One Who Has Been Here Before

Finished December 10

One Who Has Been Here Before by Becca Babcock

This is described as gothic fiction, but it didn't have that vibe for me. 

The main character, Emma Gaugin Weaver, was adopted as a child. She, her siblings, and cousins were seized by CPS after the family farm was raided. The adults were all charged with crimes, ranging from child neglect to possession of stolen property. The authorities found the conditions unsuitable for the children and they ended up in foster care or adoption. Emma has only vague memories of the family farm in rural Nova Scotia, with clearer ones of her older sister Heather, who was briefly in the same foster home as her. Emma was eventually adopted by her foster parents, the Weavers, and the family moved to Edmonton. 

Emma is a woman without strong motivations. She has a history of anxiety, and a love of history, that has led her into working on her Master's degree. Her advisors encouraged her to delve into the relatively new area of auto-ethnography, where she researches her own family and her feelings around that. 

As the book opens, Emma has travelled back to Nova Scotia and has found the area when the farm the Gaugin family lived on was located. As she visits the local archives, and talks to people who knew the story of her family, she doesn't reveal her own origins at first, but finds herself drawn into meeting her own family members, dealing with anxiety attacks around the situations she finds herself in, and entering a new relationship. 

An interesting read, with a sympathetic character who undergoes growth in her understanding of herself.

The Rogue Wave

Finished December 12

The Rogue Wave by Paul Nicholas Mason

This short novel mixes mystery and the paranormal in a battle of good and evil. The main character here is Matthew Harding runs a detective agency in Toronto where he handles cases with a metaphysical dimension. A young man, Andrew, comes to him regarding the recent disappearance of his fiancee Hannah. The two were on a tour boat in Nova Scotia when a sudden and huge wave swamped the boat, taking several people, including Hannah overboard. Some people were rescued, some bodies were found, and Hannah remained missing. An acquaintance of Andrew's has recently sent him a picture taken at a wedding in Mexico where a woman who looks very like Hannah is sitting with a man that she looks to be scared of. Andrew is sure that something else is going on, and Matthew takes the case. 

This is when the paranormal starts raising his head. Matthew has a near miss with a vehicle hit and run accident on the street near his office and receives a disturbing text message following that. Throughout the case a combination of threats, accidents and disturbing messages continues to follow him. When he goes in person to Nova Scotia, he finds that there were other weird happenings around the boat incident, and he goes on to Mexico to follow the lead of the photograph. 

Besides the disturbing incidents and the threatening messages, Matthew also encounters some other more benevolent people, who offer help and advice. 

I liked the paranormal or metaphysical side in this struggle between good and evil. and would have liked this book to be longer, going into more detail around some of the characters, like Hannah, and their feelings during this time, and Andrew and his paintings. I'd also like to know more about what happened to some of the people he encountered, like the translator in Mexico. 

This is definitely a unique type of mystery read that may appeal to a different audience than just mystery readers. 

Journey to the Hopewell Star

Finished December 4

Journey to the Hopewell Star by Hannah D. State

This middle grade science fiction / fantasy novel got me hooked early. Samantha (Sam) Sanderson is just about to turn twelve as the story begins. She's been homeschooled, mostly by her grandfather, as her parents are physicists that work for the government. 

The time that Samantha lives in is our own, but more advanced in terms of technology and space travel. Her grandfather makes dinner using some type of technological device, but in more than just this opening scene situation, technology seems to not work as it should. 

Sam lives on a farm in Nova Scotia, but will be soon moving to town to start school as she's come to an age where she needs more in terms of education than her father can offer. When she goes out to the barn at the beginning of the book, she finds more that she expected, and begins a journey that takes her to other planets, our moon, and even into other people's experiences. This first visit takes her to the planet Kryg under false pretences, but she makes a friend and learns more about both that planet and her own, including the precariousness of both the planets' futures. 

In town, Sam quickly makes friends with another girl and the group of friends that include her. Her friend Kato has a twin brother Kobe who seems to be on the autism spectrum. He doesn't talk a lot, but he seems to be noticing Sam. It makes her feel uncomfortable, but also curious. 

When Sam discovers a new skill, the first person that she shares it with is Kobe. And he connects with her in a big way. Their other friend Simon is a techie and provides insight into the technological side of any situation.

All of the kids are aware of the environmental threats that have been growing on earth, through their own experiences. As they begin to connect these threats to a local corporation and its owner, things may be coming to a crisis in other ways as well. 

I liked Sam's confidence in her abilities, and willingness to try new things, and her selflessness when it came to the larger community's needs. We see this in both small ways and large in her actions and thoughts. 

This book will give kids the confidence that their actions can make a difference in the world, and that kindness and connections are important. 

A really enjoyable read. 

Come From Away

Finished January 21
Come From Away by Genevieve Graham

This novel takes place during World War II in rural Nova Scotia. The author was inspired by a historical rumour. It was known that there were German submarines operating along the Atlantic coast of North America during the war, and there was a story that some of the men from one of these ships came ashore one evening and attended a local dance. There is no historical face to base this on, but Graham thought "what if..." and this story was born.
At the center of this story are two characters. One is Grace Baker, a young Nova Scotia woman whose three older brothers have all joined the war effort. One in the navy, one in the merchant marine, and one as a infantry man. Grace longs to do something herself, but instead remains at home, and runs a general store for a neighbour who has health issues.
The other character is Rudi Weiss, a young man in the German navy, assigned to a local submarine, and part of a group of young men who were allowed off the ship to attend a dance. At the dance the two meet and are attracted to each other, but go there separate ways.
But circumstances bring them together again, and this becomes a story that shows the human element of war, the power of second chances, and a young woman learning that things aren't always black and white.

Malagash

Finished July 29
Malagash by Joey Comeau

I loved this book. It's short but intense and entirely captivating.
The story takes place in Malagash, Nova Scotia, a small town where Sunday's father has chosen to come back to to spend his final days. Sunday is a young teen, an avid computer programmer, and she has decided to record as much as she can of her father's last words and put them in a computer virus that will make him live forever. Sunday's dad is dying of cancer, something she fights against, her mother tries to protect her and her younger brother Simon from, and yet something her father is determined to face openly. Everytime they visit him in the hospital, they part with the words "goodbye forever" on both sides, a cheerful way to indicate that at some point the words will be true.
The writing here is superb, and so many of them rang true for me. When Sunday talks about her dad, she says at one point "His face is very serious, which is one of the ways my father smiles" and I knew exactly what she meant. Her dad teases her with metaphors about how the end will come for him, but life will go on, saying "a leaf will fall," "a weight will lift," "snow will blanket the town." He loves sly humor, asking "How come the cat never comes to visit? Is she mad at me?"
Sunday is desperate for his words and begins to leave her phone when she leaves him, so she records his interactions with Simon, with her mother, with her uncles.
Simon is also an interesting character, referred to affectionately in the family as "the waif." Sunday begins to spend more time with him, sharing comfort and interests, and finding he has insights that had escaped her.
The other family members have wonderful ways of speaking as well. Her grandmother says "I always feel young. I stopped feeling old a long time ago," when talking about her own past. Sunday's mother tries to draw her back into the family activities, saying "Your grandmother has the most badass spoon collection you've ever seen. She's got a whole ros of spoons from old mental hospitals. She has a spoon from the Amityville Horror House."
The book is touching, sad, funny, poignant, and oh, so worth reading.

Lost Melody

Finished January 28
Lost Melody by Lori Copeland and Virginia Smith
Almost a year ago Jill was injured in a subway accident in New York. She had dreamed of playing at Carnegie Hall, but the injury to her hand has meant she hasn't touched a piano since the accident. She's been living with her grandmother in the small Nova Scotia town where she grew up. Her boyfriend Greg, a local lawyer, is running for town council and ready to get serious about their relationship.
But Jill starts having a dream, over and over again, to the point she is afraid to go to sleep. Her dream seems to be about a disaster threatening her town. Tired, and wanting to stop the dream, Jill gives into the dream and announces publicly the perceived threat to the town.
The town is divided about Jill. Is she crazy, stressed by her accident last year, or is it a real prophecy? Even Greg isn't convinced. Will he stand by her and risk his campaign for council on association with her? The suspense builds. An interesting story about faith.

Incidents in the Life of Markus Paul

Finished January 15
Incidents in the Life of Markus Paul by David Adams Richards
Wow, can Richards ever write. This book moves back and forth between events in 1985 and 2006/7. In 1985 Markus Paul was a young man, living with his grandfather on the reserve. His grandfather Amos Paul was chief and Markus Paul was in love with a young woman Sky who lived nearby with her grandmother and younger brother, Little Joe.
When a young native man, Hector, is killed in what seems at first to be an accident his first day on the job loading ships rumours start, and soon fingers at pointed at another young white man, Roger Savage, who was waiting for a chance to work that day. This novel follows the search for what really happened to Hector, and what a number of people do as a result of his death. One of these is Amos, a careful man with a good heart. Another is Isaac, a middle-aged man who seemed destined to be chief one day. Another is Joel, Hector's older brother, who has often been in trouble with the law before. And we also have Roger himself, and a young reporter Max Doran, who is excited about the assignment to cover this story, but not experienced enough to see the pitfalls.
This is a book about how small actions have great outcomes, and these actions are laid out one by one before us, gradually revealing the truth and the politics, prejudice and beliefs that led to each action.
Years later Markus Paul is an RCMP officer still searching for the truth about what happened back in 1985, still haunted by it. When he finally discovers the truth, it is surprising and yet one can see how it all seemed inevitable. Richards is an author that seems to see into characters and show the complexities of them. A novel that will haunt you.

The Deserter

Finished August 24
The Deserter by Paul Almond
This is the first book in a new series called the Alford Saga. Loosely based on Almond's own ancestors, this book includes a good deal of historical research as well as some artistic license.
The book begins around 1800, when a young man named Thomas Manning is on a British man o' war moored in a small bay of the Gulf of St. Lawrence riding out a spring storm. Thomas knows the price to be paid if he gets caught deserting, but he has planned in advance for just such an opportunity and knows he may not get another chance before his ship heads back to join the fight against Napoleon.
He makes his way ashore and begins the trek inland, encountering a tribe of Micmac natives. They assist his endeavors and he becomes close to them. He begins to make a home for himself, but also works at a French village building ships. He also encounters some English settlers, using an assumed name, James Alford, to hide his identity in case they are looking for him for desertion.
As he learns skills from his employer, and from the natives, Thomas begins to make a life and start his own family. This book ends with him at that point, opening the opportunities for furthering the story in later books. The story flows well and Thomas comes across as a believable characters. The natives are also portrayed well and with respect. This is an interesting story and I look forward to future installments.

Migration Songs

Finished May 27
Migration Songs by Anna Quon
This is a first novel for Quon, a young half-Chinese-Canadian writer raised in the Maritimes and living in Dartmouth. Joan, the young woman who is the main character in her book is also half-Chinese-Canadian, and is still struggling to find her place in life.
She is an only child, and this book tells not only her story, but also the story of her parents. Her maternal grandparents came to Canada from China to escape the changing life under Mao. Her father is from England and was fascinated by China and admired Mao. Joan has worked several low skill jobs as she struggles to feel comfortable in her life. At 30, she still lives with her parents. When Joan's older friend Edna dies, Joan discovers many secrets about the people around her, particularly Edna, and also makes discoveries about herself.
This is a woman with intellience, humour, and who cares about others, but she struggles to express herself and deal with the world around her. She has always been a loner. As we see her make more connections with others, we also watch her begin to blossom. This was an intense book as I cared so much about Joan, and was rooting for her throughout.

Sounding Line

Finished February 4
Sounding Line by Anne DeGrace
This novel is set in a small fishing village in Nova Scotia, and follows an incident of a UFO that disappeared into the bay, and what the effect is on the community.
We see young Pocket Snow and his family, a mother slowly fading, a father afraid to let her go, and an uncle holding the family together.
We see Pocket's classmate Cuff and his boasting and wild schemes that come to nothing. There is also their quieter friend Ernie and his silent determination.
This is a small but closeknit community and while there are disagreements and divisions, they also come together when it is needed.
Arriving in town is a young reporter from Ottawa, unsure of himself, and looking for a way forward to his own life. Also new to town is a woman with psychic abilities who has come to assure the aliens that they are welcomed.
Despite the initial event and its otherworldliness, this novel is very grounded. One gets a very real sense of the community and the dreams of the young men here.
Based on a true event of a UFO sighting in Nova Scotia in the 1960s, this novel takes the idea in interesting directions. A great read.

Atlantic Fiction

Finished May 19
Ragged Islands by Don Hannah
The main character here is Susan Ann Roberts, lying in a hospital in Toronto, while her two children and some of her grandchildren make their way to her side. As she lies there her mind takes her back to the places in the Maritimes that were important to her life. She visits her Aunt Aggie's farm, her foster parents' house in Shediac, finally making her way to Ragged Islands where she lived all her married life and alone until her recent move to Toronto. Along the way she meets people that meant something in her life. Some of them are ones she always had questions about such as her birth mother. Some of them she had never met before. She also meets up with a beloved childhood pet.
This is an interesting way to revisit a life, but I found it a bit choppy. Ultimately it didn't bring Susan Ann the closure she was wanting, but it did bring a different type of closure, and that may be all we can really expect.