Libby is really the only thing that is keeping me reading these days, I swear. The random books that come in seem to know just when I need something, and this one came in right as I was taking some time off of work because, well, I need the time off. And I needed a pretty calm read.
The book follows two people: August and Emery. August in returning to the island after many years to bury his mother, but his return comes with the resurgence of all of the reasons he left. He was accused of murdering a friend in the midst of a fire and essentially run off the island, leaving Emery behind to continue living in a place that feels like it lives in stasis. But in the short time August is there to finish what he needs before leaving forever, the past comes back in strange ways and the truth of the mystery behind that death comes to light.
It’s a very calm and atmospheric read, and one that was really hard to place in terms of genre. While there’s implied magic in some of the characters, it’s never really clear until the end one way or another whether it is actually a thing in the world. And while there’s the feeling of it being a murder mystery or some idea of a gothic horror, nothing really stands out in terms of how the story was told or where it ended up to really understand what I should be expecting.
And really, the atmosphere was probably the best thing about the book. The characters never grow or change1 only reveal more information. There were no surprises until the end when you get the definitive answer about whether or not magic is real and ultimately it feels more like the story ends than concludes. It’s a bit disappointing in that there is no feeling that there’s any justice or finality to what happened, only that everyone walked away to never speak of it again.
Overall, it was mostly an okay read. It was what I needed for the time, something calm that didn’t ask too much in terms of complicated plots or characters. The perspective shifts threw me at first, but once I got used to it, it was a pretty chill book with a disappointing ending.
- Which is expected in some genres, which is why the genre is throwing me [↩]