What a strange, strange book this was. Sometimes it was delightfully strange and quirky, and sometimes it bordered on the 'Oh no, oh no what is happening, no, make it stop' kind of strange. Meaning it was a very strange balance and very difficult to rate overall.

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Family of Origin is, as the name suggests, a family saga. Elsa and Nolan Grey haven't seen each other in many years, but when they receive news that their father has passed away, they travel to the remote island where he worked as a scientific researcher to try to discern the mysterious circumstances around his death. He lived in near isolation with a group of people known as the Reversalists, steadfast in their belief that evolution is going backwards based on evidence of one particular duck found on this island. Yeah, I said it was weird. But the duck parts were the delightfully strange parts!

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I also really enjoyed the discussion around what makes somebody a parent. Biology? Or the years spent cultivating a loving, caring relationship between parent and child? Hauser writes complex familial relationships very well, especially between parent and child. But the sibling relationship in this book... hoo boy. That was some problematic shit. I genuinely couldn't believe what I was reading at some points. I don't know what Hauser was trying to achieve with this, but whatever it was didn't sit well with me. There are plenty of reviews on Goodreads which go into spoilery detail if you want to know before you read, but I keep things spoiler-free over here. But I'm sure you can probably guess. It was icky (not to mention illegal).

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It's frustrating because the rest of the novel was really good. I liked learning about the Reversalists and their bizarre views and dynamics on the island. I liked Hauser's writing style. But the ~incident~ just kept floating to the forefront of my mind while reading.

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I can't decide how to rate this one. Some parts were five-star worthy. Other parts were negative ten. I'll leave it up to you to decide!