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merit_willa's review against another edition
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
szdalessa's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
jrsands's review
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
3.5
timna_wyckoff's review
4.0
Really enjoyed this. Reminded me of Elizabeth Stout but in a future where today’s problems (climate, domestic terror, xenophobia) are a click or two (or three) worse.
canne's review
challenging
hopeful
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
4.5
candacesiegle_greedyreader's review
5.0
Vigil Harbor
I loved this novel, in fact, I think it is my favorite book by Julia Glass. Set in the next decade, after a pandemic and in the midst of ongoing climate challenge, Vigil Harbor is a small East Coast town where people are just living their lives in a time when they’re not quite sure what that means. The frisson of anxiety beneath the town is resulting in marriage breakups among the YC (Yacht Club) and some strange behavior. The stepson of the town’s renowned architect of climate-survivable homes has returned from New York after being injured in a climate-action explosion, an event about which he remembers almost nothing. A woman from Texas has arrived to write an article about that same architect. The local arborist receives a visit from an old acquaintance, someone he is not happy to see.
Told in alternating points of view, Glass introduces us to the characters with depth, elegance, and humor. Each person is fully realized, their hearts exposed. We see how the lives of the adults already differ from the way young people are forging their ways and imagining the future.
I am grateful to Netgalley and Knopf for access to this title.
If this sounds too dark, it’s not. There’s a moving element of magic in an unexpected place. “Vigil Harbor” is engrossing, enlightening, and hard to put down.
I loved this novel, in fact, I think it is my favorite book by Julia Glass. Set in the next decade, after a pandemic and in the midst of ongoing climate challenge, Vigil Harbor is a small East Coast town where people are just living their lives in a time when they’re not quite sure what that means. The frisson of anxiety beneath the town is resulting in marriage breakups among the YC (Yacht Club) and some strange behavior. The stepson of the town’s renowned architect of climate-survivable homes has returned from New York after being injured in a climate-action explosion, an event about which he remembers almost nothing. A woman from Texas has arrived to write an article about that same architect. The local arborist receives a visit from an old acquaintance, someone he is not happy to see.
Told in alternating points of view, Glass introduces us to the characters with depth, elegance, and humor. Each person is fully realized, their hearts exposed. We see how the lives of the adults already differ from the way young people are forging their ways and imagining the future.
I am grateful to Netgalley and Knopf for access to this title.
If this sounds too dark, it’s not. There’s a moving element of magic in an unexpected place. “Vigil Harbor” is engrossing, enlightening, and hard to put down.
hayleybeale's review
4.0
Set in the near future, this speculative novel looks at the repercussions of pre-apocalyptic events on the residents of small, smug Vigil Harbor on the Massachusetts coast. For me, its success lies in the creation of a deep and richly complex cast while ecoterrorism and climate change are more of a backdrop.
The novel is narrated by members of four Vigil Harbor families and one interloper, over the course of a few days following a terrorist bombing in New York by the Oceloti, a previously rather tame rain forest defense group. Though Vigil Harborites can track the damage that rising sea levels are doing to their town, they feel secure in their isolated position against attacks from those who want to bring attention to the wilful squandering of the earth’s natural resources. But it turns out that they are not as invulnerable as they would like.
For me, the novel got off to a rocky start with Brecht, a college student now at home with his mother and architect stepfather, following a bombing near his home in New York. I felt the author was trying a bit too hard, using invented young people patois while trying to establish the just around the bend time period. Once we get to the middle aged narrators, the author (and me as a reader) just felt more comfortable.
Once the world has been established, we hone in on the two stories catalyzed by two outsiders. Petra has come to talk covertly to Austin about a most unusual young woman, Issa, they both had a relationship with decades ago. Ernesto is on his way up the coast and has called in to see Celestino, a supposedly old friend of his. Vigil Harbor is nearly all white and heterosexual, but Petra is gay and Ernesto is brown-skinned.
The finely delineated characters and their relationships with each are masterfully crafted, each with a unique voice and perspective. As we move from narrator to narrator, each moving the story forward and filling out the background, I found myself particularly drawn to Margo. She’s a waspish retired high school English teacher, abandoned by her husband who has moved away with a woman from the Yacht Club to a survivalist commune. In some ways, Margo is rather pathetic, yet the author gives her a sharpness and zing that avoids that.
While both storylines reach conclusions, neither is particularly satisfactory. Petra and Austin reach an understanding of what went on between themselves and Issa, but neither feels like they have reached a catharsis. Ernesto presents much more of a threat to the Harborites but in the end it sort of fizzles out offstage and we only learn what really happened through an extended epilogue-style section.
Ms Glass is probably most famous for Three Junes, which I read so long ago I can only remember that I really loved it and not much else about it. I’m not sure this is the novel that will bring her that sort of acclaim again, but it is abundantly enjoyable and will make many readers (and book clubs) very happy.
Thanks to Knopf Doubleday and Netgalley for the digital review copy.
The novel is narrated by members of four Vigil Harbor families and one interloper, over the course of a few days following a terrorist bombing in New York by the Oceloti, a previously rather tame rain forest defense group. Though Vigil Harborites can track the damage that rising sea levels are doing to their town, they feel secure in their isolated position against attacks from those who want to bring attention to the wilful squandering of the earth’s natural resources. But it turns out that they are not as invulnerable as they would like.
For me, the novel got off to a rocky start with Brecht, a college student now at home with his mother and architect stepfather, following a bombing near his home in New York. I felt the author was trying a bit too hard, using invented young people patois while trying to establish the just around the bend time period. Once we get to the middle aged narrators, the author (and me as a reader) just felt more comfortable.
Once the world has been established, we hone in on the two stories catalyzed by two outsiders. Petra has come to talk covertly to Austin about a most unusual young woman, Issa, they both had a relationship with decades ago. Ernesto is on his way up the coast and has called in to see Celestino, a supposedly old friend of his. Vigil Harbor is nearly all white and heterosexual, but Petra is gay and Ernesto is brown-skinned.
The finely delineated characters and their relationships with each are masterfully crafted, each with a unique voice and perspective. As we move from narrator to narrator, each moving the story forward and filling out the background, I found myself particularly drawn to Margo. She’s a waspish retired high school English teacher, abandoned by her husband who has moved away with a woman from the Yacht Club to a survivalist commune. In some ways, Margo is rather pathetic, yet the author gives her a sharpness and zing that avoids that.
While both storylines reach conclusions, neither is particularly satisfactory. Petra and Austin reach an understanding of what went on between themselves and Issa, but neither feels like they have reached a catharsis. Ernesto presents much more of a threat to the Harborites but in the end it sort of fizzles out offstage and we only learn what really happened through an extended epilogue-style section.
Ms Glass is probably most famous for Three Junes, which I read so long ago I can only remember that I really loved it and not much else about it. I’m not sure this is the novel that will bring her that sort of acclaim again, but it is abundantly enjoyable and will make many readers (and book clubs) very happy.
Thanks to Knopf Doubleday and Netgalley for the digital review copy.
hatrireads's review against another edition
3.0
Dystopian novel set in an idyllic harbor town outside Boston about 20 years in the future. Confusing with the different voices at the start, it all comes together by the end. Good characters and plot.