Kasia Van Schaik's debut story collection follows the journey of Charlotte Ferrier, a child of divorce raised by a single mother in a small town in British Columbia after moving from South Africa. Mother and daughter wait out the end of a bad year in a Mexican hotel; a friendship is tested as forest fires demolish Charlotte's town; a childhood friend disappears while travelling through Europe; and a girl on the beach examines the memories of dying jellyfish. The stories traverse the most intimate and transforming moments of female experience in a world threatened by ecological crisis.
Narrator Marysia Bucholc creates an air of skewed reality in this collection of interconnected stories. Charlotte Farrier moves from South Africa to Canada with her single mother and struggles with both the ordinary and peculiar difficulties of young womanhood. Bucholc's tones are slightly flat by design, perfectly signaling Charlotte's objective gaze upon her own life. From friend-consuming fores
