Aley Waterman

After university, Sophie moves to Toronto from the town of Corner Brook, Newfoundland, ready to start her adult life, move on from her mother's death, to dive into the life of the artist and to become part of the community. She feels uncertain and out of place, but she has her childhood best friend with her, a guy who is unceasingly supportive. She ends up with a job at a bar, where she meets and quickly falls for Maggie. But inevitable complications arise between Sophie and her two lovers, and Sophie is uncertain of her feelings about the things she can't control.

This is a novel about a self-absorbed young woman figuring out what she feels about the people in her life. Coming from a complicated upbringing -- within a few pages she veers from describing how her mother would pour shots for her and her best friend when they were twelve, to reflecting on what a great mother she had -- Sophie constantly assesses her feelings, rewriting her narrative to reflect how she feels about a given person as circumstances change. Waterman almost makes this work and her writing is lovely. Her depictions of both Corner Brook and St. Johns, Newfoundland were vivid and memorable. This novel will certainly appeal to those who enjoy watching a character have big feelings and then think about those feelings.… (mehr)

I quite liked this, despite what I think could fairly be described as significant flaws. The plot is thin and uneven, and the way the relationships between the central characters resolved felt unsatisfying and unfair. I also think it's pretty misleading to label this as an LGBT novel—or, worse, a specifically lesbian one. The relationship between Sophie and Maggie is the only same-sex relationship even mentioned, and in addition to being short-lived, it's frequently described as being not really romantic or sexual in comparison to the relationships both characters have with men, which not only receive described sex scenes and declarations of love and meaningfulness but also an amount of time and narrative weight that is mostly absent in the Sophie/Maggie relationship.

That said, I do think there's a lot to like here. The characters are specific and well-formed, and—frankly—they made me feel things. Things being, sometimes, rage, but what can you do. While the prose style is quite different, I can see this appealing to fans of Sally Rooney-type stories, where the cool but not quite likable characters and vague philosophical musings take precedence over plot. The prose style itself was also interesting to me—kind of hazily cinematic and meandering, following sometimes a kind of dream-logic.

I also think this would also be popular with people who, like me, feel nostalgic for a now bygone era of semi-ironic hipster-isms and twee quirkiness. The narrative style (and narrator Sophie) embody a sincerity and innocence that remind me of the books and movies I loved of as a teenager—Rookie Magazine, Joe Meno novels, Greta Gerwig's Frances Ha. Despite its flaws, I found it very charming.

P.S. thnx Netgalley! Xoxo… (mehr)