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 Lark 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 Rainey’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!