August Read: The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff

 I finished this novel a week ago and had to take some time to deal with all the book emotions it gave me. It's one of my top ten books of 2023. 

I haven't read any Lauren Groff books before this and from what I understand this one is a bit different from her previous novels. The buzz around this novel is accurate and if you're going to read any book this year, make it this one. 

Two things you'll notice pretty quickly: there is no dialogue, and you don't know the narrator's name. In fact, you finally find out the narrator's name towards the very end, and that in itself is a heartbreak. 

This short (less than 300 pages) novel centers around a young woman who has fled from a colonial settlement in America in the dead of winter. Carrying only a knife, a flint, a tin cup, leather gloves and a few blankets, she runs into the vast wilderness, bent on survival. She's leaving a terrible situation: there's no food, and people are either starving to death or dying of small pox. There's also another reason she's fleeing, but you don't know exactly what that is until the last bit of the book. 

The novel follows the narrator as she journeys far into the wilderness, struggling to survive. She's resourceful and smart, and given her limited resources, she's able to keep going when most of us would have just given up. During her journey she encounters wild animals, horrible weather, indigenous people, and one wild man who is so unsettling I was holding my breath reading that chapter.

Along the way, the narrator looks back over her short life and the journey that brought her to "the vaster wilds". Deserted as a baby, she was brought up in an orphanage in London until she was picked out at age four to be a servant in a wealthy household. There she encounters some stability, but also a few awful things. Her employer remarries a preacher man who is cloaked in handsomeness but is actually pretty awful. He decides they need to begin again in the new world.

I don't want to tell you any more, because I'll give too much away. Nature vs. man is a HUGE theme; the wonder this character finds in her surroundings even as she battles to survive. She has some pretty deep soul-searching moments, and a lot of those reflections apply to today's world. Man's determination to conquer the unknown, women feeling unsafe and powerless in a man's world; finding spirituality in nature. It's all there. 

This novel sent me on an emotional journey. The end is as it should be. I hope this novel wins all the awards. It is stunning. 

Rating: 6/6 for a short but powerful novel about survival, regrets, female power and our connection to nature, which can sustain or destroy us. 

This novel will be out on September 12th in the U.S. in hardcover, ebook, and audiobook. A huge thank you to Riverhead Books (Penguin/Random House) for an ARC. 

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August Read: The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff

The Invited by Jennifer McMahon

A friend loaned me her copy of this novel (months ago, I shamefully admit) and I decided now was the time to read it. Jennifer McMahon has had me curious for quite some time. I know her novel The Winter People received great reviews, but of course I didn't get a chance to read it. 

I've been tussling over what to read for my book group this next week. I'm supposed to read something that scares me, and I've got to tell you, not much scares me in the reading world. It's a rare book that unnerves me. I was hoping The Invited would at least make me slightly uneasy at night, but it didn't. However, it was an excellent tale and I couldn't put it down. 

Helen and Nate are two school teachers that decide to leave their jobs and move to Vermont to pursue their wish to start over. Using Helen's inheritance money, they purchase some land outside the small Vermont town of Hartsboro. Forty acres of mostly woods and bog, and one perfect spot to build their dream house. The realtor laughingly says the land is haunted, and Helen's ears perk up. She's a historian, and she longs to create a place that has some history attached to it. A haunted piece of land will certainly help. 

Helen and Nate begin building their home-yes, by themselves. Helens' father built houses, and Helen often helped him. Saving their money, doing most of the labor themselves, Helen and Nate should stretch their money to build the house and live off the land. Living in a crappy trailer on the land while they build their home, things start to get tense pretty quickly. It's a lousy trailer, and neither sleeps well at night. Tools begin to go missing, and money, too. The bog is very tempting, but dangerous. Nate begins getting into watching the wildlife (he's a science teacher), and Helen becomes intrigued in the story of Hattie Breckenridge, who lived on the land they now own, and was hung by the townspeople for witchcraft in 1924. Yes, I said 1924. Hung by a mob, next to the bog. They then burned her home down. Hattie was known by all to have a gift--she could see the future, and while everyone was afraid of her, they also came to her for help, too. But a tragic fire at the schoolhouse kills three children, and Hattie had warned the town that something tragic would happen. They blamed it on her, and killed her for it. Now everyone believes Hattie haunts the bog. And they believe Helen and Nate have invited her back with their purchase of the land and building their home. 

Olive lives not far from Helen and Nate's land, and she's also really mad they are there. Olive, a young girl, and her mother Lori heard the tales of buried treasure on Hattie's land, and were convinced they were meant to find it. However, Lori disappears (everyone says she ran away) and Olive is not only traumatized by her mother disappearing, but the gossip in town, and her father's constant renovating their home. He thinks if he keeps fixing it up, Lori will come home. Olive keeps searching for the treasure, and making mischief for Helen and Nate. 

However, Olive isn't all to blame. There is some weird stuff happening, and the more Helen uncovers the dark past of Hattie's murder, the more she's convinced Hattie is there, leading Helen to solve a mystery. 

This was a really good blend of mystery, history, and paranormal. The story of the Breckenridge women was the best part of the novel-and the most tragic, too. Olive is a spitfire, and one smart young lady. Helen is teetering on the edge-the deeper she digs, the more fascinated she gets, and it's putting a strain on her relationship with Nate. It seems that Hattie wants her help, but someone else doesn't want her around at all. She feels an increasing sense of urgency to put all the pieces together, before someone else ends up hurt. 

This had just the right amount of spooky moments without going overboard. The land itself played a big part in creating the atmosphere. The brief chapters that go back to Hattie and her descendants, and show what happened to each of them from their viewpoint are key to putting things together, and provide a good break from the present day plot. 

I'd recommend this novel to anyone who wants a slightly haunting tale of righting wrongs, familial love, and tenacious women. The past always remains with us, and restless souls need closure. 

Rating: 4/6 for a solid novel about ghosts, a dark town secret, the thin line between science and the unknown, and the restless dead. 

Available in hardcover, ebook, and audio.

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The Invited by Jennifer McMahon

Moloka'i by Alan Brennert

It's not a new publication (2003), but hey--that's what makes books such a treat.  It's a new book if you've never read it before.  The tale of this book for me goes back a few years.  When I'd shelve books in the fiction section of my bookstore, this was a constant restock and it always seemed to be sitting face out on the shelf.  I looked at it time and time again for years but never picked it up.  

Forward 14 years, and I'm thinking of what topic I can talk about for my first book talk of 2017.  I usually read non-fiction books that have a medical aspect to them for my book talks at my hospital, and this time I thought I'd try a fiction novel with a medical element. Moloka'i came to mind immediately.  Aha! Now I had a reason to read it.  It was just the historical fiction novel I needed to read in January.

Moloka'i takes place in Hawaii from 1891 through 1970.  It's a historical span that saw Hawaii move from a sovereign country ruled by a king, to a piece of American territory, to finally, the 50th and final state in the United States.  All of this is background to the tale of Rachel Kalama, a seven year old Hawaiian girl who lives with her family in Honolulu.  Her father is a merchant seaman, and every time he comes home, he brings Rachel a doll from far away lands.  

A darkness is starting to creep over Hawaii, and it is leprosy.  The native Hawaiians had no immunity to it, and the biblical tales of horrible disfigurement and spread of the disease had people fearful of it and willing to turn friends and family in when it was discovered they had a spot on their skin that was suspicious.  Rachel's Uncle is taken away, and her family lives in fear that someone else will catch it.  Rachel's mother Dorothy discovers a red patch of skin on Rachel's thigh, and keeps it covered and tells no one.  It soon becomes apparent that Rachel may have leprosy as another spot appears on her foot. Dorothy makes her wear shoes to school, and Rachel is unaware of why her mother is so fearful.  An argument at school with her sister reveals Rachel's secret, and the inspector comes for Rachel.  Taken away to a medical facility, she is looked over and put under isolation, away from her family and friends.  Distraught--remember, she's only seven years old--Rachel's behavior becomes a problem, and her parents are notified that she will be taken to Kalaupapa, on the island of Moloka'i.  It's a leprosy settlement, where people are taken to live out the remainder of their lives. These are people who never see their families again, aren't allowed to leave the island, and live under terrible conditions.  No one knows how to fight leprosy, so they are left to slowly succumb to the horrible afflictions the disease imposes.  

What follows is the tale of Rachel's life on Moloka'i as she adjusts to living without her family or friends, and living with the fear of what leprosy will do to her one day.  Nuns also live on Moloka'i, running a boarding home for young girls (the boys have a separate home), and working tirelessly to provide some comfort and spiritual guidance to the many who are forced to live in Kalaupapa.  

I've never read much about Hawaiian history, and this was fascinating.  You can actually travel to Moloka'i and visit Kalaupapa.  It wasn't until the late 20th century that people were no longer stigmatized by leprosy and allowed to leave Moloka'i.  Now called Hansen's disease, it is curable and almost wiped out.  Rachel's story is one of immense sadness, with hints of joy and beauty in the people she comes to know and love, and in Rachel's ability to adjust to a new world without her family.  It's painful to think children were taken away from their families, never to see them again.  But it did happen.  Even in paradise, darkness lurks.  Alan Brennert did his research, and his writing is such that you quickly become immersed in the story and it's hard to put down.  

I was happily surprised at this novel, and loved reading about Hawaii's history and legends.  I also learned a lot about leprosy, and how terribly people were treated through ignorance and a complete faith in outdated beliefs.  Rachel was an amazing young woman, who persevered through tragedy with the hope that one day she would be free to leave Moloka'i.  I won't tell you what happens, so you'll just have to read the book!

Rating:  8/10 for a well researched historical novel about 20th century Hawaii, leprosy, and an amazing young woman who never gave up.  

Available in paperback and e-book.  

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Moloka'i by Alan Brennert