I was smitten with the premise of this book, but--for me personally--it just didn't meet expectations.

First off, I thought the descriptive passages were beautiful and I really loved setting and the relationship between the sisters. I also loved the Snow White/Rose Red homage (and wish it would have leaned into it a bit more.) And, of course, I loved the bear (MORE BEAR!)

I think what surprised me was how little bear there was in a book called "Bear." Instead there was more talking ABOUT the bear and what it meant for their lives. It felt more conceptual, than part of the narrative, which was not what I had been expecting.

Also, I had a hard time connecting with Sam. She's so very rude to everyone she meets, and is really emotionally immature. This makes sense due to her family history, but it made it hard to root for her.

I guess ultimately I would have loved a book that switched perspectives between Sam and Elena, since they have such totally different experiences with the bear (and in life) and goals. One sister is having a huge life change and the other is complaining about it the whole time. It sucked that we were stuck in the perspective of the later sister.

Ultimately though, this was a well-written and lovely book. Might be a good match for other readers. Thank you to the author and NetGalley for granting me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Bear was an interesting book, started off a bit slow, but picked up and got more interesting. I really enjoyed the islands and would like to have more information on the different islands that she visited daily in her Ferry job. Interesting family, and the location was great. The story was interesting.

Another book loosely based on a story I was unaware of. This time, it’s very loosely based on the Grimm Brothers’ Snow White and Rose Red fairy tale. And it does sort of have a fairy tale vibe.
Two sisters are in their 20s, taking care of their sickly mother and trying to survive in subsistence jobs. The story juxtaposes between the practical daughter and the dreamer, the older vs. the younger. One day, a bear shows up at their house. The two sisters have very different reactions, especially as the bear keeps making repeated appearances. One is scared and wants it gone. But the other views it as almost a miracle - something wonderful and unique and bringing joy to her life. The surprise is that the practical daughter is the one so entranced by the bear.
While I struggled with this and found myself at times skimming the pages, other sections totally drew me in. The characters were well developed.
I’m an only child, so I found the relationship between the sisters interesting - the pull and push of what each expected from the other. These were two women with vastly different views of trust, especially of authority figures.
My thanks to Netgalley and Random House for an advance copy of this book.

thank you to the author and publisher for providing me with a digital ARC of this title via Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

I am giving this 2.5 stars. I found it interesting for the first half as we met the characters and the bear swam on to the island. I lost interest as the story progressed. The sisters annoyed me and were so hard to connect to. I lost interest the more I read, the less interested I became and just wanted to finish it. The end was weird.

this story was sooooo cute and highlights true, loving sister hood. beautifully written and so hard to put down!!!!!

Julia Phillips is such an incredible talent. I've been dreaming of her next book since reading Disappearing Earth when it first came out, and this didn't disappoint. As everyone else has pointed out, this book is hard to describe, hard to quantify. It's a fairytale feeling.

Two sisters and their bonds are tested when an unexpected visitor begins to regularly show up. A bear. An interesting creative and almost eccentric novel to read, engage with and get lost in.

I really enjoyed this book. I was drawn in right away, and I stayed interested throughout.
I used to live in the San Juan Islands, so the setting was really alive in my mind. I loved her descriptions of the ferry, the sea, and the landscape of the area. It's so beautiful.
Sam was a complicated character. There were times I really didn't like her, but I think she had a hard life and lacked coping skills and social niceties. Elena was a bit flatter to me as a character, but it was interesting to see her evolve throughout the book.
Thanks to Net Galley for the book to review.

This obviously was not the book for me, I didn't care for the main characters at all. On the plus side the book did pull me in, I had to keep reading to find out what happened next. Other reviewers have mentioned it being a Snow White & Rose Red retelling, I did not catch that, so it didn't have a lot of the tropes from the Grimm Fairy Tale. People who enjoy stories about sisters may enjoy this more than I did.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the eARC.

Bear is a story of two sisters Elena and Sam who are taking care of their terminally ill mother. The sisters have grown up on an island in the Washington Sound and have always had each others backs. Enter one grizzly bear that appears on the sisters' front porch and will forever change each sisters's life.

I could not put this book down. I love sibling stories and this one includes all of the classic elements: love, dreams, secrets, jealousy, and tragedy. Julia Phillips creates such wonderful characters in this book that are so easy to care about. I can't stop thinking about the ending...no spoilers from this reader. JUST READ IT!!!!!

At the beginning of Bear Julia Phillips includes a brief snippet from the Brothers Grim story Snow-white and Rose-red, a story about two sisters and a bear. I refreshed my memory by reading the full story. It ends with the bear turning into a prince. Well dear readers, in Bear Phillips has written a story about two twenty-something young women, their sick mother, and a bear. The girls and their mother live in a crumbling house that once belonged to their grandmother on a valuable piece of waterfront land in the San Juan Islands west of Bellingham, Washington. The younger sister, Sam, works in the ferry galley while Elena works at the local country club. Neither girl makes much money. Each girl has different expectations for their life after their mother dies. Then one day a bear shows up on the porch of their home and life gets bizarre. The book is well-written, has a vivid sense of place, and clearly delineates the differences in the girls' personalities. It also illustrates how life expectations affect behavior.

Bear by Julia Phillips

Is an exquisitely unique novel about two sisters who live on San Juan island off the coast of Washington. Sam and Elena have always had each other. Throughout their mom’s bad boyfriend years and her terminal illness they’ve relied on each other, with Sam depending on her older sister more than she realizes. One day a bear arrives on the island, and Elena is enraptured. She begins to purposefully seek it out. Sam is scared of the bear, and tries to convince Elena that what she is doing is dangerous.

I think the premise of this novel is refreshing, not something I’ve seen done before. I really wasn’t sure where it was going plotwise for most of the book, but I enjoyed wondering, and I was glad there was some excitement at the end. I would have liked the characters fleshed out a tiny bit more, but I liked the way they interacted with each other. I found it interesting that Sam’s fundamental character traits almost got stronger at the end, rather than changed. Overall I enjoyed this book, 3.5/5 stars. Thank you for the ARC of this novel!

This is a hard-to-describe novel. It is both a novel of family (sisters, mothers and daughters), and an absolutely propulsive story of the wildness of the natural world impinging on the domestic. The fairy tale elements are haunting and atmospheric, and the counterpoint to the dreariness of family and work life is really compelling. There were many times when I wanted to shake the main character and I absolutely questioned her take on the world many times, but I also felt for her with all her misconceptions and misplaced dreams. And the ending is absolutely explosive. I'll definitely recommend this one, and it might even be a book club pick for our store.

This is a difficult book to review and not sure how I feel about it. The main character Sam is not particularly likeable and after awhile I wanted to just give her a jolt. It was also a bit perplexing as to why her sister, Elena, was so obsessed by the bear. Although the ending is disturbing, it took me by surprise. 3 1/2 stars.

I really enjoyed Julia Phillips’ Disappearing Earth and I liked Bear even better. This novel is my very favorite kind of literary fiction… it’s not a “great man” narrative, the writing is clean and lyrical (not showy or self-indulgent), and the story is about ordinary women doing ordinary things… in this case, two sisters in the Pacific Northwest who are struggling to scrape by and earn a living while caring for their dying mother. The story takes an unexpected turn with the arrival of a black bear, which tests the sisters’ relationship and introduces an element of thriller-crossed-with-fairytale to the book. Julia Phillips does an amazing job at creating a quiet (yet deeply creepy) sense of foreboding. What will you find when you go into the dark, dark woods where the bear lives? (What you find when you explore the hidden, shadowy parts of your soul?) And will you make out okay or not?

Thanks so much to Random House and NetGalley for my review copy!

🗓️ Releae date: June 25, 2024

I'm sad this one didn't work better for me. I loved Disappearing Earth, but Bear did not have the same intensity. We have two sisters who are keeping secrets from each other as they struggle to take care of their sick mother. Their financial struggles are portrayed authentically, giving the reader a good sense of the working poor lifestyle. The arrival of the bear lends the story a fairytale quality. However, overall, there's way too much exposition and not enough story or organic character development. In my opinion, the story would be better paced and keep the reader's attention if it were much shorter, perhaps a novella. Nonetheless, there is a certain fairytale/mythic elegance to Bear, and I will look forward to more from this author in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance e-galley; all opinions in this review are completely my own.

I liked this fine. If I hadn't loved this author's Disappearing Earth so much, I would have found Bear a satisfying enough read. Disappearing Earth was impressive, unbelievably well-structured, vivid in its depiction of Kamchatka, which I found fascinating. Looking back, though, I wonder if the way narration passed from character to character made me not notice that it was a little light on character development? Because in this book, I never felt like I really knew the characters very well, I never got inside. I also didn't even know the bear.

What this book did well, though is to show what it's like to be the working poor, trying to stay on top of things, but one financial setback can cost you everything. This novel is about two sisters who live on San Juan Island, a tourist town off the coast of Washington. They're taking care of their mother, who is dying of cancer, and getting further and further behind on paying for medical bills and everything else. And then a bear shows up and seems to be hanging around their yard, and Elena, the older sister, and usually the most responsible one, becomes fascinated with it. Oh, yeah, and this is kind of a retelling of the old fairy tale, Snow White and Rose Red, in which a bear plays and important part.

BEAR ended up being the slowest of slow burns, but it was absolutely, undeniably worth seeing through to the end. Julia Phillips is a sensational writer, whose ability to capture and illuminate the strands of darkness lurking just beneath the surface of ordinary human lives appears, at this point, almost effortless. I was fascinated by her characterisation of the two sisters, Sam and Elena, and by the ebbs and flows in their relationship across the course of the novel. My sole criticism would be that the symbolism felt heavy handed and obvious, which detracted from the emotional gut punch of the ending.

But, Mousie, thou art no thy lane,
In proving foresight may be vain;
The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men
Gang aft agley,
An’lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,
For promis’d joy! --Robert Burns

Just ask Sam. She can tell you. Sam and Elena are sisters and Sam absolutely adores, perhaps worships, her older sister, Elena. But things are always more complicated than they seem and add to an already complicated life a needy grizzly bear and you’ve got a twist on that Brothers Grimm classic: Snow White and Rose Red.

This novel is so sad and so real. Having dipped my toes in the frigid waters of insanity a time or two myself, I absolutely understand how easy it is to hang on to one’s delusions, one’s magical thinking.

Like Sam, I ended the book thinking, “what if, what if what if?” But reality has no room for “what-ifs” and but hopefully, this book will leave you prepared to always look a little deeper and be a little less selfish and a little more caring.

Bear was about two sisters, Elena and Sam, that held jobs in the service industry on the island of San Juan, Washington, while they took care of their terminally ill mother. Their lives had been pretty routine until their close encounter with a living, breathing, curious bear.

This was a slow burn story that primarily dealt with the hot/cold relationship between these sisters. I occasionally found their actions baffling, and reading Sam's thoughts wasn't always a joy, but I enjoyed how the bear played a role in their ongoing turmoil. The ending was jarring and disturbing, but I appreciated how much of a reaction it got from me.

The writer's previous book, Disappearing Earth, has been sitting unread on my shelf for far too long. After finishing this, I'm looking forward to finally picking it up.