A review by jessdekkerreads
Thirst for Salt by Madelaine Lucas

emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

5.0

My first five star fiction read of 2023. 

Subtle, not much plot, but definitely vibing; tranquil; and introspective

Mother-daughter dynamics; observational; grief and loss; 

“I’d always seen my mother as a pioneer – forging ahead while I trailed after her, trying to make sure nothing got left behind. As a child, I’d imagined her as something diffuse, like vapor or air. Necessary, and all around me, but somehow elusive, ungraspable. As if she might slip through my hands the way she had my father’s, and all the men who came after…” [pg. 55]

DESIRE, age-gap relationship; exploration of missed opportunities

“Or maybe it just was, right from the start. Who is to say what love is or what it wants to be, the shape it takes, or how quickly it comes on? Love has always made a fool of time.” [pg 61]

descriptive nature writing, highly recommend reading this near some sort of body of water if you can.

Australian lit; atmospheric, reflective on a formative relationship; tender

Very much focused on the relationships we share with others, with ourselves.

What it means to love; to be loved; and to love yourself

“It’s not so easy, I’d tried on one occasion to explain, to tell what keeps people together, what makes them fall apart. You can leave someone and still love them. You can lie with someone and never love them at all.” [pg. 37]

“Love, I still believe, exists outside of time. Or it is its own time. It makes its own measures – not in minutes or hours or calendar days but in something closer to seasons, or tidal movements.” [pg 195]

Feels like: saltwater in your hair; holding your breath underwater; slow dancing to old records; smoking a joint on the front porch; writing on any scrap of paper you can find; swimming in the ocean; finding shells in your pocket.