A review by mmccombs
North Woods by Daniel Mason

reflective medium-paced

5.0

I absolutely adored this book! So creative and fresh, the prose was lovely and the mix of mediums (chapters, letters, songs, images) was so engaging. Following one house through time made for an incredibly interesting character study, the setting being the main character and the people flowing in and out of it character development. The way nature was described filled me with wonder and made me want to go on a hike (and I do not hike!), but also made me interrogate how humans have perceived “nature” over time. I loved thinking about how each inhabitant of the yellow house came to it with different intentions, with different relationships to the solitude and wildness it offered. And seeing how characters we meet show up later for other characters, how their actions are remembered when so much of their context is lost to time. It was also unexpectedly pretty funny, like there was some silly content and really funny bits that caught me by surprise. Basically this was a book that I enjoyed just thinking about, one that I will probably continue to engage with and reread!
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