A Belletrist Book Club Selection “Van Meter’s debut is an unwavering triumph . . . A coming-of-age that’s as human as it is wild.” —The New York Times Book Review On the eve of Evangeline’s wedding, on the shore of Winter Island, a dead whale is trapped in the harbor, the groom may be lost at sea, and Evie’s mostly absent mother has shown up out of the blue. From there, in this mesmerizing, … there, in this mesmerizing, provocative debut, the narrative flows back and forth through time as Evie reckons with her complicated upbringing in this lush, wild land off the coast of Southern California.
Evie grew up with her well-meaning but negligent father, surviving on the money he made dealing the island’s world-famous strain of weed, Winter Wonderland. Although her father raised her with a deep respect for the elements, the sea, and the creatures living within it, he also left her to parent herself. With wit, love, and bracing flashes of anger, Creatures probes the complexities of love and abandonment, guilt and forgiveness, betrayal and grief—and the ways in which our childhoods can threaten our ability to love if we are not brave enough to conquer the past.
Lyrical, darkly funny, and ultimately cathartic, Creatures exerts a pull as strong as the tides.
more
This story touched my heart in such a visceral way. The author’s writing is hauntingly beautiful and atmospheric. Her characters are well-developed and their relationship to each other is so well-written.
I’m a scuba diver so I was immediately attracted to the cover and title. I thought the story sounded interesting, but I didn’t expect to be drawn in on such an emotional level. The descriptions of growing up on the island, the whales and how they related to life, the struggles and wanting to be loved. It’s going to stay with me for a long time and I know I need to get the hardcover to add to my favorites shelf in my library.
The essay at the end was what really hit me hard. I’ve experienced the phenomenon once with my own father and it was magical. He has since passed and I loved this heartfelt tribute to her Dad.
This is truly an incredible debut and I look forward to reading more of her books in the future.
Thank you to the publisher and author for my gifted copy in exchange for an honest review.
Thank you to Algonquin Books for having me in this book tour for Creatures by Crissy Van Meter.
Set in a beautiful island off the coast of Southern California in a lush wild lands of Winter Island is the heart breaking story of Evie. In a series of unfortunate events occur in the eve of Evie’s wedding with a dead whale trapped in the harbor, her fiancee late from returning from his trip out at sea, and her estranged mother shows up to complicate matters.
As all these issues are crashing down at Evie, she looks back at her dysfunctional up bringing from parents who were both neglectful – a mother who leaves Evie as a young child only to be left to an alcoholic father who peddles marijuana to tourists in the island.
The writing of this story is both poetic and lyrical – certainly a character driven story told in a very unique perspective. There are a lot of symbolisms and found the writing beautiful, very deep, sometimes dark but very much real and will touch your heart. I felt for Evie – my heart broke for her and her childhood. Every one who reads this will find something to relate to in this moving story.
I had an incredible time reading this fabulous story and glad to read a book set in Southern California.
Evie is worried about her fiance who is late returning from his trip at sea. Liam is employed as a fisherman and spends weeks at a time outside of port. While Evie waits for her upcoming wedding day she reflects back on her dysfunctional childhood and her trust issues with long term relationships. Her parents were both negligent and Evie was forced to raise herself while building an emotional wall to keep out the pain.
Evie’s mother left her family while she was a young child. Her visits were infrequent and she would become inaccessible for months at a time. Her father was an alcoholic who made cash selling marijuana to seasonal tourists. Together they were often homeless or living with friends because he could not keep a steady job. As the date of the wedding approaches, Evie is forced to spend time with her mother which unleashes her suppressed issues.
This is a unique debut novel by Crissy Van Meter. It is beautiful yet also dark and complex. I am interested in seeing what this author will be writing next.
Dream-like and lyrical, Creatures by debut author Crissy Van Meter is a story that ebbs and flows like the tide—delicate, inevitable, and mesmerizing.
On the eve of Evie’s wedding, a storm has washed a dead whale into the harbor of Winter Island, a fictional and feral island off the Southern Californian coast. While her fiancé may be lost at sea, the storm has brought home Evie’s long-wandering mother. This pivotal moment serves as the starting point for a story that weaves through past, present, and future, pulling the reader along effortlessly as we traverse Evie’s lifeline. We learn that she was raised a child of the island, a creature perhaps of circumstance rather than upbringing while her father peddled drugs to tourists on the island, and we watch as Evie struggles at every turn to reconcile the lush wildness of the island that is her home—and in all its glorious complexities—the lush wildness that is herself. In the end, the journey of the tale is as wholly beautiful and provocative as any single moment, making Van Meter’s debut a powerful exploration of the complexities of human emotion and the lengths a heart will go to in order to love.
Written to mimic the tidal charts she studies, Evie’s story is told through alternating timelines that some readers may find confusing, but is not without merit; this disorientation is a requisite component of the story and skillfully and intentionally written. Reading Creatures is sort of like floating underwater, where we lose sense of what is now and real and find ourselves immersed in a world that is boundless and fluid, but no less deadly. This intersection of fact and fiction is rather like life itself, where boundaries blur and we must craft our own version of the truth from cobbled together information and experience.
A debut that is anything but ordinary, Creatures is subtle yet intentional in its symbolic connection to elements of the natural world. Still, it’s just as deliberately a story of the uniquely human condition. The cyclical nature of Evie’s journey—from child to adult, and in various degrees of wholeness between—is profound. At times heart wrenching and still darkly funny, there is poignancy even in Evie’s exposure to childhood traumas, from a neglectful mother to a toxic if well-meaning father, a best friend that is equal loyal and betraying. Like Evie, we are given the opportunity to explore concepts of grief and forgiveness, as much as for the self as for those who have wronged us.
And that’s what this reader thinks sets Creatures apart: it’s a reminder that, like Evie, we are all lush and wild creatures, beholden as much to the world around us and all its lovely juxtapositions as we are doomed to the same inevitability as the whale that washed up in the harbor of Winter Island on the eve of her wedding.
We have all known a woman like Evie’s mother. We have all known a man like Evie’s father. We’ve all had a friend like Rook. We’ve all loved someone like Liam. They are all water, moving in and out of our lives, sometimes coming, sometimes going, but always leaving their mark on our hearts.
In the end, though we may not yet realize it, we’ve all been Evie and her whale. We have all been ravaged by the water. We tumble, we float, we drown, and we resurface.
Picked up an danced copy of this remarkable book and enjoyed it. Interesting writing style and the story is relatable, yet magical.