Beautiful book, set in a dystopian future that feels worryingly real (oligarchy, employment as servitude, etc - but what really got me is that reading is suspect and the nation’s leader is proudly illiterate).

It’s hard to write a review because nothing I can say can compete with the lyrical prose! It’s definitely one of my most memorable reads of the year. With grief at the centre, it contains darkness and despair but is ultimately a hopeful read.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

The writing style was a little staccato at the start and took a few pages to get into the rhythm of it. Well worth it, once you enter the flow. I loved this book, for its highs and lows, which come painfully crashing into each other.

Don’t expect a full explanation of how and why the future world has turned dysfunctional. There’s just enough details to roll with the story, and snippets of detail emerge throughout the book to allow us to follow the protagonist, Rainy as he’s forced from his fragile balance of happiness, on a voyage of escape.

Despite the challenging circumstances of life in this future reality, the champions in the story are those who find joy in what appears to be the darkest of times. The lows and depravity which brought the world to its future dystopia only seek to contrast against the highlights - books, literature, friends, music. Great interweaving of events which allows the colour and contrast between the oscillations to show.

Succinctly written, beautifully laid out and well worth a read.

Curious concept, which got me excited.
Lark and Rainy are a lovely couple. They are both good souls who lead a fulfilling life in the midst of a dystopian society, a complex metaphor of our current world and one its potential futures, which I could not entirely decipher.
They remain good and content despite the chaos.
Then something happens and Rainy needs to set sail. On a boat. Both literally and metaphorically, reminiscent of Orpheus, he has a journey.
The journey tells us more about Rainy and the society.

Now, how to be fair about this book?
It had immense potential; the premise checked the boxes in terms of my personal preferences.
I like Sol, Rainy and Lark.
I liked that this was a little dark, but not without hope.
I liked the criticisms it makes (about billionaires, illiteracy) and the metaphors. I like to be rewarded as a reader for paying attention, spending time with the characters and their story world. In this case, I did not fully grasp it.
I wanted more plot, more characterisation and a slightly different writing, different pacing and more context.

I really enjoyed this book. The words are poetic and rather beautiful.

It is about grief anf coming to terms with feelings and loss. It is a slow pace read and I rather enjoyed the plot and it seemed to me that the story was a metaphor about the actual happening.

It is unusual but I honestly found it uplifting and I am quite happy to recommend

A slow-paced, lyrically written dystopian that didn’t quite the mark for me.

Opening and scene-setting is very long, the first 25% of the book, in fact. I didn’t mind this because I liked spending time with Lark, but I mentally kept checking my watch to see when we’d actually get the story underway.

I think my favourite bits were when Rainy was on the open water in Lake Superior and exploring the coastline while sitting with this grief. There is some truly beautiful writing and it created a profound sense of place. There’s one section where Rainy observes some seagulls resting on the boat that was beautifully evocative and emotionally stirring. There’s a lot of detail about sailing which will appeal to boating folks!

Once Sol joined the tale, I started noticing some distracting inconsistencies with Rainy’s characterization and motivations. I didn’t understand why Rainy jeopardized his own safety (and his beloved bass guitar!) on freeing Sol after he’d returned her to land. Later, his aggressiveness with his captors on her behalf didn’t ring true - it didn’t feel plausible to me that he could have that kind of a bond with her after a couple of weeks.

After the bridge section, the story went a bit off the rails for this reader. I confess I’m still a bit confused about what even happened on the giant ship.

The dystopian world didn’t feel as fleshed out as I needed it to be, I finished the book sitting with a lot of question about the world and its mechanics. While I don’t read dystopian fiction to be uplifted, even recognizing that grief is a prominent theme, the hopelessness and bleakness of the book did get to me a bit. Coupled with the very, very slow pace, I did struggle to pick it up sometimes.

The cover is beautiful!