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melodysmash's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
danapr's review against another edition
5.0
Deb is a marine biologist who is more at home with the penguins in Antarctica than anywhere else. When she meets Keller, a former attorney who comes to Antarctica to work as a dishwasher/handy man in order to escape his traumatic past, the two quickly become soulmates. Deb and Keller maintain a long distance relationship, meeting every year in Antarctica where they both eventually work on penguin research while serving as tour guides for a small passenger ship. When Keller fails to show up for the yearly expedition, Deb discovers too late that he intended to tell her that he secured employment on a larger cruise ship. After a brief encounter in which Keller proposes marriage, the couple is separated and Deb’s ship receives a mayday and a request to assist the larger ship which has hit an iceberg and is sinking rapidly with Keller onboard.
I didn’t expect to enjoy this book as much as I did. Even the description makes it sound like more romance than anything but the book is so much more. The information about the penguins is very informative and the alternating time frames really gives the reader the picture of how Deb and Keller grew as individuals as well as in their relationship over the years. And the final cruise story is quick paced and action packed. A very entertaining and enjoyable read for me!
I didn’t expect to enjoy this book as much as I did. Even the description makes it sound like more romance than anything but the book is so much more. The information about the penguins is very informative and the alternating time frames really gives the reader the picture of how Deb and Keller grew as individuals as well as in their relationship over the years. And the final cruise story is quick paced and action packed. A very entertaining and enjoyable read for me!
robynryle's review against another edition
4.0
Read this in one day, so obviously it's a page-turner. You get the high adventure of a shipwreck in the Antarctic, plus a love story, with beautiful language and an over-arching exploration of our relationship to nature and the environment. Fantastic!
bouldermd's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
informative
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
livrad's review against another edition
4.0
This book was so we'll researched that I was sure the author was actually a professional penguin scientist. The story is good, but the sense of place in the novel is the real star. Prepare to want to want to see Antarctica. I had to keep Googling images, as I was so blown away by the imagery in the book.
compass_rose's review against another edition
I really wanted to love this. It has all the elements for me - the setting is the big one -- loved the research ship/tourism and Antarctica, romance, science. But I'm giving up (for now?). I had trouble keeping the timeline and that has me frustrated. Part of that is because I audiobooked much of it. Maybe I could have kept track better with eye-reading. I might pick it up another time.
stopped at page 101
stopped at page 101
nessa_8l's review against another edition
5.0
I’m being completely honest here. Before the last two chapters I was going to give this book 4 stars because it was really good really interesting and love the romance and all that. Reading the last chapters I bawled my eyes out (still am) which gave my rating an extra star. Why? Because books that make me feel something especially sadness lots and lots of sadness enough to make me cry deserves five stars.
WHYYYYY THOUGH?!? WHY DID THAT HAVE TO HAPPEN?!? I CANT STOP CRYING!!
WHYYYYY THOUGH?!? WHY DID THAT HAVE TO HAPPEN?!? I CANT STOP CRYING!!
cher_n_books's review against another edition
2.0
2 stars - Meh. Just ok.
Set primarily in Antarctica, the imagery and descriptions are vivid and create a wonderful escapist atmosphere. However, there is an extremely heavy handed focus on a romance, and it is unfortunately a tepid and forgettable one. Had the novel focused more on the environmental issues or generalized drama instead of a dispassionate cliché relationship, it would have been far more enjoyable. I would be interested in reading nonfiction by this author should she ever write such a book about Antarctica or penguins.
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Favorite Quote: Most want to hear about the victims, not the rescuers. They don’t yet know that we are one and the same.
First Sentence: As I lead tourists from the Zodiacs up rocky trails to the penguin colonies, I notice how these visitors – stuffed into oversize, puffy red parkas – walk like the penguins themselves: eyes to the snowy ground, arms out for balance.
Set primarily in Antarctica, the imagery and descriptions are vivid and create a wonderful escapist atmosphere. However, there is an extremely heavy handed focus on a romance, and it is unfortunately a tepid and forgettable one. Had the novel focused more on the environmental issues or generalized drama instead of a dispassionate cliché relationship, it would have been far more enjoyable. I would be interested in reading nonfiction by this author should she ever write such a book about Antarctica or penguins.
-------------------------------------------
Favorite Quote: Most want to hear about the victims, not the rescuers. They don’t yet know that we are one and the same.
First Sentence: As I lead tourists from the Zodiacs up rocky trails to the penguin colonies, I notice how these visitors – stuffed into oversize, puffy red parkas – walk like the penguins themselves: eyes to the snowy ground, arms out for balance.
textpublishing's review against another edition
5.0
‘Half adventure, half elegy, and wholly recommended.’
Karen Joy Fowler, author of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
‘Refreshingly different, vivid and immediate. Midge Raymond has an extraordinary gift for description that puts the reader bang in the middle of the action, bang in the middle of its dangerous and endangered world. Her clean, sparse prose pulls us irresistibly into the story and the wider issues it raises. She is clearly a writer in command of her craft.’
M. L. Stedman, author of The Light Between Oceans
‘An original and entirely authentic love story…It recognises that love is seldom simple or exclusive, and that the things that bring us together can also keep us apart.’
Graeme Simsion, author of The Rosie Project
‘An atmospheric tale of love discovered, and losses endured, in Antarctica…The unpredictability of the splendors and terrors of life at the southern pole creates a backdrop of foreboding entirely appropriate for the story’s cinematic resolution [and] the authentic rendering of the setting distinguishes Raymond’s novel from other stories of love in perilous times and places.’
Kirkus Reviews
‘Moving and raw…The combination of the icy Antarctic and the warmth of human feeling make for compelling reading.’
Book Bag
‘[Raymond] has evoked the various landscapes of the continent and its offshore islands superbly. Deb’s determination to protect the environment and wildlife of Antarctica is compelling, while the various threats to its future are symbolised by the dramatic disaster that provides a gripping and exciting conclusion.’
Stuff NZ
‘My Last Continent is a complicated love story and an education in the plight of penguins in Antarctica, showcasing the beauty and terror unique to one of the world’s most remote terrains…Raymond skillfully captures the stunning and singular landscape and its special inhabitants.’
Publishers Weekly
‘Atmospheric and adventurous…The story and vivid writing will keep readers glued to the pages.’
Library Journal
‘I can say, this novel is going straight onto my year-end best of list, I loved everything about it. I was engaged from the opening pages, but from the moment that Deb and Keller meet, two lost souls finding each other at the end of the Earth, I was invested in their outcome, their romance, their sense of adventure as well as the dangers of the beautiful, icy wilderness of the Antarctic. Perfect summer reading for me. (10/10)’
AnnaBookBel
‘Unexpected and unique, this is a beautiful novel to immerse yourself and become lost in…Full of danger and suspense, it transports you to another world, and encourages reflection and compassion.’
LoveReading
‘A beautifully written, moving and gripping debut novel. I hope there will be more to come from this author.’
Otago Daily Times
‘As refreshing as it is poignant… a completely absorbing and sobering tale… [It] leaves you with a far greater appreciation of a searingly beautiful world, whose fate we are squandering so casually.’
Independent
‘The quality of Raymond’s prose struck me from the opening lines. An uncompromising, multi-layered story of love and admiration—of people, animals and environment—in which authenticity and beauty is born from their imperfections. Vivid and emotionally astute, both heartrending and hopeful, Midge Raymond’s My Last Continent is a novel I recommend without reservation.’
Top 10 International Reads of 2016, Booklover Book Reviews
Karen Joy Fowler, author of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
‘Refreshingly different, vivid and immediate. Midge Raymond has an extraordinary gift for description that puts the reader bang in the middle of the action, bang in the middle of its dangerous and endangered world. Her clean, sparse prose pulls us irresistibly into the story and the wider issues it raises. She is clearly a writer in command of her craft.’
M. L. Stedman, author of The Light Between Oceans
‘An original and entirely authentic love story…It recognises that love is seldom simple or exclusive, and that the things that bring us together can also keep us apart.’
Graeme Simsion, author of The Rosie Project
‘An atmospheric tale of love discovered, and losses endured, in Antarctica…The unpredictability of the splendors and terrors of life at the southern pole creates a backdrop of foreboding entirely appropriate for the story’s cinematic resolution [and] the authentic rendering of the setting distinguishes Raymond’s novel from other stories of love in perilous times and places.’
Kirkus Reviews
‘Moving and raw…The combination of the icy Antarctic and the warmth of human feeling make for compelling reading.’
Book Bag
‘[Raymond] has evoked the various landscapes of the continent and its offshore islands superbly. Deb’s determination to protect the environment and wildlife of Antarctica is compelling, while the various threats to its future are symbolised by the dramatic disaster that provides a gripping and exciting conclusion.’
Stuff NZ
‘My Last Continent is a complicated love story and an education in the plight of penguins in Antarctica, showcasing the beauty and terror unique to one of the world’s most remote terrains…Raymond skillfully captures the stunning and singular landscape and its special inhabitants.’
Publishers Weekly
‘Atmospheric and adventurous…The story and vivid writing will keep readers glued to the pages.’
Library Journal
‘I can say, this novel is going straight onto my year-end best of list, I loved everything about it. I was engaged from the opening pages, but from the moment that Deb and Keller meet, two lost souls finding each other at the end of the Earth, I was invested in their outcome, their romance, their sense of adventure as well as the dangers of the beautiful, icy wilderness of the Antarctic. Perfect summer reading for me. (10/10)’
AnnaBookBel
‘Unexpected and unique, this is a beautiful novel to immerse yourself and become lost in…Full of danger and suspense, it transports you to another world, and encourages reflection and compassion.’
LoveReading
‘A beautifully written, moving and gripping debut novel. I hope there will be more to come from this author.’
Otago Daily Times
‘As refreshing as it is poignant… a completely absorbing and sobering tale… [It] leaves you with a far greater appreciation of a searingly beautiful world, whose fate we are squandering so casually.’
Independent
‘The quality of Raymond’s prose struck me from the opening lines. An uncompromising, multi-layered story of love and admiration—of people, animals and environment—in which authenticity and beauty is born from their imperfections. Vivid and emotionally astute, both heartrending and hopeful, Midge Raymond’s My Last Continent is a novel I recommend without reservation.’
Top 10 International Reads of 2016, Booklover Book Reviews