Reviews

Moonlight and the Pearler's Daughter by Lizzie Pook

veganheathen's review against another edition

3.0

I typically don’t care for books that denigrate a woman to nothing more than male-adjacent like this. However, in this case it was sort of fitting because Eliza was treated as nothing more than a pearler’s daughter. The premise was interesting and the atmospheric descriptions really gave me a sense of what the town was like (very mildewed and damp, apparently). I wish the characters were a bit more fleshed out, though. I found it hard to want to care about them and didn’t really understand some of their motivations in conjunction with the character that was being presented.

I received this book for free in a Goodreads giveaway. This review is my honest opinion of the book.

thepagelady's review against another edition

5.0

Moonlight and the Pearler's Daughter by Lizzie Pook is an outstanding debut novel! The writing is wonderful! Set in the latter part of the 19th century in a harsh, unforgiving and at times violent Western Australia and a pace that is never ending! Eliza Brightwellwas an amazing character to follow. She's strong, independent and loyal! I found myself completely immersed in this vibrant, rich and atmospheric story! It's a harsh but absolutely amazing story!

lauryglory's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

3.25

sanna_m's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring sad tense medium-paced

5.0

mairi_curly's review against another edition

3.0

This was a very random read selected off of the shelves of my local library, and I'm very glad I found it.
The story was exciting and detailed with enjoyable characters that made this a page turner. I would add the caveat that the writing was not particularly special, so if you're into prose and deep thought I wouldn't recommend, but if you're just looking for an enjoyable historical thriller then absolutely pick this up!

EDIT--
Upon further reflection I've lowered my rating to 3stars. I still stand by what I said initially, but much of that was in relation to the first 3/4 of the book, which I'd had more time to think about.
I found the ending quite lacking, which is what made me lower the rating. Maybe its because I'm a romantic, but I also just felt that there was so much more I wanted to know and so much that I felt the book hadn't answered.

lylixx's review against another edition

informative mysterious relaxing medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

kleonard's review against another edition

2.0

What could have been a compelling and fascinating book is just meh. Pook clearly has all of the ingredients for a great book here--family strife, tragedy, resilience, natural history, the history of colonization in Australia--but it never quite comes together to be interesting. The characters feel flat and simple, and the events of the novel are related in ways that keep them from contributing to a stronger narrative or character development.

eshalliday's review

5.0

I did not immediately fall under the spell of Lizzie Pook’s authorial voice in ‘Moonlight and The Pearler's Daughter’. The biography opening the ARC of the book signposted Pook’s journalism background too much. Because, wow! This is not journalistic prose: this is transporting.

‘As I dived, other lights came floating down too, passing like silk parachutes in the half-light. I looked up and I could see a whole ensemble of jellyfish there, fiery tentacles long and swaying in the current.
When my lungs could take it no longer, I shifted my body and pulled myself slowly upwards. With a heaving breath I broke the surface and looked about me at an ocean ablaze with the sinking sun. Then I turned the lugger, its steady mass kissed by amber, waiting patiently on the waves.’

My expectation was so much lower than what Pook is offering readers here, that it took me till the passage where Eliza finds her father’s fountain pen to awaken to the story. But then! Oh, but then... Something clicked. And I was suddenly, surprisingly involved in this novel. Other readers and reviewers will recount the threads of the story and summarise the book, but for me, this novel’s abiding features are the tone, mood and vocabulary that comprise Lizzie Pook’s writing style. From the point where I found connection with the novel, right the way through to the end, I was intoxicated with Pook’s language, and her lulling style of prose:

‘At the jetty, wild with pelicans and gulls, white suits with ledgers punctiliously count in their baskets of shell. A patient nag waits nearby with its cart stacked high with boxes. The surrounding mudflats are littered with coils of rope, spidery anchor chains and white sails stretching like open butterfly wings.’

‘There must be hundreds of [pearls] in front of her, shifting from eel green to dragonfly blue to soft, whispery pink. Some of the stones are baroques, small and misshapen, but the largest must be almost the size of her eyeball. She carefully picks it up and turns it so it dances under the dim light. It seems to contain a whole weather system inside it – lilac storm clouds and frothy white cumulus, the flinty grey of the ocean before the sun first hits.’

The character of Eliza is vividly drawn; her physicality is arresting, especially in her recollections/imagination shifts, where she casts back to significant episodes of childhood that serve to build the picture of who Eliza is and what makes her such:

‘A small child with a tadpole belly clambers onto its back and hops with exhilaration. A flash from a camera box startles her and her mind stutters to her own family outings here, when she’d crawled on her hands and knees in search of tiny things to pocket. The sand would be strewn with cowries and periwinkles. Her father would make a show of laying out a picnic and Thomas would be wading about the shallows.’

And physicality is a distinctive element of Pook’s sensorial depiction of the Australian landscape and environment, which is honestly remarkable. ‘Moonlight and the Pearler’s Daughter’ has such a definitive sense of place, the specificity of description of physical features is utterly engaging. Eliza’s sense of belonging and emotional connection to Australia is conveyed to the reader in her crisp naturalist observations:

‘As they canter through hoary pindan wattle, the horses flick their ears to rid themselves of the attendant flies. The sun finds its old companions and lays its warmth on their skin, whips the scent of wild pear and saltbush into the air. Around them, kurrajong trees show off their heart-shaped leaves and the jigals are heavy with big brown seedpods. They reach a track and it soon becomes clear it is not often used by humans. The dirt has been pocked with puddles and stamped into ridges.’

The narrative is interspersed with entries from the diary of Eliza’s father, Charles J. G. Brightwell, Master Pearler, whose textual appearances drive the plot forward, and shape Eliza’s unique character arc. In places, these simply serve to underscore the familial connection between the two characters via their deep feelings of relatedness to nature.

Prevailing over all of this is the pleasure of Pook’s prose. The plot is sinister enough to keep fans of the Mystery genre hooked, and the atmosphere is sufficiently plump for fans of Historical Fiction, but for me, what merits a five-star rating is Pook’s fleshy, sensatory writing:

‘She has imagined being a bird above, watching as the boats leave their anchorage, as they glide over reefs that slough their hulls like dead skin, passing motherships and schooners, scattered fleets beyond bobbing on the surface. Around them the tendrils of mangrove swamps bleed like opened veins and at night, when all is quiet and dark, the water coils as deep as a dreamless slumber.’

My gratitude to Mantle and Pan Macmillan for the generous advancement of a copy through Netgalley.

kyandesu's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious relaxing tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

shirleytupperfreeman's review against another edition

The pearling "industry" in the mid 1800s was not a pretty scene. Everything about it - the diving, the storms, the animals and mostly the often cruel and greedy humans - was fraught with peril. Against this back drop, Pook tells the story of 20 year-old Eliza. Ten years ago her family moved from England to western Australia to try and build a life in the pearl industry. Eliza, her older brother and their dad are the only ones still living and now their brilliant and kind father has gone missing from his boat. Eliza is the only one with the guts and the wits to find her dad and bring him home. This is both an adventure story with a strong heroine and an explanation of much of the flora and fauna of that area of the world.