The Read Around The World Book Club discussion

Final thoughts

Really enjoyed this book. There were many compelling parts: I loved the descriptions of food, lore and day to day life in the northern part of B.C. Living on the south coast of this province I was able to relate to some of the geography and plant descriptions but the isolation of the north is very intense. I also really loved Lisa, how strong and matter of fact she was, how she accepted her gift/affliction with a cool headed no nonsense manner. This story surprised me often, I thought it would be more about the present situation than it was, but it took me on a journey that I won’t soon forget.
So what happened to Tab? That was one loose end that I didn’t get. Any theories?

I wish I was enjoying it Jennie! I wondered why at the beginning I couldn't read more than a couple chapters before I wanted to set it down. I'm not a fan of YA novels unless they are very advanced, to me this one feels like it's written for very young teens. I'm just not finding anything to bite into. So, now that I'm in the second half, and have given it a fair shot, I'm going to speed read.

I continued to enjoy the second half and appreciated the way the search for Jimmy came in and out of the book as Lisa looked back at the past. The way that pain and grief in these characters lives led to so much self-destruction was so sad as was the ending, I think I secretly hoped Jimmy would be found alive.

I enjoyed the characterization and the setting, the descriptions of the old ways and the old legends and the family dynamics. I don’t normally read YA and wouldn’t have called this that but I have nothing to compare it to. I do know it was very readable and engaging and I’d happily read more from Eden Robinson

Jennie wrote: "Really enjoyed this book. There were many compelling parts: I loved the descriptions of food, lore and day to day life in the northern part of B.C. Living on the south coast of this province I was ..."

Oh and Jennie, I was also confused about the Tab as a ghost part and can only assume she was dead and no one knew it yet but it’s certainly not clear.

I enjoyed this quite a bit. I have read a fair bit of writing by various Canadian Indigenous authors, so I pretty much knew (generally) the themes this story would cover. Unfortunately, a lot of the tragic elements of this story are not fiction for many Native people. I most appreciated the examination of the different family dynamics. Particularly, for Lisa's father and his siblings, 2 of whom had been sent to Residential schools (infamously horrific part of Canadian history) and 2 of whom had not. The 2 who had attended (Mick & Trudy) were basically considered the family screw ups by the other 2. That really had me thinking - were Lisa's Dad & her Aunt Kate really that unsympathetic? Did they not know the extent of the horrors that went on there? Maybe they just didn't know how to help them...mental health issues are still such a huge problem in our Indigenous communities. Overall though, a story well told.

I accidentally put my comment in first half. I DNF this book. I'm an Alaskan born and raised so I enjoyed the mysticism and folk tales of the Native Canadians, but I didn't connect with the characters, and it just didn't have any meat for me, I felt like I was reading a middle grade book, which in and of itself isn't negative! I just didn't like This one. I am am very very stingy with the small amount of reading time I have, and I will no longer finish a book I am not enjoying. I started forcing myself with this one and told myself, "no way!"

I really enjoyed this book even though it was an odd one. I am still reflecting quite a bit about it.

Things I loved where: details of life: the food, the stories, the relationships
Things I am unsure of: The narration at times, because of the fluidity of the narrative we are left to distinguish older Lisa from younger Lisa through context and the way her voice changes, but often younger Lisa "felt" older and older Lisa "felt" younger, if that makes sense. I now think that this was quite a deliberate decision showing some form of "being trapped" in the same story, same narrative, the frustration of not being able to moving beyond.

So yeah, I thought this was a good book and I would certainly read something by her again.

Stacey (bookishpursuit) wrote: "I accidentally put my comment in first half. I DNF this book. I'm an Alaskan born and raised so I enjoyed the mysticism and folk tales of the Native Canadians, but I didn't connect with the charact..."

There really is no point for forcing yourself, trying is what counts!

I quite liked this book and rated it a solid 3 stars. It didn’t read to me as YA exactly (was that the author’s intended audience?) but I agree the writing style isn’t especially literary. Nevertheless, I found it very easy to read and the writing didn’t detract from my experience.

My initial impressions were pretty much confirmed into the second half of the book; I enjoyed the nature writing and learning about how native techniques and traditions still have their place in modern life. The characters and relationships didn’t do much for me, though.

I’d have liked to learn more about Lisa’s gift and how that manifested itself from one generation to the next. I don’t understand why her mother never spoke to her about it or gave her any guidance, given that she apparently had the same gift herself. I suppose there is some interesting ambiguity in whether Lisa’s “episodes” were truly due to some magical realism/spiritual influence, or were a dissociative psychological phenomenon, or simply due to the quantities of drugs and booze she had on board.

The Tab thing - I got the impression Tab was confirmed as alive. Lisa saw the apparition of Tab, then spent a few days in isolation in the hotel getting her head together, then was told by Aunt Trudy that she’d spoken to Tab only 2 days earlier, & was reassured by that. I wonder if we were supposed to see this as evidence that Lisa’s “gift” is fallible, that she isn’t yet skilled at interpreting what she sees, and that the drink and drugs are really messing her up.

I enjoyed the book. The text was not always good readable, sometimes I had to reread some parts. Maybe the text lacks a bit of fluidity. I enjoyed the cultural aspect of the story. It shows the effects of the imposition of the western culture, values to other cultures. The violence at different layers that such impositions instigate. And how these scars are given through so many generations. Overall it is a good book.

What a great read! As someone who lives in the Pacific Northwest, I particularly loved her descriptions of the islands and sea. The author grabbed me at the start with her description of kelp (brown like a beer bottle) and kept me going with her strong story line.

Going back to write down some of my highlights, I felt that as well as the child and young adult voices of Lisamarie Hill, intertwined was also an older voice of Lisa's. I did not mind the confusion at times of not knowing exactly which thread was being discussed, i.e., childhood, brother missing. In fact the confusion had to have been somewhat normal for a young woman who was dealing with the gift of hearing the spirits and the dead. Her path was a shamanic one and the author shows both what a gift it can be as well as how demanding and potentially destroying.

I ended up liking this, but it was well past 100 pages by the time I felt like I was connecting to the story. Hence I DNF'd it a few years ago. The voice got stronger as the book went on and I could distinguish between younger and older Lisa. But I'm sure the mingling of voices was deliberate, and really, not that many years had passed - Lisa was 18 or 19 in the present day, right?

I recognized a lot of elements in Monkey Beach that show up in her more recent novel Son of a Trickster - and Son is a much stronger book IMO.

Although I am not the biggest fan of coming of age stories, this book really did work for me and I enjoyed it. Loved the setting, the family dynamics and how the main character struggled to find balance re: her connection to the 'other side'. Many of Lisa Marie's experiences resonated with me and reminded me of my time as a teenager.

I liked the language and the atmospheric writing style, even though the story (and esp. the magical element) was not quite for me.