children or teenagers that are still written for adults. I don’t necessarily think this is one of them, but the magic and prose combined made this not your typical YA novel. It’s my first 5 star read of 2023 and I’d definitely recommend it. I’m strongly debating whether I might be ready to make a soft launch back into the world of fantasy – for me I think it’s more about being intentional about what fantasy books I read and picking up ones that interest me and not just because they’re hyped up on social media (looking at you SJM and JLA). That said, this one deserves the hype.

Ducks

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Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Author: Kate Beaton
Genres: Graphic Novel, Memoir
Pub. Date: Sep. 2022

I’ve been seeing Ducks everywhere since the Goodreads Choice Awards, which really surprised me when I learned it was a graphic novel written by an East Coaster about the oil sands (this type of Canadian lit doesn’t usually go mainstream). I finally got my hands on a library copy of this beast of book, just in time for it to be nominated for Canada Reads!

It is a really interesting book. The storyline is subtle and we spend a lot of time in dull labour camps, but it’s still very compelling. Kate Beaton grew up in Cape Breton and after completing her Bachelor of Arts degree in the early 2000’s, decides to follow the horde of islanders heading west in order to pay off her student loans.

She moves to Fort MacMurray, a notorious place in northern Alberta that’s known for the oil sands, dirty money, questionable environmentalism, and eastern imports in the form of people. People from Fort Mac probably won’t like my assessment because they’re just trying to make a living, but as Kate concludes towards the end of the book, her motivations for being there don’t make her less complicit in the work being done.

Kate is from Cape Breton; even though I’m from Newfoundland, this is definitely a story any Newfoundlander can relate to. Since the collapse of the food fishery in the early 1990’s, watching your family members and friends head west in search of work is something that has touched everyone. I actually applaud Kate for her courage in going out there alone without a job as a 22 year old woman.

However, it’s undeniable that the oil sands weren’t a great place to be female in the early 2000’s. I’m sure the camps and companies have evolved in the past 20 years to become more progressive, but I’m also sure there are many more subtle ways in which they haven’t. I haven’t worked in the oil sands, but I did a brief stint on a heavy construction project in Labrador in 2013 where sexism was very much still present. My experience was nothing like Kate’s, but her experiences were still very relatable.

Most of what Kate tackles in this book is about mental health and loneliness and how this separation from society and detachment from reality creates harmful and sexist work and safety cultures. She explores the prevalence of toxic masculinity, gendered violence, and microaggressions in male dominated work spaces, and the dichotomy of character that can result from extended periods of time in this environment. There were lots of good men on the sites that Kate never interacts with because they politely leave her alone, but there were also a lot of lonely and frustrated men who become divorced from who they are when immersed in camp life.

At least that is how Kate looks at it. More jaded individuals might look at her experience and say that for some men, that ugliness has always been there and that the labour camps just expose it. I don’t know which is true, probably both, but I appreciated Kate’s exploration of this character change. After her experience, it would be easy for her to be jaded and think the worst of men, but she’s still willing to think more critically about mental health and loneliness.

What drove this home for me is the inclusion of so many Newfoundlanders in the story. There are a lot of Newfoundlanders in Fort Mac, so it’s an accurate portrayal. Traditionally, Newfoundlanders are known for their friendliness and willingness to open their homes to strangers. It’s something I’ve always been very proud of, though I have found in the past 10 years since I left Newfoundland, that there is a limit to this friendliness that it’s sometimes only extended to that which is familiar. By which I mean that I think there is still a culture of othering and outsiders.

Because we so often look at what we love with rose coloured glasses, it’s sobering to look at this negative portrayal of so many East Coast men. As Kate says, “the worst part for me about being harassed here isn’t that people say shitty things. It’s when they say them and they sound like me, in the accent that I dropped when I went to University. That they look like my cousins and uncles… that they’re familiar.” It’s not that she’s saying the behaviour is indicative of where the men come from, just that it’s disappointing to realize that the potential exists in those we know and love.

In fact, when Kate gets a call from the Globe and Mail wanting to write about her experience, she decides not to take the interview. She says of the interviewer, “I don’t think people like her believe that the men they know wouldn’t be any different. They don’t think that the loneliness and homesickness and boredom and lack of women around would affect their brother or dad or husband the same way – why would they? They don’t think about it at all. They never have to.”

I did really like this book. I felt some improvements could be made; it’s a bit long and there is a lot of interactions and filler that I thought could have been consolidated, but it paints a very detailed picture of what life was like for Kate and of capturing how microaggressions can wear us down over time. I’m glad it’s been selected for Canada Reads, because I think it’s especially important for Canadians. Great storytelling and imagery!

Wrong Place Wrong Time

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Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Author: Gillian McAllister
Genres: Mystery, Thriller, Sci-fi
Pub. Date: May 2022

This was my book club’s pick for February. We picked some duds in 2022, so we needed something fast paced to start off the new year! Wrong Place, Wrong Time is a mystery/thriller with a sci-fi element, and it certainly starts off with a bang! 

Our protagonist, Jen, is sitting at home when the clocks go back, waiting for her son to come home. When she witnesses him kill a man on the street, she falls into her worst nightmare. But when she wakes up the next day, it’s actually the day before and the murder hasn’t happened yet. Every day after, Jen wakes up further back in time, with the opportunity to solve the murder. But maybe there are more secrets in Jen’s past than she realized.

It’s a pretty explosive start and I was quickly pulled into the narrative. It’s a lot to take in at first and you hope there are simple answers, but the more Jen learns, the more confused she becomes about what actually happened and how her son was triggered to murder someone. It’s pretty gripping, but it does get a bit repetitive the further back in time you go. It’s frustrating, but the general feeling helps you to empathize with what Jen is going through. It’s a convoluted story and I thought it took a bit too long to get to the point. It drags in the middle, but eventually the narrative starts to shift and I was gripped again at the end of the story.

I don’t want to say too much about the story itself or give anything away, but I did like the way things progressed. I do think the murder that the book starts with is a bit of a stretch based on what we learn later, but I like how focus of the story changes over time as the pieces start to fit together. It was good storytelling, I just would have liked to see things tightened up a bit. There are a lot of secondary and minor characters, and I found it hard to keep track of everyone. That said, I read it as an audiobook and I don’t think that was the best way to go. If it was a bit shorter with a tighter plot, I think this would be a really great read.

Either way, I still had fun with it. I didn’t care for the epilogue, but again, mostly because I didn’t remember the connection between these particular characters, so I’m hoping my book club can explain this one to me in a couple of weeks. But overall, a fun and fast-paced read!

Every Summer After

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Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Author: Carley Fortune
Genres: Fiction, Romance
Pub. Date: May 2022

I was really feeling in the mood for a romance and oh my goodness, I devoured this one. Every Summer After has been making the circuit on social media this year and I was particularly excited about it being a Canadian author and novel. I love Canadian lit, but a lot of it is really heavy and often weird. I found this to be one of the most accessible Canadian contemporaries and I loved the setting in Toronto and rural Ontario. It is surprising how much more realistic and relatable a book can seem just from a familiar setting (even though I’ve never even lived in Ontario).

Every Summer After is a second chance, friends to lovers romance between Persephone (Percy) and Sam, beginning when they meet at age 13. Percy’s parents purchase a lakeside cottage in the sleepy town of Barry’s Bay and she quickly becomes fast friends with her next door neighbour Sam, spending every summer with him until they start university. Because it’s a second chance romance, it’s a dual timeline – split between when Percy and Sam first meet, and their reunion a decade later for Sam’s mom’s funeral. I find dual timeline stories can be very hit or miss, but I thought this one was actually really well done. Both timelines were compelling and I found myself equally invested in both (a rare occurrence). 

Second chance romance isn’t one of my favourite tropes. I always find it a bit unbelievable and sad that 2 people could still be madly in love after 10 years without being able to resolve their differences. I don’t buy into the idea that there’s only one person for someone and while I do believe in soulmates, I think they are made through the shared experience of growing and loving together rather than by fate. Knowing the reason why Sam and Percy’s relationship ends the first time around, I could buy into the premise for this second chance romance. I would definitely need time and space from the other person if this happened in my relationship, though I also think I would never have been able to reconcile.

However, as a friends to lovers romance, I adored this story! Booktok is obsessed with enemies to lovers, and they can be fun, but friends to lovers will always take the number one spot in my heart! Friends to lovers stories are so much more believable to me, both because I value emotional connection with people, and I think it’s so easy to fall in love with someone you already like and who already takes up valuable real estate in your life. 

Percy and Sam’s love story was so beautiful and believable to me. It had a very natural progression, with both of them connecting on so many levels before starting a physical relationship. I found Sam to be somewhat frustrating, though I understood his trepidation in getting too serious, too fast. Likewise, I could understand why Percy was upset with him, though I couldn’t excuse the big ugly thing that happens.

But it’s so easy to fall in love at 13 years old and it does become an all-consuming thing to teenagers. Percy and Sam were both so young and trying to make incredibly grown up decisions that they frankly didn’t have the maturity for, so I could forgive both of them for their mistakes. I still fell in love with them – they are good people, even though they are flawed and make errors in judgement, just like anyone else.

I do want to say that this book had too much cheating and almost-cheating for me to really be able to overlook it. The author tries to explain away some of the cheating (the characters hadn’t made a formal commitment; they just broke up; etc) so I guess it really depends on your own personal definition and code when it comes to cheating. I felt that the way the characters bent the rules in some cases to still be hurtful and unfair and I want to acknowledge that you can emotionally cheat on your partner, which for some people is more hurtful than a classic affair. I personally have zero tolerance for cheating, so it was hard for me to overlook it.

So overall I’m a bit uncomfortable with giving this 4 stars, but I can’t deny I was transfixed by the story. All of these characters felt intensely real to me. I wouldn’t call it a fluffy romance novel because there is a lot of depth here. I haven’t read a lot of other second chance romance novels, but the ones I have read didn’t feature characters with the same kind of history as Sam and Percy, which is why I didn’t really like them. Sam and Percy definitely had a lot of history and I’m glad the author dedicates the time to taking us through that history. The reason for their estrangement is very believable and because they were so young at the time and such good friends before that, I could believe the draw between the two of them to want to reconcile, even 10 years later.

So while I don’t condone everything in this book, I can’t deny I still really liked it! Carley Fortune has another book coming out this year, which I will probably read, but from the synopsis, it’s sounds very similar to this one. It’s another second chance romance, but without the history between the characters that Sam and Percy have, so I’m a bit on the fence about it. Either way, I’m glad I read this one! I might be a teensy bit in love with Sam Florek now…

Brown Girls

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Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Author: Daphne Palasi Andreades
Genres: Fiction
Pub. Date: Jan. 2022

I have mixed feelings about this one. It’s a short book told in a series of vignettes from the perspective of the chorus “we” of American brown girls. It takes us through the lives of brown girls and the 2nd generation immigrant experience, from childhood to death, so it’s pretty ambitious in scope.

I loved the style of the book. I don’t think I’ve ever read an entire book told from a perspective like this and the short chapters made for an easy reading experience. It’s not quite prose, but the writing is lyrical and I liked that the story wasn’t limited to one perspective or protagonist. Even though the structure is ambitious, I liked that the author takes us through the lives of brown girls over time. I viewed it as a snapshot at the different stages of life and I thought there were some really perceptive ideas here. My favourite chapter by far was “Those who leave and those who stay”, which was a gutting read for someone who chose to leave.

What I was unsure of was whether the author really has the credentials to write from this perspective. It’s a bold claim to try and represent the experience of so many different cultures and countries. I’m sure there are lots of common threads and similarities with the immigrant experience, but despite the “we” of the book, a predominant voice still emerged of a 2nd generation woman who got out of Queen’s by going to good schools and ending up with a white partner. This is definitely a perspective, but I know it’s not the only perspective. I would have liked to see more varied perspectives if you’re going to rely on a chorus narrator to carry your story. It’s ambitious for any single author to carry such lived experience.

To an extent the structure is also a weakness because we only skim the surface of brown girls experiences, so it is somewhat lacking in depth. Personally this didn’t really bother me though because I feel there are lots of other single POV novels out there that get into the nitty gritty. This was a higher level look, just maybe not high enough to represent such a broad spectrum of voices and identities.