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annabunce's review against another edition
adventurous
reflective
medium-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Something just didn't do it for me with this novel. I appreciated a post-apocalyptic world where a complex mother-daughter relationship is a focus, but there was just something throughout that felt false and hollow about so much of this book. The relationships, the motivations of the characters, the world itself - it felt like pieces of the puzzle were missing (and not in an interesting satisfying way) On top of it all, the way Cook chose to portray a hunting and gathering community as one so callous about human life in relation to material objects just felt inappropriate and wrong. The author acknowledges the Indigenous peoples whose lands and cultures provided her with inspiration (which I appreciated) but her portrayal of hunting and gathering communities is reminiscent of an armchair anthropologist from the 1800s. But, all this said, I still wanted to finish the book so that's something I guess.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Animal death and Violence
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