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3.32 AVERAGE
3.32 AVERAGE
While I can admire the author's skill in crafting the atmosphere, I didn't enjoy the book.
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Beautiful depictions of the Pacific Northwest, but the character felt a bit flat, as well as the development of the plot.
I was a wee bit skeptical after reading a few reviews, but I really enjoyed this novel. I'll definitely be reading more by Alexis Smith.
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Evocative prose that awaken the senses and transports you to the pacific northwest with sight, smell,and sound. Smith creates such a vibrant and deeply sensory world that you can't help but be drawn in. This novel reads like a slow thriller with a touch of romance: Lucie returns home to find that nothing has changed much since she left, or a least that what it seems like. But then she is drawn in to the strange settlement on an abandoned island and the seemingly ideal life they have created there.
With a clear presence and purpose Smith crafts her characters almost as strongly as her world. Lucie is vivid, tangible, and familiar. Her relationships with the other characters are interesting and fluctuate wit the nuance of real life. The only spot where this book suffers is the lack of a true climax. Which, honestly, was a cool change of pace, not everything has to end with a bang or a declaration. The slow creep of time moves forever onward, and in our world not everything is tied up in a nice little bow, and not everyone gets justice. Her slow-burn, and fickle finale are very much in-tune with the sub-surface movements of her story.
If you like a slow-but-determined-paced mystery, a truly vivid world, characters that feel truly human, and a neo-post-apocalyptic story: read this book.
With a clear presence and purpose Smith crafts her characters almost as strongly as her world. Lucie is vivid, tangible, and familiar. Her relationships with the other characters are interesting and fluctuate wit the nuance of real life. The only spot where this book suffers is the lack of a true climax. Which, honestly, was a cool change of pace, not everything has to end with a bang or a declaration. The slow creep of time moves forever onward, and in our world not everything is tied up in a nice little bow, and not everyone gets justice. Her slow-burn, and fickle finale are very much in-tune with the sub-surface movements of her story.
If you like a slow-but-determined-paced mystery, a truly vivid world, characters that feel truly human, and a neo-post-apocalyptic story: read this book.
Marrow Island grabbed me from the first paragraph of the Prologue and I couldn't wait to find out how events unfolded and why they happened. I meant to give the book 3 1/2 stars, only because the ending was somehow unsatisfying and unsettling to me. Overall, the writing is wonderful, the scenery (real and/or imagined) is vivid, the circumstances very believable and the drama is compelling. An ecological theme combined with Northwest islands is the reason I chose to read the book and I'm glad I did. Maybe need to go back and read Ms. Smith's first book, "Glaciers" now.
I visited my local bookstore at the beginning of the summer to stock up on some beach reads. Marrow Island was one of my picks because it sounded so mysterious. I was expecting to read about a creepy cult and an island full of danger. Unfortunately, what I got was a rather normal, even dull, colony that was hiding a rather ho-hum secret.
I suppose if my expectations had been different, I would have responded differently to the book. There was suspense here, but it was so understated that it was difficult to pick up on. Don't get me wrong; this is a well written book. The descriptions of the island were terrific and, once again, my urge to travel to a book's location resurfaced. Unfortunately, what I wanted when I read this was a fast-paced, edge-of-your seat thriller, and that's not what the book was about.
One of the biggest disappointments was the colony. They weren't an evil cult at all; more like a bunch of very nice, yet misguided, tree huggers. The leader of the cult was interesting, but hardly charismatic. I actually liked the cult and its members very much and admired what they were doing. It was difficult to see them as evil.
I also had trouble with the book's ending which left me scratching my head. Part of the trouble was that I didn't like the protagonist very much to begin with. She brooded over things far too much. This is why her actions at the end of the book were so upsetting. I felt that her decision was completely unjustified.
The upshot: Yes, the book is creepy, but not really creepy enough to be a thriller. Reading about the island was nice, and the post-apocalyptic feel of the novel was solid, but overall, it wasn't one of my favorites.
Three and a half out of five stars.
I suppose if my expectations had been different, I would have responded differently to the book. There was suspense here, but it was so understated that it was difficult to pick up on. Don't get me wrong; this is a well written book. The descriptions of the island were terrific and, once again, my urge to travel to a book's location resurfaced. Unfortunately, what I wanted when I read this was a fast-paced, edge-of-your seat thriller, and that's not what the book was about.
One of the biggest disappointments was the colony. They weren't an evil cult at all; more like a bunch of very nice, yet misguided, tree huggers. The leader of the cult was interesting, but hardly charismatic. I actually liked the cult and its members very much and admired what they were doing. It was difficult to see them as evil.
I also had trouble with the book's ending which left me scratching my head. Part of the trouble was that I didn't like the protagonist very much to begin with. She brooded over things far too much. This is why her actions at the end of the book were so upsetting. I felt that her decision was completely unjustified.
The upshot: Yes, the book is creepy, but not really creepy enough to be a thriller. Reading about the island was nice, and the post-apocalyptic feel of the novel was solid, but overall, it wasn't one of my favorites.
Three and a half out of five stars.
I am an enormous fan of Smith's GORGEOUS novel "Glaciers" (seriously, read it), so I was very excited for this book. Like Glaciers, this book is quiet and incredibly powerful. It is a book that says so much in the silences. It's lovely.
I wanted to love this book. The story takes place in the Pacific Northwest. 20 years prior, a devastating (fictional) earthquake has destroyed much of the area, including the titular island. The protagonist, Lucie, lost her father on Marrow Island in a terrible fire in the aftermath of the earthquake. Two decades later, she receives a letter from her childhood best friend (and apparently first lover) urging her to visit the island. Coincidently, her mother recently signed over the deed to her childhood cottage on a neighboring island at the same time.
When Lucie arrives at her old home, she quickly discovers that her reclusive neighbor seems to be missing, which she promptly reports to the local sheriff. He is as skeptical of her story as the reader is. This plot point is the first of many that, upon reflection after finishing the novel, give me pause in recommending this book. It’s a very weak set-up. It’s just not terribly convincing because we really know almost nothing about any of the characters.
And that is the downfall of what could have been a really great novel. The character development is severely lacking and it left me wondering why I cared about any of the people I was reading about. Even Lucie, despite her first-person narration, is still a fairly nebulous character at the end.
Anyway, most of the plot centers around Marrow Island and the “colony” that has set up there in an effort to restore the island from a toxic wasteland to a functional, habitable place. This part of the story is very interesting. The way the colony does this is pretty fascinating.
This was a quick read for me, and I actually really enjoyed it as I was reading. But I was so disappointed after the fact. The ending is very abrupt and not satisfying. Although I appreciate an ending that is not neatly tied up, this one feels too much like the author didn’t really know how to wrap things up, so she just stopped writing. I don’t understand Lucie’s motivations, let alone any of the other characters, because they are all so vague and not fleshed-out.
3/5 stars.
Thank you to the publisher for giving me a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
When Lucie arrives at her old home, she quickly discovers that her reclusive neighbor seems to be missing, which she promptly reports to the local sheriff. He is as skeptical of her story as the reader is. This plot point is the first of many that, upon reflection after finishing the novel, give me pause in recommending this book. It’s a very weak set-up. It’s just not terribly convincing because we really know almost nothing about any of the characters.
And that is the downfall of what could have been a really great novel. The character development is severely lacking and it left me wondering why I cared about any of the people I was reading about. Even Lucie, despite her first-person narration, is still a fairly nebulous character at the end.
Anyway, most of the plot centers around Marrow Island and the “colony” that has set up there in an effort to restore the island from a toxic wasteland to a functional, habitable place. This part of the story is very interesting. The way the colony does this is pretty fascinating.
This was a quick read for me, and I actually really enjoyed it as I was reading. But I was so disappointed after the fact. The ending is very abrupt and not satisfying. Although I appreciate an ending that is not neatly tied up, this one feels too much like the author didn’t really know how to wrap things up, so she just stopped writing. I don’t understand Lucie’s motivations, let alone any of the other characters, because they are all so vague and not fleshed-out.
3/5 stars.
Thank you to the publisher for giving me a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
When Marrow Island by Alexis M. Smith popped up in my library feed, I was intrigued. I was first drawn to the cover but the synopsis, which sounded a lot like a real-life, post-apocalyptic eco-cult of a book, had me hooked. It’s the story of Lucie, who, as a child, was forced to leave her home after an earthquake devastated the island and killed her father, who worked at the island’s refinery. Twenty years later, following an invitation from her childhood friend, Katie, she returns to the island to learn about the people who are seeking to revitalize the land. Despite her personal ties to the land, she can’t quite keep her journalistic tendencies at bay and begins asking questions that have uncomfortable answers. What effects will the toxins from the refinery spill have on those who stayed behind? What type of person willingly puts themselves at such a risk? Does the government know they are there?
The story that unfolds is a bit scattered, but interesting. First, there’s the story of Lucie and Katie, who were childhood friends that lost touch over the years. Upon coming back to the island at Katie’s request, the two women attempt to rekindle the bond they once had. Katie is one of of the colonists that is reviving the island, but what’s good for the land may not be good for Katie, and Lucie can’t help but wonder what types of dangers lurk beneath the soil. Her questions lead her down a path that presents its own dangers, but not everyone wants her to find the answers. There’s also a mystery and romance angle to the book, but neither are central to the story – the mystery thread could have been skipped entirely without detracting from the overall effect.
Marrow Island had a lot of promise. The concept of a group of people living on and revitalizing toxic land through their own unique methods, despite the consequences to themselves, is an excellent one. I was expecting the book to be predominantly about this plot line, but the island served more as a setting and a backstory than anything else. Instead, the book is about Lucie; where she is in life currently, her relationship with Katie, her personal life, her inner demons, and so on. Each of these would be fascinating if fully developed, but there were so many threads and while all touched upon, none were delved into deeply. This approach will work for some readers but it meant that I had a hard time investing in Lucie and her story.
The book also felt choppy to me, which may have been because I read the e-book version and was not able to clearly delineate time. I’m assuming that the physical copy has section breaks that were not obvious in the digital version, which would have made sections about the past a lot easier to identify. I was also distracted by the use of both Kate and Katie for a single character. I tried to figure out the rhyme or reason to it (maybe Katie was only used when referring to childhood?) but was never able to figure it out, even though I flipped back and forth and did a Kindle search for both names.
Despite all this, Marrow Island was a decent read. The past few books I’ve picked up were ones I did not finish and it was nice to read a story that had me easily flipping through the pages again. I have no doubt that if knew that the book was less about the colony than Lucie (and maybe read a physical copy), I would have enjoyed it a lot more. While I wish the book was about 100 pages longer and was more about the ins-and-0uts of the colony’s inhabitants, I know that would be a different book, altogether. So, if you take this one at face value, it’s a good, weekend read.
This review was originally posted at The Book Wheel.
The story that unfolds is a bit scattered, but interesting. First, there’s the story of Lucie and Katie, who were childhood friends that lost touch over the years. Upon coming back to the island at Katie’s request, the two women attempt to rekindle the bond they once had. Katie is one of of the colonists that is reviving the island, but what’s good for the land may not be good for Katie, and Lucie can’t help but wonder what types of dangers lurk beneath the soil. Her questions lead her down a path that presents its own dangers, but not everyone wants her to find the answers. There’s also a mystery and romance angle to the book, but neither are central to the story – the mystery thread could have been skipped entirely without detracting from the overall effect.
Marrow Island had a lot of promise. The concept of a group of people living on and revitalizing toxic land through their own unique methods, despite the consequences to themselves, is an excellent one. I was expecting the book to be predominantly about this plot line, but the island served more as a setting and a backstory than anything else. Instead, the book is about Lucie; where she is in life currently, her relationship with Katie, her personal life, her inner demons, and so on. Each of these would be fascinating if fully developed, but there were so many threads and while all touched upon, none were delved into deeply. This approach will work for some readers but it meant that I had a hard time investing in Lucie and her story.
The book also felt choppy to me, which may have been because I read the e-book version and was not able to clearly delineate time. I’m assuming that the physical copy has section breaks that were not obvious in the digital version, which would have made sections about the past a lot easier to identify. I was also distracted by the use of both Kate and Katie for a single character. I tried to figure out the rhyme or reason to it (maybe Katie was only used when referring to childhood?) but was never able to figure it out, even though I flipped back and forth and did a Kindle search for both names.
Despite all this, Marrow Island was a decent read. The past few books I’ve picked up were ones I did not finish and it was nice to read a story that had me easily flipping through the pages again. I have no doubt that if knew that the book was less about the colony than Lucie (and maybe read a physical copy), I would have enjoyed it a lot more. While I wish the book was about 100 pages longer and was more about the ins-and-0uts of the colony’s inhabitants, I know that would be a different book, altogether. So, if you take this one at face value, it’s a good, weekend read.
This review was originally posted at The Book Wheel.