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challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Gretel has been looking for her mother for 16 years. In the years they had together, they lived on a boat on a canal and invented words of their own, including one for the thing lurking on the water. As Gretel digs into her past looking for hints of her mother’s whereabouts, she remembers the people whose path she crossed and how they each left their mark on her and her mother’s life.
This dual-timeline novel will probably feel quite different depending on your mood. It is thoughtful and subtle, but also quite bleak because of its description of family relationships. I was expecting a little more whimsy and a lot less queer rep, so I might have been a little frustrated by the down-to-earth approach (although there *is* a presence of folklore), but I was pleasantly surprised by the trans rep, however messy the characters are. It got me thinking that most of the trans rep I’d read before was in fantasy books, and that I haven’t encountered a lot of trans characters in contemporary fiction. That’s mostly because I read more fantasy than contemporary books, but still.
The subtlety of the narrative meant that it took me a few chapters to understand the dual timeline and the relationships between the characters, but that was also a case of my brain being frozen by stress as I read this in the week leading to my trip to Oxford.
This book could be read as a variation on the Oedipus myth, although this aspect is more present in the last third, but I’m sure a more literary-minded reader will find a whole lot of interesting things to say about this novel.
Rep: trans and lesbian rep.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Dementia, Abandonment
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Incest, Suicide attempt
Minor: Cancer, Suicide
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Incest, Suicide, Murder
Moderate: Dementia, Abandonment
Minor: Cancer
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Cancer, Deadnaming, Death, Incest, Infertility, Self harm, Suicide, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Abandonment, Dysphoria
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Death, Incest, Suicide, Dementia
Moderate: Deadnaming
Minor: Cancer
challenging
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
After thinking on it awhile, I'm still unsure how I feel about this book. I struggled at first to keep track of the timeline and once I adjusted to the style, became increasingly unsettled by the implications of the storyline and where it was headed.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Deadnaming, Death, Incest, Suicide, Dementia, Murder, Abandonment
Minor: Cancer