4 Stars
This is a coming-of-age story.
Fourteen-year-old Ida lives with her mother in the small logging town of Mineral, Washington. Her life consists of attending school, helping her mother in their convenience store, and studying geography and maps which are almost an obsession for her. The arrival of her sixteen-year-old cousin Elna changes everything. Elna seems to be all that Ida is not, so Ida is soon enchanted. After a tragedy, however, their relationship becomes more complicated and slowly Ida’s adulation of her cousin becomes mixed with fear.
This is a character-driven novel in which both girls emerge as complex individuals. Ida, the narrator, is immediately endearing. She is shy and introverted. She does not fit in at school: noises bother her, she is sensitive to touch, loves orderliness, and speaks tonelessly. As a result of her differences, which suggest she is on the autism spectrum, she is bullied and lonely. The world has taught her that because she is a girl, “the best thing I could be was mild. Sweet. Yielding. Endlessly tolerant. A fawn nestled in the grass.” The fact that she has a hole in her heart, which restricts her involvement in physical activities, only adds to her exclusion. At one point, she comments, “’I don’t feel at home in the world.’”
Elna is Ida’s foil. She is glamorous and sophisticated and charming. Ida describes her cousin as “self-possessed, confident, a little standoffish.” In some ways, Elna behaves like she inhabits the world of boys “where anger and mischief and bold, unabashed confidence were permissible.” It is perfectly understandable why Ida becomes enamoured, especially when Elna treats her like a normal person and introduces her to a wider world.
Of course, the reader soon suspects that there may be more to Elna than Ida sees. Certainly her actions immediately upon arrival in Mineral, when the girls visit a variety store, leave the reader wondering about Elna. Jen, a friend of Ida’s mother, feels it necessary to warn Ida about Elna: “’I think she’s a different sort of kid than you. . . . I think maybe you should take it a little slow. . . . I want you to be safe and careful wherever you go, whoever you go with.’” A random woman even tells Elna, “’There’s something very dark in you.’” And her behaviour starts to suggest that this statement is an astute observation. What Ida sees as brave and daring behaviour may, in fact, be seen as recklessness. Is Elna sincere in befriending Ida or is she manipulating her naive and vulnerable younger cousin?
The book is advertised as an exploration of teenage girlhood. I must comment that what is portrayed is very typical behaviour of teenaged girls: problem-solving and decision-making skills are weak but the propensity for risk-taking is strong. Emotions are felt deeply but proper coping mechanisms are lacking. What struck me is Ida’s repeated references to her anger, and though Elna’s strongest emotion is not specifically named until later, it’s obvious that it has influenced her actions from an early age.
There are a couple of issues about the ending that bothered me. Ida suffers no consequences for either the event at the lake or the event in San Francisco? The novel is slow paced, but then there’s an abrupt ending, followed by an epilogue that covers years in a few paragraphs. This contrast in pacing is jarring.
Readers will find much to appreciate in this book.
Note: I received an eARC from the publisher via NetGalley.
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