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Shot-Blue
‘ Shot-Blue is that rarest species, a genuinely wise novel.’ – Rivka Galchen Rachel is a young single mother living with her son, Tristan, on a lake that borders the unchannelled north – remote, nearly inhospitable. She does what she has to do to keep them alive. But soon, and unexpectedly, Tristan will have to live alone, his youth unprotected and rough. The wild, open place that is all he knows will be overrun by strangers – strangers inhabiting the lodge that has replaced his home, strangers who make him fight, talk, and even love, when he doesn't want to. Ravenous and unrelenting, Shot-Blue is a book of first love and first loss.
224 pages, Paperback
First published February 20, 2017
4 people are currently reading
525 people want to read
About the author
Jesse Ruddock
2 books1 followerAuthor of the novel, Shot-Blue (Coach House 2017).
I grew up playing boys' hockey across southern Ontario and went to Harvard on scholarship to play goal. After racking up concussions, had to quit the ice, took to studying poetry, did a Master's at U of T, then returned home to play in some bands and make albums. From thirteen to twenty-three, I apprenticed in summer with a carpenter on a remote lake in northern Ontario. We built cabins and docks. At night I fished for pickerel.
My writing and photographs have appeared in the NewYorker.com, BOMB, N+1, Music & Literature, and Vice, among other places.
Currently an Affiliate at the Center for Expanded Poetics and an online editor at Music and Literature Magazine.
I grew up playing boys' hockey across southern Ontario and went to Harvard on scholarship to play goal. After racking up concussions, had to quit the ice, took to studying poetry, did a Master's at U of T, then returned home to play in some bands and make albums. From thirteen to twenty-three, I apprenticed in summer with a carpenter on a remote lake in northern Ontario. We built cabins and docks. At night I fished for pickerel.
My writing and photographs have appeared in the NewYorker.com, BOMB, N+1, Music & Literature, and Vice, among other places.
Currently an Affiliate at the Center for Expanded Poetics and an online editor at Music and Literature Magazine.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
June 16, 2017
"It's a kind of death when you don't go home the same."
This novel starts out promising, about a mother and son in isolated cold island life. It felt like the majority of Room, with a slightly older boy. As the boy starts navigating more of this harsh life on his own, I was reminded of those survival books so many of us love as teens, like My Side of the Mountain. The writing, about nature and isolation, is beautiful.
By the end of the book it feels like the author has wound down into describing scenes and writing dialogues of tiny vignettes, as if the reader is simply floating through and catching bits and pieces of one summer on an island of temporary people, but the plot was lost in the meantime. The writing is beautiful, but I'm not sure it saves the overall success of the book.
I loved the paper this is printed on though! It felt luxurious to read.
This novel starts out promising, about a mother and son in isolated cold island life. It felt like the majority of Room, with a slightly older boy. As the boy starts navigating more of this harsh life on his own, I was reminded of those survival books so many of us love as teens, like My Side of the Mountain. The writing, about nature and isolation, is beautiful.
By the end of the book it feels like the author has wound down into describing scenes and writing dialogues of tiny vignettes, as if the reader is simply floating through and catching bits and pieces of one summer on an island of temporary people, but the plot was lost in the meantime. The writing is beautiful, but I'm not sure it saves the overall success of the book.
I loved the paper this is printed on though! It felt luxurious to read.
February 20, 2017
It is beautiful and tangible. It was dipping your feet into the cold water, of the early summer morning. It was breath-taking and raw and tender. It was a single mother and son relationship to a silence of adsolence, to grow of loss, bullying, first-love and creating a path of choice for himself. Tristan is a character that is sheltered and isolated and almost forgetable. It is heavy to grasp at first to grasp the idea and content of the book, however, once you get through, its un-put-downable. I really enjoy this novel.
June 1, 2017
Ruddock's tale is woven from a unique blend of realism and purple prose, added with a dash of mystery to form an interesting and mesmerizing concoction of literary ideas. It showcases humanity's weakness in terms of loneliness and how there are few people in this world who regard loneliness as being more positive than negative. It is these people that are seen as outsiders, and something to be mocked and unable to be explained.
Set in the North where it is "uninhabitable" and cut off from all mentions of worldly events and even simple objects such as telephones, it follows a young, single mother and her son. When tragedy strikes the stand-offish and reclusive Rachel, and Tristan is left to fend for himself he begins his own adolescent adventure filled with fight, flight and love. Ruddock demonstrates this human condition of being alone and striving to find somewhere to belong, yet all the while being pushed further to the edge of isolation, through her use of poetic prose. However where moments demand simple language and she rushes in with her own, the purpose of the story seems to get lost. She seems to forgo characterization and development, instead opting to try and paint the same scenery of lakes, trees and the islands in which the story takes place. Her writing becomes repetitive and with the clashing of certain characters, often talking over each other and trying to decipher each other's inner thoughts, Ruddock's novel becomes lone and winded. Eventually, once one gets over part one and finds the same thing only with more characters in the second section, it seems to lose all ability to convey a plot.
Despite having a firm love for flowery language and purple prose, Ruddock seems to use it as her only way of writing. She doesn't seem to have a grasp on her own characters and the dialogue between one another becomes sloppy and over-worked. A book with promise but unfortunately, a book that was not able to over-come it's tiring language to make the reader feel something other than confusion.
Set in the North where it is "uninhabitable" and cut off from all mentions of worldly events and even simple objects such as telephones, it follows a young, single mother and her son. When tragedy strikes the stand-offish and reclusive Rachel, and Tristan is left to fend for himself he begins his own adolescent adventure filled with fight, flight and love. Ruddock demonstrates this human condition of being alone and striving to find somewhere to belong, yet all the while being pushed further to the edge of isolation, through her use of poetic prose. However where moments demand simple language and she rushes in with her own, the purpose of the story seems to get lost. She seems to forgo characterization and development, instead opting to try and paint the same scenery of lakes, trees and the islands in which the story takes place. Her writing becomes repetitive and with the clashing of certain characters, often talking over each other and trying to decipher each other's inner thoughts, Ruddock's novel becomes lone and winded. Eventually, once one gets over part one and finds the same thing only with more characters in the second section, it seems to lose all ability to convey a plot.
Despite having a firm love for flowery language and purple prose, Ruddock seems to use it as her only way of writing. She doesn't seem to have a grasp on her own characters and the dialogue between one another becomes sloppy and over-worked. A book with promise but unfortunately, a book that was not able to over-come it's tiring language to make the reader feel something other than confusion.
October 6, 2017
I am thus far consumed with Book One (the first part of the novel), which is very dream-like, very unnerving, and quite gripping in its emotional reach.
I don't pretend to understand the actions of any of the characters, all of whom seem rather detached from their own motivations. They all seem to carry out cruel, selfish and at times inhumane decisions without any care for repercussions, like the sparse northern lands can be so cruel, selfish and inhumane as to effect this response in the people who attempt to live there.
But it is no less effective because of these artistic choices, conscious or otherwise, by the author. I may not understand the inner motivational decisions of the characters, but contrary to popular critical thought, I still care about them and long for a satisfactory conclusion for those who are left.
Perfect thus far, in its haunting sparseness. I am constantly thinking about it in my spare moments, anticipating the next deep dive into this story.
I don't pretend to understand the actions of any of the characters, all of whom seem rather detached from their own motivations. They all seem to carry out cruel, selfish and at times inhumane decisions without any care for repercussions, like the sparse northern lands can be so cruel, selfish and inhumane as to effect this response in the people who attempt to live there.
But it is no less effective because of these artistic choices, conscious or otherwise, by the author. I may not understand the inner motivational decisions of the characters, but contrary to popular critical thought, I still care about them and long for a satisfactory conclusion for those who are left.
Perfect thus far, in its haunting sparseness. I am constantly thinking about it in my spare moments, anticipating the next deep dive into this story.
August 21, 2017
This is a coming of age story about a young boy, Tristan, who lives with his mother on an unnamed and isolated Canadian island. Despite the wildness and remote setting it is a claustrophobic relationship and existence for the boy, and he lacks many social skills when he is with other children. The novel starts out really well but lapses into saying similar things. Tristan gets older, his life changes, but not significantly enough to have the reader's interest stimulated. There are other well-described characters also, but again, though they attract curiosity initially, that isn't developed. It is still quite a readable novel that is very different, I just hoped for a bit more.
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July 11, 2017What an unusual, bewitching, bewildering, atmospheric novel.
October 9, 2018
From prairiefire.ca. Review by Karine Legault-Leblond.
There is no doubt that Shot-blue is a promising debut novel. Published in February 2017 by Coach House Books, Jesse Ruddock’s literary work revolves around a tapestry of young people who struggle with isolation in the unforgiving Canadian North. The author quickly encapsulates our mind in an atmosphere of muted desperation, through her penetrating evocation of the environment and her simple and yet haunting writing style. From the very beginning, the landscape shapes the characters just as much as they in turn attempt to tame it into being their home. Alternately friend and foe, the brutal setting brings the young people together before imposing itself as the greatest antagonist to their longing for human connection.
This novel is reminiscent of Margaret Laurence’s celebrated Manawaka cycle. It appears that both Canadian novelists share the same themes of predilection: Like the author of The Diviners (among other titles), Mrs. Ruddock possesses the knack for depicting isolated locations in Canada and populating it with an ensemble of characters trying to overcome the limitations of their living context through a convoluted quest for love and belonging.
In Book One, arguably the most enthralling part of the novel, we get acquainted with the young Rachel and her 10-year-old son, Tristan, who might or might not be the fruit of his mother’s juvenile prostitution activities. The boy is said to be “the child of a child” (p. 66). The northern setting, with all its antagonistic forces, casts an almost otherworldly light on their everyday struggle for survival. While the mother worries that the boy’s development might be stunted by their unstable lifestyle, moving from place to place with barely anything to live on, the son “seemed to have a sense of purpose, standing at his mother’s side, protecting her, though he didn’t know how and maybe it was impossible.” (p. 46) This narrative foreshadowing becomes reality as events quickly unfold and Tristan is left to fend for himself after his mother’s disappearance. The surrounding adults intervene just enough to ensure he is given the means to survive. By an ironic twist of fate, the young boy is hired by Mr. Richter, who oversees the construction of the lodge on Treble Island, the very piece of land his mother considered rightfully theirs by some natural law. That is, until men armed with “papers” claimed it legally.
At that point of the novel, there is a growing expectation that an account of Tristan’s evolution from youth to adulthood (if he’s lucky enough to get there) will follow. But Book Two takes another unexpected turn expands the cast of characters. Among them, Tomasin, a 16 year-old girl, now takes precedence as the main protagonist. Her colourful and boisterous way of being somewhat overpowers Tristan’s taciturn persona and we are left to wonder why of all people she would set her views on Tristan and become so determined to get his attention. All the other young people working or vacationing on the island—Marie, Stella, Emiel, among others—also feel the need to counter its alienating influence by yielding to attractions and forming unrequited attachments. The intricacies of their motivations and their actions ultimately elude the most analytical of readers, just as they seem to elude those involved. The breaking point reached, they are forced to face the consequences of their own reckless ways of dealing with unhappiness and loneliness.
Through Mrs. Ruddocks’ skilful characterization, idiosyncratic personalities of these remote territories are transmuted into universal, almost mythical figures of lost and neglected youth. The novelist aptly avoids falling into the trap of caricaturing the intense and sometimes dramatic patterns of thinking of teenagers and young adults. And while it can feel at times that not much happens externally, especially in the middle part of the novel, the masterful use of inner conflict and existential incommunicability between beings sustains our interest until the end.
One can only wish that the plot had focused more strictly around Tristan and Tomasin’s viewpoints, who appear as the real stakeholders of this story and the most interestingly contrasting characters. In my opinion, trying to encompass every secondary character’s experience only dilutes the power of the main storyline. In consequence, the otherwise compelling ending runs the risk of producing a deflated effect on the reader who might have gotten lost in all those criss-crossing plot lines and shifts in sympathies.
All things considered, this novel defies genre classification. With its great emphasis on interior characterization, Shot-blue is primarily a psychological novel, but multiple elements from classic coming-of-age stories such as Great Expectations and Jane Eyre can also be detected without any great exertion of the mind. It is also very much a social problem novel, portraying the harsh realities of growing up in those isolated parts of Canada through their effects on the characters’ lives: poverty, prostitution, teenage pregnancy, child labor, to name only a few. In some ways, it could almost be read as a modern cautionary tale of sort, especially when one considers the very similar, almost circular, fates reserved to Rachel and Tomasin. In consequence, the reader’s expectations as to how the story should unfold are, for better or worse, constantly challenged and in need of revision.
There is no doubt that Shot-blue is a promising debut novel. Published in February 2017 by Coach House Books, Jesse Ruddock’s literary work revolves around a tapestry of young people who struggle with isolation in the unforgiving Canadian North. The author quickly encapsulates our mind in an atmosphere of muted desperation, through her penetrating evocation of the environment and her simple and yet haunting writing style. From the very beginning, the landscape shapes the characters just as much as they in turn attempt to tame it into being their home. Alternately friend and foe, the brutal setting brings the young people together before imposing itself as the greatest antagonist to their longing for human connection.
This novel is reminiscent of Margaret Laurence’s celebrated Manawaka cycle. It appears that both Canadian novelists share the same themes of predilection: Like the author of The Diviners (among other titles), Mrs. Ruddock possesses the knack for depicting isolated locations in Canada and populating it with an ensemble of characters trying to overcome the limitations of their living context through a convoluted quest for love and belonging.
In Book One, arguably the most enthralling part of the novel, we get acquainted with the young Rachel and her 10-year-old son, Tristan, who might or might not be the fruit of his mother’s juvenile prostitution activities. The boy is said to be “the child of a child” (p. 66). The northern setting, with all its antagonistic forces, casts an almost otherworldly light on their everyday struggle for survival. While the mother worries that the boy’s development might be stunted by their unstable lifestyle, moving from place to place with barely anything to live on, the son “seemed to have a sense of purpose, standing at his mother’s side, protecting her, though he didn’t know how and maybe it was impossible.” (p. 46) This narrative foreshadowing becomes reality as events quickly unfold and Tristan is left to fend for himself after his mother’s disappearance. The surrounding adults intervene just enough to ensure he is given the means to survive. By an ironic twist of fate, the young boy is hired by Mr. Richter, who oversees the construction of the lodge on Treble Island, the very piece of land his mother considered rightfully theirs by some natural law. That is, until men armed with “papers” claimed it legally.
At that point of the novel, there is a growing expectation that an account of Tristan’s evolution from youth to adulthood (if he’s lucky enough to get there) will follow. But Book Two takes another unexpected turn expands the cast of characters. Among them, Tomasin, a 16 year-old girl, now takes precedence as the main protagonist. Her colourful and boisterous way of being somewhat overpowers Tristan’s taciturn persona and we are left to wonder why of all people she would set her views on Tristan and become so determined to get his attention. All the other young people working or vacationing on the island—Marie, Stella, Emiel, among others—also feel the need to counter its alienating influence by yielding to attractions and forming unrequited attachments. The intricacies of their motivations and their actions ultimately elude the most analytical of readers, just as they seem to elude those involved. The breaking point reached, they are forced to face the consequences of their own reckless ways of dealing with unhappiness and loneliness.
Through Mrs. Ruddocks’ skilful characterization, idiosyncratic personalities of these remote territories are transmuted into universal, almost mythical figures of lost and neglected youth. The novelist aptly avoids falling into the trap of caricaturing the intense and sometimes dramatic patterns of thinking of teenagers and young adults. And while it can feel at times that not much happens externally, especially in the middle part of the novel, the masterful use of inner conflict and existential incommunicability between beings sustains our interest until the end.
One can only wish that the plot had focused more strictly around Tristan and Tomasin’s viewpoints, who appear as the real stakeholders of this story and the most interestingly contrasting characters. In my opinion, trying to encompass every secondary character’s experience only dilutes the power of the main storyline. In consequence, the otherwise compelling ending runs the risk of producing a deflated effect on the reader who might have gotten lost in all those criss-crossing plot lines and shifts in sympathies.
All things considered, this novel defies genre classification. With its great emphasis on interior characterization, Shot-blue is primarily a psychological novel, but multiple elements from classic coming-of-age stories such as Great Expectations and Jane Eyre can also be detected without any great exertion of the mind. It is also very much a social problem novel, portraying the harsh realities of growing up in those isolated parts of Canada through their effects on the characters’ lives: poverty, prostitution, teenage pregnancy, child labor, to name only a few. In some ways, it could almost be read as a modern cautionary tale of sort, especially when one considers the very similar, almost circular, fates reserved to Rachel and Tomasin. In consequence, the reader’s expectations as to how the story should unfold are, for better or worse, constantly challenged and in need of revision.
January 3, 2018
There are three things that matter in books: plot, characters, and writing. These three things aren't weighted equally, however, as some people, myself included, prefer characters over plot, others like the opposite, but the most important thing is the writing. In Shot-Blue, Ruddock decides to cut out the whole plot and characters part almost entirely and focus purely on the writing.
And that is both this book's biggest asset and also its downfall. Because the writing is, without a doubt, beautiful and is really the best part of the novel because Ruddock seems to have little interest in both fleshing out her characters beyond their physical attributes and doing something with the plot. This is not so much an issue in the first part of the story, also known as Book One, but in Book Two, Ruddock's lack of talent in both the plot and character aspect of writing becomes painfully apparent, and that beautiful, dreamlike writing quickly grows tiring. In that, I am reminded of books like The Night Circus, another book that prioritized writing above all and as that book progressed, it quickly became apparent that the writing was all the talent Morgenstern possessed.
What sets Shot-Blue apart from The Night Circus, though, is the ambition behind this book. It proclaims to be a book about loneliness vs being alone and first loss and love, and it ends up drowning in its own pretension. By making it so ambiguous and so literary, it ends up really being about nothing except how smart Ruddock is for writing this. What she's missing is that there's a fine line between beautiful ambiguity and beautiful nothingness and this book crosses it.
Continue reading this review on my blog here: https://bookwormbasics.blogspot.com/2...
And that is both this book's biggest asset and also its downfall. Because the writing is, without a doubt, beautiful and is really the best part of the novel because Ruddock seems to have little interest in both fleshing out her characters beyond their physical attributes and doing something with the plot. This is not so much an issue in the first part of the story, also known as Book One, but in Book Two, Ruddock's lack of talent in both the plot and character aspect of writing becomes painfully apparent, and that beautiful, dreamlike writing quickly grows tiring. In that, I am reminded of books like The Night Circus, another book that prioritized writing above all and as that book progressed, it quickly became apparent that the writing was all the talent Morgenstern possessed.
What sets Shot-Blue apart from The Night Circus, though, is the ambition behind this book. It proclaims to be a book about loneliness vs being alone and first loss and love, and it ends up drowning in its own pretension. By making it so ambiguous and so literary, it ends up really being about nothing except how smart Ruddock is for writing this. What she's missing is that there's a fine line between beautiful ambiguity and beautiful nothingness and this book crosses it.
Continue reading this review on my blog here: https://bookwormbasics.blogspot.com/2...
May 10, 2017
I picked up this book because I saw it in a picture. I didn't know anything about what to expect from it, and after reading it, I still have a bit of that sensation left. I think I could read it ten more times and feel new things. I'm not yet sure what I've come away thinking about it this time, but there's a lot of sticky tabs poking out the side at me from where I marked thoughts and moments that I connected with, so I must have come away with something. I don't know if I'll remember these characters, but I think I'll remember the feelings.
One aspect I really found myself growing to enjoy was the way this book threw structure out the window. It broke "rules" that took me some time to get used to and left me often feeling like I didn't really get the characters, but it worked because I think often the reason was because the characters didn't really get themselves. I think we're all like that sometimes, or certainly I am. I'm glad I saw this in a picture and took the time to read the title.
One aspect I really found myself growing to enjoy was the way this book threw structure out the window. It broke "rules" that took me some time to get used to and left me often feeling like I didn't really get the characters, but it worked because I think often the reason was because the characters didn't really get themselves. I think we're all like that sometimes, or certainly I am. I'm glad I saw this in a picture and took the time to read the title.
August 14, 2017
As mentioned in other reviews, "Shot-Blue" reminded me of Donoghue's "Room."
Interesting read. Original voice. Odd and beautiful passages, along with disjointed ones. Dialogue and behavior of young people and adults believable at times; otherwise, stilted and unreal, as though everyone is uncomfortable and terribly self-conscious being around other humans. Also can't remember when I last read a book with so many POVs. Don't know that anyone didn't have their say. Readers even given access to the thoughts of minor characters - I found this jarring for some reason.
I applaud the authors willingness to take risks. Reading this book made me aware of the writing process and experimenting with it, at times succeeding and at other times failing. I very much enjoyed the first half of the book and would have given the book 4 stars, or maybe even 5, if the second half had been as interesting and coherent.
Will watch for more work by this author.
Interesting read. Original voice. Odd and beautiful passages, along with disjointed ones. Dialogue and behavior of young people and adults believable at times; otherwise, stilted and unreal, as though everyone is uncomfortable and terribly self-conscious being around other humans. Also can't remember when I last read a book with so many POVs. Don't know that anyone didn't have their say. Readers even given access to the thoughts of minor characters - I found this jarring for some reason.
I applaud the authors willingness to take risks. Reading this book made me aware of the writing process and experimenting with it, at times succeeding and at other times failing. I very much enjoyed the first half of the book and would have given the book 4 stars, or maybe even 5, if the second half had been as interesting and coherent.
Will watch for more work by this author.
August 10, 2018
This book might not exactly deserve a 5 star rating, however I think it is criminally underrated here. The prose is gorgeous, even if erring on the side of weak metaphors occasionally. More than just estranging the world of the text, it becomes an embodiment of the Northern Canadian wilds: crowded, yet incomprehensible at times.
Further, I thought the characters were all beautifully rendered, though we weren't treated to the level of interiority that is commonly expected these day. The cast of characters is challenging, often refusing to be fully known, but all the richer and more believable for that fact.
Further, I thought the characters were all beautifully rendered, though we weren't treated to the level of interiority that is commonly expected these day. The cast of characters is challenging, often refusing to be fully known, but all the richer and more believable for that fact.
August 7, 2017
What a strange, long trip it's been... difficult to follow at times. I felt like I was in the mind of someone with Autism. The dialogue was challenging to read, I don't recommend reading with a glass of wine, as you will find yourself re-reading to understand. I hated the ending. What happened??
April 10, 2020
More like poetry than a story. POV kept changing every time a different character spoke, who eventually all blended together as their dialogue - which was simply at best - was very similar. I found this a tough read.
July 14, 2023
People reviewing it say that the prose was nice but the plot was confusing. I think there is something very valuable and precious about books that are not necessarily linear or easy to follow. You can tell the author loves to write and I loved reading it.
June 12, 2017
This book will not be for everyone. There is no pat ending. I loved the sparse language and how this matched with the sparsity of nature and the environment described.
January 2, 2024
Some lovely writing but it didn't really go anywhere.
May 15, 2025
Time-travel poetry. A meditation. Reading this felt like sinking into a fresh water river and dissolving.
March 24, 2017
I bounced off this novel, hard. Like a Jackson Pollock painting. I know there's meaning in it, but I can't get to it. A strange mix of beautiful sentiments expressed too simply and too-simple sentiments expressed beautifully.
August 24, 2017
In "Shot-Blue", we meet Rachel who is a single mother raising her son Tristan in a small isolated community. They are barely able to survive, but she manages to provide a level of subsistence.
When she disappears one day, young Tristan is unprepared; however, he manages to get work and in the process matures much faster than someone of his age.
Thank you GoodReads for the book.
When she disappears one day, young Tristan is unprepared; however, he manages to get work and in the process matures much faster than someone of his age.
Thank you GoodReads for the book.
Read
March 9, 2017I've written a review of this book and I'll link to it once it's posted.
April 23, 2017
A beguiling little novel written with the pen of a poet. I wrote a full length review for Cleaver magazine, here: www.cleavermagazine.com/shot-blue-a-n...
April 24, 2017
A bizarre fever dream of a book.
May 14, 2017
2 1/2 ⭐stars. A novel of sensations. Focusing more on the inner and the outer and a pretty obscure plot. This was well written but it just wasn't right for me.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews