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3.75 ⭐️ very well written, but I think it should have been tightened up a bit more; felt it was too slow for my taste and I had to reread segments several times before moving on. I should have probably read it over a longer period of time to make more sense of it. #2025 #canadian #fiction #bookreview #contemporary #historical #literary

I really loved this. It was an interesting look at memory and what we can see more clearly with the benefit of hindsight. It was also about personal responsibilities and perceptions of them. I loved the octopus content because they are facinating. There are a lot of flashbacks as the story is told. The ending answered some of the questions about what happened next but not all of them. Interestingly the author started this before the 2020 pandemic.

Now I have read all her books. This was one dysfunctional family! Best part of the story was it took place in northern NJ where I spent most of my life. I knew all the towns…kind of like a visit home.
#Bookspin and this one #Doublespin read.
@TheAromaofBooks

I had to drive to the library and read the missing pages. 😳

It's the zombie apocalypse, but it's also a poetic allegory of grief, loss, depression, issues of memory, consumerism, probably a few things I missed. Somehow it works.
Passed it on to the Spouse and he loved it so much he already wants to read it again (and he almost never re-reads). Once I return it to the library I'm going to have to buy a copy to keep.

Reading the 2024 winner of the Ursula K Le Guin Prize. That's a strong opening!

Claire Fuller is a hit-and-miss author for me.
It's not the book's fault I wasn't really in the mood for a pandemic story. However, it felt like three books cobbled together: a memoir of Neffy's earlier life, mostly in Greece; Station Eleven; and one of the recent crop of octopus books.
It had interesting things to say about grief, guilt and a desire to escape to the past rather than face present horrors. I'm not sure it succeeded in saying them.

Halfway through this very slim book I had to call it. It‘s such a short book I kept pushing myself to make it to the end but I have absolutely no connection to anything in it. Post apocalyptic, dead but undead, a crow stuffed into her body, hungry….What? So confused. I‘m usually good with fiction that‘s hard to stay with, but I quit. I‘m annoyed about quitting and I‘m annoyed with this book.

How to describe this? Ultimately, I kind of loved it, but with reservations. I felt like there were too many storylines, and some of those weren‘t fleshed out enough. It feels like she tried to pack SO MUCH into the book but left out some important parts. That being said, I LOVE her writing and I love her characters. What does it say about me that some of Vera‘s “madness” made sense? 😂🤷‍♀️