Title: The Morningside

Author: Téa Obreht

Publisher: Random House 2024

Genre: Speculative Fiction

Pages: 304

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Unread Shelf

There’s the world you can see. And then there’s the one you can’t. Welcome to the Morningside.

After being expelled from their ancestral home in a not-so-distant future, Silvia and her mother finally settle at the Morningside, a crumbling luxury tower in a place called Island City where Silvia’s aunt Ena serves as the superintendent. Silvia feels unmoored in her new life because her mother has been so diligently secretive about their family’s past, and because the once-vibrant city where she lives is now half-underwater. Silvia knows almost nothing about the place where she was born and spent her early years, nor does she fully understand why she and her mother had to leave. But in Ena there is an opening: a person willing to give the young girl glimpses into the folktales of her demolished homeland, a place of natural beauty and communal spirit that is lacking in Silvia’s lonely and impoverished reality.

Enchanted by Ena’s stories, Silvia begins seeing the world with magical possibilities and becomes obsessed with the mysterious older woman who lives in the penthouse of the Morningside. Bezi Duras is an enigma to everyone in the building: She has her own elevator entrance and leaves only to go out at night and walk her three massive hounds, often not returning until the early morning. Silvia’s mission to unravel the truth about this woman’s life, and her own haunted past, may end up costing her everything.

This was my other pick for the retreat book club discussion. I was very intrigued by the summary but feel like this one left me a little flat. I couldn’t quite decide what this book was really about. On the surface, we shoved into a world ravaged by climate change. We follow a family of refugees as they try to find a place on the new island. We touch on the effects of climate change, social upheaval, and economic downturn. At times, the author really hammers home the realities of a breakdown in society. All of that was very interesting and kept me reading. But the characters were so hard to root for! The entire time, Silvia’s mother keeps everything so close that we never really get to know her. I struggled to connect with any of the main characters. They seemed to lack depth and substance. And finally we throw in a dash of magical realism. I was not a fan of that portion of the book. It seemed out of place and not well-fleshed out a theme. I wanted more from this book. Looking forward to discussing at the retreat this weekend.

Next up on the TBR pile: