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 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. ( )

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 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. ( )

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 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. ( )

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 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. ( )