I love everything about this story. The rawness, the family dynamics, the open and honest discussions about what has happened and what is happening. There were some emotions that touched me for sure.

Here are a few quotes that resonated with me.

🟠"Whatever it is, honey, you just do your best and we'll be right proud, you hear?" Mama told her. "We'll be right there with you."

🟡A hollowness began to radiate inside her, threatening to pull her under like a whirlpool. It was the same emptiness she'd tried so hard to fill for so many years, too familiar to mistake. Loneliness.

🟣Instead, she set herself about the business of raising her children, and then her grandchildren, to be better than her.

🟠Life is not a short story.

🟡With a raw throat and tears still streaming, I started writing what would become Troubled Waters that night.

🟣All writing is an act of self-discovery, but this was an act of self-excavation, self-evolution.

I heard the author speak at the Public Library Association conference this spring (2024), she's got power. This book was good, I liked it but wasn't blown away. Idid suggest for a book club read and I'm interested in the discussions to come.

Added:
Bookclub was generally positive. "Strong characters, good plotline/focus: Dealing with a cause that the MC had felt a connection with since early childhood, which continued to haunt. Family trauma/strife"

This novel included Interesting time periods and topics, and a nice interweaving of narration from multiple characters.

This is a great read, very touching and moving at times. I would for sure recommend this book to anyone. I truly enjoyed this book very much. Being shaped by the generations that came before is the status quo of the American black womankind. Everything about the way we interact has everything to do with how we are raised. This novel shines an illuminating light on that existence.

I was sent this physical and digital copy book as part of a book tour over on Instagram and this is one I truly enjoyed. I have left a review on Instagram. I might not have copied it over to goodreads. I never post on Amazon. The writing in this book really took me back to Georgia. I lived about 30 minutes away from the area this book took place so it was like a piece of home for me. I will admit I felt like I was reading two different books at one point; when it came to protesting it took a slight turn but came together in the end. Other than that this book was a solid read for me and one I would recommend to historical fiction and mystery fans.

I loved the premise of this book, but I did not like the execution.

Heglar debut presents us with an opportunity to explore climate change in a fictional setting, which intrigued me. We meet Corrine and Cora and we are introduced to yet another theme: civil rights. The dual POV between granddaughter and grandmother was another thing that intrigued this reader, as that type of relationship usually provides so much depth if you let it because of the generational gap.

While all the things above attracted me to the book, the book itself ended up falling flat for me. The pacing was slow, and the plot was boring, in my opinion. The many themes that were addressed were never really fleshed out enough for me to be able to cling to what the author wanted to convey. I really wanted the author to expand more on Cora's life during segregation and bring that to the present day. I ended up finishing but left unfulfilled. There were so many things that were thrown without intent or depth.

The main plot of the book was Corrine's fight with the big oil rig business and that came to an end with such a lackluster climax supplemented with a "white savior character," and that's when I really checked out. In addition to everything else going on, we have an attempt at magical realism that was interesting, but there was no build-up to it. It just happened, and we moved on. Which brings me to the point of the book overall being jumpy, making it hard to become invested in the story with the random drops of flashbacks and events. 

I would not recommend this one, but I would give the author another chance.

I received a complimentary copy of this book as a digital ARC from NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

The climate crisis, Black resistance, and the enduring power of family are major themes in this engrossing book. There is a wonderful sense of family in this book,, with an outspoken grandmother and an empathetic uncle, both of whom are warm and humorous.

In 2014, Corinne is a university student from Louisiana, studying in the north, where friends are oblivious to Black issues. She is acutely aware of the threat of climate change, not only because of the enduring legacy of Hurricane Katrina, but also because her brother Cameron was killed working on a ship transporting oil on the Mississippi. Still reeling from his death, she wants to commemorate his life and protest against the oil companies. Together with a young white friend and some experienced protestors, she is willing to face the consequences of her peaceful protest, though she realises her skin colour may go against her.

Interlaced with this narrative is the story of her family. She was brought up by her grandmother who she knows was involved in desegregating the schools in Nashville. She is very proud of this, but doesn’t understand why her grandmother refuses to talk about it. Her uncle tells her that two people can go through the same thing and be changed in different ways. The only pain is your own pain. “… maybe it’s not for you to understand, or even to know. Maybe it’s just for you to accept. Accept that she’s been through something you can’t understand.” Even when it doesn’t feel fair. In a separate section, we discover just what happened to the grandmother at a very young age that traumatised her.

Throughout the novel, Black history, racism and traumatic events are brought into the narrative in a natural way, some of them more well-known than others. I learnt so much by googling some of the things she mentions. I highly recommend this novel. I really hope it does well because it deserves a wide audience.

The author talking eloquently about her book on Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/harpermusebooks/reel/C56CfbZr26j
Background on the author. https://www.nrdc.org/stories/translator-climate-crisis-grief-included

A timely and generational story of a Black family through climate change, grief, and opportunity. This story has real implications without burdening. The story also says something new to a continuing conversation. I loved how the grandmother was written and provided resolve for her arc.

In a Nutshell: A dramatic OwnVoices novel dealing with some powerful contemporary and historical themes. Has its heart in the right place, but mere intent isn’t enough. Wish it had been stronger in the core plot, more focussed in its themes, and more structured in its approach. It could have been brilliant, but ended up just decent.

Plot Preview:
2013. Twenty-year-old Corinne has been passionate about the environment ever since she heard, in her childhood, about the Great Flood of 1927. But her fervour has increased after her brother died aboard an oil boat a year ago. Now Corinne is determined to do all she can to save the future from those intent on destroying the planet. However, in the course of her activism and a radical act she is planning, she ends up uncovering some skeletons that her grandmother Cora had buried deep inside her heart, from the time of the Civil Rights movement.
The story comes to us in multiple timelines from the third person limited perspectives of Corinne, Cora, and Cora’s son Harold.

Bookish Yays:
💐 As I am passionate about the topic of climate change, I was excited to grab an environment-themed novel. The author’s research on this topic is extensive. (I never knew of global warming leading to mutated fish! 😕) The facts herein are relevant, and scary to the point of being nightmare-inducing. The intent is praiseworthy.
💐 Cora and Harold are interesting characters, and add a lot of realism and rationality to the proceedings with their perspectives.
💐 Cora’s traumatic memories, mostly but not only from the historical timeline, create a far greater impact. I don’t want to reveal what her backstory contains, but I’d rather have read more about her experiences than Corinne’s. The historical timeline captures the feel and the facts of the era well.
💐 Love the duality of the title, indicating the stormy relationship among the family members as well as the troubled waters of the Mississippi and the floods that are a constant part of it at present.
💐 The book captures the essence of the location well. The food, the beliefs, the music, nature and the issues all get fair representation. It’s interesting to read a story from the Southern Black perspective.
💐 This quote: “Climate change is just as institutional as racism.”
💐 This is an OwnVoices work, not just because of author’s ethnic and geographical background (which matches that of the characters) but also because she is a passionate advocate of the travails of climate change and a winner of an Environmental Journalism award. The authenticity of the rep shows in the content.

Bookish Mixed Bags:
🌹 Corinne is meant to be an impressive character, and she is, to a great extent. But, either because of her age or because of the somewhat flat character development, she reads like a typical YA character, focussing only on the short term and acting more impulsively than intelligently. I can’t root for her actions though her thoughts are praiseworthy.
🌹 With only three dominant characters, the family connection feels too small and slightly incomplete. That said, these three characters have enough of baggage throughout the book. Harold’s character especially, often acting as the mediator between grandmother and granddaughter, has a subtle yet important track.
🌹 The book jumps across various timelines multiple times. It has clear date indicators, so make sure you keep an eye on the date and month and not just the year. I didn’t have a problem with the timelines as they were marked well. However, there are also unmarked flashbacks that appear randomly. A character could be pondering over a current issue and suddenly jump to something in their past and spend a long time there. These unindicated time jumps were annoying after a point because they broke the thread of the contemporary flow. As a result, the structuring feels quite hodgepodge.
🌹 The initial 75% of the book was still okay, but the final quarter drags a lot, going through unexpected directions. Though I am a fan of magical realism, I still don’t understand why and how it suddenly popped up in this part of the book. That scene came out of nowhere!

Bookish Nays:
🌵 As is typical in debut works, we get the infamous “kitchen sink” full of themes here: Climate change, environmental activism, natural disasters past and present, crimes by Big Oil, veganism, racism, Black discrimination, KKK, police atrocities, teen pregnancy, parental abuse, parental death, first menstruation scare, segregation, generational trauma, grief, Hurricane Katrina, the Civil Rights movement, the prejudiced attitudes in the South, … With so many powerful topics, it feels like the book doesn’t explore anything in depth. It just spreads itself too wide and ends up making a dent in none.
🌵 The actual plot is paper-thin. The rest is just padding, which though important, makes the book feel stretched out. The effect is hence rather flat. Even a character-driven work needs a strong plot.
🌵 There's a ‘Cora’ and a ‘Corinne’! 😬 I know families often have people with the same initials, but in fiction, surely we can avoid this kind of nomenclature! It is confusing!

Basically, who wouldn’t want to love such a book? It educates us on such an essential topic that affects all of us. But it is still a fictional novel, and in that role, it isn’t so impressive. The character development and the plot structuring both need finetuning.

I still appreciate the intent of this novel. If the one thing this book can do is to create fear in the reader’s hearts about the climate and take steps to minimise their carbon footprint, I’d still consider it a winner. Climate care is not just the government’s onus, and this novel highlights some ways through which citizens can also step up to the task. (I’m not referring to Corinne’s choice of activism here; that is not my cup of tea.)

Recommended with reservation to those interested in an OwnVoices climate change fiction.

3.25 stars.

My thanks to Harper Muse and NetGalley for the DRC of “Troubled Waters”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

A powerful tale that grapples with climate change, black resistance, and the enduring strength of family bonds. I loved the characters.
May thanks to SOURCEBOOKS Landmark and to Netgalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

*Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book for review, all opinions are my own*

I felt that even though this story is important because of the themes it addresses and the story itself that is being told, sometimes it got lost and I no longer knew what the point of the story was, narratively speaking, like what it was the author's objective, in addition to the message and the story of the two characters, what she wanted to say.
The book sometimes seemed aimless, we were following the story without knowing why, why specifically the story of these two women are important , why should I care, not that their story isn't important but I've read some other books about black women that had the same message at the end but also had a purpose beyond just being a story about black women and racism , again not that these topics are not important, it's just that it has already been done and in a better way so I felt that in this book the author just did more of the same in a less convincing and interesting way, she even tries to bring a little global warming into the mix but it makes everything more confusing.
So in the end for me, I read the book but I was left wondering what this story is about, I didn't feel a purpose beyond passing on "messages" that are important but not well worked on just thrown into the story in a superficial way.

I would recommend this book, I did DNF after 40%. I find myself forcing myself to continue and it was not a fun experience. It was way too slow for my personal liking.. I think this book definitely has a place within the community within peoples homes, but it personally just wasn’t for me.
I cannot wait for her next week to see if there’s any improvements within the plot and pacing of her next book.

This was a powerful story told from the eyes of Corrine, Harold and Cora. Corrine is a college student. She dedicates her time to climate change and the world today while she is dealing with the grief on losing her brother. Cora has dealt a lot of trauma growing up and dried through the years. The death of her grandson is one she struggles to get over because it just reminds her of the several losses she has suffered throughout her life. Harold is Cora’s son and Corrine uncle. He always seemed to find himself in the middle of Cora and Corrine. He is like their sense of reasoning to help them understand each other and keep their bond in tact.

Troubled Waters is pulling me in slowly, and that’s all I need right now. With everything going on in the world, I’ve been abandoning some fiction for poetry, looking for shorter reading projects to still feel connected to books when my heart and attention span is elsewhere. Helgar’s book is keeping me tethered because of its consciousness and timeliness. Majoring in environmental studies and grieving the loss of her brother from an oil boat accident, Corrine is passionate about drawing parallels from climate disasters of the past to present day climate issues. Corrine’s diving into the past meaning bringing up difficult topics and people for her grandmother, conjuring memories that mean facing the past in a new way. While Corrine and Cora are the novel’s anchor so far, there is shifting POV that lends interest and perspective to the story. It’s a novel that I’m grateful for in this moment

Have you ever gotten to the end of a superb book and shocked that it's over with? (even though its a full book and you know in your mind books have to have an ending at some point) That was me by the time I came to the end. I was surprised, because I wanted more although it's a full story. I just did not want this book to end. I absolutely loved and understood the characters and why they acted like they did, the story line and relationships were just beautiful. And it was just such a well written and heartbreaking read. I learned so much and these characters will be embedded in my mind for a good while. If I could give this book 10 stars, i would. Wonderful job.

Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Muse for the opportunity to read Troubled Waters by Mary Annaise Heglar.
An emotional read. Respectfully and beautifully written, and will stay with you for a !o g time.

This book brilliantly weaves climate change, race, and their direct connections and what that means for our future. It is told through the eyes of a young black woman living in the South who is haunted by the country's past and overwhelmed by its future. After the passing of her brother on an oil rig, Corrine feels moved to do something to wake people up to what is happening around them. It is a beautiful story that confronts the challenges of our future and asks what we are willing to do about them.

A powerful story about the bond of family especially between grandmother and granddaughter. This story is about sacrifices, grief and forgiveness. Activism is also very important and how the past forges a way for the future.

I’ve been super excited to read this book since I heard about it as I’m a big fan of the authors work! The book did not disappoint and I really enjoyed the story and learning about the area that the book was set in. I would recommend this book whether you’re a previous fan of the author or not!

3.5⭐️

This was very emotional to read. It encompasses sensitive topics such as climate change, racism, discrimination., loss and grief.

This is a story of two generations pitted against each other- one a sacrificial lamb to a world that is not ready and the other a saviour for a world that doesn’t care. There was so much going on in the book. On the one hand Cora’s past and the other Corinne’s present.

I like that the author highlighted Cora’s experiences as a child and the disparity between Corinne and the other protesters.

Although I enjoyed this but I was expecting more than I got and could hardly believe the book ended where it did.