Welcome to Litsy!

This was well written, thumbs up for that. It was difficult to be in this woman‘s terrible grief and pain of an unhappy childhood and subsequent self destruction. The love interest seemed interesting and cool, but then cowardly.

A story about a woman who has lost herself. The writing was beautiful and lyrical, but I had a hard time staying with the story as the MC didn‘t develop that much. 3.5 stars.
#NovelNovember @Andrew65

I was swept up in the narrative style of this story written in brief sections that illuminate the ways the MC has been on a path toward self-destruction. I think some aspects of the story were stronger than others, but overall I enjoyed it.

So perfectly written.
A book about loss and grief and memory written through the disjointed, hazy, confusion of dissociation. I understood this language.
The FEEL of the writing matches the inner feel of Mara.

#ptsd #grief #dissociation #runaway #disappear

“How could she explain it? That there was something whole she wanted severed. Something clean she needed soiled.” The grief-struck central character is in bad shape, having escaped her old life but unable to escape herself. I had difficulty feeling compassion as I witnessed her self-sabotaging behaviour. What I found missing from the prose is some up-and-downess, if you know what I mean. Something to relieve the bleak flatness. #shadowGiller2022

There are those who leave and those who were left over. That was her mother‘s favourite phrase.

Story of a woman intent on escaping her life who lands in a seaside tourist town after tourist season is over. The novel describes Mara slowly finding a place for herself in the community while also slowly revealing why she ran away in the first place. This is a novel about healing and how it can be messy and surprising. The ending felt true to me and it is well-written. Still, I wonder if I will remember it in a year's time.

Mara flees her home after a devastating loss and ends up in an out-of-season seaside town. ( see spoiler and TW below)

This is a debut novel that I received on #netgalley. It‘s a soft pick for me. Clearly, with the subject matter, it was going to be a melancholy novel but there was also something missing in the writing that I just can‘t put my finger on. It‘s quite a short book and perhaps just needed a bit more space to be something more.