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A review by tessa_talbert
The Ophelia Girls by Jane Healey
4.0
⭐⭐⭐⭐
I seem to be running into deeply dreamy, atmospheric pieces lately and I'm not mad.
The Ophelia Girls is a dual timeline adult novel that glides back and forth to an idyllic and tragic summer of a woman named Ruth and, later, her 17-year-old daughter, Maeve who is recovering from leukemia.
The imagery in this was absolutely stunning. Harkening back to the Shakspearean story of Ophelia, there is symbolism at every turn. Ruth and her friends when they were young took great care in their clothing, the choosing of flowers, the way their bodies were positioned in the water, etc in order to create gorgeous and lasting images.
The writing was lyrical but not overtly so, and I enjoyed the flow of the story and the characters introduced throughout the way. I wish we had gotten more information on them as the novel came to a close. With all the the various (I won't spoil) hurts and wants, I wondered what life was like for them after the fact. I do wish that we knew who's POV was who's as the chapters turned. Sometimes, I was having to flip back to see where we came from, other times it was obvious. It just depended.
I was uncomfortable with Stuart and Maeve's relationship. The age-gap itself was its own thing, but also the power-imbalance of a girl recently recovering from a potentially deadly disease and a fully grown man who seemed to carry a torch for her mother at some point....not my thing.
This novel is full of aching sadness, it breathes from between each page and reaches out to grip you when you don't expect it. You definitely come away feeling something, even if it's not what you wanted.
*My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for gifting me with this arc in exchange for my honest review.*
I seem to be running into deeply dreamy, atmospheric pieces lately and I'm not mad.
The Ophelia Girls is a dual timeline adult novel that glides back and forth to an idyllic and tragic summer of a woman named Ruth and, later, her 17-year-old daughter, Maeve who is recovering from leukemia.
The imagery in this was absolutely stunning. Harkening back to the Shakspearean story of Ophelia, there is symbolism at every turn. Ruth and her friends when they were young took great care in their clothing, the choosing of flowers, the way their bodies were positioned in the water, etc in order to create gorgeous and lasting images.
The writing was lyrical but not overtly so, and I enjoyed the flow of the story and the characters introduced throughout the way. I wish we had gotten more information on them as the novel came to a close. With all the the various (I won't spoil) hurts and wants, I wondered what life was like for them after the fact. I do wish that we knew who's POV was who's as the chapters turned. Sometimes, I was having to flip back to see where we came from, other times it was obvious. It just depended.
I was uncomfortable with Stuart and Maeve's relationship. The age-gap itself was its own thing, but also the power-imbalance of a girl recently recovering from a potentially deadly disease and a fully grown man who seemed to carry a torch for her mother at some point....not my thing.
This novel is full of aching sadness, it breathes from between each page and reaches out to grip you when you don't expect it. You definitely come away feeling something, even if it's not what you wanted.
*My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for gifting me with this arc in exchange for my honest review.*