A review by thekuster
Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.75

This was devastating, emotional, funny, beautiful and educational. Having only read Hark! A Vagrant prior to this, I went in with no solid expectations. I picked it up one evening, thinking I would flip through a few pages before going to bed - but ended up staying up well past midnight, finishing it entirely. When I finally read the author's note at the end, I sat heartbroken - still trying to digest it all. Perhaps, I still am.

Despite all the terrible things this memoir depicts, Kate Beaton humanizes everyone. Every perspective gets its fair share of nuance. My only complaint would be that at points, the transitions were jarring - not in the traumatic incidents where that may have been intended, but the small vignettes of daily life.

This is a difficult, harrowing memoir - but one I highly recommend.