I received an arc copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. I can't wait to see if I can find more of Eden Robinson's writing. I'm giving it four stars only because the ending left me wanting more. A group of boys are circling her taunting her and she frigging attacks and comes out the better.that's the type of character this is. Her nickname is 'Monster' because she is fearless. Lisa is not the typical main character either. She also has the gift of seeing ghosts.this is not a ghost story though.just the best kind of storytelling. Lisa is visited by a small red haired man that usually brings hard times in her life. I thought I could smell the ocean and taste the fish as she described each detail. Lisa's Ma-ma-oo and Uncle Mick became characters that came to life under this writer's hand. This is some of the very best blending of mysticism and reality that I've read. Weaved through Lisa's pain and terror of losing her brother is stories of her childhood. It's based on her stories of her family and growing up on a Haisla reservation. This book follows Lisa Marie Michelle Hill on her journey through her memories after her brother Jimmy is lost from a fishing boat. 'Sasquatches are make believe, like fairies. Monkey Beach-that magical place that b'gwus (Sasquatches) are. You have to wade through a whole lot of not so good books and then you find one.like this one.that just makes your heart sing. I never would have found this book except for through that website. Informed as much by its lush living wilderness as by the humanity of its colorful characters, Monkey Beach is a profoundly moving story about childhood and the pain of growing older-a multilayered tale of family grief and redemption.īooks like this are exactly why I love Netgalley.

Haunting, funny, and vividly poignant, Monkey Beach gives full scope to Robinson's startling ability to make bedfellows of comedy and the dark underside of life. Circling her brother's tragic death are the remarkable characters that make up her family: Lisamarie's parents, struggling to join their Haisla heritage with Western ways Uncle Mick, a Native rights activist and devoted Elvis fan and the headstrong Ma-ma-oo (Haisla for 'grandmother'), a guardian of tradition. She is searching for her brother, dead by drowning, and in her own way running as fast as she can toward danger.

She recounts her enchanted yet scarred life as she journeys in her speedboat up the frigid waters of the Douglas Channel. Visited by ghosts and shapeshifters, tormented by premonitions, she can't escape the sense that something terrible is waiting for her. Growing up a tough, wild tomboy, swimming, fighting, and fishing in a remote village where the land slips into the green ocean on the edge of the world, Lisamarie has always been different. Five hundred miles north of Vancouver is Kitamaat, an Indian reservation in the homeland of the Haisla people.

Synopsis of monkey beach