A review by calstar
O Caledonia by Elspeth Barker

4.0

4.5. I loved it. The language was incredible, like nothing I have ever read before. The number of times I had to reach for my phone to look up a word or a product or a pronunciation kept me on my toes throughout the whole read. This is the story of Janet, a girl who we know from the first few pages, won't live past 16 but this is not a book about her death; it's about the achingly simple life of a misfit with a ferocious love of her home but with no connections to the people who populate it. Janet mostly grows up in (I think???) the 1940s, shuttled between a decrepit Scottish castle and a windswept boarding school. She is bookish and very smart but she cannot seem to fit into her family or her school. She is extraordinarily thoughtful and sensitive, often to her detriment. The experiences she describes of trying to do what she thinks is the right thing and being shown, every time, that she made the wrong choice felt painfully relatable to me. This is one of those books that stung me as I felt I was seeing someone else experience the world in much the same way I do. I have a feeling I will go back to this one.