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A review by moth_dance
O Caledonia by Elspeth Barker
5.0
Beloved new classic favorite.
Strange little Scottish girl Janet is wild, ravenous, shy, curious--complicated and beyond her time. If Shirley Manson and Kate Bush had a daughter, this would be that very girl. Janet is everything I felt growing up, and more. And the mystery of her premature death (not a spoiler; it opens the book) faded away nicely as the story evolved into more of a soft-goth kind of "girlhood/coming of age" tale.
But like why has this book been missing from my life?! Reading this (rather than yet another Dickens or something) in like 10th grade English class would've been the move. Wonderful writing and pacing. Perfect length for such a tale; any longer and the story would've verged on repetitive. Bonus points for this being Elspeth Barker's first and only published work at the age of 51! (Real aspiration for me right there.)
Strange little Scottish girl Janet is wild, ravenous, shy, curious--complicated and beyond her time. If Shirley Manson and Kate Bush had a daughter, this would be that very girl. Janet is everything I felt growing up, and more. And the mystery of her premature death (not a spoiler; it opens the book) faded away nicely as the story evolved into more of a soft-goth kind of "girlhood/coming of age" tale.
But like why has this book been missing from my life?! Reading this (rather than yet another Dickens or something) in like 10th grade English class would've been the move. Wonderful writing and pacing. Perfect length for such a tale; any longer and the story would've verged on repetitive. Bonus points for this being Elspeth Barker's first and only published work at the age of 51! (Real aspiration for me right there.)