Feather Man, Rhyll McMaster

As a child, Sooky is molested repeatedly by her next door neighbor, an older man named Lionel that her mother often insists she visit. These incidents change her life forever as the reader watches her go from depending on one man to another, always valuing herself based on what others think.

What an interesting character study this is. I felt detached from Sooky, but connected enough to also feel sympathy for her and sadness and disgust at the behavior of these men that she relies on. She distances herself from them, too, as well as from reality, constantly shutting down her emotions because she doesn’t want to feel. She’s been trained not to feel. Instead, it comes out in her art, and I found in that the true beauty of this novel. The beginning was hard to take, as every tale that starts out like this should be. I really appreciated the characterizations, almost-real but sometimes identifying one single dominating trait that made each person distinct. The narrative is sometimes distancing and sometimes engaging, reflecting Sooky’s mood and personality extremely well.

Overall, I really liked this book. There’s a lot to like about it. It’s also cyclical in nature, which is something that oddly, I really love. And I’m conflicted about the ending! I’d love to find someone else who has read it to discuss this novel because it begs to be talked about. It’s very literary and the English major in me is crying out for a class on it.

So yes, I would recommend it! And once you’ve read it, come drop me a comment so I can finally talk about it with spoilers! Buy this book on Amazon.