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A review by tobyleblancauthor
Family of Origin by CJ Hauser
5.0
I've waited for this book for years. Years before I knew about CJ Hauser I wanted this. "The Crane Wife" was an appetizer for this deep dive into regret, depravity, family, understanding, and paradise. Not a page went by where I was not completely mesmerized by the characters, the pacing, and the thoughtfulness. While the siblings create a lifeline throughout the story, the other scientists on Leap's Island bring us deeper into the despair of climate change until our own lives of social media and full highways feel absurd.
The narrative explores researchers ("Reversalists") as they come to understand how evolution is moving backward. So too do the siblings, Elsa and Nolan, move through their father's death and the wake of his parenting. Hauser masterfully brings us back through painful, formative moments, the kind we think of for hours in adulthood before being able to fall asleep. Both Elsa and Nolan are so real, so accessible, you wonder if Hauser has been siphoning your own insecurities in your sleep (I had many a moment of looking up from the page to stare at wall just to have blank space in my mind to ponder the depth of characters).
Climate change is scary, and Hauser does not shy away from this fact. Instead she leans all the way in, and then falls in, making us enjoy the plummet. As this genre continues to blossom I will continue to measure other books with the same purview against this one.
The narrative explores researchers ("Reversalists") as they come to understand how evolution is moving backward. So too do the siblings, Elsa and Nolan, move through their father's death and the wake of his parenting. Hauser masterfully brings us back through painful, formative moments, the kind we think of for hours in adulthood before being able to fall asleep. Both Elsa and Nolan are so real, so accessible, you wonder if Hauser has been siphoning your own insecurities in your sleep (I had many a moment of looking up from the page to stare at wall just to have blank space in my mind to ponder the depth of characters).
Climate change is scary, and Hauser does not shy away from this fact. Instead she leans all the way in, and then falls in, making us enjoy the plummet. As this genre continues to blossom I will continue to measure other books with the same purview against this one.