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4.29 AVERAGE
4.29 AVERAGE
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
This is a really good series. I hope there's another one because it felt like there was a little cliffhanger for one of the characters and I need to know what happened!
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This is an ensemble piece, meant to make up a set of characters within a small northern town in Maine. I liked the book enough that I read it in three days but I didn't feel much at the end. I was frustrated by the lack of resolution or even connection between the characters.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide
fast-paced
emotional
lighthearted
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
Very disappointed with this book. Bowring is a skillful writer and I understand that there are stories that proceed this novel, so I'm missing some context. The information from those stories needed for this novel is integrated well and I'd be interested to see the perspectives of the characters not included in Where the Forest Meets the River.
Even so, this book was hard to get through. So many reviews talk about it as a cozy book, and I have read several cozy books that incorporate more challenging plotlines and maintain a charming, small-town vibe. This book does not. Every perspective character (of which there are a few too many) judges everyone, especially unnamed service workers. Multiple receptionists are described with terms like 'bottle redhead' or 'old bitch', people in this mill-town are criticized for wearing sweatpants or eating the wrong things, even main characters aren't extended any grace. Ambient judgment and gossip are often part of small-town narratives, but so much of it in this novel comes from characters we are supposed to empathize with and root for.
This is especially apparent in the anti-fat bias throughout the novel. One character is saved from a life of "hardened arteries and sweatpants" by winning the pubescent lottery and growing into his size. He makes a number of self-hating comments but other characters also affirm that he's a better person for losing weight. His temptation to stress eat is treated with more seriousness than alcoholism (especially because the alcoholic isn't a sympathetic character).
This formerly fat character is also bisexual in a way that is so grating. Maybe the bi folks I know are super chill, but I've rarely heard from them that they experience attraction to men and women in equal measure at all times and must mention a man and woman they are interested in whenever they express desire. I'm having a hard time putting into words how odd his yearnings and his coming out process are framed. He acts like people would be equally shocked if he introduced people to a boyfriend or a girlfriend, even while acknowledging what life was like for gay men in the 90's. It all felt misguided. Hanya Yanigihara would be proud of the inclusion of decidedly unqueer 2SLGBTQIA+ characters.
Which brings me to the element that took this from an innocuous book that I didn't connect with to a 1-star, ' mad that I read it' book: piss poor inclusion of an Indigenous character. Bowring doesn't spend much time describing the characters but it is pretty obvious that most of them are white. Because I hadn't read the first book, it wasn't until 200 pages in that I realized one of the two people that Greg, the bisexual, was interested in was a First Nations woman, Angela. This makes Greg expressing his desire to "wrap her braid around [his] wrist" feel not great, either fetishizing or uncomfortably dominant. Later, in a different character's narrative, a woman with dark skin and braids is speaking in a recovery group and, wouldn't you know it! It's Angela! She makes a comment about scalping that made me want to DNF immediately. Even if it was a commentary on opinions of the time or meant to expose the ignorance of the character it was aimed at, it really underlined that exclusion can be better than thoughtless or ignorant inclusion.
So, why did I finish it? Well, I was hoping that there would be some revelation about the judgmental characters realizing how unfair they have been, how people should accept themselves as they are, or that someone acknowledging that the one non-white character deserves a little bit of understanding. Sadly, none of this happened and the last word on Angela is the leader of the recovery group saying "We can't save everyone". I'm not trying to be contrarian because I see how much people love the story and characters but, to me, this is a deeply unkind novel.
Even so, this book was hard to get through. So many reviews talk about it as a cozy book, and I have read several cozy books that incorporate more challenging plotlines and maintain a charming, small-town vibe. This book does not. Every perspective character (of which there are a few too many) judges everyone, especially unnamed service workers. Multiple receptionists are described with terms like 'bottle redhead' or 'old bitch', people in this mill-town are criticized for wearing sweatpants or eating the wrong things, even main characters aren't extended any grace. Ambient judgment and gossip are often part of small-town narratives, but so much of it in this novel comes from characters we are supposed to empathize with and root for.
This is especially apparent in the anti-fat bias throughout the novel. One character is saved from a life of "hardened arteries and sweatpants" by winning the pubescent lottery and growing into his size. He makes a number of self-hating comments but other characters also affirm that he's a better person for losing weight. His temptation to stress eat is treated with more seriousness than alcoholism (especially because the alcoholic isn't a sympathetic character).
This formerly fat character is also bisexual in a way that is so grating. Maybe the bi folks I know are super chill, but I've rarely heard from them that they experience attraction to men and women in equal measure at all times and must mention a man and woman they are interested in whenever they express desire. I'm having a hard time putting into words how odd his yearnings and his coming out process are framed. He acts like people would be equally shocked if he introduced people to a boyfriend or a girlfriend, even while acknowledging what life was like for gay men in the 90's. It all felt misguided. Hanya Yanigihara would be proud of the inclusion of decidedly unqueer 2SLGBTQIA+ characters.
Which brings me to the element that took this from an innocuous book that I didn't connect with to a 1-star, ' mad that I read it' book: piss poor inclusion of an Indigenous character. Bowring doesn't spend much time describing the characters but it is pretty obvious that most of them are white. Because I hadn't read the first book, it wasn't until 200 pages in that I realized one of the two people that Greg, the bisexual, was interested in was a First Nations woman, Angela. This makes Greg expressing his desire to "wrap her braid around [his] wrist" feel not great, either fetishizing or uncomfortably dominant. Later, in a different character's narrative, a woman with dark skin and braids is speaking in a recovery group and, wouldn't you know it! It's Angela! She makes a comment about scalping that made me want to DNF immediately. Even if it was a commentary on opinions of the time or meant to expose the ignorance of the character it was aimed at, it really underlined that exclusion can be better than thoughtless or ignorant inclusion.
So, why did I finish it? Well, I was hoping that there would be some revelation about the judgmental characters realizing how unfair they have been, how people should accept themselves as they are, or that someone acknowledging that the one non-white character deserves a little bit of understanding. Sadly, none of this happened and the last word on Angela is the leader of the recovery group saying "We can't save everyone". I'm not trying to be contrarian because I see how much people love the story and characters but, to me, this is a deeply unkind novel.
Content Warnings
Minor: Fatphobia, Racism