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errie's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Abandonment
Moderate: Child abuse, Miscarriage, Vomit, Car accident, and Injury/Injury detail
agavemonster's review against another edition
dark
medium-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.25
A facile, hamfisted melodrama with a self-absorbed narrator who only pauses between absurdly violent and self-destructive actions to faint dramatically and allow every other character to rescue her. The depiction of disappearing wild nature is reduced to a motif in the protagonist's tragic life story; nature on its own terms separate from the protagonist's personal drama is not respected, is not valued, and does not appear. That's what made me angriest of all about this book. Spoilers throughout this review.
The interminable first-person present tense, even in flashbacks, traps us without reprieve in Franny's head, a place that frankly sucks. She's devoted to her mission to follow the Arctic terns as they migrate from Arctic to Antarctic due to a promise she made to her husband, but she doesn't seem to care about the birds—their biology, the role they play in the ecosystem, their alien-ness and fundamental unlikeness to humans—aside from the way they make her feel free and remind her of her love for her husband. Characters are crudely sketched paper dolls who exist first as a quirky group of misfits for Franny to play found-family Barbie house with, then as a series of priest-cum-sinners who hear her confessions and immediately give her theirs as if reading off cue cards. And the characterization of these people is just ridiculous. A rough-and-tumble crew of the last fishermen in the world play Trivial Pursuit as a group at the pub and cook molecular-gastronomy food on board their vessel? Franny's grandmother, an unsmiling Australian rancher who shoots their pet donkey in the head after fatally injuring it, has this to say when Franny screams at her: "Things don't always take the shape you want them to, kid, and we gotta learn to endure that with a bit of grace"? Facebook wine mom Rachel Hollis shit.
Time after time after time, characters sacrifice for Franny, save her from sleepwalking over the side of the ship, hold her as she pounds on their chest and collapses into sobs, and murmur over how much deeper her pain is than anyone else's. To top it off, she's always the most specialest princess who saves the day (finds fresh water for the ship when they're on their last legs, conducts TWO separate cold-water drowning rescues, knows how to work the AED on an unconscious crewmember when no one else does even though they're professional sailors who have presumably been trained to use every tool on the vessel) and who makes deep emotional connections with everyone that starts off hating her but now loves her while simultaneously being shut-off and damaged.
The angsty violence done by Franny or to her is a substitute for any real inward or outward emotional development. "I can hardly feel my body as I move for the door. It's cold outside and I hardly know it, and before I close the door behind me I hear Blue ask, 'Did we upset her?' and Anik's voice replying 'Something darker did that,' and I'm walking for the hills and shore and sea. I take off all my clothes and wade out into the icy water and the pain is immense and also nothing nothing nothing." She throws up everywhere, she ties her wrists to the bedpost at least 4 separate times so she won't sleepwalk, she gets slashed up on the rocks by the ocean, she cuts herself with a toothbrush shiv in prison, she walks into freezing water and almost dies again and again—both out of suicidality and just for fun. The heavily telegraphed secrets of her dark past pile up like Jenga pieces yet fail to add up to any meaningful message or character arc. The husband she's been writing letters to (who creepily stalks her at her workplace and home as the start of their "love story", although of course this is played as romance) is actually dead, in a drunk-driving car wreck caused by her lack of attention due to her astonishment and subsequent suicidality on seeing a snowy owl, believed to be extinct; she goes to prison for three years after confessing to the "murder" of both her husband and the lady who was in the other car, and is beaten to the point of hospitalization in prison; the husband dies shortly after the miscarriage of their daughter; the birth of the daughter was meant to be a promise of presence and devotion to a new life after giving up on tracking down her mother; her mother didn't just disappear when Franny came home after a childish running-away at 10, she hanged herself. Hell, even the motif of Franny and her mother being connected by the curse/blessing of their shared nature as "wanderers" wasn't explored in enough depth, and I was still sick of it by the end!
The prose is airport-paperback banal. Words are chosen without thought for their meaning or their place in a sentence. An occasional lovely image appears—weeping over a photo of her lost family, "One of [my tears] drops onto the photo, distorting my grandmother's face, drowning her. I wipe it off so she can breathe again"—but the clumsy, melodramatic prose gets in its own way again and again. "I feel that deep and terrible binding for what it is, I know its face and its name, and it's not a binding at all, but love, and maybe that's the same kind of thing after all."
Finally: The vaunted strength of this book, its exploration of a world ruined by humanity, is its shameful downfall. Eighty percent of animals are extinct, but the disastrously changed climate that caused this mass extinction seems not to have affected the actual landscape (no mention of wildfires, droughts, flooding, political instability, climate refugees, coastal cities destroyed by rising sea levels?). A world without wild animals would be unimaginably impoverished and would look drastically different than it does today, but the actual ramifications of mass extinction on both culture and ecology are not considered (plants are more affected by climate change than animals because they can't move under their own power to new areas... the disappearance of insects would be far more noticeable than the disappearance of wolves etc and cause far more ecological havoc... livestock and domestic pets are still present aplenty and no one seems to have changed their relationship to animals or whether pets are worth feeding as every other living thing dies...).
The actual biology of endangerment and extinction makes basically no appearance in this book. All the smart scientists at the anti-extinction facility are trying to get captive terns to eat grass seeds from "a species of plant that will withstand inclement weather and grow on most continents" instead of fish, and this is presented as a practical idea, and the smart ornithologist husband argues that Arctic terns are the most resilient to extinction "because of their practice in flying farther than others." Wtf???? Animals with long migrations are the MOST SUSCEPTIBLE TO EXTINCTION because the whole migration route and both wintering and summering grounds have to remain intact! Crows literally go extinct in this book before Arctic terns do, as if crows aren't one of the most well-adapted commensal species! Another idiotically wrong bit: The central motif of the book, migration, isn't a desperate escape by an animal fleeing; it's traveling from home to home by roads it and its species have traveled for thousands and millions of years. The author's framing of Franny's compulsive, self-destructive escaping as a "migration" that's "in her nature" is completely wrongheaded.
Most transparently of all, an environmental protestor sees Franny disembarking from the fishing vessel, confronts her for her complicity in destroying the ocean, and attempts to rape her as punishment. She stabs him in the neck and flees (but not before passing out in the captain's arms as he comes to rescue her, of course), which triggers the second half of the book when the ship is on the run from both the murder and the newly enacted complete fishing ban. Why would a book that's ostensibly about conservation of the natural world make one of its only villains an environmental activist? The answer: because it's not about conserving nature, the beauty of wild places, or the relationship between humans and the earth. It's a knockoff Sharp Objects/Big Little Lies/Limetown with birds instead of journalism, or whatever.
The 1.25 stars is for the occasional moment of loveliness in the prose and that I got to think about terns and boats a lot while reading this book.
The 1.25 stars is for the occasional moment of loveliness in the prose and that I got to think about terns and boats a lot while reading this book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Suicide, Car accident, and Abandonment
Moderate: Animal death, Miscarriage, and Murder
abicaro17's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This beautiful and sad odyssey of one woman's journey as she follows the last migration of the Arctic Turns in a world facing the disastrous effects of climate change and greed is a must read. Franny is a bird lover but, birds are basically extinct due to global warming and the government's lack of concern with hunting and overfishing. She is on a mission to follow the last of the Arctic Terns, a bird that migrates from pole to pole. She joins a ragtag crew on their fishing boat with promises of a catch they have long searched for. As Franny and the crew journey with the birds, the reader journeys through Frannys childhood, her married life, and what led her to hop on a boat and follow the terns. This novel is a beautifully written picture of the risks of global warming framing one of the most gut wrenching side romances i've ever read. Franny is a complicated and fearless free spirit who works to fulfill her dreams at any cost. She's strong, determined, a tad delusional, and a fantastic character. Niall, her husband, is a dreamboat. No spoilers obviously, but that man is a catch and almost every time he spoke I was practically swooning! In addition, all of the side characters are amazingly complex as well! Even Nialls mom, who has like maybe two chapters? From Ennis, the gambling captain to Lèa the French engineer, the entire crew has a complicated backstory, development, and dialogue. Its amazing that this whole book is less than 300 pages. It packs a punch! I wish I could read this again for the first time.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
clairebartholomew549's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I have sort of confusing feelings about this book. I waffled between giving it three or four stars, but the last third of the book really hit hard for me, so I landed on four stars. This is a pretty brutal story, involving a character who has suffered immeasurably and dissociates quite frequently, leaving you with a disorienting feeling and not knowing quite what is going on. That's presumably meant to mirror Franny's confusing relationship with reality, which ends up feeling pretty profound by the end. This is a really sad story about climate change (you can't think too hard about the worldbuilding because it really doesn't make much sense) and about a person who wants to die but wants to die free. I didn't love this one as much as Once There Were Wolves, but I do find McConaghy's insights about life really moving.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Confinement, Death, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Blood, Grief, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Pandemic/Epidemic
h_dubew's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This book gave me so much perspective and after having finished it I feel grateful that I got to read this story.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Miscarriage, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Murder
bugle's review against another edition
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide, Car accident, and Suicide attempt
Moderate: Animal death, Blood, and Murder
Minor: Miscarriage and Sexual assault
ashaberstroh's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Moderate: Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Car accident, and Suicide attempt
mirandalikesbooks's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
The topic of climate change and the fact that we as a species are irrevocably harming the earth and other species is something that already feeds my existential dread. So this book was a tough read for me.
That being said I found myself rooting for Franny even with all her self destructive behavior. The impulse to be wildly free and to ignore problems and to grapple with internal guilt are all very relatable feelings for me.
In some ways I feel like this book was speaking directly to me.
I'd recommend it if you like a book with a journey and a slew of complicated characters.
That being said I found myself rooting for Franny even with all her self destructive behavior. The impulse to be wildly free and to ignore problems and to grapple with internal guilt are all very relatable feelings for me.
In some ways I feel like this book was speaking directly to me.
I'd recommend it if you like a book with a journey and a slew of complicated characters.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Car accident and Suicide attempt
Moderate: Animal death, Miscarriage, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Grief, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail
allytheadventurer's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Car accident
Moderate: Miscarriage
Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide
the_library_kid's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Grief, and Car accident
Moderate: Animal death, Death of parent, and Abandonment
Minor: Miscarriage