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Searching for the Remarkable in Things
256 pages, Paperback
Published September 25, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 31, 2026
Searching for the Remarkable in Things is an ambitious debut novel by Natalie Lucy that explores the historical and modern-day issues of slavery and exploitation. It tells the interwoven stories of two girls with very different, yet connected, lives across two separate centuries, and how the act and legacy of enslavement has affected each of them.
Clover, a 13-year-old girl grieving the sudden loss of her mother in the present day, discovers that the secret box of letters and treasures she left behind tells of a dark secret in her family – one that led her mother to cut all contact. Meanwhile, Mary – a 15-year-old enslaved girl in Georgia in the 1850s, and the author of some of the letters Clover reads – is taken away from her mother and brother and forced to work on the Finch family’s plantation, battling every day to make her “story inside” a reality. The novel alternates between Clover’s journey to uncover the truth about her family history and Mary’s quest for freedom and the emancipation of all those enslaved on the plantations and beyond.
I was intrigued by the premise of Searching for the Remarkable in Things as it is rare, I think, to encounter a novel that centres the enduring impact of slavery as much as exploring its immediate consequences at the time it occurred. I was curious to see how Lucy would navigate these two realities simultaneously, as it is incredibly important that we don’t forget the ways in which these terrible atrocities have shaped our world, and I was hopeful that I could gain a greater understanding of the subject matter in the process.
Admittedly, for the first half of the book, I didn’t feel as engaged with the story as I hoped I would be, and it took me a fair few sittings to get past the halfway point. Clover’s first few chapters were quite slow-paced, and the early introduction of Caterina – a 14-year-old girl hiding in an abandoned shack in the heathlands of Cornwall – confused me, as I wasn’t sure of the role she was destined to play in Clover’s story. As Clover’s relationship with her absentee father began to deepen and more of the letters by Mary, Ruby and Iris uncovered much of the events that happened at the Finch plantation, however, I grew more invested in their journeys and the ways in which they shaped Clover’s modern-day reality. With each letter, artefact and package from Clover’s grandmother in Winchester, the threads tying Clover and Mary together became ever-clearer, and the secrets of the family business began to unravel.
In comparison, I ended up reading the second half of the novel in just one sitting, breezing through the latter 120-ish pages in a matter of hours. I was glad at the end to see how each of the girls’ stories reached a somewhat satisfying conclusion, though Caterina’s experiences as a seeming victim of child trafficking did often feel like a forced point of comparison at times, rather than a meaningful exploration of how exploitation remains in the modern day. I would have liked to have seen her story explored in more depth, and with greater clarity, to ensure that the account of her experiences was just as impactful as those of Mary and her fellow slaves.
Clover as a character has, on the whole, a likeable personality. It is easy to feel sympathy for her, given the loss of her mother so suddenly and her being thrown together with a father she hasn’t seen since she was six. Her personal journey of self-discovery after being isolated with her mother for so long is engaging, and her inherited talent for art and her attempts to find the “remarkable in things” are admirable. However, her dramatic tendencies, attitude and naïvety do prove irritating at certain points in the story. Mary, similarly, is a rather frustrating narrator at times, though in part this is down to the disjointed order in which her story is presented. Often, I hoped that she would act more selfishly or with greater focus on her own situation – but more often than not, her letters defaulted to referencing her mother, brother or other past companions. Caterina was perhaps the most divisive of the three girls for me, however; the blunt, rude way in which she sometimes spoke to Clover made me feel slightly apathetic to her situation, and her insistence on Clover’s silence, though understandable as being from external pressure and instruction, was exasperating.
Despite their flaws, however, the three main characters are well thought-out and defined, as are many of the minor characters. Ms. Delauney in particular is an interesting character to me; though being several generations older than Clover, she offers her great companionship and support, and the slow burn of their friendship building was incredibly wholesome to see playing out. Ruby and Benjamin were suitably agreeable and off-putting in equal measure as direct (albeit unwilling) beneficiaries of the slave trade, and Iris – as a clear-cut, no-nonsense abolitionist – embodied the stark criticism and opposition of slavery that all modern readers should (I hope) align with. Clover’s father, though burdened by his regrets, proved himself to be a worthy parent after all, and Clover’s grandmother showed great generosity in providing Clover with so many of the company materials she wanted to see without hesitation – though this is perhaps the most unrealistic part of the whole novel, as surely there’d be countless non-disclosure agreements to sign…!
The main criticism I have for Searching for the Remarkable in Things is in relation to Lucy’s writing style – specifically for the diary / letter chapters. Though I perceived and understood that these chapters were to be read as diary entries or recollections of events in letters (and this is later confirmed towards the end of the novel), I did feel that the style of writing used for them was jarring. They never quite seemed to be properly positioned or structured as either diary entries or letters; they read equally like fiction, like prose within prose, rather than an authentic, direct communication from Mary to her recipient. Dialogue, in particular, seemed to be written awkwardly when being recollected, as opposed to being related in an convincing manner. Though I did get used to the style of these chapters, I do feel that, if they had been structured slightly differently, my early experience with the first half of the book could have been radically improved.
I also want to highlight that, at least in my copy, there were a fair number of noticeable continuity errors and proofreading oversights that threw me off while reading. Some examples include words repeating, descriptions of actions that were redundant (e.g. a character opening a door that had already been described as being open) and sudden jumps from one place to another, including inside the same building. These weren’t enough to put me off finishing the book, but did create confusion at times when trying to follow Clover’s movements carefully. I also felt that some descriptions seemed repetitive, and that the book could have benefitted from greater variation in phrasing.
In conclusion, I had a mixed experience while reading Searching for the Remarkable in Things. While I was deeply interested in the subject matter, found the cast of characters to be engaging and had high hopes for the execution, it did fall flat in some ways and took until the second half to fully engage me. I deliberated for a while over whether to give this book a two-star or three-star rating, but I have settled on a three-star rating, as it remains a novel that speaks on and to an incredibly challenging set of topics. I look forward to seeing what Natalie Lucy writes next.
Clover, a 13-year-old girl grieving the sudden loss of her mother in the present day, discovers that the secret box of letters and treasures she left behind tells of a dark secret in her family – one that led her mother to cut all contact. Meanwhile, Mary – a 15-year-old enslaved girl in Georgia in the 1850s, and the author of some of the letters Clover reads – is taken away from her mother and brother and forced to work on the Finch family’s plantation, battling every day to make her “story inside” a reality. The novel alternates between Clover’s journey to uncover the truth about her family history and Mary’s quest for freedom and the emancipation of all those enslaved on the plantations and beyond.
I was intrigued by the premise of Searching for the Remarkable in Things as it is rare, I think, to encounter a novel that centres the enduring impact of slavery as much as exploring its immediate consequences at the time it occurred. I was curious to see how Lucy would navigate these two realities simultaneously, as it is incredibly important that we don’t forget the ways in which these terrible atrocities have shaped our world, and I was hopeful that I could gain a greater understanding of the subject matter in the process.
Admittedly, for the first half of the book, I didn’t feel as engaged with the story as I hoped I would be, and it took me a fair few sittings to get past the halfway point. Clover’s first few chapters were quite slow-paced, and the early introduction of Caterina – a 14-year-old girl hiding in an abandoned shack in the heathlands of Cornwall – confused me, as I wasn’t sure of the role she was destined to play in Clover’s story. As Clover’s relationship with her absentee father began to deepen and more of the letters by Mary, Ruby and Iris uncovered much of the events that happened at the Finch plantation, however, I grew more invested in their journeys and the ways in which they shaped Clover’s modern-day reality. With each letter, artefact and package from Clover’s grandmother in Winchester, the threads tying Clover and Mary together became ever-clearer, and the secrets of the family business began to unravel.
In comparison, I ended up reading the second half of the novel in just one sitting, breezing through the latter 120-ish pages in a matter of hours. I was glad at the end to see how each of the girls’ stories reached a somewhat satisfying conclusion, though Caterina’s experiences as a seeming victim of child trafficking did often feel like a forced point of comparison at times, rather than a meaningful exploration of how exploitation remains in the modern day. I would have liked to have seen her story explored in more depth, and with greater clarity, to ensure that the account of her experiences was just as impactful as those of Mary and her fellow slaves.
Clover as a character has, on the whole, a likeable personality. It is easy to feel sympathy for her, given the loss of her mother so suddenly and her being thrown together with a father she hasn’t seen since she was six. Her personal journey of self-discovery after being isolated with her mother for so long is engaging, and her inherited talent for art and her attempts to find the “remarkable in things” are admirable. However, her dramatic tendencies, attitude and naïvety do prove irritating at certain points in the story. Mary, similarly, is a rather frustrating narrator at times, though in part this is down to the disjointed order in which her story is presented. Often, I hoped that she would act more selfishly or with greater focus on her own situation – but more often than not, her letters defaulted to referencing her mother, brother or other past companions. Caterina was perhaps the most divisive of the three girls for me, however; the blunt, rude way in which she sometimes spoke to Clover made me feel slightly apathetic to her situation, and her insistence on Clover’s silence, though understandable as being from external pressure and instruction, was exasperating.
Despite their flaws, however, the three main characters are well thought-out and defined, as are many of the minor characters. Ms. Delauney in particular is an interesting character to me; though being several generations older than Clover, she offers her great companionship and support, and the slow burn of their friendship building was incredibly wholesome to see playing out. Ruby and Benjamin were suitably agreeable and off-putting in equal measure as direct (albeit unwilling) beneficiaries of the slave trade, and Iris – as a clear-cut, no-nonsense abolitionist – embodied the stark criticism and opposition of slavery that all modern readers should (I hope) align with. Clover’s father, though burdened by his regrets, proved himself to be a worthy parent after all, and Clover’s grandmother showed great generosity in providing Clover with so many of the company materials she wanted to see without hesitation – though this is perhaps the most unrealistic part of the whole novel, as surely there’d be countless non-disclosure agreements to sign…!
The main criticism I have for Searching for the Remarkable in Things is in relation to Lucy’s writing style – specifically for the diary / letter chapters. Though I perceived and understood that these chapters were to be read as diary entries or recollections of events in letters (and this is later confirmed towards the end of the novel), I did feel that the style of writing used for them was jarring. They never quite seemed to be properly positioned or structured as either diary entries or letters; they read equally like fiction, like prose within prose, rather than an authentic, direct communication from Mary to her recipient. Dialogue, in particular, seemed to be written awkwardly when being recollected, as opposed to being related in an convincing manner. Though I did get used to the style of these chapters, I do feel that, if they had been structured slightly differently, my early experience with the first half of the book could have been radically improved.
I also want to highlight that, at least in my copy, there were a fair number of noticeable continuity errors and proofreading oversights that threw me off while reading. Some examples include words repeating, descriptions of actions that were redundant (e.g. a character opening a door that had already been described as being open) and sudden jumps from one place to another, including inside the same building. These weren’t enough to put me off finishing the book, but did create confusion at times when trying to follow Clover’s movements carefully. I also felt that some descriptions seemed repetitive, and that the book could have benefitted from greater variation in phrasing.
In conclusion, I had a mixed experience while reading Searching for the Remarkable in Things. While I was deeply interested in the subject matter, found the cast of characters to be engaging and had high hopes for the execution, it did fall flat in some ways and took until the second half to fully engage me. I deliberated for a while over whether to give this book a two-star or three-star rating, but I have settled on a three-star rating, as it remains a novel that speaks on and to an incredibly challenging set of topics. I look forward to seeing what Natalie Lucy writes next.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 19, 2025
Powerful novel!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews