The Lowering Days

A very easy 5 stars for me. Perhaps i'm biased as a Maine resident myself, but I thought it was incredibly well written and narrated throughout. If I were to compare it to another work, I would say it was on par in tone and quality with Kristin Hannah, as I got significant The Four Winds vibes from this novel. Highly reccomend!

3.5 stars.

I received this ARC from Harper Collins. As a born and bred New Englander, I very much enjoyed the setting and intricate details of Brown's novel. Having spent all of my adulthood in the Midwest, I appreciate the imagery that has me reminiscing about the cold, the enjoyed, the mountains, the sea. I appreciated the historical details too. The character of Falon was a fascinating creation, though I felt was though her progressive politics were far ahead of the early nineties.

Essentially, this is a small town family drama. A closed mill is set to reopen on Penobscot land, and suddenly burns down. Almy's mother runs the local paper and writes editorials about it. Meanwhile, a neighbor attacks a Penobscot girl taking catches from his lobster traps in the river. Which is tribal land, not his. Much drama ensues, embroiling Almy's family, the girl's, and the fisherman's, until it all ends, of course, tragically.

One or two notes about issues with the writing. The story is told from Almy's perspective, but the story has certain parts that are in the nearly omniscient third-person perspective. Her is no indication written this will happen. Indeed, a couple of times it happens during points when it is very clearly from Almy's perspective. The first time it occurred, I was confused, until I realized Almy seemed to be omniscient.

There are also quite a few tangents in the novel. Long descriptions leaping off from one or two sentences in the main narrative. Whilst I don't have much of an issue with this, it does seem more akin to classic novels than to modern litfic. That being said, I enjoyed this far more than many works of litfic I've read or given up on.

I feel as if I might have wanted more from the end, but I'm not sure what Brown could have done differently. I am very glad Almy took Otto the dog though.