mariposa_ca's review against another edition
4.0
Other reviewers have noted this is a book that grabs you, kidnaps you, and then haunts you after the final page. After finishing this genre-defying first novel in a mere three hours, I can say the same. Really interesting read, great literary metaphors, and a true local’s description of setting, in Northern MN.
stephreadseverything's review against another edition
4.0
Confession: I sort of hated this book for the first 50 pages. The format was weird: a first person narrative traveling choppily back and forth through time in between paragraphs, leaving me confused and sometimes frustrated. But once I adjusted to Fridlund’s unique style, I settled in nicely to this haunting story.
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The main character, Linda, tells the story of her childhood on the remnants of commune in rural Minnesota in choppy scenes, slowly piecing together the story of how a summer spent with a neighbor family changed her life forever. Everything is centered around this one horrible and mysterious event, which had me reading faster and faster to try to understand how it happened.
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The novel reads sort of like a dream, with Linda looking back and struggling to come to terms with seeing this event (as well as another involving a classmate) through the lens of the young girl she was while these things were happening. The writing is strange and intense, hence the dream-like quality. It also doesn’t end with clear-cut answers to the questions and events of the book, but that’s just life sometimes and I’m not sure I would have enjoyed it as much if it had, despite my reservations in the beginning.
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I recommend this one if you enjoy complex literary fiction with unique prose that is is still anchored by an intriguing and heartbreaking mystery that will take you on a bit of a roller coaster throughout.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5.
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This review is cross posted on Instagram @stephanietries
especiallybooks's review against another edition
3.0
I saw this one on a lot of blogs and list after list at the beginning of the year. I don't get the hype. I tried it on audio. It's a little overly "nuanced" for me. The author is trying to say too many things and not focus on the character. I did like the setting and the tone of the book. I've known a couple of fourteen year old teenagers that are moody like the main character. It's an interesting attempt at a coming-of-age story but I found myself wanting fewer plot threads and more focus on the central plot. A lot of the plot threads didn't really come together for me.
ajdenson's review against another edition
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Spoiler
child neglect
Content Warnings
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Child death
cde10's review against another edition
2.0
I'm not totally sure what to say about this book. Anytime it switched to Madeline at a different age it felt like a different story, but not in a good way. It seemed disjointed. There were multiple side plots that hung in the air, but had no real relevance. It seemed like the idea was to throw a lot of "fan favorite" plots together (communes! inappropriate relationships! courtroom drama! crazy parents!) and proceed to take them nowhere. I read it quickly because I kept thinking it was building up to the "good part," but unfortunately that never came.
itsgg's review against another edition
4.0
The way this story unfolds is a bit slow at first, but eventually picks up speed in a way that made it hard to put down. The central theme is the line between what you believe and what actions you take; what you want to believe about yourself and who you really are. The main character is complex and compelling, and a convincing teenager. Also, I’m old enough to remember “Christian Science Reading Rooms” being a thing in suburban strip malls, and the “Christian Science Monitor” being a mainstream publication, but I don’t think I actually knew what Christian Science was before I looked it up on Wikipedia while reading this book. I’d highly recommend doing so, because the fact that this is a real-life cult made the story all the more creepy.
ajsterkel's review against another edition
4.0
You know those books that have beautiful writing and no plot? Yeah, this is one of those. The writing is stunning. It’s fresh and perfectly captures the atmosphere of the forest. It pulled me in from the first chapter. I’ll definitely read whatever the author writes next. The “plot” is also intriguing. It’s about a young teen who becomes a babysitter for a strange family and unwittingly ends up as an accomplice in a murder.
The novel has a bunch of different plot threads, but they never really came together for me. This book feels like three different books smashed together. It meanders from pedophilia, to bullying, to relationship problems, to religion. Then it suddenly ends. I wanted it to be tighter. I enjoyed it, though. I can see myself rereading it in the future. I have a feeling I’ll get more out of it the second time around.
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“You know how summer goes. You yearn for it and yearn for it, but there’s always something wrong.” – History of Wolves
The novel has a bunch of different plot threads, but they never really came together for me. This book feels like three different books smashed together. It meanders from pedophilia, to bullying, to relationship problems, to religion. Then it suddenly ends. I wanted it to be tighter. I enjoyed it, though. I can see myself rereading it in the future. I have a feeling I’ll get more out of it the second time around.
Do you like opinions, giveaways, and bookish nonsense?
I have a blog for that.
avareadsoccasionally's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I really liked it! There’s something about a weird main character that I really like. The way it was structured was really interesting and I thought it fit the tone of the book well. Quick read!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death
Minor: Adult/minor relationship
cstefko's review against another edition
4.0
3.75 stars
You can tell this is a debut novel, because there are quite a few inconsistencies, but overall it was a pretty engaging, affecting read. Fridlund is a master as setting the mood and keeping you under her spell.
This isn't the kind of book I'd normally read, but I had seen good reviews for it all over the place. We're definitely dealing with more of an anti-heroine here. Madeline/Mattie/Linda is not particularly likable, but you come to care about her, or to pity her, more so. Her relationship with her parents is pretty sad; her mom makes so many cruel and unnecessary comments that the distance between them is inevitable, while her dad just seems so far removed from life in general that he may as well be a ghost in their lives, floating in and out. Did I mention they were part of a commune in Linda's young childhood? It's a wonder that Linda isn't even more lonely/weird/dysfunctional. As it is, she usually seems more comfortable in isolation than in the company of others. She has a survivalist streak, and a deep interest in nature and how humans and animals survive in it (hence the book title, which was the topic of her 8th grade History Odyssey project).
There's an intermittent plot thread about Linda's 8th grade teacher, Mr. Grierson, who is fired when another classmate falsely accuses him of pedophilia (we find out her motivation near the end of the book). To me this was one of the weakest aspects of the book, because it is only tenuously connected to the main conflict of the book.
That main conflict is her relationship with and complicity in the neglect of a neighbor boy, Paul. He comes into her life when the cabin across the lake from her family's cabin is finally occupied, by a couple with a young son. The father is a professor and ends up being away for a long while on a research project. Linda gets to know the mother and son after meeting them on the road one day (a lot of the characters get around by walking/biking/other non-vehicle means, mostly due to poverty, but in the neighbor's case a fear of driving). The mother, Patra, hires Linda to babysit Paul after school so she can work on editing her husband's manuscript. It's pretty obvious to the reader early on that something is not right about the family, but Linda with her limited social experience takes a bit longer to cotton on. Linda and Patra and Paul fall into an easy routine, until the husband, Leo, returns for a long weekend. We learn that Leo is a Christian Scientist, and that Patra came to accept the religion after marrying Leo. Their religion becomes a big point of contention after tragedy occurs.
Linda has to decide how much responsibility she bears for what happens, and if there was a point where she could have intervened. From the reader's perspective, it seems like she was just pulled into the family's cult-like existence, and had trouble resisting due to her aching loneliness and desire for familial acceptance that she certainly wasn't getting from her real family (although Linda suggests at one point that her parents may not even be her real parents, just the two commune members who ended up responsible for her).
Some of the sections of grown-up Linda were interesting, but the scenes with her boyfriend were such throwaways to me. Their dialogue wasn't realistic, and it seemed like Fridlund was trying to make a very heavy-handed point through the tarot metaphor.
The biggest selling point, for me, is the simply exquisite picture Fridlund paints of the scenery. I do love nature writing! Like I said, she really captures a certain melancholy, desperate mood. One of my favorite passages was midway through the book, where Linda is musing on summertime:
"The days just never seemed to get done . . . The afternoons are so fat and long. You want to see if anything you do matters."
There are times like that passage where Linda is super relatable. And then there are others when you genuinely question if Linda is a sociopath.
I would recommend this book to anyone who appreciates stunning nature descriptions, books about teenage misfits, books where religion is examined critically, and wolves (just kidding; they don't actually feature that much :P). I think it's a worthwhile read. It's not perfect, but definitely a strong mood piece and character study, even if it's a little weak in the plot department.
You can tell this is a debut novel, because there are quite a few inconsistencies, but overall it was a pretty engaging, affecting read. Fridlund is a master as setting the mood and keeping you under her spell.
This isn't the kind of book I'd normally read, but I had seen good reviews for it all over the place. We're definitely dealing with more of an anti-heroine here. Madeline/Mattie/Linda is not particularly likable, but you come to care about her, or to pity her, more so. Her relationship with her parents is pretty sad; her mom makes so many cruel and unnecessary comments that the distance between them is inevitable, while her dad just seems so far removed from life in general that he may as well be a ghost in their lives, floating in and out. Did I mention they were part of a commune in Linda's young childhood? It's a wonder that Linda isn't even more lonely/weird/dysfunctional. As it is, she usually seems more comfortable in isolation than in the company of others. She has a survivalist streak, and a deep interest in nature and how humans and animals survive in it (hence the book title, which was the topic of her 8th grade History Odyssey project).
There's an intermittent plot thread about Linda's 8th grade teacher, Mr. Grierson, who is fired when another classmate falsely accuses him of pedophilia (we find out her motivation near the end of the book). To me this was one of the weakest aspects of the book, because it is only tenuously connected to the main conflict of the book.
That main conflict is her relationship with and complicity in the neglect of a neighbor boy, Paul. He comes into her life when the cabin across the lake from her family's cabin is finally occupied, by a couple with a young son. The father is a professor and ends up being away for a long while on a research project. Linda gets to know the mother and son after meeting them on the road one day (a lot of the characters get around by walking/biking/other non-vehicle means, mostly due to poverty, but in the neighbor's case a fear of driving). The mother, Patra, hires Linda to babysit Paul after school so she can work on editing her husband's manuscript. It's pretty obvious to the reader early on that something is not right about the family, but Linda with her limited social experience takes a bit longer to cotton on. Linda and Patra and Paul fall into an easy routine, until the husband, Leo, returns for a long weekend. We learn that Leo is a Christian Scientist, and that Patra came to accept the religion after marrying Leo. Their religion becomes a big point of contention after tragedy occurs.
Linda has to decide how much responsibility she bears for what happens, and if there was a point where she could have intervened. From the reader's perspective, it seems like she was just pulled into the family's cult-like existence, and had trouble resisting due to her aching loneliness and desire for familial acceptance that she certainly wasn't getting from her real family (although Linda suggests at one point that her parents may not even be her real parents, just the two commune members who ended up responsible for her).
Some of the sections of grown-up Linda were interesting, but the scenes with her boyfriend were such throwaways to me. Their dialogue wasn't realistic, and it seemed like Fridlund was trying to make a very heavy-handed point through the tarot metaphor.
The biggest selling point, for me, is the simply exquisite picture Fridlund paints of the scenery. I do love nature writing! Like I said, she really captures a certain melancholy, desperate mood. One of my favorite passages was midway through the book, where Linda is musing on summertime:
"The days just never seemed to get done . . . The afternoons are so fat and long. You want to see if anything you do matters."
There are times like that passage where Linda is super relatable. And then there are others when you genuinely question if Linda is a sociopath.
I would recommend this book to anyone who appreciates stunning nature descriptions, books about teenage misfits, books where religion is examined critically, and wolves (just kidding; they don't actually feature that much :P). I think it's a worthwhile read. It's not perfect, but definitely a strong mood piece and character study, even if it's a little weak in the plot department.
kickpleat's review against another edition
2.0
This book is just wisps of something more not realized.