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A review by erine
The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise by Dan Gemeinhart
5.0
An incredibly sad book about crippling grief; an incredibly hopeful book about beginning to put your life back together again. Coyote and (her not Dad) Rodeo live in a converted school bus and drive around the country. They haven’t been home in 5 years, since Coyote’s mom and two sisters died in a car accident. Rodeo has avoided all grieving, simply slamming the door on the past and forbidding Coyote to even mention her sisters’ names. They have no ties, only transient friendships, and live day to day.
So the story begins with the first crack in their fortress designed to keep out grief: a kitten. Said kitten is quickly followed by a hitchhiking musician, a mom and son fleeing domestic abuse, and a young gay teen running away from unaccepting parents. And a goat. While the plot line verges on implausible (while their money situation is explained, there is absolutely zero mention of school), the path of grief and the way back to some kind of life is spot on.
The whole story is kind of an extrapolation of a favorite quote from Call the Midwife: “You will feel better than this. Maybe not yet. But you will. You just keep living, until you’re alive again.” And Coyote’s journey begins with the just living part, but it ends with feeling alive again.
So the story begins with the first crack in their fortress designed to keep out grief: a kitten. Said kitten is quickly followed by a hitchhiking musician, a mom and son fleeing domestic abuse, and a young gay teen running away from unaccepting parents. And a goat. While the plot line verges on implausible (while their money situation is explained, there is absolutely zero mention of school), the path of grief and the way back to some kind of life is spot on.
The whole story is kind of an extrapolation of a favorite quote from Call the Midwife: “You will feel better than this. Maybe not yet. But you will. You just keep living, until you’re alive again.” And Coyote’s journey begins with the just living part, but it ends with feeling alive again.