This was a very quick read, and a very predictable one. The narrator did not sound true to any five year olds I've ever met, and the descriptions of actions sometimes were very confusing because of the faux-child narration filter. The main character got interesting at the end of the book (I won't explain why due to potential spoilers), but then the book stopped. That last part is the story I found most interesting and the character worth hearing. ( )

I received this book in a give away. At first I hesitated to start it, because I dreaded the scenes of the bear killing Anna's parents. However the unusual point of view of the book, namely through the thoughts of five year old Anna, made those scenes more bearable for me. Claire Cameron's decision to use this point of view is ambitious and risky to say the least. It not only requires intense research in child psychology and trauma in children but also ability to make it believable on the written page.

As far as the psychological credibility of the novel, I had some doubts. For example Anna describes "a piece of meat the black dog left all on the ground. It doesn't have a hoof on it either but instead it has daddy's shoe." Even though Anna says that she doesn't like it, she doesn't scream something like: "Blood, mommy, daddy's shoe has blood!", which is what most kindergartners I work with would do. Had denial already set in before Anna saw her dying and bloody mother?
Later in the story Anna almost continually thinks about her daily life with her family, and not on how scared and helpless she and her brother are. Most children cry for help in such a situation. It does not seem to occur to Anna to somehow try to attract attention, so that they can be rescued. When she and Stick get hungry they find, fortunately not poisonous, berries. Why doesn't the hunger spur Anna on to try to get help?

As far as the literary side of this novel is concerned I think it is very daring to take on the point of a traumatised five year old. It means that the language has to be simple and direct. The book is in a stream of consciousness style, which allows the author to omit certain grammar and punctuation rules. Personally I like the idea, and I think it makes the book unique, but it is not for everybody. I also had some moments where Anna's endless digressions made me feel impatient, and wanted the story to continue in a more linear way.
I like the fact that Anna has a two year old brother, Stick (Alex) and a doll named Gwen. Stick and Gwen are instrumental in rounding out Anna's character. They make it possible to show Anna's relative maturity compared to them, as opposed to Anna's powerlessness over their situation.

In the epilogue Anna and Alex return to the island where the attack happened. It is twenty years later. They build a cairn in memory of their parents, and Alex asks question he apparently has asked many times before. We do not know what either of them has thought or felt in those twenty years. I wanted to know more about the process of Anna's recovery, or did she really recover? This last scene leaves the reader unfulfilled. MAybe there is enough material for a next novel.....



( )

Speaking as an author, I can appreciate how difficult it was to write this book. Staying within the head of a five year old is quite a challenge. I found the story compelling in parts, but it tended to go on a bit too long. I don't want to use the word monotonous, but some parts of the book seemed irrelevant to the story, a distraction. I enjoyed the epilogue more, since it felt with a more mature point of view. ( )

Sorry but I just didn't enjoy the child narrative. I wanted to know how things panned out, so read to the end, but never did figure out the ins and outs of events.

Maybe that's because I speed-read and skipped a few pages but still, it left me wondering what happened.

And the modern langauge style of the 10 yr old child saying she did x, y z, because "manners" or because "other noun", well it irked me.


( )

"Books narrated by children" is a category that I always think I won't be into, except I've really liked a lot of the books I've read narrated by children ([b:Room|7937843|Room|Emma Donoghue|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1344265419s/7937843.jpg|9585076], [b:The Ninth Life of Louis Drax|118812|The Ninth Life of Louis Drax|Liz Jensen|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1421837237s/118812.jpg|2233181]) so I should probably re-think that. So, I liked this book. There were some really sad moments. I get what some reviewers, who actually aren't into books narrated by children, are saying, that the narration doesn't seem accurately or consistently like a 5-year-old. I agree. I just doesn't really bug me, for some reason. I'm perfectly fine imagining this impossible little girl and her inner voice, because I thought the story was compelling. Plus it's Canadian, so that's cool! ( )