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Appraisals: A Novel
Financial and ecological realities tear at the heart of a multigenerational farm family in this debut novel from a “deft and daring” (Los Angeles Times) Whiting Award winner.
Maggie Brandt is finishing her third season as a small-scale organic vegetable farmer in rural Colorado when the Great Recession of 2008 hits. After months of unemployment, her husband, Fish, takes a job with an oil and gas company, a decision that rocks Maggie and their fifteen-year-old daughter, Ozzie, both committed environmentalists. As the community organizes against a suspicious outsider who is buying farmland and water rights throughout the county, Ozzie’s activism escalates toward criminal mischief, and Maggie and her grandmother, Flora, must confront the complicated truths of the past in search of a path forward.
Boyles grounds the threats posed by resource extraction and consolidation of land and water ownership in the wrenching, rich lives of her characters. At once tender and urgent, Appraisals is a moving portrayal of ecological and financial catastrophe, the powerful generational bonds between women, and the fierce impulse to protect the places we love.
Maggie Brandt is finishing her third season as a small-scale organic vegetable farmer in rural Colorado when the Great Recession of 2008 hits. After months of unemployment, her husband, Fish, takes a job with an oil and gas company, a decision that rocks Maggie and their fifteen-year-old daughter, Ozzie, both committed environmentalists. As the community organizes against a suspicious outsider who is buying farmland and water rights throughout the county, Ozzie’s activism escalates toward criminal mischief, and Maggie and her grandmother, Flora, must confront the complicated truths of the past in search of a path forward.
Boyles grounds the threats posed by resource extraction and consolidation of land and water ownership in the wrenching, rich lives of her characters. At once tender and urgent, Appraisals is a moving portrayal of ecological and financial catastrophe, the powerful generational bonds between women, and the fierce impulse to protect the places we love.
- GenresFictionEnvironment
282 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 4, 2026
About the author
Claire Boyles
3 books57 followersClaire Boyles (she/her) is a writer and former farmer. A 2022 Whiting Award winner in fiction, she is the author of Site Fidelity, which won the High Plains Book Award and was longlisted for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Award, the Colorado Book Award, and the Reading the West Award. Her nonfiction has appeared in Sierra Magazine and Virginia Quarterly Review, among other journals, and she is a screenwriter with multiple credits on the Hallmark Channel. She teaches in low-residency MFA programs at both Eastern Oregon University and Western Colorado University. Her debut novel, Appraisals, is forthcoming in 2026.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
Review of advance copy
This book is set in the state that I live in so the setting and question of water rights and water shortage were quite familiar to me. However, I am not a farmer and have never lived on a farm. All this being said, the story revolves around a woman, Maggie, who is determined to maintain a sustainable, organic farm while facing the multitude of difficulties such farming presents. As the story begins, Maggie is happily married to a man, Fish, who is willing to share this work but who recognizes the impossible financial difficulties they are facing. He is unemployed but receives a very good offer from a company that is buying up farmland in order to convert it into residential land. There is also a teenage daughter, Ozzie, who is very concerned about the environment and a feisty ninety-year old grandmother, Flora, who had difficult situation with her own daughter and is determined not to make the same mistakes with her granddaughter and great-granddaughter.
Conflicts quickly arose between Fish and Maggie and Fish and Ozzie due to Fish’s decision to accept the employment offer. These conflicts soon involved others in the community, particularly,a teenage activist group that Ozzie organized. I thought that the family relationships were very well described and played out. I especially appreciated the advice given by Flora to Maggie about raising a teenage daughter and that Flora did a good job of staying out of the husband and wife interchanges between Maggie and Fish. Flora was my favorite charactor, especially, her insistence on independence, making her own life choices and her sense of both humor and adventure.
I did find a little too much farming detail and began skimming some of those passages. I also questioned a couple of things, namely, Flora’s strength in opening the diversion gates and the racing and trail ability of even a restored Schwinn bike of the 1960s. Most of those bikes were rather heavy. I also do not think the blue Mustang, known to some as the Devil Horse, on the appraoch to Denver International airport is “creepy,” though I admit some people might.
Overall, this was a pleasant read and might be a good book club choice as it does present several problem situations and solutions that could be good discussion points.
Conflicts quickly arose between Fish and Maggie and Fish and Ozzie due to Fish’s decision to accept the employment offer. These conflicts soon involved others in the community, particularly,a teenage activist group that Ozzie organized. I thought that the family relationships were very well described and played out. I especially appreciated the advice given by Flora to Maggie about raising a teenage daughter and that Flora did a good job of staying out of the husband and wife interchanges between Maggie and Fish. Flora was my favorite charactor, especially, her insistence on independence, making her own life choices and her sense of both humor and adventure.
I did find a little too much farming detail and began skimming some of those passages. I also questioned a couple of things, namely, Flora’s strength in opening the diversion gates and the racing and trail ability of even a restored Schwinn bike of the 1960s. Most of those bikes were rather heavy. I also do not think the blue Mustang, known to some as the Devil Horse, on the appraoch to Denver International airport is “creepy,” though I admit some people might.
Overall, this was a pleasant read and might be a good book club choice as it does present several problem situations and solutions that could be good discussion points.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
This was a terrific read, lush with characterizations and description. The people and the issues they face, in their families and their community, are not simple and not black & white. Boyles’ thoughtful exploration and willingness to show flaws at times is masterful.
This is the story of Maggie, her husband Fish, and their daughter Ozzie and their life on the farm. They believe, Maggie especially, that sustainably working their land and selling organic produce and flowers locally is a smart and responsible way of life which benefits them, the land, and their neighbors.
But they and this way of life are under pressure from financial debt, weather, local zoning hassles, predatory developers and from the sheer massive physical effort to keep things going. Maggie’s dream has pre-empted everything else, and she is pretty stiff-necked about realizing that. Her husband and her daughter are committed as well but Maggie is wearing them out and using them up. She is an admirable but not always a likable character.
When Fish takes an outside job with an oil and gas company his family strongly disapproves of in order to keep paying the mortgage, they freeze him out. Fish is a good man, but he is bone weary and feels guilty about appreciating a real salary, a decent vehicle and normal hours. His daughter Ozzie is passionately concerned about global warming, fracking, and the future of the planet and becomes an outspoken opponent and monkey wrencher.
And Maggie’s grandmother Flora, who raised her, is also a rich character. She is 91 and has strong opinions of her own, and is trying to absorb and pass on lessons from her own life while enjoying the time she has left. She is strong, adventurous and wise.
Maggie and family’s connection to the land and their knowledge of the natural world is beautifully conveyed as this family struggles with its hassles. Boyles doesn’t give us an unrealistic happily ever after ending, but she leaves us with hope and appreciation for their resilience. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
This is the story of Maggie, her husband Fish, and their daughter Ozzie and their life on the farm. They believe, Maggie especially, that sustainably working their land and selling organic produce and flowers locally is a smart and responsible way of life which benefits them, the land, and their neighbors.
But they and this way of life are under pressure from financial debt, weather, local zoning hassles, predatory developers and from the sheer massive physical effort to keep things going. Maggie’s dream has pre-empted everything else, and she is pretty stiff-necked about realizing that. Her husband and her daughter are committed as well but Maggie is wearing them out and using them up. She is an admirable but not always a likable character.
When Fish takes an outside job with an oil and gas company his family strongly disapproves of in order to keep paying the mortgage, they freeze him out. Fish is a good man, but he is bone weary and feels guilty about appreciating a real salary, a decent vehicle and normal hours. His daughter Ozzie is passionately concerned about global warming, fracking, and the future of the planet and becomes an outspoken opponent and monkey wrencher.
And Maggie’s grandmother Flora, who raised her, is also a rich character. She is 91 and has strong opinions of her own, and is trying to absorb and pass on lessons from her own life while enjoying the time she has left. She is strong, adventurous and wise.
Maggie and family’s connection to the land and their knowledge of the natural world is beautifully conveyed as this family struggles with its hassles. Boyles doesn’t give us an unrealistic happily ever after ending, but she leaves us with hope and appreciation for their resilience. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Review of advance copy received from Author
This is a thought-provoking read about farmland in the American West and the people who love it while struggling to make a living from it. I enjoyed Boyles’ book “Site Fidelity,” a collection of short stories, so I was curious how her style would translate to novel form. “Appraisals” returns to her theme of how to protect our threatened lands in the face of climate change and issues like land consolidation, water rights, and fracking. In the novel, Boyes digs more deeply into her characters, as she weaves the story of a little family that is slowly unraveling as they choose what they should fight to save. A farm? A marriage? The respect of a child?
Boyles beautifully conveys the starkness of the land and the grinding work it takes to make it produce. The novel follows Maggie, an organic farmer in rural Colorado who is barely scraping by when the 2008 recession hits. Her husband Fish takes a job in oil and gas, which rocks Maggie and their teenage daughter Ozzie, a budding activist. Maggie’s elderly grandmother, Flora, has lost both a farm and a daughter before. There is no romanticism here. I come from five generations of farmers, and I feel like I understand these people, even if I don’t always agree with them.
In addition to immersing the reader in a sense of place, Boyles does a great job of putting us inside her characters' heads, and she nails the politics, and the occasional pettiness, of small-town life. I wanted more insight into Ozzie, but the point may be that teenagers are impossible to read. I grew up with strong, stubborn women like Flora, who refuses to give in to her regrets, and I wanted to ride along (maybe not with her driving) on her adventures. “Appraisals” made me think deeply about how we decide what to walk away from and what we battle to keep. And I’ll never look at a Saturday farmer’s market the same way again. Highly recommend.
Boyles beautifully conveys the starkness of the land and the grinding work it takes to make it produce. The novel follows Maggie, an organic farmer in rural Colorado who is barely scraping by when the 2008 recession hits. Her husband Fish takes a job in oil and gas, which rocks Maggie and their teenage daughter Ozzie, a budding activist. Maggie’s elderly grandmother, Flora, has lost both a farm and a daughter before. There is no romanticism here. I come from five generations of farmers, and I feel like I understand these people, even if I don’t always agree with them.
In addition to immersing the reader in a sense of place, Boyles does a great job of putting us inside her characters' heads, and she nails the politics, and the occasional pettiness, of small-town life. I wanted more insight into Ozzie, but the point may be that teenagers are impossible to read. I grew up with strong, stubborn women like Flora, who refuses to give in to her regrets, and I wanted to ride along (maybe not with her driving) on her adventures. “Appraisals” made me think deeply about how we decide what to walk away from and what we battle to keep. And I’ll never look at a Saturday farmer’s market the same way again. Highly recommend.
June 24, 2026
What do you do if the one thing you want to do with your life is the thing that comes between you and the people you love?
Maggie is a dedicated - perhaps obsessive - organic farmer whose goal in life is make a success of the small farm where she raises vegetables, flowers, chickens, turkeys and pigs. She is convinced, incorrectly, that her family shares her ambition.
This is 2008 when the heavy loans banks encouraged farmers to take out are costing them their farms and this is Colorado where who gets to use the limited water supply is contentious at best. Maggie, as a woman farmer, has trouble being taken seriously, certainly when looking for funding. In addition there are gas and oil drills on what used to be farmland, wealthy Californians who can afford to buy up the land and who want to develop it, and when you are a farmer, there is always the weather.
Claire Boyles brings all of this together in the story of the Brandt family. She looks at what people will do to hold on to their dreams, however impossible they seem. She asks how much you can compromise your values and still be who you are? The story is told from the view of each of the four family members and Boyles is skilled enough to make you identify with all of them. The descriptions of the unending work required to run a farm are spot on as are her descriptions of the beauty of the land and the joy of growing your own food and food to share with your community.
I highly recommend this book.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
This book swept me right into the heart-wrenching struggles of a family in Colorado who is desperately trying to stay connected to the land and to each other, despite larger socioeconomic forces tearing them apart.
I particularly loved the multigenerational facets of this story. We see the perspectives of a woman organic farmer, her husband who takes an oil/gas job, her environmental activist teenage daughter, and her grandmother, who has left the farming life behind.
We feel real empathy for all of the main characters, who love each other and are doing their best in the face of the staggering economic and environmental injustices playing out in their own community. The author infuses the book with profound love for the landscape and farm, allowing larger conflicts to unfold in an intimate way within personal relationships.
I'm a Coloradan who cares deeply about these issues, and I appreciate how artfully and sensitively Boyles handles them, evoking compassion for farmers and rural community members facing hard choices. This is the kind of book that will provoke meaningful conversation and stay with you for a long time to come.
*I received a digital ARC from NetGalley for my honest review.
I particularly loved the multigenerational facets of this story. We see the perspectives of a woman organic farmer, her husband who takes an oil/gas job, her environmental activist teenage daughter, and her grandmother, who has left the farming life behind.
We feel real empathy for all of the main characters, who love each other and are doing their best in the face of the staggering economic and environmental injustices playing out in their own community. The author infuses the book with profound love for the landscape and farm, allowing larger conflicts to unfold in an intimate way within personal relationships.
I'm a Coloradan who cares deeply about these issues, and I appreciate how artfully and sensitively Boyles handles them, evoking compassion for farmers and rural community members facing hard choices. This is the kind of book that will provoke meaningful conversation and stay with you for a long time to come.
*I received a digital ARC from NetGalley for my honest review.
August 6, 2026
I enjoyed the many angles in this book and that there was no clear right or wrong to many of them. There is a multi-generational family at the core of the story with organic farmer Maggie at the center. She was raised by her grandmother after her mother died and you get to see their relationship from both sides. Maggie is married to Fish who is unemployed at the start of the book, but then takes a position in an oil/gas company putting him at odds with his family, but providing the income needed to sustain them. Fish and Maggie have a daughter Ozzie who struggles as a teenager figuring out what her core beliefs are, confused by the strain of her parents' marriage and seeking guidance from her great-grandmother. Beyond the family dynamics there are storylines about water rights (a huge topic in the West), the cost of organic farming and the expectations of local communities and finally an out of town developer with plans of his own. This book has left me thinking well after I finished it. I'm interested in how readers in non-water restricted areas or with less agricultural knowledge will respond to this story.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
The farmers of your farmers market come to life in this slow motion tragedy of family farming in 2008. Maggie was raised by her grandparents Flora and Oscar on their small farm in Eastern Colorado until it was lost. Now in 2008, she's working herself to the bone on her own farm with the reluctant help of her husband Fish and daughter Ozzie. Fish, who lost his job thanks to the economy, takes one as a landman for the company buying up easements across the county and their marriage fractures. Ozzie is protesting the company, Maggie is stealing water to keep the farm going. Flora, Maggie, and Fish tell the story, with each having a different perspective not only on the farm but on how they live. I learned a great deal about farming and water rights but it's the characters that make this novel the gem that it is. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.This is thoughtful, thought provoking, immersive, painful, and eloquent. Highly recommend.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
The book tackles weighty issues – family relationships, developers, corporations, small farmers, industrial farming, water rights, ecology, and economics. Yet these topics are handled with such a light touch that the book ultimately feels bland. I wanted sharper opinions, stronger characters, and clearer positions, whether or not I agreed with them. Perhaps the aim was to raise awareness of these substantial issues without alienating readers. If so, the book likely succeeded and I appreciated the attempt to heighten awareness of the issues. I didn’t dislike it, but I felt largely ambivalent. Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.
Review of advance copy received from Goodreads Giveaways
I received a gorgeous hardcover copy of this book for free via a Goodreads giveaway win and would like to thank anyone who had a hand in making that happen!
Claire Boyles is an immensely talented writer and I loved her first novel just as much as I loved her short stories. Having lived in Colorado my entire life, grown up on a family farm and lived in the area that this book is set in for the past 22 years, this one hit especially close to home! I loved all the characters and truly felt for them as they faced unfathomable loss and struggled to make impossible choices. The ending doesn't wrap everything up neatly, however, I loved how it leaves things on a hopeful note.
Claire Boyles is an immensely talented writer and I loved her first novel just as much as I loved her short stories. Having lived in Colorado my entire life, grown up on a family farm and lived in the area that this book is set in for the past 22 years, this one hit especially close to home! I loved all the characters and truly felt for them as they faced unfathomable loss and struggled to make impossible choices. The ending doesn't wrap everything up neatly, however, I loved how it leaves things on a hopeful note.
Review of advance copy received from Author
This was a wonderful book - sometimes funny and at others heart-wrenching. The generations of women in "Appraisals" felt fully realized. Claire Boyles explores a complicated emotional and physical landscape that I know well, and it is beautifully painted here. Though primarily set nearly two decades ago, the issues raised are only more important and increasingly pressing today. Highly recommended!
Review of advance copy
I really enjoyed this book. I’d give it a 4.4 or 4.5 rating. The characters were believable and brought me into a story about a group of people I haven’t met in my Washington city life. I got frustrated with Maggie’s stubbornness but it is probably one of the traits that kept her going. The family saga was beautiful and Fish and Maggie’s problems sad and inevitable. I also enjoyed the ending. It was real! Good read
July 16, 2026
An exciting journey through the months, seasons and years of life on a Colorado farm. Generations of farmers, water and land rights, friends and family supporting each other and their community with the changes that time and money bring. If you grew up connected to farming or just going to farmer’s markets then you will enjoy connecting with this story!
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Beautifully drawn characters, strong sense of place. This novel explores issues of climate change, energy, and gentrification. If you liked Go As A River, you will probably like this book too.
Review of advance copy received from Goodreads Giveaways
A sensitive and heartfelt look at the political and personal problems that face those who work the land.
Review of advance copy
Small organic vegetable farmer against wealthy outsider. Lying farm and water rights. Environmentalists against big money -today’s problems
Read
August 10, 2026I had to DNF this one at 34%. I’m sure others will enjoy it, but it just wasn’t for me.
Many thanks to the publisher, author and NetGalley for allowing me to read this in exchange for honest review.
Many thanks to the publisher, author and NetGalley for allowing me to read this in exchange for honest review.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Review of advance copy
This is a beautifully written story. At first, it was hard for me to relate to the book, as I know practically nothing about running a farm. But as the story developed, the narrative pulled me in, and I became invested in the characters and the themes. “Appraisals” takes place in rural Colorado, on an organic farm run by Maggie, a passionate organic farmer. One of the main themes is the conflict between wanting to protect the environment vs. land development from outsiders. There are many other themes that are woven into the story: environmental activism; family dynamics; raising teenagers; marriage and money issues; economic turmoil of the 2008 great recession; and politics. The information about the challenges, the rewards, and the never-ending hard work it takes to run an organic farm was so descriptive and enlightening. The main characters were carefully developed, with each chapter focusing on one of the four main family members portrayed in the book. I think this book would be great for book clubs, with many timely topics to discuss. Thank you to @bookbrowse First Impressions, and @w.w.norton for the opportunity to read and review "Appraisals".
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