The Morningside

Aww, I liked this so much for what felt like purely emotional reasons. It was a fun and often very sweet dystopian read—I don't even think those two terms are at odds anymore, which probably says more about my reading habits than I'd like—about an island city, loosely modeled on NYC, in a climate-ravaged future, and an immigrant girl and her mother navigating the strange world that's new to them in layers of ways. Obreht came to the U.S. as a child, so she gets the child's immigrant sense right (to the best of my knowledge), and even though the story is told years later in the adult voice of the girl, I still bought her as a young, brave, scared young person and liked her for it. Obreht crammed an awful lot of stuff in, subplots and show more questions of what reality looks like to a young person without enough personal or familial ballast, but I found them all engaging and enjoyed the book as a whole. Points also for the post-climate-change dystopia being very believable. show less

I loved this book! I was drawn in and completely immersed in this dystopian fairy tale for grown ups with an all too realistic feel to much of it. In Sil's world of the (not so very distant) future she and her mother are climate refugees. There homeland is gone and they have traveled long and far for years in search of a safe haven, living through extreme hardship. After a lengthy process and with the help of Sil's aunt, Ena, they are accepted into the Repopulation Program for climate refugees and with that they are able to have a room in the thirty-three story Morningside condominiums where Ena is the building superintendent. The Morningside (like all buildings in this drowned world) is a decrepit, deteriorating high rise that was show more formerly a grand and luxurious place. Small glimpses of those glory days can still be seen in some of the elegant features of The Morningside.

Water surrounds everything and when people go out they must first study the tide chart to plot their timing and direction. The refugees are treated like outcasts and have not much hope for the future. The government continually feeds them misinformaton telling them Sil will eventually get a place at a school and a home will eventually be found for them. In reality, the money for the Repopulation project has been siphoned off, and none of it has gone to build the promised neighborhoods.

So Sil can't attend school and she spends time with Ena while Ena works around the building. Ena is the complete opposite of her sister, Sil's mom. Ena believes in magic and teaches Sil some of her ways, such as placing charms for protection. Ena also tells her stories from when she and Sil's mom were children, and of their ancestral home on the farm. Sil's mom has never told her anything about this and these stories, this information, fascinates Sil. Her mom gets very upset at Ena for telling Sil these things, which Sil can't understand. She desperately wishes her mom would share somethng about her past with her, which has always been a dark, forbidden topic between them.

The mix of wonderful, eclectic characters grows with a mysterious stranger seemingly stalking Sil, a remote and mysterious woman who occupies the penthouse of The Morningside, along with her three hounds and a girl Sil's own age, who comes across as self assured and demanding and often leads Sil astray.

Events unfold quickly from one chapter to the next and the suspense and tension build along the way. The ending unwinds rather quickly and the aftermath leaves you feeling a little bewildered and possibly a bit let down after all of the magical adventures that have transpired. Yet twists and turns continue and healing and resolutions smooth things over.

This was my first Tea Obreht book and it has left me wanting to read more of her books! show less

After a disappointing sophomore effort, Tea Obreht returns to a somewhat mystical story with The Morningside. Refugees in a world fraught with floods and fires, Silvia and her mother arrive at The Morningside as part of the Repopulation Program to bring people back to the drowning cities. They move in with Silvia’s aunt Ena, who tells her tales of the past where the truth and myth are difficult to separate. When Sil begins investigating a mysterious woman in the building, she begins a chain of events that will impact everyone around her. Obreht’s style manages to capture that fable-like atmosphere that makes you question what is real, and she paints a strange dystopian world in The Morningside. I didn’t love this book — I could show more have used more character development — but I did like it, and I think many readers will enjoy this novel about mothers and daughters, belonging, and displacement. show less

Despite the lovely prose and themes I could see peeking out of this story toward the end, I just couldn't find myself enjoying this book. My biggest qualm was the narrator, an 11-year-old girl who had thoughts far more nuanced and advanced than I did even a decade older. I found it continually difficult to believe that this girl could behave in the way she did; could have the perspectives she held in a dystopian landscape where food was rationed so tightly that she'd never had meat. The characters were thin, the fantasy tossed about and stories random. I struggled with the focus both on the present and past via a narrator who, if not unreliable, was at least ignorant to the very last page of the book. Sure, the action did pick up in the show more second half of the book, but without any buy-in for the characters (except May, who'd been given an emotional backstory), it fell flat. Perhaps this type of narrative isn't for me, but it's clear that Obreht has talent. If I find myself in the mood for a more thematic read, I'll certainly give her former work a try in the future.

Rounded down from 2.5 ⭐️ show less

Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I got an ebook for this from NetGalley to review..

Thoughts: This ended up being okay. The story starts very slow and feels very "day in the life". There is a bit of a plot and the pace does pick up more towards the end. I liked the strange post-apocalyptic setting but it also felt a bit unfinished and ultimately the story felt unsatisfying to me.

The story follows a young girl (and eventually young woman) named Silvia who lives with her mother in the strange high rise building called the Morningstar. Her mother is the superintendent at The Morningstar, a high-rise with wealthy tenants who are trying to relive their glory days while the rest of the world drowns under the rising waters of the show more Earth. Silivia is inspired by the fantastical stories her aunt, Ena, and starts to become obsessed with the mysterious woman who lives on the top floor of the building.

The story moved slowly and we wander from day to day with Silvia as she both takes on maintenance tasks in The Morningstar and plots to find out more about the top floor resident. No background is ever explained about the world and we are left to piece it together from what we see and hear from the characters. This left the world feeling kind of dreamy and thin.

The tone and pace of the story changes dramatically at the end when Silvia's mom recognizes a man who has recently moved into The Morningstar. At this point the story pivots away from the myserious woman on the top floor and things get more urgent...until then again they aren't. Our characters just move past those issues and wander away to live their lives. While realistic, I guess, it makes for a fairly unsatisfying read. It left me wondering what the point was.

The writing is easy to read and engaging. I struggled with the pacing and with picturing the world and caring about the characters. I did like the theme of a parent struggling to provide for their child in this post-apocalyptic world.

My Summary (3.5/5): Overall this was okay but forgettable. The world is vague and the characters aren't all that likable. There is a bit of a plot but it is left stranded mid-book while the story pivots to other issues. The story lacks urgency and ends up feeling unfinished and left me with a well...okay then...kind of vibe. I finished it and the world was tantalizing in the glimpses we got but I just felt a bit cheated that so little actually happened. show less

TW/CW: Scary situations, character death, language

RATING: 3.5/5

REVIEW: I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley and am voluntarily writing an honest review.

The Morningside is the story of refugees looking for home in a large tenement building after a massive war and climate crisis in what seems to be near future North America.

The main character, a little girl named Silvia, grows up in this building with her mother, and the book follows her from the time she’s ten years old until she becomes a grown woman.

While this book was no doubt well written, I can’t say that it really grabbed me. It felt like I kept waiting for something to happen, and when it finally did, it felt rushed and unsatisfying. Also, I thought the setting show more and the post-apocalyptic world was pretty under-utilized. When I finished this book, it felt strongly like I was missing something, but after a week thinking about it, I still can’t figure out what that was.

This is not a bad book, in fact it’s pretty interesting in places. But for me, it failed to deliver what it could have been. show less

The Morningside is an enigmatic and heterogeneous novel that is highly enjoyable. Set in the not-so-distant future, it is essentially the story of a young girl named Silvia. With a dystopian setting, it is a coming-of-age story of family, the aching need for one's history, and the desire to make sense of one's world. While melancholic, the story also contains elements of mysticism, magic, and adventure. Sil hears stories of her homeland, a place she has no memory of, from her aunt Ena, whom she has only recently met. She is enraptured with the folktales and accounts of the beauty of where she came from. Her dull existence is further piqued when she meets a mysterious man, and a girl her age moves into her building. These events and show more Sil's nosy curiosity about the woman who lives in the penthouse with her three mammoth dogs form the crux of the story. Téa Obreht has created a delightfully imaginative novel that I found entertaining.
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the ARC of this book. show less