Scan barcode
A review by knkoch
The Great Offshore Grounds by Vanessa Veselka
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This was a big one. I’ve been sitting here thinking about this one for a little while. It made me feel big things, and resonated with so much I’ve been thinking about these days.
It’s a big, sprawling family epic, a quest, a tale, but in the most modern sense. These people are so deeply grounded (even ground down) in their time. They live on the margins and scrape to get by. And yet they are connected to the past: the often but not always ugly past of this country, and of the world. This is a book of colonial possession and individual freedom; national and personal myth.
It’s big and it’s hard and could be triggering (see content warnings), but for me at this moment, it was really worth it. I felt really seen in this and the way the author writes about desperation, pain, failure, and hope. There’s a playlist on Spotify under the book’s title that runs in similar moods.
I’ve been worried lately that I’m not thinking about what I’m reading deeply enough, or that I’m missing things. This was a reminder (a call to arms) to set my own terms, and live by my own decisions. That doesn’t mean there are no consequences. It means only that I’m free.
It’s a big, sprawling family epic, a quest, a tale, but in the most modern sense. These people are so deeply grounded (even ground down) in their time. They live on the margins and scrape to get by. And yet they are connected to the past: the often but not always ugly past of this country, and of the world. This is a book of colonial possession and individual freedom; national and personal myth.
It’s big and it’s hard and could be triggering (see content warnings), but for me at this moment, it was really worth it. I felt really seen in this and the way the author writes about desperation, pain, failure, and hope. There’s a playlist on Spotify under the book’s title that runs in similar moods.
I’ve been worried lately that I’m not thinking about what I’m reading deeply enough, or that I’m missing things. This was a reminder (a call to arms) to set my own terms, and live by my own decisions. That doesn’t mean there are no consequences. It means only that I’m free.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape
Moderate: Terminal illness