first encountered this book back inwhen there was an ARC floating around the library and read it because it had a pretty cover, It was odd. And it made me very uncomfortable, I fiercely related to Maddy, the shy and socially awkward young woman who seemed happier in her own little bubble than anywhere else, And I hated Feather for leading her on and then ditching her when she needed him most I thought he was totally selfish, At the time, I had been with my thenboyfriend/nowhusband for a short while, we were in the Honeymoon phase of dating, and I was starryeyed with hopes of eventual wedding bells.
So I wanted my Happily Ever After ending from this story, damnit! And for the book to not deliver that, after everything Maddy did to give Feather what she felt was a happy life and then everything she went through to track him down and make him see he was wrong for leaving.
. . It seemed inconceivable to me that he didn't return with her! I mean, why shouldn't Maddy get her Happily Ever After Why couldn't Feather just settle down and be the Good Husband of her dreams What the fuck was wrong with him The book betrayed me.
Was I worried about my own future here Was there something here I didn't want to see Not Sure, But at the time the book made me so angry I only gave it one star,
Almostyears later, in, I encountered the book again whilst following something else down a Goodreads Rabbit Hole you know how that goes, I only sort of recalled it, Not so much the details of the story, but the gorgeous and haunting atmosphere of it all, So I reread it. And my outlook was completely different, I still liked Maddy she reminded me of a younger version of myself, but my reaction to the story fell into a much more grey area, I saw now that the two young lovers were, basically, forced into a situation that ended up making them both unhappy: Maddy was forced by her parents to settle down and become the proper grown up, and Feather was forced into a relationship he wasn't ready or mature enough for.
And, to be honest, didn't even want in the first place, I mean, some people are never wanting the whole domestic thing, The result was neither got what they wanted, So neither was really and truly happy, They just reacted differently: Maddy by pushing harder and Feather by retreating, Not the healthiest reactions, but believable, Still not Happy Ever After, but the story didn't make me so angry anymore, I
felt more sympathy toward both characters than anything else, I upped my reread rating to three
The THIRD time I read this book was now, in, And this time I loved it, Absolutely LOVED it. Maddy still reminded me of a younger, idealistic version of myself, One who wanted so badly to have the sort of acceptable life her parents and society in general thought she should have, And because society thought she should have it, she herself believed she should have it, I looked upon her with a kind of fond nostalgia, but found I didn't really relate to her anymore, In fact, I realized that I relate more to Feather now than ever before, This was unexpected, but very, very refreshing, Both Maddy and Feather learned some hard life lessons, But in the end, I feel they both got what they really wanted, Or, at least, what they really needed, They each needed to learn to be True To Themselves, even if doing so meant they wouldn't be together, And that's ok. Better than OK. Because in order to be happy, you have to be true to yourself, True Happiness comes from within, and one can only be truly happy if they are living the sort of life they are meant to live, . . even if it isn't really the sort of life friends, family, partners, society, etc, agrees with. The ending wasn't the Fairy Tale Happily Ever After I originally wanted, It was better. It was both Maddy and Feather leading a Happy Life, . . whatever a Happy Life meant to each of them, individually, I changed my rating to Five Stars and am grateful to have rediscovered this story when I did, I needed it.
And that's life, really, Sometimes circumstances try to force us into situations we aren't ready for and don't even really want, It doesn't just have to be relationships, It can be something else, Something in our personal life, Something in our professional life, Sometimes we chase dreams and goals that don't happen, no matter how badly we want them or how much we feel we deserve them or even however much we think we want them.
There isn't always that happy ending we originally hope for, It's how we react to these situations that really matters, Do we cave to peer pressure, conform, and end up miserable Do we stay true to ourselves and disappoint others in the process Is there even a happy medium
And sometimes we discover we're better off NOT having achieved that goal/dream.
When Maddy finds Feather alone on his island, she finally sees the situation for what it is and realizes she wants something else out of life than she originally thought.
She wants adventure. She wants to rediscover herself, which she saw small glimpses of when she took the journey with her father, and to be herself, This she could never have if she stayed with Feather, So she makes the hard choice to move on and leave Feather behind so she can find what does make her truly happy, . . and so Feather can be happy as well, It may not be the happilyeverafter domestic life she saw for herself when she first fell in love with the idea of Feather or what she felt Feather should be, but it is a happy life.
Unexpected, but happy. And this is something she only fully realizes in recounting her life to the mysterious Boy, So I see it actually IS a happy ending after all, For everyone.
What I Got From This Story:
You can't always get what you think you want, but if you try sometimes you just might find you get what you need.
The only way to live a happy life: Be True To Yourself, And being True To Yourself is the "Most Beautiful Thing" Gorgeously written and managing to be at the same time both warmly human and puzzlingly mythical, this book is not easy to categorize.
It will probably be of most interest to older teens and adults, as the main character is an old woman named Maddy looking back at events and a relationship that happened to her as a teen and young woman.
There are fairytale elements Maddy's young man, whom she calls Feather, is an otherworldly sort of person and moments when as during the fight between the Kraken and the Leviathan, which all sorts of talking sea creatures gather to watch I was reminded very much of Alice in Wonderland.
The whole premise, as one discovers at the end, is built on a magical or mystical idea and yet this is also a very downtoearth tale in some ways.
Maddy is a solid if solitary girl, whether traveling around the world with her father, falling in love with Feather, or sailing alone through enchanted waters and the lovely simplicity of the narrative voice reflects that.
Highly recommended for the exquisite writing and the poignant ending, "They talked to one another, but never about important things never about a lost winged dream, not about unseeable mysteries that lay beyond the setting sun, They both knew that you can talk and talk, but when the talk is done and there's nothing else to say, the thing that you long for is still not there.
"
Let me just, . . let me think for a second,
Without spoilers, here's the most basic description of this book: Madeline is an old woman who comes across a young boy in her living room, She's never seen this strange visitor before but as they settle in with tea and biscuits, she begins to tell him the story of her life,
Okay, I'll go from the beginning, At first for the first, . .ish pages, I did not like this book, It's a fable, yes, but I feel that's done in a strange way, 'Aesop's Fables' for example, you read a story, and immediately there's a talking crow, Okay, it's a fable. This book seemed to make it more complicated, blurring the line between fable and reality,
Things happened to Madeline over the course of her life that were fantasy and part of the fable, but it seemed like they actually happened, At the same time she describes her common upbringing with respectable, basic parents, It makes me wonder if the entire story is a fable which is how I think it is, and should be, or if there's a strange crossover within the story that I couldn't see clearly.
Also, I felt this story had way too much similarities to 'The Little Prince' one of my favourite books, In that book, the young boy prince describes his travels to a pilot, In this, the old woman describes her travels to the young boy, Both stories of adventure involve fablelike characters, loss and selfdiscovery, But it was mainly the feel of the whole book that I felt was eerily similar, I know this mightn't be a complaint unless I'm crying "plagiarism!" but it's something I couldn't get out of my head,
ANYWAYS, I selected the tag 'redeemed itself' for this book for a reason, Without spoilers, I really liked the ending, I had my suspicions all along, but I still had questions to go with them, which I always enjoy, If I'm able to guess the full ending of a book when I'm more than, . .pages away from it, I'm always disappointed, There was still enough emotional shockfactor in this ending to mostly redeem my complaints, which is why I'm giving this book,
This rating might seem strange based on this topsyturvy review, so I'll just say now, The storyline was interesting all along, I just didn't understand the purpose of it, The writing was beautiful and poetic in places, I will say that, had the book been any longer, but stayed the same in content, I would've liked it much less, I think the length of this book was perfect so that I wasn't too overannoyed before the ending was able to chase away my previous dislike, The length of the story is perfect to keep boredom at bay while keeping the ending successful,
Piece of advice: It is well worth reading until the end, I'm so happy I didn't stop reading this book, It's short so it's really worth it
NOT REALLY SPOILERS BUT STILL
Last complaint: For most of the book I was confused as to the beginning: why on earth did Madeline talk to this strange intruder so easily If I walk into my living room and see a ragged young boy, I'll scream, not boil the kettle.
This was explained at the end of the book, but usually when things are left to be explained, they kind of leave a gap in the story, or reassure the reader that this will be brought back to later on.
Madeline just went so incautiously with this scenario that I wasn't sure it would be explained at all,
Also I got really cute 'Forest Gump' and 'Patch Adams' vibes from one of the sections near the end of Madeline's story, This was a fable : I really liked Maddy, but with Feather I have some bones to pick, I do not get "Truth" from Feather the way Maddy did, I get isolation and omission, Maddy mentions that maybe it would have been better had she never met Feather, Personally, I'm in that camp, Maybe I'm too much of a realist, But come on! What did he bring to the table, really He was mopey and impossible to communicate with, and dare I say it, PASSIVE AGGRESSIVE, And when she loses the Fay, what does he say I'm sorry for YOUR loss WHAT Excuse me, beach boy I think you had a hand in this fay, Maddy needed closure, and who wouldn't in that situation, so she gets it as best she can and manages to pull herself up by the bootstraps and make a meaningful life for herself.
Meanwhile we can assume Feather is in a state of being on his lame stillness island, helping no one and contributing nothing, BUT I liked the book b/c it was neat and it made me think, .