The Innocents | Michael Crummy | Review

 Blurb

A brother and sister are orphaned in an isolated cove on Newfoundland's northern coastline. Their home is a stretch of rocky shore governed by the feral ocean, by a relentless pendulum of abundance and murderous scarcity. Still children with only the barest notion of the outside world, they have nothing but the family's boat and the little knowledge passed on haphazardly by their mother and father to keep them.

Muddling though the severe round of the seasons, through years of meagre catches and storms and ravaging illness, it is their fierce loyalty to each other that motivates and sustains them. But as seasons pass and they wade deeper into the mystery of their own natures, even that loyalty will be tested.

The Innocents is richly imagined and compulsively readable, a riveting story of hardship and survival, and an unflinching exploration of the bond between brother and sister. By turns electrifying and heartbreaking, it is a testament to the bounty and barbarity of the world, to the wonders and strangeness of our individual selves.

Review

A beautifully written novel.

The gloomy dark, relentlessness of nature around this Newfoundland cove is vividly portrayed. I enjoyed the gorgeous language and the unique Newfoundland-isms within fascinating, to pick one of many the idea of a person being ''grumbletonian'' really tickled me.

I loved Ada and Evered's relationship at the beginning but as the characters and the plot develops my own reader's comfortability is pushed too far (think raw, unsettling). The key thing to remember is they are innocent and it is understandable in the context of this novel - I do understand why, but it is and will always remain an exploration I don't care to read about.

Overall, this book would make an incredible book club read as it is certain to provoke conversation. Crummey's powerful, lyrical writing resonates and I'll certainly hunt out and read his previous books.

A huge thanks to Anne Cater & No Exit Press for gifting me a copy in return for an open & honest review.

⭐⭐⭐