A review by annalenawrites
Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout

emotional inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This was amazing. A hauntingly beautiful and fascinatingly realistic novel about the recent pandemic and a woman living through it with her family. I related a lot to the main character even though she's much older than me and I liked the representation of an older woman with these thoughts and reflections and with trauma and mental illness, I liked how this book portrayed people who are not often mentioned in books and if so only as side characters, elderly/ retired people, as real people. I liked how strongly she cared for her children as a mother, I liked her complicated feelings about her ex husband, her siblings and her mother, I like that she learned to re-parent herself by making up a kind imaginary mother in her head. I liked reading about the pandemic from an American perspective as I experienced it in Europe and althoug  it was similar, there are also big differences. I like that the book mentioned politics and events that happened in 2020 because that story could hardly be told without those events and I related to the protagonist's reactions. I really liked the side characters and their stories as well. I read this as a stand-alone book but now I'm definitely interested in the other works of this author.