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dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Margaret Murphy is an endearing and heartbreaking unreliable narrator. For most of Poor Deer, Margaret is a child simply trying her best to interpret a world of adults - namely her single mother and aunt. Oshetsky excels at writing what feels like a genuine child's perspective of the world. Margaret is adept and intuitive and yet so deeply underestimated. Though never explicitly stated, there's an implication of neurodivergence in a time and place in which adults had little to no understanding of such things.
As a whole, Poor Deer is an empathetic and imaginative look at the stories that we tell ourselves in order to survive. And the circumstances that push us to develop a complex and self-punishing interior world.
Many thanks to @eccobooks and @netgalley for the eARC of Poor Deer in exchange for my honest review! All thoughts and opinions are my own.
As a whole, Poor Deer is an empathetic and imaginative look at the stories that we tell ourselves in order to survive. And the circumstances that push us to develop a complex and self-punishing interior world.
Many thanks to @eccobooks and @netgalley for the eARC of Poor Deer in exchange for my honest review! All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Child abuse, Child death, Mental illness, Grief, Abandonment