Reviews

Summerwater by Sarah Moss

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katiegilley's review against another edition

3.0

This story is told in one day. Moss adeptly takes us into the heads of a group of people vacationing around a Scottish Loch. The author impressed me by showing off a wide-range of internal dialogues: those of an elderly woman fearful of dementia, a stay at home mom undone by trying to decide what to do with one free hour (been there, done that), a teenage boy just trying to get away from his family, to name just a few. The whole day climaxes to a disaster in the evening (this isn’t a spoiler, there’s a heavy-handed hint at the beginning), which I found dissatisfying and incomplete (Even though this doesn’t always bother me, see my thoughts on Leave the World Behind.
I appreciate all of the Post-Brexit-and-2016-US-Election books coming out lately. This was clearly a response to those two elections – how deeply hate seeps into those around us.

If you’re in the mood for character studies and following the internal dialogue of people who are different than yourself, then you’ll probably enjoy this book. If you’re in the mood for a well-paced novel with a satisfying ending, then this book probably isn’t for you right now. Sadly, I fell into the latter category this time.

readily_reads's review against another edition

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3.75

Enjoyed reading all the different perspectives of the characters, interesting concept it is like a collection of short stories but they are all interlinked. Not sure about the ending but an absorbing read nonetheless.

lisavx's review against another edition

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reflective slow-paced

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

2.5

ginavulpes's review against another edition

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dark reflective tense fast-paced

4.25

vtmichelle's review against another edition

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reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

honnari_hannya's review against another edition

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4.0

CW: Racism, xenophobia, fat shaming

A short novella, spanning the length of a rainy day in a remote cabin park. Each chapter is told through the almost stream-of-consciousness from one of the residents of the park, in vignettes of what they are thinking and experiencing in that particular moment. Sarah Moss manages to pack in an unreal amount of dread in such a short punch, each chapter building toward a moment of disaster that you expect to happen sooner or later, and want to almost voyeuristically see the reactions of the rest of the park's inhabitants when it does inevitably occur. There are several scenes where I thought, "Is this it?" only to let out a breath when we move on, crisis narrowly averted, for now. And beneath all of that is this undercurrent of tension that slowly narrows down into a more specific but also more nebulous anger that the characters feel, devolving from national to political to social to cultural so seamlessly.

I will say that I disliked the removed, omniscient POV that is sometimes interspersed between chapters. It is very reminiscent of the way [a:Richard Powers|11783|Richard Powers|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1263155076p2/11783.jpg] wrote about and through trees in [b:The Overstory|40180098|The Overstory|Richard Powers|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1562786502l/40180098._SY75_.jpg|57662223], but doesn't work quite as well here since the focus of this novella is so much narrower. I think this would have been a more concise book without those interruptions, which ended up being distractions.