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A review by heyheybooks
High Tide by Inga Ābele
4.0
My first Goodreads giveaway book! Originally written in Latvian, High Tide follows Ieva in a reversed time line, or is time actually moving backwards? The story begins with a dream, but maybe it wasn't really a dream.
Overall, it was definitely an interesting story and not a narrative structure I'm used to. The writing was excellent, but in places maybe a little too dense/poetic to properly grasp, especially the first section. But everything after page 24 was much easier to get through, even though not necessarily less confusing - things clear up as the book progresses. After finishing I went back and read the first chapter and a little more, to see what was really going on, who was who, etc. Not knowing who anyone was at first was disorienting, but you slowly learn more and more about what happened in the characters' pasts (Ieva's future? Future past?)and the beginning was much clearer the second time. There are repeated themes/mentions of circles and loops but the symbolism doesn't hit you over the head, it's quite nice. The heart of this book is not really the plot, but the writing and the telling. It would have been a completely different book told beginning to end rather than end to beginning. (Middle to beginning?)
I'm still a little confused about who the narrator is - is it Ieva, or B. Grebenshchikov? Did I miss something?
Overall, it was definitely an interesting story and not a narrative structure I'm used to. The writing was excellent, but in places maybe a little too dense/poetic to properly grasp, especially the first section. But everything after page 24 was much easier to get through, even though not necessarily less confusing - things clear up as the book progresses. After finishing I went back and read the first chapter and a little more, to see what was really going on, who was who, etc. Not knowing who anyone was at first was disorienting, but you slowly learn more and more about what happened in the characters' pasts (Ieva's future? Future past?)and the beginning was much clearer the second time. There are repeated themes/mentions of circles and loops but the symbolism doesn't hit you over the head, it's quite nice. The heart of this book is not really the plot, but the writing and the telling. It would have been a completely different book told beginning to end rather than end to beginning. (Middle to beginning?)
I'm still a little confused about who the narrator is - is it Ieva, or B. Grebenshchikov? Did I miss something?