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Cygnet
An utterly original coming-of-age tale, marked by wrenching humor and staggering charisma, about a young woman resisting the savagery of adulthood in a community of the elderly rejecting the promise of youth.
“It’s too hot for most of the clothes I packed to come here, when I thought this would only be for a week or two. My mother kissed me with those purple-brown lips of hers and said, we’ll be back, hold tight.”
Seventeen-year-old Kid doesn’t know where her parents are. They left her with her grandmother Lolly, promising to return soon. That was months ago. Now, Lolly is dead and Kid is alone, stranded ten miles off the coast of New Hampshire on tiny Swan Island. Unable to reach her parents, and with no other relatives to turn to, Kid works for a neighbor, airbrushing the past—digitally retouching family photos and movies—to earn enough money to survive.
Surrounded by the vast ocean, Kid’s temporary home is no ordinary vacation retreat. The island is populated by an idiosyncratic group of elderly separatists who left behind the youth-obsessed mainland—”the Bad Place”—to create their own alternative community. These residents call themselves the Swans. Kid calls them the Wrinklies. Even as Kid tries to be good and quiet and patient, the adolescent’s presence unnerves the Swans, turning some downright hostile. They don’t care if she has nowhere to go, they just want her gone. She is a reminder of all they’ve left behind and are determined to forget.
But Kid isn’t the only problem threatening the insular community. Swan Island is eroding into the rising sea, threatening the Swans’ very existence there. To find a way forward, the Kid must come to terms with the realities of her life and an unknown future that is hers alone to embrace.
Season Butler makes her literary debut with an ambitious work of bold imagination. Tough and tender, compassionate and ferocious, intelligent and provocative, Cygnet is a meditation on death and life, past and future, aging and youth, memory and forgetting, that explores what it means to find acceptance—of things past and those to come.
“It’s too hot for most of the clothes I packed to come here, when I thought this would only be for a week or two. My mother kissed me with those purple-brown lips of hers and said, we’ll be back, hold tight.”
Seventeen-year-old Kid doesn’t know where her parents are. They left her with her grandmother Lolly, promising to return soon. That was months ago. Now, Lolly is dead and Kid is alone, stranded ten miles off the coast of New Hampshire on tiny Swan Island. Unable to reach her parents, and with no other relatives to turn to, Kid works for a neighbor, airbrushing the past—digitally retouching family photos and movies—to earn enough money to survive.
Surrounded by the vast ocean, Kid’s temporary home is no ordinary vacation retreat. The island is populated by an idiosyncratic group of elderly separatists who left behind the youth-obsessed mainland—”the Bad Place”—to create their own alternative community. These residents call themselves the Swans. Kid calls them the Wrinklies. Even as Kid tries to be good and quiet and patient, the adolescent’s presence unnerves the Swans, turning some downright hostile. They don’t care if she has nowhere to go, they just want her gone. She is a reminder of all they’ve left behind and are determined to forget.
But Kid isn’t the only problem threatening the insular community. Swan Island is eroding into the rising sea, threatening the Swans’ very existence there. To find a way forward, the Kid must come to terms with the realities of her life and an unknown future that is hers alone to embrace.
Season Butler makes her literary debut with an ambitious work of bold imagination. Tough and tender, compassionate and ferocious, intelligent and provocative, Cygnet is a meditation on death and life, past and future, aging and youth, memory and forgetting, that explores what it means to find acceptance—of things past and those to come.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published June 25, 2019
28 people are currently reading
1976 people want to read
About the author
Season Butler
3 books35 followersSeason Butler is a writer and artist born in Washington, DC. Season also works as a dramaturg, and as a lecturer in Performance Studies and Creative Writing. An early draft of her debut novel, Cygnet, was shortlisted for the 2014 SI Leeds Prize for unpublished fiction by Black and Asian women. She lives and works between London and Berlin.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 119 reviews
June 18, 2019
3.5 stars rounded up .
This is an introspective book, a portrait of loneliness, not just the being alone kind of loneliness, but being among people and not wanted. Seventeen year old Kid, that’s what the elderly people on Swan Island call her. She’s the daughter of drug addict parents who leave her with her grandmother on the island where the “Swans” are living out their old age and they don’t much like having her around. When her grandmother dies, she’s left to fend for herself, waiting for her parents to come back as they promised, while the ocean wears away at the cliffs and she fears that the land around and under her grandmother’s house will fall. Flashbacks to the time before she arrived here reveal that her life was not very stable then either on the mainland, and her childhood not a very happy one, a lonely one then as well. But yet, she continues to believe that she has to stay until her parents return for her. There are some quirky people here, but a few of them are kind to her or at least tolerate her. Several things happen that move her to despair, but allow her to come to terms in a more realistic way about how to move forward with her life. There’s not much of a reprieve from that gut wrenching sadness Kid feels, but there is ultimately and thankfully the moment when she comes of age and to an understanding of what she has to do. A sad, quirky and moving story. I’m bothered when characters go unnamed and I was here as well, but still I was able to feel for The Kid.
I received an advanced copy of this book from HarperCollins through NetGalley and Edelweiss.
This is an introspective book, a portrait of loneliness, not just the being alone kind of loneliness, but being among people and not wanted. Seventeen year old Kid, that’s what the elderly people on Swan Island call her. She’s the daughter of drug addict parents who leave her with her grandmother on the island where the “Swans” are living out their old age and they don’t much like having her around. When her grandmother dies, she’s left to fend for herself, waiting for her parents to come back as they promised, while the ocean wears away at the cliffs and she fears that the land around and under her grandmother’s house will fall. Flashbacks to the time before she arrived here reveal that her life was not very stable then either on the mainland, and her childhood not a very happy one, a lonely one then as well. But yet, she continues to believe that she has to stay until her parents return for her. There are some quirky people here, but a few of them are kind to her or at least tolerate her. Several things happen that move her to despair, but allow her to come to terms in a more realistic way about how to move forward with her life. There’s not much of a reprieve from that gut wrenching sadness Kid feels, but there is ultimately and thankfully the moment when she comes of age and to an understanding of what she has to do. A sad, quirky and moving story. I’m bothered when characters go unnamed and I was here as well, but still I was able to feel for The Kid.
I received an advanced copy of this book from HarperCollins through NetGalley and Edelweiss.
April 6, 2019
Cygnet is a wholly original coming-of-age novel and a great debut which is effectively a meditation on the difficulty faced by teens who are transitioning into adulthood; a feeling we all know personally. Ms Butler explores issues surrounding loneliness, social isolation, bullying, self-confidence, confusion, love, parenting, family relationships, desperation and drug addiction. It's a well-told story which was rather moving as The Kid manoeuvred her way around the dystopian landscape she inhabited. There is a profundity to it all that is often missing in books featuring youngsters so I found that very refreshing.
All in all, this is a bleak and disturbing work of fiction with some insightful rumination and wonderful depiction of the Isle of Swan and the characters, especially the elderly known in the novel as wrinklies. I thought the lack of named characters was a superb idea to showcase the issues with which they were suffering and making them the central aspect of the story. What is illustrated adeptly is the differences and similarities between the old and young and that each age group has its own struggles to contend with.
Many thanks to Dialogue Books for an ARC.
All in all, this is a bleak and disturbing work of fiction with some insightful rumination and wonderful depiction of the Isle of Swan and the characters, especially the elderly known in the novel as wrinklies. I thought the lack of named characters was a superb idea to showcase the issues with which they were suffering and making them the central aspect of the story. What is illustrated adeptly is the differences and similarities between the old and young and that each age group has its own struggles to contend with.
Many thanks to Dialogue Books for an ARC.
May 1, 2019
Umm..... what did I just read....?
I am a bit confused by what I just read and I want answers.
Dubbed a coming-of-age novel we meet a seventeen year-old girl who is called Kid by the persons around her. Kid went to live temporarily with her Grandmother on Swan Island off the coast of New Hampshire. Swan Island is home to the Wrinklies as Kid calls them- they moved to Swan Island to be away from the "Bad Place"- that is, the "real world". The Wrinklies all gather on Swan Island to retire and...die, some of the Wrinklies are strong separatist who do not want to see any young persons on the island. Kid is made to feel unwelcome as she awaits the return of her parents.
What was supposed to be a temporary arrangement for Kid, turns into her Grandmother dying and Kid being left to fend for herself on an island where she is not welcomed. Added to that is Kid is waiting on her parents to return so she keeps the need to stay out until they get there.
I cannot say I enjoyed this read. I felt it dragged in a lot of areas. I was expecting a dystopian read and it was nothing like that. I just felt underwhelmed for majority of the read, it was as if the book was not going anywhere...kinda like Kid I guess. Maybe this is a me thing and not the book but it just was not for me...
I am a bit confused by what I just read and I want answers.
Dubbed a coming-of-age novel we meet a seventeen year-old girl who is called Kid by the persons around her. Kid went to live temporarily with her Grandmother on Swan Island off the coast of New Hampshire. Swan Island is home to the Wrinklies as Kid calls them- they moved to Swan Island to be away from the "Bad Place"- that is, the "real world". The Wrinklies all gather on Swan Island to retire and...die, some of the Wrinklies are strong separatist who do not want to see any young persons on the island. Kid is made to feel unwelcome as she awaits the return of her parents.
What was supposed to be a temporary arrangement for Kid, turns into her Grandmother dying and Kid being left to fend for herself on an island where she is not welcomed. Added to that is Kid is waiting on her parents to return so she keeps the need to stay out until they get there.
I cannot say I enjoyed this read. I felt it dragged in a lot of areas. I was expecting a dystopian read and it was nothing like that. I just felt underwhelmed for majority of the read, it was as if the book was not going anywhere...kinda like Kid I guess. Maybe this is a me thing and not the book but it just was not for me...
February 6, 2020
The Isle of Swan is an island in the ocean populated by free spirit hippie type elderly people. The people are called “Wrinklies.” 😂 they are possessive of their island, their territory. They only allow folk from the mainland once a week for business or deliveries and mail. They are into organic/naturals, herbalistics, gardening and pollinators and self care. They pay or barter for goods/services and drugs throughout the island. They have a deli called Psychadelicatessan! The mainland is referred to as the “Bad Place” - the rat race, the politics, the rules, the materialism, the crime, etc. This is their end of life retreat - to live the rest of their days out happy, free, undisturbed, with like members, their own peaceful little village on an island, run and pretty much self sustained by themselves. They do not want to go back, thus settling this little island as their colony.
“The Kid” our main character of the story. She’s lost in life, the poor thing. A mother and father who fell repeatedly on hard times and also involved with drugs, constantly having to pick up and move in the middle of the night. “The Kid” has seen and learned more from this type of life but doesn’t know how to process it. Her schooling has always been in between, on the run.
She has a grandmother, Lolly, who lives on the Isle of Swan and we witness an event in court where I presume Lolly is granted guardianship of “the kid” while the parents do a clean up. Rehab. The parents and “The Kid” go to the Isle of Swan with Lolly. There are snippets of Lolly and her daughter fighting with each other “she “The Kid” needs structure, etc” obviously the parents are unable to care for their child and the type of life they lead is unsuitable. Lack of schooling, the exposure and yes, actually use of drugs, lack of money and shelter. Lolly goes to bat in court which is great but I don’t think anyone expected or planned for what’s next.
The Kid and parents stay for an uncomfortably short time on the island and then leave, promising to come back for her. She can’t even remember her mother saying goodbye. In the meantime, time goes by, Lolly gets sick and passes and again, “The Kid” has nothing viable to tether herself to. Oh she tries to find her parents on the computer (yes they have internet) but they pretty much are nowhere to be found, probably on the lam again, still moving in the middle of the night. Oh the heartache. And every time she walks outside the house she has to deal with the rudeness of the Wrinklies - mostly the men who don’t want her there because she’s not of the age group requirement. They treat her with disdain.
In the meantime, her grandmothers house is getting eaten away by the waves of the ocean. Eroding the soil (and her soul) with each crash. It’s only a matter of time before the house slides into the water, and there she will be again, driftless, unmoored. All alone. She thinks, my parents are alive somewhere and I may never see them again!
With the house ready to slide into the sea, her grandmother gone, and nothing holding her back in this island of elderly eccentrics, she makes the decision to leave the island and do something with her life. She has learned early in life that cannot depend on anyone. Even those you love.
“The Kid” our main character of the story. She’s lost in life, the poor thing. A mother and father who fell repeatedly on hard times and also involved with drugs, constantly having to pick up and move in the middle of the night. “The Kid” has seen and learned more from this type of life but doesn’t know how to process it. Her schooling has always been in between, on the run.
She has a grandmother, Lolly, who lives on the Isle of Swan and we witness an event in court where I presume Lolly is granted guardianship of “the kid” while the parents do a clean up. Rehab. The parents and “The Kid” go to the Isle of Swan with Lolly. There are snippets of Lolly and her daughter fighting with each other “she “The Kid” needs structure, etc” obviously the parents are unable to care for their child and the type of life they lead is unsuitable. Lack of schooling, the exposure and yes, actually use of drugs, lack of money and shelter. Lolly goes to bat in court which is great but I don’t think anyone expected or planned for what’s next.
The Kid and parents stay for an uncomfortably short time on the island and then leave, promising to come back for her. She can’t even remember her mother saying goodbye. In the meantime, time goes by, Lolly gets sick and passes and again, “The Kid” has nothing viable to tether herself to. Oh she tries to find her parents on the computer (yes they have internet) but they pretty much are nowhere to be found, probably on the lam again, still moving in the middle of the night. Oh the heartache. And every time she walks outside the house she has to deal with the rudeness of the Wrinklies - mostly the men who don’t want her there because she’s not of the age group requirement. They treat her with disdain.
In the meantime, her grandmothers house is getting eaten away by the waves of the ocean. Eroding the soil (and her soul) with each crash. It’s only a matter of time before the house slides into the water, and there she will be again, driftless, unmoored. All alone. She thinks, my parents are alive somewhere and I may never see them again!
With the house ready to slide into the sea, her grandmother gone, and nothing holding her back in this island of elderly eccentrics, she makes the decision to leave the island and do something with her life. She has learned early in life that cannot depend on anyone. Even those you love.
June 11, 2019
75th book for 2019.
While I liked the writing in parts, the overall pacing seemed off to me, with very little happening over the course of the book and a final sudden "coming-of-age" of the main character seemingly tacked on at the end. While I found neither the main character nor her flock of elderly tormentors were particularly likeable or interesting this might just be because I am the wrong demographic for this book.
2-stars.
While I liked the writing in parts, the overall pacing seemed off to me, with very little happening over the course of the book and a final sudden "coming-of-age" of the main character seemingly tacked on at the end. While I found neither the main character nor her flock of elderly tormentors were particularly likeable or interesting this might just be because I am the wrong demographic for this book.
2-stars.
November 19, 2019
(#gifted | @cheltfestivals) Do you ever finish a book and just think... Well I *think* I liked it? When you didn’t love it and you definitely didn’t hate it, and just had a pretty good time reading it overall? Those are the hardest reviews to write for me! Nothing to rant about, nothing to rave about, just a solidly enjoyable read!
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Cygnet had a super interesting premise, which sees our protagonist, seventeen-year-old Kid, left on Swan by her parents, seemingly for just a few short weeks but then those weeks elongate into months. Swan is essentially a retirement community, a remote island where you have to be 65 to live there - Kid’s grandma Lolly bends the rules to allow her granddaughter a safe haven, but not all the residents are happy about it.
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Funny, dark, and melancholy, Cygnet has a realist dystopian vibe and I loved the interactions between Kid and the other residents - although some were a little odd - especially Rose and The Duchess, who Kid keeps company as her health deteriorates. Some of Kid’s thoughts were hilariously honest and weird, as well as heartbreaking when she looks back on her time with her carefree (read, neglectful) parents.
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I really liked Butler’s writing and introspective storytelling - this book is a bit plotless so be warned, but if you like character-driven, reflective narratives then give this one a try!
.
Cygnet had a super interesting premise, which sees our protagonist, seventeen-year-old Kid, left on Swan by her parents, seemingly for just a few short weeks but then those weeks elongate into months. Swan is essentially a retirement community, a remote island where you have to be 65 to live there - Kid’s grandma Lolly bends the rules to allow her granddaughter a safe haven, but not all the residents are happy about it.
.
Funny, dark, and melancholy, Cygnet has a realist dystopian vibe and I loved the interactions between Kid and the other residents - although some were a little odd - especially Rose and The Duchess, who Kid keeps company as her health deteriorates. Some of Kid’s thoughts were hilariously honest and weird, as well as heartbreaking when she looks back on her time with her carefree (read, neglectful) parents.
.
I really liked Butler’s writing and introspective storytelling - this book is a bit plotless so be warned, but if you like character-driven, reflective narratives then give this one a try!
July 19, 2019
This book was a gentle little allegory about the current state of our lives as we all hurtle towards a climate apocalypse. About the kid, a teen who is left by her addicted parents to live with her grandmother temporarily on a self-isolating island of seniors, our protagonist finds herself in a world where she is unwelcome and unwanted, following the death of her grandmother. With little of meaning to do, and no close friends, the kid spends her days trying to mange overwhelming anxiety while also slowly unpacking the experiences that led her to this little hideaway. The wrinklies, as the kid calls them, just want to live and die in their own way, blithely ignoring the climate crisis that they’ve created as their island, cut off from “the bad place” rapidly crumbles into the sea. The kid herself is trying to get through days of despair and to envision a life in a world that is falling into shortages and conflict, and that is so uncertain. If this book isn’t a metaphor for what my generation, and the generations to follow who are trying to find a way in uncertain times, financially, socially, governmentally, and environmentally, I don’t know what is. I feel the same quiet uncertainty and building resentment and directionless despair trying to imagine how I can give my kids a safe future, and also trying to grapple with what has happened to get us to where we are, and who made those decisions for us, and who still yields so much power shape our futures. This book took me into my own heart, and I enjoyed it very much. Thank you @harpercollinsus @harperbooks for this review copy.
July 24, 2019
OK, so this book will NOT be to most people's liking, but I was fascinated by it and deeply appreciative of reading something so unusual.
It's dystopian, yet not.
It's coming of age, yet not.
It's meditative, yet suspenseful.
It's realistic, but bizarrely imaginative.
The story telling spins like a drug trip (appropriate), it stops and starts taking the reader right to the edge, then stepping back from the reveal (also appropriate), it alternates between in-your-face sexual exploration and deeply reserved untold truths.
This book is as confusing as my review, but much more rewarding to readers. Season Butler is a dynamic, fresh voice in literature -- brash and brave in offering a new way of looking at love, life and death.
Well done.
It's dystopian, yet not.
It's coming of age, yet not.
It's meditative, yet suspenseful.
It's realistic, but bizarrely imaginative.
The story telling spins like a drug trip (appropriate), it stops and starts taking the reader right to the edge, then stepping back from the reveal (also appropriate), it alternates between in-your-face sexual exploration and deeply reserved untold truths.
This book is as confusing as my review, but much more rewarding to readers. Season Butler is a dynamic, fresh voice in literature -- brash and brave in offering a new way of looking at love, life and death.
Well done.
March 6, 2019
Strange, I always confuse the title with signet, but y makes all the difference, the meaning is a baby swan, someone on the brink of becoming a magnificent creature, so you’re going in expecting a coming of age story and that’s what it is. A story of a 17 year old young woman left on an island of old people by her insufficient parents. This story might have been the case of a setting outshining the protagonist. The island is so strange, its population are agists separatists, who want nothing to do with the mainland or anyone above retirement age, which creates for a singular experience. Especially for one as young as the girl. She finds ways to fit in, she works for an old eccentric lady determined to digitally optimize her entire past into a most acceptable version. She tries to make friends with some of the islanders. She sleeps with a dealer who visits island once a month to provide recreational enhancements. She waits for her parents. Meanwhile, the island is succumbing to the sea, making the very place feel temporary and fleeting, ephemeral in a way, much like those who live there. For them it’s a final destination, but for the girl it’s only a layover, she has (literally and metaphorically) reached the precipice and now has to make some decisions. Which is how coming of age stories usually go. The writing is quite good, but it is mainly a first person (and a very young persona t that) stream of consciousness kind of narration and so, while hauntingly lyrical in execution, this novel may not be for everyone. I enjoyed it, it read quickly, but it didn’t really wow. It was more of a thing to appreciate than love. It’s quite well done for a debut and a good read if you’re in a mood for a quiet sad (though not depressing) story. The island of Wrinklies is certainly its most memorable thing though, not the protagonist, despite the title’s suggestion. Thanks Netgalley.
October 11, 2019
This started off with an interesting concept (young girl is abandoned by her parents in a retirement island, inhabited exclusively by old people) and I largely enjoyed parts of it, but it soon became meandering and lost its drive and purpose.
The main character was drawn very inconsistently: one moment she was acting like a ten year old and the next she was acting like a mature adult. I would be willing to accept that this was done as a conscious choice if it didn't feel so sloppy? The writing had similar inconsistencies and Butler loves her adverbs, which make the prose read like it was written by an edgy teenager.
There was so many missed opportunities here and even though the novel desperately tried to pass itself as something more, at the end of the day it was a very by-the-numbers, juvenile coming of age narrative that wasn't that different to let's say... John Green. I am way, way past my John Green phase.
The main character was drawn very inconsistently: one moment she was acting like a ten year old and the next she was acting like a mature adult. I would be willing to accept that this was done as a conscious choice if it didn't feel so sloppy? The writing had similar inconsistencies and Butler loves her adverbs, which make the prose read like it was written by an edgy teenager.
There was so many missed opportunities here and even though the novel desperately tried to pass itself as something more, at the end of the day it was a very by-the-numbers, juvenile coming of age narrative that wasn't that different to let's say... John Green. I am way, way past my John Green phase.
January 29, 2021
Three short passages from Cygnet:
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Rose always says that we’re all the same age because we’re all the oldest we’ve ever been.
*
I think about the kids that people my age are having, or will start having soon. Life is going to be so boring for them. Not just because the world will have gone completely to shit by then and there won’t be much of anything left, but because their parents are going to talk constantly about how the world used to be. Remember when you could just get in your car if you needed to get somewhere? Or take a bus or a train even? Remember when everything used to be so much faster? Remember the internet? God, the internet! Remember real meat? Remember fish? I remember when I had my own house for a while. All this space, electricity all the time, taps that turned on and off. No lines for water. No lines for food. Wars all far away? Remember?
*
I had one trip that I really loved. I was convinced that I was a minor character in someone else’s dream. The feeling was intensely relaxing. I didn’t have to do anything, because everything I did was just a metaphor. And since it wasn’t my dream, I didn’t have to decode the signs. Nothing made sense but nothing had to. It was the greatest experience I’ve ever had; for an entire afternoon I didn’t have to exist. And I came back.
*
Rose always says that we’re all the same age because we’re all the oldest we’ve ever been.
*
I think about the kids that people my age are having, or will start having soon. Life is going to be so boring for them. Not just because the world will have gone completely to shit by then and there won’t be much of anything left, but because their parents are going to talk constantly about how the world used to be. Remember when you could just get in your car if you needed to get somewhere? Or take a bus or a train even? Remember when everything used to be so much faster? Remember the internet? God, the internet! Remember real meat? Remember fish? I remember when I had my own house for a while. All this space, electricity all the time, taps that turned on and off. No lines for water. No lines for food. Wars all far away? Remember?
*
I had one trip that I really loved. I was convinced that I was a minor character in someone else’s dream. The feeling was intensely relaxing. I didn’t have to do anything, because everything I did was just a metaphor. And since it wasn’t my dream, I didn’t have to decode the signs. Nothing made sense but nothing had to. It was the greatest experience I’ve ever had; for an entire afternoon I didn’t have to exist. And I came back.
July 6, 2019
This book had it all...great atmosphere, characters and plot. Set on a small island that is disappearing into the sea, The female teen narrator is trying to find her way after being abandoned by family and feeling unwanted among the elderly inhabitants of the island. A coming of age story that shows the progress of growing up and developing internal strength.
March 27, 2019
A beautifully written coming-of-age narrative that just meandered a bit too much for my tastes.
March 16, 2019
What an odd book! Don’t get me wrong, it’s good. Season Butler is a hell of a writer. Butler’s diction and syntax throughout the whole novel are compelling and really help to piece together an entire world for the reader to get lost in. And it’s easy to get lost with the Swans and feel out of place while reading about our heroine trying to navigate her time on the island as she’s essentially been abandoned and rejected by just about everyone she knows. Ultimately, I think the novel’s biggest pit fall comes from slow pacing and aimlessness, two things that make sense in context as well as the atmosphere of the story Butler’s telling. Also, it’s difficult to pinpoint Kid’s arc. There’s a general sense of what she goes through from beginning to end, but I don’t think the end is as conclusive as I’d like it to be. But maybe that’s the point. I don’t know.
Overall, Butler is an incredibly talented writer, and Cygnet is a wonderfully original novel. For anyone who’s into the death positivity movement, you’ll certainly enjoy the themes surrounding death that are peppered throughout!
Overall, Butler is an incredibly talented writer, and Cygnet is a wonderfully original novel. For anyone who’s into the death positivity movement, you’ll certainly enjoy the themes surrounding death that are peppered throughout!
July 10, 2019
In a world where climate change has wreaked its havoc on much of the world's coastlines, 17 year old Kid finds herself abandoned by her parents on an island community for old people. Her parents said they'd be back, but that was a long time ago, and her elderly hosts are getting sick of her youthful presence.
Told partially in stream of consciousness, partially in flashbacks, but all from the point of view of the hilarious and kindhearted Kid, this book is strange and wonderful. It's a little bit of a gut punch and a beautifully sad and well-written rumination of the confusion and loneliness of youth, the strangeness of feeling alone when you're surrounded by people, and what it might feel like to live through what may very well be the end of the world.
Told partially in stream of consciousness, partially in flashbacks, but all from the point of view of the hilarious and kindhearted Kid, this book is strange and wonderful. It's a little bit of a gut punch and a beautifully sad and well-written rumination of the confusion and loneliness of youth, the strangeness of feeling alone when you're surrounded by people, and what it might feel like to live through what may very well be the end of the world.
January 7, 2025
This book was fantastic. I cannot recommend it enough. Season Butler is an amazing writer, author, thinker and visionary. This book I can really only compare to Rene Denfeld's masterpiece The Enchanted. This is such a poetic and wonderful novel. Clearly a book written by a woman writer who is also a poet. I will be following Season Butler's writing with interest and reverence. She is the next Toni Morrison, like, REALLY!
April 4, 2024
awesome concept, terrible execution. i was blinded by the cool dust jacket art… don’t judge a book by its cover - this book sucked. so poorly written it put me into a reading funk for a couple weeks. at least it’ll look nice on my shelf…
September 12, 2019
Just finished reading this one - so my review is pretty fresh. This novel tells the story of a girl that gets transplanted on an island of senior citizens (“swans”) who isolate themselves away from the “bad place” or the mainland of the US. She’s not really welcome to their small community , but she finds a kinda existence in the cast of hilarious characters with their quirks and low tolerance for her youth. There’s a metaphor there wrapped up in the title (cygnet means young swan). The protagonist tells her story in a series of flashbacks and raw emotions that are poignant and deeply connecting. I didn’t find myself just rooting for her more so I listened to her grief, loneliness and even her resourcefulness. The story ends in an artistic way. Plenty of room to debate her future and the outcome. Definitely recommend this book to lovers of first person narratives and coming of age stories.
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#cygnet #bookstagram #bookish #coffee #bookreview #ownvoices #ownvoicesreviews
June 4, 2019
Thank you NetGalley and Harper for an Advanced Reader’s Copy of this book. This book was totally unexpected. It was a beautiful meditation on becoming an adult. This book is small but poignant, It covers so many areas in just a small book. It is very dark at times and even has a dystopian feel (though it is not) at times. Really enjoyed this one immensely.
July 10, 2019
This was a unique coming of age story. I really enjoyed the unnamed narrator, and easily could have read many more pages about her journey.
July 5, 2024
Nothing happened pretty much :(
They were om a island. OK.
So then something happens, right?
NOOOO! They just keep on being there! And so does it. ):
Man.
They were om a island. OK.
So then something happens, right?
NOOOO! They just keep on being there! And so does it. ):
Man.
December 18, 2022
I tried to unload this recently because it has been on my shelves since early 2019 and surely I would never get around to reading it. But I read the first few pages and now I’ve finished it so that just goes to show how there is no real logic to my reading life. (I have to admit here several ARCs I didn’t unload found their way back to my shelves, because it’s hard to let go of a book when I’m not putting it directly into someone else’s hands 🥴) This is a quiet, sad little book about Kid, an abandoned teenage girl stuck on Swan Island, which is only inhabited by elderly people who left behind “the Bad Place” in favor of their own flavor of aged isolation. Kid is dealing with an entire childhood of trauma while simultaneously being stuck in a place where she is clearly considered an unwanted outlier. And to top that all off the island is experiencing massive erosion that is constantly threatening the home she lives in. It’s well-written, meandering, and beautiful, but also deeply melancholy.
Thanks to @harperbooks for this #gifted ARC. Better late than never.
Thanks to @harperbooks for this #gifted ARC. Better late than never.
April 13, 2019
‘The Bad Place is where we all come from.’
An unnamed 17-year old girl (the Kid) is living on Swan Island, off the coast of New Hampshire. As the book progresses, we learn more about how she came to be there, having been taken into care by her Grandmother Lolly after she had been removed by social services from her parents’ house. Now Lolly is dead, and each day the Kid hopes and expects her parents to come and collect her. The island itself is the home of the ‘Wrinklies’, with the average age of the population being 78; this is a place where only the old are allowed, a place to escape from the Bad Place of the outside world and see your days out. But there is a darker side to the island; resentment and fear of the outsider is rampant, there is an underground drug-dealing scene, and all is not as it seems. And the island itself is being eroded by the sea, Nature taking big chunks out of the land around the house where the Kid has been living, until by the end of the book it teeters precariously, about to fall into the sea.
Season Butler is a really good writer, and some of her descriptions of seascapes and the island are brilliantly done. There is also a keen sense of the life of a damaged girl, on the brink of adulthood, and having to deal with traumatic memories and the perils of modern-day life. The Kid is seriously messed up: self-harming, popping pills, previous abortions as a teenager in a whirl of casual sex. Abandoned, isolated, she plots to escape from the island somehow.
Underpinning the general story, there are lots of themes and ideas tossed into the pot, and for me it was just a little too much. There is a general nature versus humans’ scenario, the coastal erosion mirroring the twilight of the islanders in their old age. The neighbouring island has to be evacuated because of illicit dumping leading to gas explosions, and there is a sort of attempt to bring in a wider immigrant theme, as a boat carrying islanders from Duck is not allowed to land, and has to try elsewhere. The island spokesperson announces: ‘We’re not unsympathetic, this much I’m sure you understand. But you simply must respect the basic rules of our community.’ And there is another story thread whereby the Kid is employed by a Mrs Tyburn to digitise her family archive; but it is not simply that, for Mrs Tyburn is reinventing the past, and the Kid is ordered to digitally alter names, faces, body shapes, to create a ‘perfect’ memory to replace the reality.
So, all in all, whilst I enjoyed the book and admired the author’s lyrical style, I felt that there were a large number of ideas being mixed together that didn’t always fully work. The characterisation of the Kid as a vulnerable, angry teenager was quite well done, but I never really felt total engagement with her and the ending left me a little ‘meh’, to be honest, just a little underwhelmed. A promising author, for sure, and others will engage more with the story and the central character, but it’s only an OK read for me.
An unnamed 17-year old girl (the Kid) is living on Swan Island, off the coast of New Hampshire. As the book progresses, we learn more about how she came to be there, having been taken into care by her Grandmother Lolly after she had been removed by social services from her parents’ house. Now Lolly is dead, and each day the Kid hopes and expects her parents to come and collect her. The island itself is the home of the ‘Wrinklies’, with the average age of the population being 78; this is a place where only the old are allowed, a place to escape from the Bad Place of the outside world and see your days out. But there is a darker side to the island; resentment and fear of the outsider is rampant, there is an underground drug-dealing scene, and all is not as it seems. And the island itself is being eroded by the sea, Nature taking big chunks out of the land around the house where the Kid has been living, until by the end of the book it teeters precariously, about to fall into the sea.
Season Butler is a really good writer, and some of her descriptions of seascapes and the island are brilliantly done. There is also a keen sense of the life of a damaged girl, on the brink of adulthood, and having to deal with traumatic memories and the perils of modern-day life. The Kid is seriously messed up: self-harming, popping pills, previous abortions as a teenager in a whirl of casual sex. Abandoned, isolated, she plots to escape from the island somehow.
Underpinning the general story, there are lots of themes and ideas tossed into the pot, and for me it was just a little too much. There is a general nature versus humans’ scenario, the coastal erosion mirroring the twilight of the islanders in their old age. The neighbouring island has to be evacuated because of illicit dumping leading to gas explosions, and there is a sort of attempt to bring in a wider immigrant theme, as a boat carrying islanders from Duck is not allowed to land, and has to try elsewhere. The island spokesperson announces: ‘We’re not unsympathetic, this much I’m sure you understand. But you simply must respect the basic rules of our community.’ And there is another story thread whereby the Kid is employed by a Mrs Tyburn to digitise her family archive; but it is not simply that, for Mrs Tyburn is reinventing the past, and the Kid is ordered to digitally alter names, faces, body shapes, to create a ‘perfect’ memory to replace the reality.
So, all in all, whilst I enjoyed the book and admired the author’s lyrical style, I felt that there were a large number of ideas being mixed together that didn’t always fully work. The characterisation of the Kid as a vulnerable, angry teenager was quite well done, but I never really felt total engagement with her and the ending left me a little ‘meh’, to be honest, just a little underwhelmed. A promising author, for sure, and others will engage more with the story and the central character, but it’s only an OK read for me.
March 16, 2020
Edit: just over a week after reading ‘Cygnet’ it’s theme of a group of over 65s, isolating themselves on Swan Island now seems to be chillingly prophetic. I have amended my rating to reflect this.
My thanks to Little Brown Book Group U.K. /Dialogue Books for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘Cygnet’ by Season Butler in exchange for an honest review. It was published in April 2019. My apologies for the late feedback. Its paperback edition will be released on 7 May 2020.
The unnamed seventeen-year-old narrator of this novel has been left with her grandmother, Lolly, on Swan Island by her drug addicted parents. They want to get clean and promised to come back for her in a couple of weeks but that was six months ago.
Swan Island is located off the coast of New Hampshire and is home to an eccentric separatist community in which all residents are 65-years old and over. They have made a temporary exception for the Kid due to Lolly, yet she has recently died in the hospice on the island. Now the Kid’s future on Swan Island is less certain though it is clear some of the residents are quite fond of her.
The Kid continues to live in Lolly’s cottage located on an isolated cliff top and uses her skills with computers to make a little money while she tries to track down her parents. However, the cliff is unstable and it’s only a matter of time until it crumbles and the cottage falls into the ocean.
The Swan Island community is rather hippie-like and distances itself from the rest of the world, which they have dubbed the ‘Bad Place’. Its members refer to themselves as Swans, though the Kid privately refers to them as the ‘Wrinklies’.
I found this quite an introspective coming-of-age novel as the Kid contemplates her internal world and loneliness as well as what might be out there if she leaves Swan Island in terms of economic hardship, climate change, and political upheavals.
Butler’s writing is evocative and lyrical, with flashes of wry humour. The Kid is imaginative and weaves stories for herself in the midst of her loneliness. She is practical in many ways and yet yearns for the return of her dysfunctional parents, even though it is clear that her life with them was unstable. I found myself caring for her.
While set in 2015 there is a sense of Swan Island being out of time. Their attempt to create a safe and rather fun place for their members to live out their final years seemed admirable and it was a pity that more couldn’t have been receptive to having a cygnet as part of their community, though I did think that the Kid needed to re-engage with the wider world.
I felt that ‘Cygnet’ was very much a work of literary fiction, which can be a little more challenging than a standard coming-of-age tale though hopefully it will have found its audience.
4.5 stars rounded up to 5 for prescience.
My thanks to Little Brown Book Group U.K. /Dialogue Books for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘Cygnet’ by Season Butler in exchange for an honest review. It was published in April 2019. My apologies for the late feedback. Its paperback edition will be released on 7 May 2020.
The unnamed seventeen-year-old narrator of this novel has been left with her grandmother, Lolly, on Swan Island by her drug addicted parents. They want to get clean and promised to come back for her in a couple of weeks but that was six months ago.
Swan Island is located off the coast of New Hampshire and is home to an eccentric separatist community in which all residents are 65-years old and over. They have made a temporary exception for the Kid due to Lolly, yet she has recently died in the hospice on the island. Now the Kid’s future on Swan Island is less certain though it is clear some of the residents are quite fond of her.
The Kid continues to live in Lolly’s cottage located on an isolated cliff top and uses her skills with computers to make a little money while she tries to track down her parents. However, the cliff is unstable and it’s only a matter of time until it crumbles and the cottage falls into the ocean.
The Swan Island community is rather hippie-like and distances itself from the rest of the world, which they have dubbed the ‘Bad Place’. Its members refer to themselves as Swans, though the Kid privately refers to them as the ‘Wrinklies’.
I found this quite an introspective coming-of-age novel as the Kid contemplates her internal world and loneliness as well as what might be out there if she leaves Swan Island in terms of economic hardship, climate change, and political upheavals.
Butler’s writing is evocative and lyrical, with flashes of wry humour. The Kid is imaginative and weaves stories for herself in the midst of her loneliness. She is practical in many ways and yet yearns for the return of her dysfunctional parents, even though it is clear that her life with them was unstable. I found myself caring for her.
While set in 2015 there is a sense of Swan Island being out of time. Their attempt to create a safe and rather fun place for their members to live out their final years seemed admirable and it was a pity that more couldn’t have been receptive to having a cygnet as part of their community, though I did think that the Kid needed to re-engage with the wider world.
I felt that ‘Cygnet’ was very much a work of literary fiction, which can be a little more challenging than a standard coming-of-age tale though hopefully it will have found its audience.
4.5 stars rounded up to 5 for prescience.
November 27, 2019
I had mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, I admired what it was attempting to do: a gentle and introspective study in loneliness, in which the broken world is merely mentioned as a backdrop. This was a refreshing change from much dystopian stuff - the sense that the world changes gradually and without high drama, with no single moment of 'apocalypse' - instead a fatalistic and depressing slide into further chaos. I liked the way that Butler resisted the more dramatic and obvious endings to the book, and maintained her focus on the narrator's interiority rather than external dramatics. I liked the idea of old-age separatists, and the way that these old people aren't depicted as they often are (i.e.: prudish; asexual; old fashioned). There are moments of very strong writing, and moving sections where you really understand the kid's yearning for her dysfunctional parents.
But I wasn't entirely sold on the narrative voice - it seemed to swing between quite a tough, streetwise, fuck-off teenager, and a wholesome, baking young girl who wants the approval of the elderly Swans. I know that this ambiguity is probably deliberate, and of course that characters can (and should) be complex and multi-layered, but the voice and character never felt quite convincing. And the use of dramatic irony (we, the reader, know her parents aren't coming back) mean that all the dwelling on her hope for their return can become a bit tiresome. And sometimes the (mainly) queer-friendly polyamorous drug-taking old people felt a little too utopian and not quite convincing.
So, in summary: this is a flawed but admirable effort. I didn't find it particularly gripping and I don't think it will prove very memorable, but I enjoyed what it was trying to achieve, even if it didn't entirely succeed.
But I wasn't entirely sold on the narrative voice - it seemed to swing between quite a tough, streetwise, fuck-off teenager, and a wholesome, baking young girl who wants the approval of the elderly Swans. I know that this ambiguity is probably deliberate, and of course that characters can (and should) be complex and multi-layered, but the voice and character never felt quite convincing. And the use of dramatic irony (we, the reader, know her parents aren't coming back) mean that all the dwelling on her hope for their return can become a bit tiresome. And sometimes the (mainly) queer-friendly polyamorous drug-taking old people felt a little too utopian and not quite convincing.
So, in summary: this is a flawed but admirable effort. I didn't find it particularly gripping and I don't think it will prove very memorable, but I enjoyed what it was trying to achieve, even if it didn't entirely succeed.
June 17, 2023
Here’s what this book is about:”Cygnet is the story of a young woman battling against the thrashing waves of loneliness and depression, and how she learns to find hope, laughter and her own voice in a world that's crumbling around her.”
I won a physical ARC of this book from a Goodreads giveaway in 2019 and I finally got around to reading it. I read the first 61 pages. I have decided to DNF this book and I will not be reading it again. I’m disappointed because I really tried to give it a chance. The synopsis for this book sounded interesting but this book isn’t for me. I don’t like the writing. The story isn’t captivating me. After reading the first 61 pages, I didn’t want to keep reading the book so I could find out what happens next and I don’t like the characters.
I won a physical ARC of this book from a Goodreads giveaway in 2019 and I finally got around to reading it. I read the first 61 pages. I have decided to DNF this book and I will not be reading it again. I’m disappointed because I really tried to give it a chance. The synopsis for this book sounded interesting but this book isn’t for me. I don’t like the writing. The story isn’t captivating me. After reading the first 61 pages, I didn’t want to keep reading the book so I could find out what happens next and I don’t like the characters.
June 29, 2019
I finished this a while ago, but it lingers in my mind. The paperback version that I read as an ARC (with thanks to the publisher and the author for the copy in exchange for my honest review) came out this week so it semed an apt time to write this.
A very basic overview - We meet Kid on the verge of her eighteenth birthday. She had been discarded by her parents (who provided quite limited parenting) and left in the hands of her grandmother who lives and - before our story opens - dies on an isolated island that serves as a retirement community. Many of the residents oppose Kid's very presence (a blatant violation of the age minimums and standards for joining) even though most recognize she has nowhere to go. After all, using the self assigned moniker the Wrinkles, they came to the island (Swan) specifically to escape "the Bad Place" of modern life.
But is there escape to be had or is it a tad futile - esp for the sole cygnet (a baby swan for those who have not yet looked it up) with more years ahead than behind - as climate change chips away at the ground below their feet and takes feet of Kid's yard in moments?
And that's all setting...notable and unique, but there's more. There's the boy with whom Kid dreams of escape (and while it doesn't bother me, readers who do mind should know there's sex). There's the adolescent rebellion pushing through in Kid's actions and her internal monologue (it is 1st person...always a special feat when done well), placing rough and tumble wit and rage amid the often lyrical prose. There's the story of a woman who hires Kid to digitally alter undesirable memories out of her photos....melancholy doesn't quite fit that story but it is stuck in my mind. And there are also a few kind friends who keep a loose eye on Kid, including a particularly poignant relationship between Kid and a woman who has dementia - a relationship that deepens whom even as her partner fades further away and the woman's past becomes present with Kid assigned a role.
I felt this book. And that's high praise. Did I like all of Kid's actions? No...but few adolescents would merit that praise (and they'd either be dubbed unrealistic or be as boring as I was and thus not merit a novel!).
Oddly, in my mind this book was shorter than the 240pp listed here, but I thought it lighter in length, not depth. Maybe the poignancy just made it dense...like rich cake. It is by no means an easy read..."dystopian" is bandied about quite often. There is an acute sense of time and pressure building in Kid and Swan idle (maybe that added to the density). Still, I found spirit...particularly in a scene where Kid briefly becomes part of the cool kids club (come on, every place has them)...and hope.
In some ways, this novel is quiet, literary, and lovely. But stuff happens. Not all if it good. And not all readers will approve of some elements (I found they all fit the text and never seemed gratuitous, but for those who avoid it there is harsh language and drug use in addition to the aforementioned sex). But this book is propelled by characters and setting - which blend deeply and irretrievably into each other - rather than action, even despite the constantly altering landscape. The book stands much like the island, filled with beauty but with waves threatening the very ground below. Which may not matter for some who not see Swan's end, but pushes our cygnet to consider her place.
4 of 5 stars (4.5 but rounded down bc one storyline involving Kid's battle with one particular Wrinkly just didn't fit for me, even accounting for the age of both combatants).
A very basic overview - We meet Kid on the verge of her eighteenth birthday. She had been discarded by her parents (who provided quite limited parenting) and left in the hands of her grandmother who lives and - before our story opens - dies on an isolated island that serves as a retirement community. Many of the residents oppose Kid's very presence (a blatant violation of the age minimums and standards for joining) even though most recognize she has nowhere to go. After all, using the self assigned moniker the Wrinkles, they came to the island (Swan) specifically to escape "the Bad Place" of modern life.
But is there escape to be had or is it a tad futile - esp for the sole cygnet (a baby swan for those who have not yet looked it up) with more years ahead than behind - as climate change chips away at the ground below their feet and takes feet of Kid's yard in moments?
And that's all setting...notable and unique, but there's more. There's the boy with whom Kid dreams of escape (and while it doesn't bother me, readers who do mind should know there's sex). There's the adolescent rebellion pushing through in Kid's actions and her internal monologue (it is 1st person...always a special feat when done well), placing rough and tumble wit and rage amid the often lyrical prose. There's the story of a woman who hires Kid to digitally alter undesirable memories out of her photos....melancholy doesn't quite fit that story but it is stuck in my mind. And there are also a few kind friends who keep a loose eye on Kid, including a particularly poignant relationship between Kid and a woman who has dementia - a relationship that deepens whom even as her partner fades further away and the woman's past becomes present with Kid assigned a role.
I felt this book. And that's high praise. Did I like all of Kid's actions? No...but few adolescents would merit that praise (and they'd either be dubbed unrealistic or be as boring as I was and thus not merit a novel!).
Oddly, in my mind this book was shorter than the 240pp listed here, but I thought it lighter in length, not depth. Maybe the poignancy just made it dense...like rich cake. It is by no means an easy read..."dystopian" is bandied about quite often. There is an acute sense of time and pressure building in Kid and Swan idle (maybe that added to the density). Still, I found spirit...particularly in a scene where Kid briefly becomes part of the cool kids club (come on, every place has them)...and hope.
In some ways, this novel is quiet, literary, and lovely. But stuff happens. Not all if it good. And not all readers will approve of some elements (I found they all fit the text and never seemed gratuitous, but for those who avoid it there is harsh language and drug use in addition to the aforementioned sex). But this book is propelled by characters and setting - which blend deeply and irretrievably into each other - rather than action, even despite the constantly altering landscape. The book stands much like the island, filled with beauty but with waves threatening the very ground below. Which may not matter for some who not see Swan's end, but pushes our cygnet to consider her place.
4 of 5 stars (4.5 but rounded down bc one storyline involving Kid's battle with one particular Wrinkly just didn't fit for me, even accounting for the age of both combatants).
September 16, 2019
A really uneven read, with weird pacing and character construction in what might have been a unique book.
Our nameless narrator (I really never found any deeper meaning behind her having no name) was living with her grandmother on a seniors-only island in New England, because her parents lost custody. The "Wrinklies" on the island had given her grandmother special dispensation to keep her for a few weeks only, but her grandmother has died, and our narrator is overstaying her welcome.
Interesting, right? But, the narrator is such an odd child-adult. She can kill, feather, and cook a chicken, but is all alone, awkward and afraid, with an inability to speak up for herself in some pretty low-key situations. She's done all the drugs, except smack, which her mother gave her tips and pointers on, is overly sexualized (she's found a fuck buddy on an island of old people; she makes out with an old dude with dentures; there's a pretty intense sex scene which I felt was oddly out of place), but is waiting, waiting, waiting for her parents to come home to her - and expects them to arrive, even with no indication that they'll ever return.
I get that coming-of-age stories are a little childlike in places, where a teenager finds their place in an adult world, but something about this was just off to me. I don't know if it was a misunderstanding on my part of who the main character really was, over all, or if she was just poorly written with a lot of quirks just-because, or if the setting and character was just so incongruous, and it was a hard to get a sense of who she really was. And, there are just so many odd things in this book - the drug scene the Wrinklies are into, the main character's utter hatred of the sea, Lolly's weird relationship with her granddaughter (whom she seemed to support by taking to award events when she was younger, but seems eager to avoid on the island?), one Wrinkly's major problem with the teen on the island (and everyone else seems okay with him being an asshole to her?), how the cliff behind the house is decaying and literally dropping into the sea... I could go on and on - others really like this, but to me, this book was too chaotic and outside the realm of believability, I guess - like I was reading this in the midst of a drug haze.
The one thing I really, really liked about this book was the narrator's $5-an-hour job working for one Wrinkly, who is paying her to edit her life - frame by frame. Our narrator photoshops her son's acne away, her daughter's waistline down, and clears evidence of her husband's cheating by editing photos and home videos. Fascinating. I could have read a whole book about that.
P.S. Am I the only one who had pictured her parents as younger? She gives her parents' birth years towards the end of the book - her parents are 56ish. I had imagined them as a lot younger, based on how they treat the narrator and how they act. I mean, I realize age doesn't make a difference when it comes to drug addiction, but I found that surprising. This is my whole problem with this book - the oddness of everything and the doubt that came along with it (is it me, or is it the writer)? I think it's the writer.
Our nameless narrator (I really never found any deeper meaning behind her having no name) was living with her grandmother on a seniors-only island in New England, because her parents lost custody. The "Wrinklies" on the island had given her grandmother special dispensation to keep her for a few weeks only, but her grandmother has died, and our narrator is overstaying her welcome.
Interesting, right? But, the narrator is such an odd child-adult. She can kill, feather, and cook a chicken, but is all alone, awkward and afraid, with an inability to speak up for herself in some pretty low-key situations. She's done all the drugs, except smack, which her mother gave her tips and pointers on, is overly sexualized (she's found a fuck buddy on an island of old people; she makes out with an old dude with dentures; there's a pretty intense sex scene which I felt was oddly out of place), but is waiting, waiting, waiting for her parents to come home to her - and expects them to arrive, even with no indication that they'll ever return.
I get that coming-of-age stories are a little childlike in places, where a teenager finds their place in an adult world, but something about this was just off to me. I don't know if it was a misunderstanding on my part of who the main character really was, over all, or if she was just poorly written with a lot of quirks just-because, or if the setting and character was just so incongruous, and it was a hard to get a sense of who she really was. And, there are just so many odd things in this book - the drug scene the Wrinklies are into, the main character's utter hatred of the sea, Lolly's weird relationship with her granddaughter (whom she seemed to support by taking to award events when she was younger, but seems eager to avoid on the island?), one Wrinkly's major problem with the teen on the island (and everyone else seems okay with him being an asshole to her?), how the cliff behind the house is decaying and literally dropping into the sea... I could go on and on - others really like this, but to me, this book was too chaotic and outside the realm of believability, I guess - like I was reading this in the midst of a drug haze.
The one thing I really, really liked about this book was the narrator's $5-an-hour job working for one Wrinkly, who is paying her to edit her life - frame by frame. Our narrator photoshops her son's acne away, her daughter's waistline down, and clears evidence of her husband's cheating by editing photos and home videos. Fascinating. I could have read a whole book about that.
P.S. Am I the only one who had pictured her parents as younger? She gives her parents' birth years towards the end of the book - her parents are 56ish. I had imagined them as a lot younger, based on how they treat the narrator and how they act. I mean, I realize age doesn't make a difference when it comes to drug addiction, but I found that surprising. This is my whole problem with this book - the oddness of everything and the doubt that came along with it (is it me, or is it the writer)? I think it's the writer.
March 22, 2021
I approached “Cygnet” by Season Butler without any prior knowledge about it. I got it in my Willoughby Book Club subscription – it was chosen based on my favourite genres, but I did not know what books exactly I will get. And I did not read the description of the book. I was open for the book to surprise me.
The beginning of the book was very promising. It was very easy and interesting to read. Main character is a teenager left at the Swan island by her parents to live for some time with her grandmother. Inhabitants of Swan island are very extraordinary: they all are over 60 years old, and they chose to live there the rest of their lives in piece. Actually, anyone younger are not welcome at all. So the main character feels very uncomfortable, especially when she is left alone in the island. I was eager to know why her parents are not communicating with her and how she will find them.
However, later the book became not that interesting, because I felt that my desires to know everything will not be fulfilled. In the Swan island she was just a cygnet and she needed to find a place, which could appreciate her.
-----
2021-ųjų skaitymo iššūkis
MAKSI
5. Pagrindinis veikėjas gyvena prie jūros
Ji gyvena saloje ant paties jos krašto.
11. Pagrindinis veikėjas kalbasi su savo močiute/seneliu
Ji kurį laiką gyveno kartu su močiute ir su ja kalbėjosi.
13. Knygos pavadinime minimas koks nors paukštis
Išvertus iš anglų kalbos, knyga vadintųsi „Gulbiukas“.
The beginning of the book was very promising. It was very easy and interesting to read. Main character is a teenager left at the Swan island by her parents to live for some time with her grandmother. Inhabitants of Swan island are very extraordinary: they all are over 60 years old, and they chose to live there the rest of their lives in piece. Actually, anyone younger are not welcome at all. So the main character feels very uncomfortable, especially when she is left alone in the island. I was eager to know why her parents are not communicating with her and how she will find them.
However, later the book became not that interesting, because I felt that my desires to know everything will not be fulfilled. In the Swan island she was just a cygnet and she needed to find a place, which could appreciate her.
-----
2021-ųjų skaitymo iššūkis
MAKSI
5. Pagrindinis veikėjas gyvena prie jūros
Ji gyvena saloje ant paties jos krašto.
11. Pagrindinis veikėjas kalbasi su savo močiute/seneliu
Ji kurį laiką gyveno kartu su močiute ir su ja kalbėjosi.
13. Knygos pavadinime minimas koks nors paukštis
Išvertus iš anglų kalbos, knyga vadintųsi „Gulbiukas“.
June 18, 2019
Kid is only seventeen, but she feels older than her years--for good reason. Months ago, her parents left her with her grandmother, Lolly, and though Kid keeps hoping they’ll return, they haven’t. When Lolly dies, Kid is all but alone, not just an orphan but the only young person on Swan Island. Swan Island, off the New Hampshire coast, is a kind of utopia for elderly men and women who have opted out of life in the Bad Place--aka the rest of the world--and have formed a separatist society where they can relish their age and wisdom and make their own rules. Young people like Kid are forbidden, and though the Swans were amenable enough to her temporary visit, the prospect of a permanent stay has alarmed and angered them. Kid must decide how long she’s willing to hope for her parents’ return--and where she truly belongs. Meanwhile, parts of the island are sliding and crumbling into the ocean, threatening the stability of Swan Island itself.
This wholly original novel questions the reverence with which youth is usually regarded and offers a new idea of happiness, acceptance, and dignity. For example, when a Swan nears the end of his or her life, there is rational discourse about how the life should end. Kid, attached to the dying Dutchess, is unable to understand what she perceives as detachment, even cruelty--an unwelcome perspective among those who have made a unique peace with the concept of death and departure. For Kid, Swan Island is an unpleasant reminder of the life she’s missing out on. But the world Butler has created has contentment and empowerment at its core.
***Review originally written for the City Book Review. I received a free ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.***
This wholly original novel questions the reverence with which youth is usually regarded and offers a new idea of happiness, acceptance, and dignity. For example, when a Swan nears the end of his or her life, there is rational discourse about how the life should end. Kid, attached to the dying Dutchess, is unable to understand what she perceives as detachment, even cruelty--an unwelcome perspective among those who have made a unique peace with the concept of death and departure. For Kid, Swan Island is an unpleasant reminder of the life she’s missing out on. But the world Butler has created has contentment and empowerment at its core.
***Review originally written for the City Book Review. I received a free ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.***
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