Thank you to NetGalley for providing me an ARC of this book for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

This was a beautiful yet bleak look at a small community struggling to survive through the eyes of a young woman named Manod. Set on a fictional Welsh island, this story starts with a whale washing onto the beach of this island, which the people see as a bad omen. Soon after, two English ethnographers come to the island to document the dying community.

Though this book was bleak and sad, the prose was beautiful, told through folk tales and Manod's quietly strong voice. I really enjoyed the physical representation of the community's death shown in the rotting carcass of the whale. This constant reminder of real and societal decay was very interesting.

I also enjoyed that it brought up some of the ethical concerns behind ethnography, and if there is a way to study a people without it being exploitative. Overall a short but powerful read.

Publication date: 7 May 2024