Title: Our Animal Hearts
Author: Dania Tomlinson
Genre: Literary Fiction/Folklore
Pages: 352 (Paperback)
Publisher: Anchor Canada
Publication date: May 29th, 2018
Synopsis from Our Animal Hearts' Goodreads page
Deep in British Columbia, at the turn of the 20th century, lies Winteridge: a small village perched on an enormous lake made famous by the monster said to haunt its depths.
Twelve-year-old Iris Sparks lives in Winteridge with her brother; her working-class Welsh mother, Llewelyna; and her blue-blooded father from England, a progressive bohemian who has brought his family to Canada for an adventure.
But amid the idyllic, Edwardian setting, there are dangers lurking. A blend of Welsh and Indigenous stories of a predatory lake monster take real shape for young Iris as she begins to unravel the truth behind her mother's dark fairy tales, and watches in horror as her mother increasingly succumbs to seizures.
As the First World War reaches its height, Iris must contend with the demands of a deteriorating mother and the harsh realities of a toxic love triangle. All the while, Iris's mind continues to exert its strange and awesome power, and she and her entire community must find a way to survive at the mercy of otherworldly beasts and a hungry darkness.
Synopsis from Our Animal Hearts' Goodreads page
Deep in British Columbia, at the turn of the 20th century, lies Winteridge: a small village perched on an enormous lake made famous by the monster said to haunt its depths.
Twelve-year-old Iris Sparks lives in Winteridge with her brother; her working-class Welsh mother, Llewelyna; and her blue-blooded father from England, a progressive bohemian who has brought his family to Canada for an adventure.
But amid the idyllic, Edwardian setting, there are dangers lurking. A blend of Welsh and Indigenous stories of a predatory lake monster take real shape for young Iris as she begins to unravel the truth behind her mother's dark fairy tales, and watches in horror as her mother increasingly succumbs to seizures.
As the First World War reaches its height, Iris must contend with the demands of a deteriorating mother and the harsh realities of a toxic love triangle. All the while, Iris's mind continues to exert its strange and awesome power, and she and her entire community must find a way to survive at the mercy of otherworldly beasts and a hungry darkness.
THOUGHTS
I received a finished copy of this book from Penguin Random House in exchange for an honest review - Thank you so much Penguin!
When I first came across this book, I was immediately interested. A lot of family (including one of my parents) is from Wales, I thought that it was really cool to be able to immerse myself in some of the Welsh folklore from their part of the world. I've also never been able to really find any Welsh fiction, as most fiction from that part of the world is usually from a more well known place, like England. So, naturally, when I came across this I jumped at the chance to read it and see how it was.
This book was definitely dark. I was expecting it to be a bit on the dark side, because that's how a lot of welsh folklore goes, but I wasn't expecting it to be as dark as it actually was. It had a lot of deadly creatures, a lot of scary stories and a lot of sadness and death.
This book takes place over the course of a few decades, from the beginning to the middle 1900s. It covers times when there was a lot of segregation between people from England and the surrounding area and Japanese people. It also covers the first World War, and the Spanish Flu that came around after it.
The entirety of this book is very dark, but in an interesting way. Every once in a while I do really enjoy something that is dark and sinister, and this fits the bill. It kept my attention and had me reading it late at night, and it was very different from the books that I usually read.
I loved the characters in this book. I really enjoyed how they were so different from each other, and I loved how those differences were portrayed.
The setting of this book was also amazing - the early 1900s on the West Coast, with forests and dark bottomless lakes, where lots of creatures and beasts can hide. The setting really helped move the story along, and I really enjoyed how the author was able to tie the setting and the folklores of the story together so well.
Overall - ★★★★☆
No comments:
Post a Comment