With her wedding on hold and a dead whale on the beach, Evangeline “Evie” is now worried about her fiancé who is stuck at sea. Now, Evie flashes through her life and her absent parents as she remembers her upbringing and the lack of parents, dealing with abandonment, betrayal, being surrounded by alcohol, drugs, and many things that haunt her presence as she remembers her past.
Being surrounded by the ocean, she might have been raised by her negligent father, but she had to parent herself, grow up alone, and realize life alone while her parents left her, alone.
Book: Creatures by Crissy Van Meter
Series: Standalone
Publication Date: January 7, 2020
(Thank you NetGalley for this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review)
While this book has already been out I did receive it early so thank you again NetGalley!
Tags: Contemporary, adult, family
Links: Goodreads | Ebook | Paperback | Hardback | Audio
Read: October 28, 2020 to October 28, 2020
Welcome to my review for the Creatures blog tour!
On the eve of Evangeline’s wedding, a dead whale is trapped in the harbor of Winter Island, the groom may be lost at sea, and Evie’s mostly absent mother has shown up out of the blue. From there, in this mesmerizing, provocative debut, Evie remembers and reckons with her complicated upbringing in this lush, wild land off the coast of Southern California.
Evie grew up with her well-meaning but negligent father, surviving on the money he made dealing the island’s world-famous strain of marijuana, Winter Wonderland. Although he raised her with a deep respect for the elements, the sea, and the creatures living within it, he also left her to parent herself. With wit, love, and bracing ashes of anger, Creatures probes the complexities of love and abandonment, guilt and forgiveness, betrayal and grief—and the ways in which our ability to love can be threatened if we are not brave enough to conquer the past.
Lyrical, darkly funny, and ultimately cathartic, Creatures exerts a pull as strong as the tides.
With her wedding on hold and a dead whale on the beach, Evangeline “Evie” is now worried about her fiancé who is stuck at sea. Now, Evie flashes through her life and her absent parents as she remembers her upbringing and the lack of parents, dealing with abandonment, betrayal, being surrounded by alcohol, drugs, and many things that haunt her presence as she remembers her past.
Being surrounded by the ocean, she might have been raised by her negligent father, but she had to parent herself, grow up alone, and realize life alone while her parents left her, alone.
I did not finish Creatures by Crissy Van Meter, finding that as I was reading, I was not finding this story interesting. I was waiting for the anticipation, the urge to move forward, but as I continued to read, I felt, emotionless and disconnected from the book.
I wanted to enjoy Creatures more than I did but could not enjoy the topic at hand. Evie’s life just felt so, bland to my eyes as I read and it felt like I had to force myself to read this book in order to at least get through the page.
I decided to discontinue Creatures after around 30% when I started to realize that I was not as invested in the story as I hoped I would be.
Thank you again to NetGalley and Algonquin Young Readers for an ARC in exchange for an honest review
I hope you guys have a great day, please like and comment down below if you enjoyed this book as well or if you plan on reading it!
Loves,
Veronica Chen