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A review by old_odd_biscuit
The Seas by Samantha Hunt
3.0
A wonderful novella about a young woman growing up in a remote community. It explores the experience of unkind community, mental illness and, through the character of ex-soldier, Jude, PTSD.
It's beautifully written, contemplative, funny and sad. One moment I liked early on, for example, is when the narrator's French grandmother, just orphaned at the end of the Second World War, takes a ship to America. She chooses it because its name is similar to her own, which she feels is a message from her dead parents. There are a lot of doors on the ship, which she likes because she sees doors as signs of potential change. But when she gets to America "she doesn't change at all". It's a simple but affecting observation that life does not always go the way we hope despite intent or even big efforts.
I found this a compelling short read that stays in the mind afterwards.
It's beautifully written, contemplative, funny and sad. One moment I liked early on, for example, is when the narrator's French grandmother, just orphaned at the end of the Second World War, takes a ship to America. She chooses it because its name is similar to her own, which she feels is a message from her dead parents. There are a lot of doors on the ship, which she likes because she sees doors as signs of potential change. But when she gets to America "she doesn't change at all". It's a simple but affecting observation that life does not always go the way we hope despite intent or even big efforts.
I found this a compelling short read that stays in the mind afterwards.