Books I've Read: The Epic Story of Every Living Thing

 I picked this one out at the library because I've enjoyed other books by this author and the storyline sounded like it was right up my alley.  In reality, maybe not so much.

I find it interesting that the description calls it "fiercely feminist" because I didn't think of it that way at all.  Maybe it's just me?  The only kind of feminist part of it were the diray entries at the start of each chapter and they really just served to highlight how wimpy our modern day heronines were in comparison to the women in the 1800s.

The book is about a girl called Harper who has always known she was the product of artificial insemination.  She and her over-protective mother have lived with that knowledge between them forever and while Harper has wondered about the man who donated the sperm, she's accepted that she'll probably never find out.

Then, when she stumbles across an Instagram post from a person who looks just like her, the questions begin to pile up.  She gets in contact with a half-sibling and discovers she is not alone.  In fact, there might be a whole lot more, just like them.  It doesn't take long for them to uncover the donor's identity and whereabouts, leading to the rash, and perhaps foolhardy decision to go to his home in Hawaii and confront him.

Having just broken up with her boyfriend, and still seething with anxiety from the COVID epidemic, Harper defies her mother and goes.  The man they discover, and the truths he has to tell, will change all of them forever.

There were lots of things to like about this book, but to be honest, a lot of things about it annoyed me too.  Harper was an annoying main character, obsessed with her phone and constantly trying to curate the world around her to be picture perfect.  I didn't blame her boyfriend for breaking up with her.  I probably would have too.

And her anxiety and terror of everything got annoying after a while too.  I get that her mother has always been super protective and involved in absolutely every aspect of her lfe, but that she's bought into those fears so completely irritated me.  Maybe it's my own personality shining through here - I tend to do the opposite of what anyone tells me to do in situations like that.  Often not the best decision, but there we are...

Setting the book with the COVID lockdowns in the very recent past gave some context to Harper's anxiety, but it also wasn't necessary.  It was something that only seemed to get brought up when it was conveninent, rather than being a real part of the book's world.  I also got kind of irritated by how suddenly better Harper's life got when she lost her phone.  It felt really preachy and not at all natural.

So, while there were a lot of things to like about this book, I think the negatives ended up outweighing the positives, so I'm not strongly recommending this one.  

But don;t just listen to me.  Here's the blurb:

From the award-winning author of Honey, Baby, Sweetheart comes a gorgeous and fiercely feminist young adult novel. When a teen travels to Hawaii to track down her sperm donor father, she discovers the truth about him, about the sunken shipwreck that’s become his obsession, and most of all about herself.

Harper Proulx has lived her whole life with unanswered questions about her anonymous sperm donor father. She's convinced that without knowing him, she can't know herself. When a chance Instagram post connects Harper to a half sibling, that connection yields many more and ultimately leads Harper to uncover her father's identity.

So, fresh from a painful breakup and still reeling with anxiety that reached a lifetime high during the pandemic, Harper joins her newfound half siblings on a voyage to Hawaii to face their father. The events of that summer, and the man they discover—a charismatic deep-sea diver obsessed with solving the mystery of a fragile sunken shipwreck—will force Harper to face some even bigger questions: Who is she? Is she her DNA, her experiences, her successes, her failures? Is she the things she loves—or the things she hates? Who she is in dark times? Who she might become after them?