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A review by cassandrahcooke
This Other Eden by Paul Harding
challenging
dark
informative
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
I was fortunate to receive an audiobook ARC on NetGalley for this novel.
This book was atmospheric in its contents, creating the world using heavily descriptive sentences. While reading the first half of the novel, the descriptive devices truly made you feel the oppression of poverty faces with the main characters and the families residing on the island. We learn later throughout the novel what it means to not be "purely white" and the way they viewed, despite the islanders residing on Apple Island for multiple generations while somehow surviving tragedy, storms, starvation, and lack of supplies.
What made this novel stand out was the journaled references to art and documents to that time prior to relocation of settlers, and how these references hardly captured the truth behind their stories.
Although the story and characters are fictional, the events that take place are non fictional, so this provides insight to lives and experiences through a new lens.
This was a slower read, not so heavily plot-based or character driven, but more so written to experience what life could have been like for the families living on Apple Island. The descriptiveness both helped and hindered the novel at times, making a certain scene feel drawn out, but overall set the tone of the environment
This book was atmospheric in its contents, creating the world using heavily descriptive sentences. While reading the first half of the novel, the descriptive devices truly made you feel the oppression of poverty faces with the main characters and the families residing on the island. We learn later throughout the novel what it means to not be "purely white" and the way they viewed, despite the islanders residing on Apple Island for multiple generations while somehow surviving tragedy, storms, starvation, and lack of supplies.
What made this novel stand out was the journaled references to art and documents to that time prior to relocation of settlers, and how these references hardly captured the truth behind their stories.
Although the story and characters are fictional, the events that take place are non fictional, so this provides insight to lives and experiences through a new lens.
This was a slower read, not so heavily plot-based or character driven, but more so written to experience what life could have been like for the families living on Apple Island. The descriptiveness both helped and hindered the novel at times, making a certain scene feel drawn out, but overall set the tone of the environment
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs and Racism
Moderate: Rape
Minor: Incest