fallohide 's review for:

The Morningside by Téa Obreht

3.75

hopeful lighthearted mysterious slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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I really enjoyed parts of this book but other parts kept nagging at me and never really went away. My biggest issue was that the main character is a child, I think 11 years old or so, but it's told from the perspective of her adult self who's thinking back and remembering. So the perspective feels quite confused throughout--sometimes our narrator sounds like a child, sometimes she sounds like an adult. The world is also confusing and vague at times. The Morningside itself felt so lived in, but the surrounding "Island City"? Not so much. I do think that the book takes an interesting approach to climate change, being set in this moment that is post major upheavals but not entirely destroyed, with systems of power still struggling along. I also liked the message about change in that regard, thinking about the role of the past. But then this fell a little flat at the end of the text, where our narrator seems, despite everything, to have found a good life out in nature, with fresh fish to eat and beauty all around. It seemed too easy. Change is slow, so let it be slow.