This book checks so many boxes for me. I love how this book is so rooted in fairy tale archetypes and flips everything on its head. I don’t want to reveal too much to avoid spoilers—for sure, go in as blind as possible for this one—but the ending was a delicious turn.

Bear (2024)
By Julia Phillips
Hogarth, 304 pages.
★★★★

“Snow-White and Rose-Red” is a German folk tale that’s not the same story as “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” though it does involve a dwarf. Also a ferocious bear and two young girls. I mention this because author Julia Phillips draws upon it for her page-turning modern tale set on San Juan Island in Washington State.

Hold the dwarf, but Bear is likewise about a bruin, two sisters, and a single mother. From there, Phillips allows her imagination to roam to construct an alternative narrative. Sisters Elena and Sam have been so close for so long that it’s as if they share a brain stem. As they edge toward their thirties they discuss leaving the island. It’s a major tourist area–especially for spotting orcas–but with a permanent population of under 8,000 there are not a lot of opportunities for locals. San Juan Island reminded me of the contrast between coastal Maine and its interior. That is, the wealth is in the hands of summer residents and visitors to the coast whilst those providing services live close to the margin.

Elena and Sam tend to their dying mother, her illness probably linked to chemicals she ingested at work. You can imagine how hard it is to hold such a household together. Elena is a bartender/waitress at the golf club and Sam’ works on the ferry that is the only way on and off the island. Sam depends a lot on tips, as she works for a food vendor, not the state. (Read no benefits, low wages.) Elena is calm and organized, whereas Sam is restless, a loner, and so bored that she routinely has sex with a guy in which she’s only marginally interested.

In one trip across the strait Sam spots an amazing phenomenon: a bear swimming beside the boat. That’s weird because there are no bears on any of the more than 170 islands in the San Juan archipelago. She’s pretty sure it’s a carnivorous grizzly, which would be more unusual still, as Washington has very few brown bears. When the bear is seen again outside their house, Madeline, a state wildlife official, assures them it’s almost certainly a lost black bear. Her advice is the standard response: avoid the bear, secure all garbage, and don’t feed it as a fed bear is ultimately a dead bear.

Madeline is wrong; it is a grizzly. Sam is terrified, but when Elena views the bear, she sees the glories of nature. Nor is she frightened by it; in her magical thinking, the bear is beautiful and a good luck talisman. Sam insists that Elena get rides to her job, advice routinely ignored as she enjoys walking in the woods. She’s not just fascinated with the bear, she’s obsessed by it.

Bear is a metaphor for numerous things, including the secrets Elena and Sam keep from one another, the gap between the masks they wear and internal clashing aspirations, and the anguish of forging independent personalities. On a deeper level it’s a tale of civilization and wildness, what we really see versus what we wish to see, and freedom. Who is trapped? What boundaries should be obeyed and which ones ignored? What is the price of escape?

I zipped through this book is two sittings. Much of that is due to Phillips’ sparkling prose and her sense of knowing when to make the plot scurry and when to allow it to graze. It also engrosses if you allow yourself to embrace mythopoetic storytelling and remind yourself that even adapted folk tales have morals. In my view, those readers who have complained about its ending forget that Bear is a fantasy that relies on character types. There is no “real” Elena, Sam, or bear. But who among us has never felt trapped or had to wrestle with the decision of whether to embrace or flee?

Rob Weir

Right from the start, Bear had my attention. It was a window into a place- an island off the Washington coast- and into the lives of two sisters struggling with caring for their mother, making ends meet, and facing the daily monotony of work and home routine. Until a bear shows up on their front stoop and shakes things up for these sisters and the community. Beautiful, and at times gritty and graphic, this story is a ride through inevitable sadness and out the other side to what remains.

This is a delightfully weird book about two sisters in the Pacific Northwest and their encounters with a grizzly bear. It's unexpected and weird and I really enjoyed it.

Thank you to #NetGalley and #HogarthBooks for the opportunity to read an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a review. Reading "Bear" was a very different experience from Julia Phillips' debut novel "Disappearing Earth" but both shared some dark similarities and a mesmerizing blend of other-worldliness and community. Another similarity--one that Phillips does so incredibly well--is her depiction of the mystical and irreplaceable bond of sisters.

The tone was set from the very beginning of "Bear" with a foreboding quote from the Brothers Grimm fairy tale “Snow-White and Rose-Red.”
A quote about two sisters and a bear.

Sam, the novel's narrator, lives with her older sister, Elena, and their mother (who has been slowly and painfully dying from a work-related (environmental) cancer over many years. When the novel begins, the sisters, now in their late 20s, are both working tourism-related/service industry jobs and barely making ends meet between low wages and mounting hospital bills. It is made clear by Sam that the sisters' "ticket out" of their shared dead end life on their small island will involve the sale of their family home (secured by a grandmother years before) and the coveted land on which it's situated.

We, as readers, reside within the mind of younger sister Sam for the entirety of the novel and there are many fairy tale elements (particularly in the magical thinking Sam inhabits of a better life ahead, just her and her sister, once the home is sold). When an enormous bear appears, seemingly out of nowhere, in the water alongside the ferry where Sam vends food and drinks to tourists., their circular lives begin to take a crazy turn.

This is a post-pandemic world and the area is slowly rebounding (and heavily reliant upon travel and service positions) on an island off the Washington state coast. The arrival of the bear seems like a strange anomaly until shortly later when it shows up, in all of its fierce enormity, on the doorstep of the sisters' home. They are initially both thrilled and terrified but as the story continues, Sam grows to fear and loathe the bear, seeing it as a physical threat and, importantly, a force of destruction in her relationship with Elena.

Elena, however, has spent years taking care of her mother and, to a lesser degree, has acted as a pseudo-mother to Sam. The older sister becomes enamored by the bear, developing a fairytale-like relationship with it. The closer she gets to the bear, the more determined Sam becomes to eliminate its threat.

The tension stays high all the way through. It's a compulsive read and an ode to the old-school darkness of the Brothers Grimm. Julia Phillips is a magical writer. The book will be available 6/25/2024.

This is the story of two young girls, growing up at the edge of a forest on a remote island in the Pacific Northwest, barely able to afford shelter and food, and caring for their dying mother. Now in their 20’s, and still terrorized by the memory of their mother’s former live-in boyfriend, they believe that they can trust no one in their determination to escape their oppressive lives. They’re not overtly hoping that a knight in shining armor will come to rescue them, but real life has become so unbearable, that perhaps in their imagination, a newly arrived beast appears to be a prince. This captivating novel by Julia Phillips is reminiscent in several ways of a Grimm’s fairytale, especially in that it is impossible to stop reading, despite its frightening story - which is likely what the author intended.

Phillips does not overwhelm the reader with fantastical phenomenon, but weaves what appear to be ordinary, though unusual, events into the tale, and leaves it up to readers to infer any fabled meaning. This very unique book is charming but also horrifying, contemporary but also timeless, and so beautifully written that it will mesmerize readers at whatever level they are interested in experiencing this story of love, survival, perseverance and dreams.

Thank you to Net Galley and Random House/Hogarth for providing an Advance Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review.

A beautiful, heartfelt, painful portrait of two sisters stuck in lives of drudgery and their entirely different ways of being in the world. Sam is the younger of the two and somewhat impulsive, a little cranky, perpetually dissatisfied with her place in the world. Elena is in charge but mostly even-tempered and accepting. Their mother is ill, probably from her years of inhaling toxic chemicals from performing pedicures and manicures, and is slowly dying. Each day is a struggle to make ends meet, with both girls working at low-wage jobs and Elena trying to stretch their dollars to cover medical bills, the mortgage, and everything else they need.

And then a bear enters their life. They live on a remote island near Seattle and the presence of a bear is a rare thing, since they have little choice but to swim there. But it is not unheard-of for a brown bear to make his or her way to the island during mating season in search of love. This bear, though, is enormous, and seems to be particularly attracted to the house the girls share with their mother.

Sam is terrified of the bear and wants nothing more than for it to go away, but Elena is fascinated by it, the sheer size and strength she sees in its body and limbs. She begins to court encounters with the bear and it seems to respond to her overtures. Sam views the bear as a threat not only to their physical well-being but to the closeness the sisters have always had, but their connection seems to be changing and shifting as they mature out of their adolescent dreams and face the reality of their rather bleak lives.

I need not point out the metaphorical power of an unruly, unpredictable beast appearing in the midst of lives in turmoil. This could have been overbearing in less capable hands, but Phillips is masterful in her evocation of lives in transition and the forces completely outside their control that shape these women. Clearly written from a posture of grief and pain, there is great courage and compassion in these pages.

Bear by Julia Phillips is about sisters who are taking care of their very ill mother in a house that is almost big enough for them. It is about people, but it is also about wildlife that should not be interacting with people. Sam and Elena are the children of a single mom and they have learned to take care of each other as much or more than adults in their lives.

They live on San Juan Island in the Pacific Northwest. Elena works at a nearby country club as a server and Sam works on a ferry in the food service department. They can barely make ends meet with their combined incomes, but add the medical bills from their mother’s illness and they do not come close.

The sisters find a bear on their front porch one morning, the bear had scratched the siding and made a hole. This was very scary for them and hard to believe considering that they are on an island. The bear would have had to swim from the mainland. It would need to swim again to get off the island.

The author reveals some great information about how to react when faced with a bear, and more importantly how not to. The story will draw readers in and make them join the sisters’ family. It is well worth the time spent reading especially since it is so well written that you won’t notice how quickly time has passed.

Thanks to Netgalley for the prepublication copy to read and review.

An interesting story about two girls in their twenties who live together and take care of their ailing mother. The girls are very dedicated to their mother and each other but don’t really seem to have friends. Elena, the older sister, shoulders most of the responsibilities although both girls work and care for their mother.
Things change when the girls wake to find a large bear sleeping on their doorstep. Both girls are fascinated by the encounter but especially Elena. The story follows the two sisters, their mother’s health and the effect that the bear’s presence has on their lives.
The story is definitely not light hearted. I enjoyed the descriptions of the nature that they encountered but the story is difficult subject matter.

I received a free e-arc of this book through Netgalley. Most of this book reminded me of a fairy tale like story until the end which kinda threw me up from the romantic atmosphere of the book. I was kinda horrified by the ending actually and had to take a couple days to think about it. I'm still not quite sure about how I feel about the book. It's definitely different. The relationships between the two sisters and their mother is also quite complex.

NetGalley was right to allow me access to an ARC of this book because I tend to like literary fiction. But this was just... I'm not sure what it is.

I think my main gripe about the book was that there was a lot going on about people that I just couldn't care less about. I tried. I stuck around long enough to see a bear. But even that was the most boring fiction about a bear ever written. Gosh, I wanted this to be interesting. With a bold title of simply "Bear" you'd think it would have been. Oh well.

At least the writing was decent.

If you like slow literary stories about family and just about nothing else, you might actually like this. Just prepare for poop.

This was my first book by Julia Phillips and her writing is flawless. This was a very intriguing read for me, not something I normally gravitate towards. I’m so glad I picked it up. It took me 2 days to finish, was engaging and beautifully tragic. At its core, Bear is a sad story centered on family ties and grief. The bond of sisterhood and mother/daughter relationships is central, with the mythical element of the Bear also stealing the show. I loved how the author pieced together the story. Sam and Elena’s relationship is beautiful, relatable and ultimately, so tragic and devastating. Bear is told entirely in 3rd person and from Sam’s point of view in a haunting way.

The only thing that could have made this story even better, would have been to get more of Elena’s point of view. It didn’t take away from the beauty of the writing though. I loved it and finished with a broken heart and heavy feelings. Highly recommend!!

Two sisters. An ailing mother. A giant bear. San Juan Island. Somehow, these all came together in a beautiful story that I won't soon forget. I loved this author's first book, Disappearing Earth, and this one is just as good. It read almost like a thriller, but had the depth and character study of a timeless classic. It's a story of family, sisterhood, grief, and home. I loved it so much.

This was an odd book. In some ways, it was tender and heartwarming. In others, it was horrifying and savage. Much like the ending! I both saw it coming and had no clue! This book was wonderful in how much it confused me and made my view of the story feel unstable. Amazing characters and great writing!

Bear made me think a lot. It’s a very quiet book exploring the relationship of 2 sisters and how a bear at their doorstep (literally) disrupts their lives. There’s not a ton of action, but I still found it very compelling. Both sisters were relatable and also totally frustrating. I want to recommend so I can get other reader’s take on it. It’s a slower pace, but enjoyable. Thank you Random House Publishing Group for the ARC through NetGallery.

I was excited to read this title, as I loved Disappearing Earth. As that was more a series of loosely interconnected short stories, I was interested in how Phillips would fare writing a singular narrative novel.

I must say that as a person with a background in biology, I found various aspects of the story to be frustrating. I think that a good portion of the book relies on the reading having a lot of sympathy for Elena, but her inability to be reasoned with didn't reflect poorly on Sam, but rather Elena.

The end of the book picks up for me; I really enjoyed Sam's arc of thought and her reckoning with her relationship with her sister, however I'm not sure enough was established in the beginning of the book for this reveal about Elena's views of the future to work for me.

Ultimately, I think this book ironically would have stronger without the bear. It's a plot device that I don't think serves the story and that the book could do without. The heart of the book is the relationship between two sisters, one who wants to stay and one who wants to leave. The bear is merely set dressing to get them there, and it's a little bit awkward.

Bear is a simple tale at heart. It tells the story of the effect of a bear’s arrival on sisters Sam and Elena on the island of San Juan (off Washington State). The girls, who are in their late twenties and one year apart, live frugally in the house that has long been occupied by their family, nursing their mother, who is dying of an unnamed disease. They spend long hours at their menial jobs - Sam is a concession operator on a ferry and Elena is a waitress at an island restaurant – and dream of coming into enough money to leave the island; their house sits on valuable land, which should fund a new life for the girls once their mother passes away.

The titular bear is spotted one day swimming to the island from the mainland. It is further seen by Elena outside the girls’ house. While Sam is intrigued, Elena becomes downright obsessed. And, as the bear makes more and more close appearances, Sam and Elena disagree as to how to deal with the situation – Sam advocates a cautious approach, while Elena wants to develop more of a relationship with the creature. The story comes to a shocking conclusion when the issue is forced.

As with the author’s first novel (Disappearing Earth), I liked this book but did not love it. In the end, I feel that it would have made a better short story than a novel, as it leaves quite a few questions left unanswered. Also, I would have liked to have felt more emotional connection to the sisters and more nuance to their relationships with the bear. Julia Phillips will remain on my list of authors to read, however, as her prose and her ideas are compelling. (Love that cover, too, although is that a bear or not?)

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for providing me with this e-ARC in exchange for my opinion.

Thank you first of to NetGalley and Hogarth Random House for allowing me to read this in exchange for my unbiased review. I selected this book from the title and my fondness for the beauty of the Washington islands. Pros: setting. The beautiful Pacific Northwest. The women live and work on one of the smaller islands surrounded by beauty. Affluence also, which they never achieve.
The characters, two sisters Sam and Elena, are working class women who reside with their ailing mother. In my opinion, the characters were underdeveloped and downright terrible. They bicker. They get on each other’s nerves to no end. You as the reader spend so much time in Sam’s mind and its mind numbing. All I wanted was out! So pointless and boring. I could not get behind any of the characters due to their immaturity (even though they are adults) Danny was also useless. Enter the bear, who is a rarity because bears apparently never appear on their island. Is it an allegory? The bear takes intense interest in their house and well… Elena, who returns interest in the bear in the most disturbing ways. Hated this storyline and almost quit reading, but powered through to see if it got better. It most certainly did not. The ending is one of the worst I have read. This book, in my opinion, could not decide which genre it wanted to be. It lacked a strong plot and was so boring I struggled to finish it. Even with the beautiful Pacific Northwest landscape. The sisters did not listen to Madeline and her warnings and the atrocious ending was awful. Happily ever after is actually written in Sam’s head. Absolutely no. Would not recommend. 1/5

Great! Gutting! Deftly dealing with class and family. All the people felt real. Would recommend this to anyone who doesn’t mind terrible things happening to people in books.

Depressing, sad, and not mystical in any way, shape or form.
It literally is about the sad, pathetic lives of two sisters, their dying mother, and an actual bear that encroaches on their island home. One sister is rightly terrified of it and the other wants to make it a pet.
There is no joy, no happy ending, and quite honestly, for me, 90% of it was boring to the point of "no, I can't read another mind-numbing, painful word".