Good, Better, Best

Since I'm busy catching up with ARCs and library loans this week, I finished three books and decided to review them all together today. They fell nicely in a line of three, four, and five stars for me, so I'll start with the three star (really 3.5) book. 

Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton has a fascinating premise, but the execution didn't fully deliver for me. The idea of forming a connection with a wild hare is compelling, yet the memoir gets bogged down by too much history and factual explanations about the differences between hares and rabbits. At times, it feels more like a lecture than a story, pulling focus away from the emotional core of the book.

While Dalton’s writing is undeniably poetic and immersive, I found myself wanting more insight into how this experience truly changed her. The personal reflection often takes a backseat to the informational passages, which makes the narrative feel unbalanced.

That said, the book still offers moments of beauty and deep observation, and readers who enjoy nature writing with a scholarly touch may appreciate it more. A solid 3.5 stars—engaging in parts, but I wished for a stronger focus on the author's emotional transformation at its heart. There is a Goodreads giveaway for this book in case you are interested. 

 

Andrew Porter’s The Imagined Life is a beautifully written and deeply introspective novel about the weight of the past and the cycles we fear we cannot escape. At its heart is a middle-aged professor, Steven Mills, grappling with the legacy of his father—a brilliant but troubled academic who disappeared from from his family after being denied tenure. As Steven embarks on a road trip to revisit his memories and the people who were involved with his father, he unpacks his father’s struggles with mental illness, homosexuality, and self-destruction, all while confronting his own anxieties about repeating some of those same patterns with his own family.

Porter’s prose is quiet yet powerful, weaving together themes of loss, identity, and the often invisible forces that shape who we become. The novel is not plot-driven but instead unfolds as a layered psychological portrait, one that lingers in the mind with its aching emotional depth. The quotes from Proust and Stevie Nicks' song lyrics add depth and atmosphere to the story.

At times, the narrative’s introspective nature may feel slow, but the reward is a story that resonates deeply, especially for readers drawn to literary fiction that examines the complexities of family and selfhood. Thoughtful, moving, and quietly haunting, The Imagined Life is a novel that will stay with you long after the final page.

Thank you to Knopf and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book. It will be published on April 15, 2025. 

 

John Boyne delivers yet another emotionally astute and quietly devastating novel in The Elements. Known for his ability to delve into the moral complexities of human behavior, the book is composed of four deeply introspective novellas, "Water," "Earth," "Fire," and "Air," with each providing haunting, confronting, and moving investigations into sexual abuse and its consequences from different viewpoints. Each of the novellas is from a different perspective - the enabler, accomplice, a perpetrator, and a victim. The lives of the characters intersect across stories in intriguing ways. By linking the novellas and characters, the author shows us how the cycle of abuse can cause people to shift from one role to another.

Boyne’s prose is as elegant and restrained as ever. He doesn’t overwrite emotions—he trusts the reader to feel what’s not being said, which is exactly what makes this novel so moving. The book is steeped in melancholy because of Boyne's unflinchingly honest writing, but there are also flickers of hope and grace that make the stories feel like redemption may be a possibility.

What I appreciated most is Boyne’s refusal to offer neat resolutions. Many of the relationships in The Elements, between parents and children, between teammates, and even between physicians and those who should trust them, are fractured in ways that feel painfully real. There’s an authenticity in the way Boyne portrays long-term consequences of personal failings and the difficulty along with the hardship of forgiveness.

If you’re already a Boyne fan, The Elements will feel like a natural continuation of his thematic explorations. If you’re new to his work, it’s a beautifully self-contained introduction to his sharp insight into flawed humanity. Highly recommended for readers who enjoy introspective fiction, literary family dramas, and stories about reconciliations that don’t come easy. It was hard to read because of the subject matter, but because it was written by John Boyne, it was even harder to put down.

Thank you to Henry Holt and Co. and NetGalley. This book will be published on September 9, 2025. I'm sorry to tell you about this amazing five-star book that won't be published for another four months, but for me it was one of those books that was so good that I want to tell everyone about it. 

What are you reading? I hope it's something good and I'd love to hear about it in the comments.