Sea Creatures by Susanna Daniel – 320 pages
Book Blurb:
When Georgia returns to her hometown of Miami, her toddler son and husband in tow, she is hoping for a fresh start. They have left Illinois trailing scandal and disappointment in their wake: Graham’s sleep disorder has cost him his tenure at Northwestern; Georgia’s college advising business has gone belly up; and three-year old Frankie is no longer speaking. Miami feels emptier without Georgia’s mother, who died five years earlier, but her father and stepmother offer a warm welcome-as well as a slip for the dilapidated houseboat Georgia and Graham have chosen to call home. And a position studying extreme weather patterns at a prestigious marine research facility offers Graham a professional second chance. When Georgia takes a job as an errand runner for an artist who lives alone in the middle of Biscayne Bay, she’s surprised to find her life changes dramatically. Time spent with the intense hermit at his isolated home might help Frankie gain the courage to speak, it seems. And it might help Georgia reconcile the woman she was with the woman she has become. But when Graham leaves to work on a ship in Hurricane Alley and the truth behind Frankie’s mutism is uncovered, the family’s challenges return, more complicated than before.
My Review: 4 stars
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This book would make a great book club pick. There’s so much to discuss about marriage, being different, coming into motherhood, stress, sleep and lack thereof, speech delay, acceptance and family. It was a well-written quick read about the main protagonist Georgia and her balancing act between being a mother, wife and daughter while simultaneously trying to find herself. The author’s descriptions of the sea and space she lived were vivid and so easy to imagine. I read this book as a movie in my mind and I applaud the author for allowing me to do that. I’m glad I found this author and look forward to reading more from her.
Quotes I liked:
She’d given the impression from time to time of surviving her own life.”
– “I didn’t believe in ghosts or spirits or even angels, though I’d always loved the idea of these things and wished I could believe –but how else to define the bellowing, chest-beating presence of absence.”
– “I had no experience being a grown-up, not to mention a mother in Chicago.”
– The most telling cue that Lidia and I were not relate was how mannerly we were with each other, at least usually.”
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Hi Lauren,
You reviewed my novel, and I found your site! We have such similar taste in books! I absolutely loved Sea Creatures, and I chose it for my book club. We had an amazing discussion. Looking forward to reading some of your suggestions!
Karen
Welcome to Good Book Fairy Karen. I’m glad you found my site. Please sign up for the monthly newsletter so you can see all my monthly reviews, flashbacks and author interviews. I really liked The Longings of Wayward Girls. You are a very talented writer.