Publication Date: 18th May 2023
Genre: Literary Fiction
2.5 Stars
One Liner: Great premise; not happy with the execution
Sisi de Mathilde lives on a remote island in the Indian Ocean. Climate change is affecting their lives in a million little ways. The yields are less, seas are inching closer, and babies die soon after birth.
Outsiders, scientists, and authorities want the islanders to relocate; to leave their homes and the only life they’ve known to become refugees in other lands. The community thinks otherwise and is determined to rely on their sacred ways to protect themselves.
Sisi is a scientist but also an islander. Widowed and pregnant, she needs to decide the best thing to safeguard her unborn child.
Kit arrives on the island with his uncle and aunt, a member of the authorities, but with heartbreak and grief of his own. Can Kit somehow help Sisi, or will it be the other way around?
The story comes in the limited third-person POV of Sisi and Kit.
My Thoughts:
The premise and the cover are interesting, so I knew I had to read this. The setting is beautifully described with a liberal dose of the dangers the islanders face every day. It makes the whole thing more real, instead of limiting the island’s role to being something ‘exotic’.
The story comes in almost alternative POVs of Sisi and Kit. While Sisi’s chapters are easy enough to read, Kit’s are as messy as his mind (the poor guy is struggling with just about everything). The writing reflects his thought process, a great idea in theory, but hard to read at a stretch for a reader.
The book has a non-binary rep seamlessly woven into the plot. I like how this is done. There are quite a few non-binary characters, though Nuru gets the maximum space. I like Nuru’s initial arc, them being Sacare (a wise guide of sorts), but by the end, their character became predictable.
The book pretty much hinges on the science vs. faith dilemma. I see the merits and issues on both sides and understand the deep-rooted fear of Indigenous people in allowing outsiders to have more control over their lives (our ancestors have been there and done that). I also know the advantages of science and technology.
However, the writing also reminded me of a video I saw recently. We pretty much know the possible ending of the book. There’s only one way it will lead despite all the drama, and that’s what happens here too. It did lead to disappointment, especially when the open ending leaves a lot of threads unanswered. Yeah, life’s like that, which is why I read books.
The book is tagged as lit fiction and is character-driven. But unfortunately, I couldn’t connect to either character. I understand Kit a lot more and feel sad for him. There are too many stories similar to his. Sisi has potential, but we have a screen between us and couldn’t reach other to each other no matter what.
The community aspect is very well done and quite realistic. Grief, choices, decisions- it’s not easy. While colonization is not explicit, wherever we see on the island is a result of it. We know we cannot escape the trauma of it even after generations (again, living proof).
I think the book couldn’t establish Nuru’s faith the way it should. We see it only through Sisi’s eyes, which is not the right approach since she is already struggling. Nuru’s faith is wonderful and dangerous for them and others. It should have been the driving force of the conflict. Yet, we get a third-party version of it. I don’t feel the certainty, the fear, the risk, the conflict, the pain… nothing. Observing something and being that are two different things, which becomes apparent as Nuru ends up as a mere tool to drive home someone’s point than assert themselves.
The execution, the little-too-convoluted writing, and the ending didn’t help. Most importantly, it took me a while to figure out why the plot feels wrong. This story reinforces the colonizer’s perspective of indigenous people. It’s white saviorism all over, albeit from a scientist’s POV (instead of East India Company, we have environmentalists and conservationists trying to ‘help’ indigenous people because they sure can’t do it on their own).
The book shows why we ‘need’ people like Sisi and Kat to show the right path because Nuru and Mothers are intent on surrendering in the name of faith. It re-establishes that the indigenous people rely on blind faith and going back to the old ways means doing nothing but believing (Mother Sea) wants sacrifices and essentially acting like ‘heathens’.
To summarize, Mother Sea has its merits and comes with some good writing, but it didn’t make me go wow or introspect the concepts as I wanted to. Please check the content warnings before you pick the book.
Thank you, NetGalley and Fairlight Books, for the eARC.
#MotherSea #NetGalley
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TW: Suicide attempts, child death
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Going back to the old ways doesn’t mean one turns a fanatic. It means digging deeper into ancient knowledge and using today’s insights to combine the best of both worlds. It means to understand the ancestors’ wisdom without looking at it through the colonial lens. It’s a complex process of un-learning and learning and re-learning.
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