Reviews

As a woman who has worked in the patch from the age of 22 to 33 I have to say that I have never felt so seen and understood as I did reading this book today. I mean on a real personal level this author was able to bring emotions and experiences into words and pictures with such integrity. ugh. It played a lovely tune upon my heart strings and made me miss the east so much more than I already do. I read it in a few hours cover to cover. I cried more times than I've fingers, and I laughed. This book completely resonated with my personal experiences, but also glances at the empathy and compassion I feel for my crewmates. Like this book, my experiences have been both good and bad, but I am glad to be finally getting out the patch. Going to nursing school now. Thanks for sharing your story Kate. I appreciates it.
And the only people who say west coast is best coast have never been to the east!
Please keep writing books and cartooning, if thats what you like, I know I enjoy your heartfelt honest work.

suzanneke's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

Masterful storytelling, complex, rich and layered, unflinching yet nuanced. I found this book deeply immersive, it’s one of those stories that will stay with me for a fair while I think.

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jeffrey_e's review against another edition

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emotional medium-paced

3.0

summerc_reads's review against another edition

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informative reflective fast-paced

4.0

“Everything's ruined, our lives around our lands are ruined, our water, the air, everything.”

Twenty-two years old and drowning in student loans, Kate Beaton leaves Cape Breton and heads west to work in the Alberta oil sands. Over the next two years, Kate moves through various positions and is constantly confronted with the oppressive, and often dangerous, old-boys mentality at camp.

Prior to reading Ducks, I knew very little about the oil sands. While I was aware there were oil sands in Alberta, I naively did not understand what they were or the devastating impact they had on the land, people and wildlife, especially on the Indigenous population who were the rightful owners of the now polluted lands.

To say this book was educational would be an understatement! This should be required reading for every Canadian!

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gintonic's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny informative reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

lysmar's review against another edition

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informative reflective fast-paced

ryliereadss's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective sad fast-paced

3.5

For some reason I didn't expect this book to be so dark! The author is one of the few women who work in an oil camp, and she experiences a lot of sexism and harassment because of that. She didn't really have anyone to lean on while she was going through that. It was a tough read at times so definitely check trigger warnings. She also touched on subjects like the jobs people will do to pay for their student loans and the damage that oil rigs do to nature and to the people working on them.

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