Excellent characters. Believable real-life situations and challenges. Wonderful Indigenous representation.
Even thought The Berry Pickers is outside my norm for typical books I select; I still enjoyed it. This is a ‘book club’ like pick (which I usually avoid). As it’s an Indigenous story I wanted to read it. I’m glad I did. There is a lot that can be unpacked here; not least of which is perhaps why parents, children, and teenagers all keep secrets from one another. If everyone could be more honest and ask questions safely (no matter the topic) I think we’d all be better off.
While the overall story lags at times; especially when it’s Norma’s POV. The Berry Pickers is still a good contemporary literature book. It has depth, believability, and you’ll likely want some Kleenex nearby near the end.

Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.

Title: The Berry Pickers
Author: Amanda Peters
Genre: Historical Fiction
Rating: 4.75
Pub Date: April 4, 2023

I received complimentary eARC copy of this book from HarperCollins Canada via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. #Gifted #Ad

T H R E E • W O R D S

Riveting • Quiet • Moving

📖 S Y N O P S I S

July 1962. A Mi’kmaq family from Nova Scotia arrives in Maine to pick blueberries for the summer. Weeks later, four-year-old Ruthie, the family’s youngest child, is seen sitting on her favourite rock at the edge of a field before mysteriously vanishing. Her six-year-old brother, Joe, who was the last person to see Ruthie, is devastated by his sister’s disappearance, and her loss ripples through his life for years to come.

In Maine, a young girl named Norma grows up as an only child in an affluent family. Her father is emotionally distant, while her mother is frustratingly overprotective of Norma, who is often troubled by recurring dreams and visions that seem to be too real to be her imagination. As she grows older, Norma senses there is something her parents aren’t telling her. Unwilling to abandon her intuition, she pursues her family’s secret for decades.

💭 T H O U G H T S

Amanda Peters debut novel, The Berry Pickers, came onto my radar while browsing 2023 releases on NetGalley. From the synopsis, I had a gut feeling I'd absolutely love this novel, yet it far surpassed me expectations.

Told in alternating POVs between Joe and Norma, Peters has crafted two unique voices offering just enough history without it overshadowing the story. The writing is subtle and the story has a steady pace. With themes of generational trauma, different types of loss, and the search for truth and identity, there is also an undercurrent of love, hope, and forgiveness. This novel is filled with great sorrow, yet there's so much resiliency that I couldn't help but feel hopeful.

The Berry Pickers is a book that will stay with me. Each of the characters found a way into my heart. It moved me to the core and is a stunning portrayal of the importance of family, language and culture. Amanda Petters is a new voice in Canadian fiction that I will be eagerly awaiting more books from.

📚 R E C O M M E N D • T O
• readers searching for an Indigenous voice
• historical fiction fans
• book clubs

⚠️ CW: kidnapping, death, child death, sibling death, death of parent, grief, mental illness, violence, murder, dementia, mental illness, addiction, alcoholism, alcohol, domestic abuse, physical abuse, terminal illness, cancer, pregnancy, miscarriage, racism, blood, infertility, animal death, suicidal thoughts, injury/injury detail, divorce, cursing

🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S

"Words are powerful and funny things, said or unsaid."

"Hope is such a wonderful thing until it isn't."

"If children lose their parents, they are orphans. If a husband loses his wife, he's a widower. But there's no word for a parent who loses a child. I've come to believe that the event is just too big, too monstrous, too overwhelming for words. No word could ever describe the feeling, so we leave it unsaid."

"Some wounds cannot be healed. Some wounds never close, never scar. But the further away from the injury, the easier it became to smile."

Beautiful and heartbreaking. Filled with wisdom, reflection, and a wide range of emotions, this book felt like I was sitting with the characters and hearing the story first hand. The trauma of a young girl being kidnapped, and her family needing to move forward while suffering from such an unimaginable loss, was devastating to think and read about, but the moments of happiness added complexity and allowed for an overall really wonderful read. Thank you so much for the galley, this book will stay with me for a long time.

I love love loved this mysterious, coming of age story about a young indigenous girl who went missing. The story shifts perspectives between main characters of both families giving a really robust image of the types of lives led by both MCs. The details about Nova Scotia hit home for me and I loved seeing places referenced like The Valley and Musquodoboit. The story is heart wrenching from beginning to end - but I promise the journey is worth it.

This book was an emotional read in a wonderful setting. I loved every minute of this! This writing is beautiful. I highly recommend this one.

This is a quiet novel about grief, guilt and secrets and the impact that a little girl’s disappearance has on two families. This is very much a character-driven story and it unfolds slowly over the course of fifty years. The story touched upon racism against Indigenous Peoples, residential schools, infertility and resiliency in the face of the several tragedies in the plot. The writing was descriptive and the ending fit with the unfolding of the story but was not unexpected. Some of the secondary characters were very hard to fathom. A good read but one that did not touch me as much as some other Indigenous-themed novels have.

Okay wow - I don’t know what I was expecting but it wasn’t this. This book was beautiful. Amanda was able to paint a vivid picture that focuses on a families struggles through numerous tragedies and how many lives those struggles affect.

The dual POV throughout the years was the perfect way to see this story from all perspectives from start to finish. This book will tear at your heart strings as well as hopefully allow you to see a small piece of the history of this land.

The Berry Pickers is an immersive and stunningly written debut novel by Amanda Peters.

Every summer, a Mi’kmaq family travels from Nova Scotia to Maine to pick berries. A few weeks into the season, the youngest child, Ruthie, vanishes without a trace. Her older brother Joe was the last person to see her. That fact will sit heavy with him for years to come.

Norma grows up in a wealthy household but is plagued with dreams that she cannot understand. And her loving but controlling mother refuses to discuss them. As Norma grows older, she realizes her parents are hiding something from her.

This beautifully written novel follows Joe and Norma’s perspectives. This is a moving and powerful story with sprinkles of Indigenous humour here and there.

It discusses the loss of language and culture, the threat of residential schools, and MMIW. But it also shines a light on the importance of family. Even with the heavier topics, there is a sense of hopefulness by the end.

The story slowly drew me in, and by the end, I wished there were more pages. Both of the main characters completely captured my heart.

I highly recommend adding this wonderful debut to your TBR as soon as possible.

Thank you to Harper Perennial for providing an arc via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

https://booksandwheels.com

Sometimes you finish a book and easily write a review about it, spilling everything you loved or didn’t  and move onto the next book. Then a book comes along, and you wonder how you will ever find the right words to adequately describe your experience reading the book. For me, The Berry Pickers falls into the later category and while I don’t think I can do this book justice in describing it, I am going to try.  

The Berry Pickers reads in alternating perspectives between Joe and Norma while flashing from present day to the past. The author fully immerses you in the locations bringing them to life and helping you connect to these families. One young family experiences so much trauma and loss, but still comes together. Their youngest child goes missing and they never fail in their belief that she is out there somewhere. It is so tragic yet so heartwarming to watch this family come together. In another family, fleeting glimpses into the past and a continued quest to find your own history to find your place in the world, to find forgiveness and be at peace with yourself.  

All of this to say that this story is stunning, beautifully written and heartbreaking. I experience so many emotions and was rooting for these families to find the truth, to find closure and peace. I learned about the challenges in life and the split-second decisions that can change your life forever.

I loved Joe, the doting and conflicted brother. I loved Norma, the precocious and inquisitive child. I became quickly attached to these characters. It felt like I was reading a biography of two families. This will be a story that I recommend to anyone and everyone who will listen. I will tell them that likely see yourself in one or all of these characters, in the way they make decisions to protect who they love. I will tell them they will read heartbreak, but also hope and determination.  

This is a story that will stay with me. It is a story that made me think and feel. It drew me into a world and brought it to life. What more can we ask for from a story?