Apparently the key to my heart is a book with a fruit farm.

A Native American family loses their daughter Ruthie in the Blueberry fields of Maine. The loss haunts the family for years and other tragic events unfold while Ruthie, now Norma, is raised by her new mother and father. The book rotates POVs between Ruthie and Joe (her older brother).
As I read The Berry Pickers I had to message a few friends who’d already read it to swoon over how wonderful I found the book. The characters and surroundings were so vividly written and the writing tugged at my heart. The tragedy is heartbreaking and I felt the pain of a mother who has lost her child. The themes reminded me a lot of Go As a River (lost children, farm life, Native American rep) so if you loved that book you’ll surely enjoy this one too. An amazing debut worthy of all the praise and attention!

The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters was so full of heartfelt drama, complex characters and beautiful writing that I would have never guessed it was a debut novel. The plot centers on Ruthie, the youngest child in a Mi'kmaq family from Nova Scotia who comes to Maine each summer to pick berries. One summer little Ruthie disappears, and with no help from local police, she is never found. The heartbroken family tries to move on but they are never the same again - especially her brother Joe, who had been supposed to be keeping an eye on Ruthie when she went missing.

The other part of the story features Norma, an only child, who lives with overly protective mother and distant father. Norma has dreams of a bright moon, a nice lady by a fire and a kind brother. Her mother convinces her the dream means nothing and that her baby pictures burned up in a fire.

As the reader, we know where the story is going but the journey there is fraught with bumps and tragic twists of fate. The author excels at creating full and rich characters. No one is completely bad or good, despite some of the actions they take. I found even Lenore, Norma's mother, to be sympathetic, as she was blinded with her desperation to have a child. And Joe, for all his poor choices, is clearly traumatized by his grief and guilt over losing Ruthie, which compels him to push away every good thing in his life. Mae, Ruthie's older sister was a powerhouse who did her best to hold the family together. And Norma's Aunt June was a lifeline for Norma when her mother's love was too stifling.

The writing was so beautiful even through all the tragedy surrounding these folks. This line particularly haunted me, "I lived my entire childhood in the shadow of infant ghosts. Their memory haunted my mother, and she carried them around with her, constantly tripping over their absence and blaming me for the fall." I look forward to reading more by this author.

I will recommend this to readers who like complex family dramas.

Thank you to the publisher, Catapult and NetGalley for the digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you netgalley and catapult for the opportunity to read this book in advance of the publication date.

This is an excellent debut. I was very engrossed in the story, but be forewarned there are very sad parts and the ending is a real tearjerker - at least it was for me.
Also, please note that this is not a mystery, so don't listen to reviewers who say it wasn't mysterious...
Thinking about Norma and her white family throughout the book, I was so full of rage. The author did a great job of showing a full range of delusion plus some characters' ability to justify anything in their own head. That is one of the most devastatingly sad aspects of the book.
I will read any book Amanda Peters writes next!

Wow, just wow. Not many books this year have packed quite a punch like this one. Alternating between Ruthie/Norma and her brother Joe (the last person to see her) this is a story of loss, kidnapping, grief and so much more. This was so hard and angering at times to listen to, because you know it has happened and could very well still be happening. I will definitely be recommending this to everyone. I thought it was well written and ended well.

*Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!*

The Berry Pickers is a dynamic novel that tells a story in two POVs of a family torn apart. From the start we are clued in as to what is happening, and at first I wondered if this would hinder my perception of the book or not, but I enjoyed it thoroughly. I wanted to know more even though I knew where it was heading. That speaks volumes of this author's skill.

The writing draws you in as everything unravels and we move through time in each chapter. I was also worried about the long chapters but it actually wasn't an issue for me, because I was always interested in seeing the way Joe and Norma's lives pan out. This story could only have been achieved in the way that it was by doing the dual POV because you get insight from all angles.

There were also moments where I couldn't decide if I was enjoying Norma or Joe's POV more. I think in the beginning I was enjoying Joe's as we followed along through his youth with inklings of where his life goes, and towards the end I was enjoy Norma's as she starts to put all the pieces from previous chapters together. There's just so much ebb and flow in this story that it is mind boggling. There's often mention of high and low tide in this novel and I think that really replicates how this story works in terms of movement.

As for why I did not give five stars it was for two reasons. When we get to the reveal of the story, it felt a little flat. We were leading up to this one moment and you know from chapter two where it's going and I was only a little disappointed. The emotions, from the shock to the anger to the heart ache were more so explained rather than felt. Others might find it appealing, and it probably does come down to personal preference, but I just wanted more. And to feel more. I know this author can draw big emotions out of you while reading because I felt them several times throughout. So that was a little disappointing for me.

My second reason is the body shaming. I am not someone who thinks books need to be perfect, and if it's once and is sort of an off-hand little insult it's something I can brush off, but this happens several times in the book for no reason. Such as Joe noticing a fat man getting on the ferris wheel with an equally fat woman and wondering if it will hold. Those people, that ferris wheel, and that comment have nothing to do with the story or building Joe's character. And by this point several other comments were made that I had just ignored. Being Indigenous I want to fully love and support every novel and Indigenous author. It makes it hard when your body size is repeatedly insulted and frowned upon.

That being said, I still really liked this novel. I loved seeing the way their lives and families pan out, and the commentary on how everything unfolds and how when we get to the end, nothing can be changed in the past. You can only change where it goes from there. The ending was actually my favorite part because I loved the way everything came together, and seeing how it unfolds was lovely.

I hope I never lose my excitement for an own voices debut. THE BERRY PICKERS is a heartfelt family drama that follows an Indigenous family from Nova Scotia to Maine for seasonal work picking berries. Their lives are upended when their young daughter Ruthie disappears.

This story is less about the mystery of what happened to Ruthie; we hear from Ruthie as she ages and know how her story plays out. This is more about the aftermath of the tragedy and how it impacts Ruthie’s family, especially her brother Joe who is haunted by his sister’s disappearance and leaves a trail of heartbreak in his wake.

If you’re up for a family drama that explores race, class, and moving forward through life with grief add THE BERRY PICKERS to your fall TBR.

RATING: 4/5
PUB DATE: October 31, 2023

READ THIS IF:
I had you at “own voices debut”
Heavy topics don’t deter you
You want a riveting book club discussion

Thank you to Catapult for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I heard about this book after an Indie Publishers Book Buzz and was instantly hooked by the description.

The last time that six year old Joe saw his four year old sister, Ruthie, she was sitting on her favorite rock on the edge of a blueberry field. Joe and Ruthie were in Maine on that fateful day along with a community of many other families and workers to pick blueberries. The rest of that summer, and each summer that their family returned to the blueberry fields, they scoured the remaining area looking for Ruthie. Joe, and the rest of his loud, loving Mi’kmaq family, never gave up hope of finding their youngest family member.

In Maine, not too far from that field, Norma is an only child of an overbearing, protective, yet, in their way, loving family. She suffers from a recurring dream- a dream that feels more like a memory and upsets her mother at any mention. As the years pass and after a comment from her ailing mother, Norma discovers a secret from her past that her parents worked hard to hide.

Despite the opening chapter heavily hinting at the end and the connections between Ruthie and Norma being fairly obvious, it was still a page turner- I needed to get to the point of that opening chapter.

Even though this book was not always an easy read, due to the trauma on all sides, the display of love across time and distance, the persistence of Ruthie's family, and the representation of different ways of reacting to grief kept me hooked.

4.5 rounded down. Reminded me of Louise Erdrich a bit but more straightforward in terms of writing. Cried!

Breathtaking review that imagines a possible story of a young indigenous girl who was stolen in Nova Scotia. Heartbreaking but unputdownable. I stayed up past my bedtime to finish this story.

A beautiful and emotional story of loss, family, and belonging. This book made me cry more than any I've read in the past year - both tears of happiness and sadness.

This was a lighter read than many but included tantalizing threads that kept me engaged. A Mi'qmaq family from Nova Scotia travels annually to Main to pick berries and do other seasonal jobs. One year is very jarring and causes them not to return, when the 5-year-old daughter goes missing., and everyone's lives are forever changed. The chapters alternate between the family that remains and a young girl raised by a Maine family. The reader can see early on where the story is going, but the details, the enduring love over the decades, the remorse, and the dreams that are actually memories are very gripping. Great work by this debut author.

An indigenous family from Nova Scotia is in Maine harvesting blueberries when their 4 year old daughter disappears. Meanwhile, living in an affluent Maine family, the 4 year old, only child of an emotionally distant father and an overprotective mother is subject to troubling nightmares about a world which bears no resemblance to her own. These two well told story arcs intertwine over a period of 50 years until the truth of the disappearance is resolved. The novel explores themes of cultural differences, prejudice, difficult relationships, the consequences of unfortunate decisions and the strength of family and love.

"The Berry Pickers" begins with a family working the fields when their four-year-old daughter ends up missing and the owner of the fields is more concerned about the workers picking berries than searching for the daughter, a Native American girl, The novel is told by Joe, the brother of the missing sister, and Norma, the girl who was missing and remembers her former name, Ruthie, but can't place why.

Perhaps I was too impatient, but since readers more or less figure Joe and Norma will meet eventually, I was hoping the reunion would have happened sooner, but alas, we wait until the end, which gives the novel a somewhat Lifetime happy ending.

I wondered why Norma, who we learn towards the end of the novel, though it wasn't addressed earlier, assumes she was adopted since she has darker skin than her parents, but she doesn't confront her parents or do a DNA search or discuss it with her husband. It's unfortunate that there weren't Amber Alerts or photos on milk cartons or even a mention of Norma (Ruthie) missing when she was four, but it was 1971, and she was from a poor Native America migrant family, so no flyers posted, just word around the fields. And, apparently, not many questions were asked when the new family brings home this four-year-old girl.

The novel covers many important social, personal, and emotional issues, and the writing is evocative, and more patient readers will feel less frustrated that by the time they meet, the novel is at the end.

A somber, yet very satisfying novel about two siblings separated as children and the divergent paths their lives took after the day Ruthie disappeared from the berry fields in Maine where her family worked. Ruthie and Joe are unforgettable and unique characters, as are the others in their families. The author's deeply nuanced portraits of this sister and brother, who both carry a deep knowing that something is not right, makes for an engrossing and powerfully redemptive story. This author has a promising future!

This story explores the difference one bad decision can make in the lives of multiple people. Six year old Joe is the last to see his sister Ruthie before she disappears from the orchards where his family picked berries seasonally. And that loss changes the family forever. Meanwhile Norma, has a strange and confined life with her overly attentive mother and apologetic father. She knows she doesn't quite fit in the family but she doesn't know why. This is a story of trauma, hope, and fidning the truth.

The Berry Pickers is a stunning achievement from a very talented writer. The emotions conveyed throughout this novel are from the heart and amazingly genuine. We as readers sympathize so much with the characters.

While certainly not equivalent to a thriller or suspense novel, the pace moves along nicely for a literary novel.

The ending feels satisfying, and the setting is evocative without extraneous detail getting in the way of the narrative. Having recently traveled to Maine and Nova Scotia, this book came at a good time for me personally.

I look forward to reading more from this author. The Berry Pickers is highly recommended for fans of literary fiction.

I received a complimentary e-galley from the publisher; all opinions are my own.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the Kindle ARC. From the description of The Berry Pickers, I knew I would enjoy the book - I just didn't realize how much I would enjoy it. It is a story of family, both lost and found. A Mi'kmaq Indian family from Canada travels to Maine each year during berry picking season. One season, the family's four year old, Ruthie, goes missing. The various stages of grief, anger and family drawing closer together are perfectly portraited in this heartfelt novel.

This book got me. It hits you with every emotion. I absolutely adored every moment of the journey that this book brought me along for.