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3.87 AVERAGE
3.87 AVERAGE
** Disclaimer – I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review **
The Art of Taxidermy is a beautifully crafted novel in verse that essentially is about the complexity of grief and how different people deal with it. Set in Australia, the story is told through the eyes of 12-year-old Lottie, who has seen a lot of loss in her young life. Due to what she has experienced, Lottie has a growing fascination with the dead: collecting dead lizards, birds, and rodents as if they are treasures. Lottie's strange hobby draws consternation from her Aunt Hilda, who believes such things are inappropriate for young girls.
For as short and as simple as it seems at first, The Art of Taxidermy is actually a multilayered, complex little novel. Right off the bat, we meet Lottie, who sees the beauty in dead things, and quickly becomes determined to learn how to preserve and immortalize them just like the ancient Egyptians she learns about in class.
The story is revealed piece by piece – the complexities of Lottie's life slowly unfold in the pages. From the death of her mother, to how death has haunted Lottie and her family throughout the decades. But – as I was surprised to discover – this is more than just the story of one family. A dark and not-often-discussed part of Australia's past is explored through Lottie's family history. I ended up doing a lot of secondary research as I was reading this – the lack of context would normally annoy me, instead I was made aware of some important history I knew nothing about previously.
I'm not usually a poetry person, I found the verse to be very readable – I sped through it in one sitting. The way the author discusses grief and death is beautiful and lyrical.
I felt so deeply for Lottie and her situation. On the one hand, she is a budding scientist, but deep down, handling these tiny dead creatures is how she copes with her loss. Everyone deals with death it in a different way – for Lottie, it's the preservation of dead creatures. While this easily could have been a grotesque book, instead it turns something that might be "gross" into a tender exploration of how a young girl handles death.
My one gripe about this story, is the contentious relationship between Lottie and her Aunt. A large part of the plot is devoted to the struggle between the two, while Lottie's father just sort of stands by with a shrug. Aunt Hilda continuously points out how she believes Lottie's strange hobby is "not fit for girls," and it isn't until the end that things turn around. I had hoped to see more growth between the two characters – as a result, the Aunt's character came off as very two-dimensional to me.
Overall, I enjoyed this story far more than I expected to. It was exquisitely written and atmospheric – I was captivated from page one. Despite being in verse, I didn't have trouble getting into the "flow" of the author's writing, and I didn't find any portions to be too vague or metaphorical. Additionally, I was pleasantly surprised about how much I learned about Australian history from this beautiful little book. Would I recommend it? Absolutely – don't let the verse aspect scare you off, it's more than worth dedicated your reading time to.
Review also posted on my blog.
The Art of Taxidermy is a beautifully crafted novel in verse that essentially is about the complexity of grief and how different people deal with it. Set in Australia, the story is told through the eyes of 12-year-old Lottie, who has seen a lot of loss in her young life. Due to what she has experienced, Lottie has a growing fascination with the dead: collecting dead lizards, birds, and rodents as if they are treasures. Lottie's strange hobby draws consternation from her Aunt Hilda, who believes such things are inappropriate for young girls.
For as short and as simple as it seems at first, The Art of Taxidermy is actually a multilayered, complex little novel. Right off the bat, we meet Lottie, who sees the beauty in dead things, and quickly becomes determined to learn how to preserve and immortalize them just like the ancient Egyptians she learns about in class.
The story is revealed piece by piece – the complexities of Lottie's life slowly unfold in the pages. From the death of her mother, to how death has haunted Lottie and her family throughout the decades. But – as I was surprised to discover – this is more than just the story of one family. A dark and not-often-discussed part of Australia's past is explored through Lottie's family history. I ended up doing a lot of secondary research as I was reading this – the lack of context would normally annoy me, instead I was made aware of some important history I knew nothing about previously.
I'm not usually a poetry person, I found the verse to be very readable – I sped through it in one sitting. The way the author discusses grief and death is beautiful and lyrical.
"It is good to feel sad,
It is good to cry,
It is good to grieve.
Tears swelled in my eyes,
Father's voice was soft and gentle and full of pain.
In his eyes I saw
what I felt.
It was as if I had travelled
the distance
to his heart,
to the dark recesses
of his grief."
I felt so deeply for Lottie and her situation. On the one hand, she is a budding scientist, but deep down, handling these tiny dead creatures is how she copes with her loss. Everyone deals with death it in a different way – for Lottie, it's the preservation of dead creatures. While this easily could have been a grotesque book, instead it turns something that might be "gross" into a tender exploration of how a young girl handles death.
My one gripe about this story, is the contentious relationship between Lottie and her Aunt. A large part of the plot is devoted to the struggle between the two, while Lottie's father just sort of stands by with a shrug. Aunt Hilda continuously points out how she believes Lottie's strange hobby is "not fit for girls," and it isn't until the end that things turn around. I had hoped to see more growth between the two characters – as a result, the Aunt's character came off as very two-dimensional to me.
Overall, I enjoyed this story far more than I expected to. It was exquisitely written and atmospheric – I was captivated from page one. Despite being in verse, I didn't have trouble getting into the "flow" of the author's writing, and I didn't find any portions to be too vague or metaphorical. Additionally, I was pleasantly surprised about how much I learned about Australian history from this beautiful little book. Would I recommend it? Absolutely – don't let the verse aspect scare you off, it's more than worth dedicated your reading time to.
Review also posted on my blog.
The Art of Taxidermy is a verse novel about love and death, and the beauty that comes with it. Lottie takes us through her struggle of losing her mother and finding an outlet through taxidermy.
When I requested this book I guess I missed the part where it said verse novel but I am glad that I requested it because it turned out to be a wonderful surprise!
The author’s lyrical writing sweeps you into the fascination that Lottie has when it comes to taxidermy. Each piece has its own unique topic that come together with the rest. Taxidermy is an unusual topic and this verse novel does a great job of making it even more interesting and combining it with beautiful writing.
Overall, it was a good book to get me out of my comfort zone. If you are into verse novels with a wonderfully intriguing theme then this book is for you!
eARC provided by publisher through NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
When I requested this book I guess I missed the part where it said verse novel but I am glad that I requested it because it turned out to be a wonderful surprise!
The author’s lyrical writing sweeps you into the fascination that Lottie has when it comes to taxidermy. Each piece has its own unique topic that come together with the rest. Taxidermy is an unusual topic and this verse novel does a great job of making it even more interesting and combining it with beautiful writing.
Overall, it was a good book to get me out of my comfort zone. If you are into verse novels with a wonderfully intriguing theme then this book is for you!
eARC provided by publisher through NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
As this book is written in verse it was a very quick read. I didn’t particularly LOVE it but it was good. It held my attention.
"It dulled the bone-heavy
ache of grief--
the revitalisation of life,
the bringing back
from the edge
of decay."
I feel weird rating this since it's the first book I've read in verse and I have nothing to compare it to. Obviously, it was very different from my normal reads, but I actually found myself enjoying it a lot. I love that the whole stoy took you through the journey of Lottie's grief and the way that she chose to deal with it.
ache of grief--
the revitalisation of life,
the bringing back
from the edge
of decay."
I feel weird rating this since it's the first book I've read in verse and I have nothing to compare it to. Obviously, it was very different from my normal reads, but I actually found myself enjoying it a lot. I love that the whole stoy took you through the journey of Lottie's grief and the way that she chose to deal with it.
Warnings: animal death, description of gore
At the outset, I was intrigued by the premise of the book and picked it even though I find taxidermy to be kinda creepy. And by the end, I think I understand it better. So, in this verse (and that was a surprise to me when I opened this book lol) novel the story is told via these short poems by Lottie, who is fascinated by and trying to understand death after her mother passes away. She and her companion, Annie, search for dead bodies of animals around the neighborhood, and Lottie gradually starts collecting the corpses like treasures. Her aunt finds it a morbid habit for a girl to have, even if she is like a preteen and it could be a phase; her father meanwhile, encourages her curiosity, seeing that she needs it to process through things.
Throughout the book, Lottie seeks to preserve her collection and add to it, putting her at odds with her aunt who regularly clears it out of the house. Lottie experiments with taxidermy even if she doesn't know the word for it yet, and when she finds it, she is enchanted by the process that could, in her words, resurrect the dead. She also finds a beauty in death, which going by the fact that so many of her family members are dead makes a sort of sense. Through her perspective, we also see the others' own methods of coping with death, and the stories of the people who died. It also mentions the Loveday Internment camps (placing this novel in a time much earlier than I imagined) and the Stolen Generations (in the form of her classmate Jeremy) and explores the kinds of loss from them. Ultimately, Lottie's story speaks for a girl who has experienced loss and honors it in what way she can, and the novel evokes strong emotions.
In short, it is a beautifully written verse novel about loss, and dealing with death.
Received an advance reader copy in exchange for a fair review from Text Publishing, via Edelweiss.
At the outset, I was intrigued by the premise of the book and picked it even though I find taxidermy to be kinda creepy. And by the end, I think I understand it better. So, in this verse (and that was a surprise to me when I opened this book lol) novel the story is told via these short poems by Lottie, who is fascinated by and trying to understand death after her mother passes away. She and her companion, Annie, search for dead bodies of animals around the neighborhood, and Lottie gradually starts collecting the corpses like treasures. Her aunt finds it a morbid habit for a girl to have, even if she is like a preteen and it could be a phase; her father meanwhile, encourages her curiosity, seeing that she needs it to process through things.
Throughout the book, Lottie seeks to preserve her collection and add to it, putting her at odds with her aunt who regularly clears it out of the house. Lottie experiments with taxidermy even if she doesn't know the word for it yet, and when she finds it, she is enchanted by the process that could, in her words, resurrect the dead. She also finds a beauty in death, which going by the fact that so many of her family members are dead makes a sort of sense. Through her perspective, we also see the others' own methods of coping with death, and the stories of the people who died. It also mentions the Loveday Internment camps (placing this novel in a time much earlier than I imagined) and the Stolen Generations (in the form of her classmate Jeremy) and explores the kinds of loss from them. Ultimately, Lottie's story speaks for a girl who has experienced loss and honors it in what way she can, and the novel evokes strong emotions.
In short, it is a beautifully written verse novel about loss, and dealing with death.
Received an advance reader copy in exchange for a fair review from Text Publishing, via Edelweiss.
I loved the fact that this book was told in verse. Also that cover just drew me in and made me instantly want to read it. As a whole I enjoyed the book even if at time it was a bit slow paced and dull.
The Art of Taxidermy is an Australian YA verse novel about grief & love. This style was a first for me, but after a few pages I found myself swept away by the rhythm of the story. The focus is on a young girl dealing with the loss of her mother, but there is also mention of internment camps in Australia for German, Italian and Japanese families during WWII and the Stolen Generation.
A fascinating, and beautiful read filled with sadness and hope.
A fascinating, and beautiful read filled with sadness and hope.
A lovely book of verse of a young girl who has a fascination with death and finds beauty in it, making her the odd one out to others, especially her Aunt [who loves her but can't understand her]. Her father understands though, death has touched both their lives in major ways and I loved how supportive he was of Lottie. Lottie's relationship with Annie was my favorite part of the novel as well as her finding friendship with Jeffrey. The history behind the characters is beautiful and tragic and steeped in the history of Australia. I felt this was a very lyrical read with a delicate framework of death and life, and their relationship with each other.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for a copy of this in exchange for my honest opinion.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for a copy of this in exchange for my honest opinion.
I revived them all.
Imagined them coming to life
with the magic of taxidermy,
which didn't just preserve--
but brought them back
from the dead.
The Art of Taxidermy is a novel written in free verse about grief and loss and death, and its depiction of these topics is so raw and honest. There's a lot of morbidity in this book--how could there not be when it's about amateur taxidermy?--but ultimately it offers optimism and healing and the idea that life can come from death, in a way. The Art of Taxidermy is real and beautifully written.
One of the things I appreciated about this book is that it discusses the complexities of grief and how much it can twist your entire world upside down. After the death of her mother and sister, Lottie develops a morbid fascination with dead animals. It doesn't stem from violence; it stems from her need to understand death.
There's lots of interesting discussions of binary thinking in this book: masculinity vs. femininity, death vs. life, black vs. white, and the author tries to break these down through showing Lottie's opposition to her aunt, who keeps trying to steer her away from her fascination with science and dead animals and onto more "girlish" things like sewing (but unknowingly gives her the tools to proceed in amateur taxidermy). Lottie gives life to dead animals through trying to preserve them. Also, her friendship with an Australian Aboriginal boy factors into this as well, but a he's a minor character in the whole scheme of things.
Even though this book was beautifully written and raised a lot of interesting questions, I didn't find myself interested in what was going on most of the time. A lot of the book seems repetitive--Lottie sees dead animals, brings them home, and her aunt gets angry at her and her father encourages her. While this is meant to show a longstanding fascination with death it gets tiring after a while.
All in all I think this is a well-written free-verse book that will probably be enjoyed by those who like poetry and words more than the plot and characters.
Thanks to the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
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I don't read novels-in-verse as often as I'd like, mostly because I prioritise novels written in prose, but I definitely appreciate this book. The poems were beautifully and vividly written, in that I could actually feel and picture clearly in my head the place and time period this story was set in (which is post-WWII Australia).
There were just some parts around the middle of the book that I felt were kind of slow, which is why I gave it 3 stars instead of 4, but other than that, I liked it.
There were just some parts around the middle of the book that I felt were kind of slow, which is why I gave it 3 stars instead of 4, but other than that, I liked it.