Bear by Julia Phillips is a 304 page standalone novel published by Hogarth in 2024.
Genre:
Literary fiction
Opening Line:
The ferry from Friday Harbor left fourteen times a day-fifteen on weekends-to loop around San Juan Channel’s scattered islands.
Synopsis:
A mesmerizing novel of two sisters on a Pacific Northwest island whose lives are upended by an unexpected visitor – a tale of family, obsession, and a mysterious creature in the woods, by the celebrated author of Disappearing Earth.
They were sisters and the would last past the end of time.
Sam and here sister, Elena, dream of another life. On the island off the coast of Washington where they were born and raised, they and their mother struggle to survive. Sam works long days on the ferry that delivers wealthy mainlanders to their vacation homes while Elena bartends at the local golf club, but even together they can’t earn enough to get by, stirring their frustration about the limits the shape of their existence.
Then one night on the boat, Sam spots a bear swimming the dark waters of the channel. Where is it going? What does it want? When the bear turns up by their home, Sam, terrified, is more convinced than ever that it’s time to leave the island. But Elena responds differently to the massive beast. Enchanted by its presence, she throws into doubt the plan to escape and puts their long-held dream in danger.
A story about the bonds of sisterhood and the mysteries of the animals that live among us – and within us – Bear is a propulsive, mythical, rich novel from one of the most acclaimed young writers in America.
My Thoughts:
This is slow-moving literary fiction ruined by infuriating characters that I had a hard time understanding.
Sam and Elena are adult sisters living paycheck to paycheck with their ailing mother an the island off the coast of Washington State. A bear swims to shore one day, likely on its way to Vancouver in search of a mate. One sister is unreasonably distraught by this all out of proportion to the situation, while the other thinks it’s the best thing that’s ever happened. These differing views throw a wrench into their relationship.
That’s it, that’s the story.
When they first see the bear outside of their home, the women freak out, hide out of sight of the windows, and cower. They are upset that it takes the officers from the sheriff’s department something like 20 minutes to arrive after they call. What exactly did they expect them to do? Then, even knowing that their sick mother is likely to die soon, Elena repeatedly tries to call her sister at work and sends her a text that says only, “CALL ME,” and it turns out the urgent message is just, “I saw the bear again.” …okay? And? Then the dumb dumb starts to feed the wild animal.
Sam is the main POV character, and she is just the worst. Not only does she continue to be absolutely terrified that this wild animal exists on the same island as her and cause problems with her sister because of this, she is unspeakably rude to several characters who are nothing but nice to her. One of them she feels justified in being nasty to just because his financial circumstances are more comfortable than hers. She asks another for help, and the woman offers help, and Sam’s response is, “Screw you!”
Then, after very little plot but a WHOLE LOT of angst, the ending feels emotionally manipulative.
There is sex in this book, not in any scenes that the reader is actually present for, but referred to in some fairly graphic terms. There is a bit of mild violence.
It’s clear I was irritated by some aspects of the book, but the writing itself was good, as was the audiobook narration (other than there often being audible loud intakes of breath before each line, which seems like an issue with the editing, not the voice work). I liked some of the message regarding the sisters’ differing views on their lives in general. But ultimately, for the aforementioned reasons, this one was a miss for me.
Jessica Crawford 