“In this intimate portrait of two generations, a granddaughter and a grandmother come to terms with what it means to be family, Black women, and alive in a world on fire.”

Reflection: By the time I finished the last line, I was ugly crying so much that my dog came over to make sure I was okay. I honestly didn’t expect this book would affect me so much emotionally but it did. As a Southern girl that moved to Northeast Ohio I could relate so much to Corrine. Grandma Cora and Uncle Harold were reminiscent of my own family members. I felt so at home in this book. One thing I didn’t expect were some of the turns. I remember heading into part two thinking “what genre is this again?” I had to refer back to synopsis because it seemed to be setting up for an environmental thriller, at times there were supernatural elements, and we also got a taste of historical fiction. I didn’t know how this book was going to go and that’s where a lost interest a bit. But as I got to part three, my interest and emotions were pulled right back in. As we approached the big event, I was on edge wondering how it all would play out. I understood both sides of the argument. The strong sense of family and family traditions were my favorite parts of this book. So if you’re looking for a beautiful story about an imperfect family coupled with activism, and climate this book is for you.

Rating: 4.25⭐️/ 5

Favorite Quote: “Watching Grandma wince, it occurred to Corinne that Black women—celebrated the world over for their extraordinary ability to bend and bend and bend—can, in fact, break. Into a million little shards. And no one would come to put them back together again.”

Thanks to Harper Muse Books and Hear Our Voices Tours for my gifted eARC and physical copy!

Thank you to netgalley and Harper Muse for allowing me access to this book. I received this book as being apart of a tour for Hear Our Voices Book Tour company, this book was so good. I loved how the author touched on topics that a lot of people are scared to talk about or have no knowledge on. It was great to see a book that focused on family and how each generation live can contribute to the future.

This book had a lot going on. It is a story about racism, family, grief, and global warming. Cora, the grandmother of Corinne, a college student has never come to terms with her father insisting she go to an all white school when she was five years old in the 50's. She was the only black student in that school. She was always left out and last. It left her with horrible feelings that still linger in her 60's. She lost her daughter to a horrible accident and raised her grandchildren. Corinne, loved her grandmother and loved always cooking with her. When she made the decision to go to Oberlin College her grandmother was not pleased. It being a predominately white school. It brought back horrible memories for her. Corinne was very concerned about Global warming since Hurricane Katrina hit her neighborhood. She wanted to do something to protest and bring awareness to it and tie it into her brother's untimely death. With all this going on in the story, I felt that the author never really finished her trains of thought on all the issues she was writing about. The climax at the end really was not that explosive. The book was just slow moving and I found myself skimming though just to finish. The thing I liked best about this book was Harold. He was Cora's son and Corinne's uncle. I loved his interactions with his "neicey"!
Thanks to #netgally, #harpermuse, #firsteditions and @mary.helgar for an ARC of this book.

Wow this was such an amazing story. I loved how the author depicted the climate change crisis and the disparities associated with race. Also the expectations family’s c!n have on each other and how it can impact future generations.

I love when a book sits with me far after I’ve read it and in ways that no other book has.
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Troubled Waters started out with a plot and dialogue I felt would be perfect for YA genre. As I read deeper and started highlighting and underlining more, I changed my mind. This can be perfect for YA or adult fiction.
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I’m currently writing this portion of my review only at the halfway mark in the book. I am THIS moved halfway through. I also understand that not everyone will get the same feelings after reading this but I’m sharing my honest review and the feelings I’ve felt throughout reading.

There’s so much self discovery as well. I also appreciate the southern charm hospitality that you feel while reading. It’s there and very prevalent. Shoutout to the music mentioned in the first chapter!

As a person who cares a lot for the environment and wants others to care as well, this was a good book.

As someone who has grown to love titles that paint a picture of family with authentic relationship dynamics, this was a good book.

Watching Corrine battle her grief through activism and grow in a direction that her family didn't quite understand was such an experience and I enjoyed going along for the ride!

**Features:**
-Explores themes around climate change, grief, racism, sense of history, family, and what it really means to be an activist
-An own voices piece
-Multigenerational, character driven novel told from multiple perspectives
-Set predominantly in New Orleans, Nashville, and Mississippi with occasional scenes at Oberlin College in Ohio

This is a captivatingly beautiful and heartfelt piece that will stay with you long past the final page. It weaves together the tale of a family grieving a recent loss with a much longer history of loss and struggle. Told by characters from three different generations, the past comes back to haunt the present in very different ways for each and influences how they try to move forward and support each other. Even when I didn’t really agree with a character’s choices or opinions, I could still understand where they were coming from and empathize with their perspective. This book is definitely more about the characters than plot, so this might not be the book for you if you prefer a clear path that the characters follow as the story unfolds. Otherwise, this is a wonderful and important read that I would highly recommend!

**Pro: We are family**

This story is told by three characters: Corinne, her grandmother Cora, and Corinne’s uncle Harold. It starts with all three of them getting together for their first Christmas since Cameron, Corrine’s brother, passed away while working on an oil barge. I immediately felt like I was being wrapped in a warm hug as I felt the love shining through every interaction these characters had with each other. However, what I loved even more was that a great deal of tension and misunderstanding is allowed to exist between each of them and highlights their deep connection even further. The characters are so masterfully realized and interplay so beautifully that it is clear even their disagreements are born from a place of love and misunderstanding. Truly, Helgar’s brilliant character work makes this story stand apart from others.

**The Breakdown: Those college days**

Though we get a number of flashbacks to earlier moments in each character’s life, the ‘present day’ storyline mostly follows Corrine and her environmental activism. Corrine’s view towards global warming feels quite extreme and is jarring in comparison to all of the other beautiful, subtle work that has gone into everything else in this story. However, I also think this is an accurate depiction of a passionate young college student. Corrine is smart and capable, but also naive and has a ‘bulldozer-like’ approach that dismisses the nuances of the situations she is trying to navigate. There were many times Corrine made me cringe and get irritated, but I can’t really knock what feels right for this character as a whole.

This story tends to skip chunks of time, and I think that narrowing in on Corrine’s experiences more would have helped me get her a little more. For example, she goes out to interview people who were affected by Deepwater Horizon (and Katrina, to a lesser extent), but we never get to see any of these interviews or how some of the earlier ones impacted Corrine more directly. Because we don’t get any of these moments and Corrine has trouble verbalizing the driving force behind her fear/passion, it took me a lot longer to understand Corrine than the other characters. We do get there eventually, and I was able to appreciate going on the journey with Corrine in the end.

Harper Muse provided a complimentary copy for review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I had the pleasure earlier this month at PLA 2024 to listen to Helgar as one our daily speakers. Her primary work is in the field of climate change, and she has written several nonfiction books and articles on the subject. Her passion for this showed as she was moving her message into new channels with a children's book and this novel. There is no denying that she knows her stuff when it comes to this very important topic.

I found myself quickly connected to Corrine and her family. Helgar's attention to everyday details brought the story to life. It was easy to see how this family has been through so much, and they were all coming to terms with loss and grief in their own ways.

The story itself stretches over many months (not counting occasional flashbacks - some slightly confusing based on where they were inserted with the current day flow of things). For me, that impacted the momentum and created gaps or lapses. It felt like I was checking in periodically on the characters rather than having an urgency to their plans and actions. Hopefully that is something the author can work as she continues to do more fiction; I would certainly seek out more work from her down the road.

This story started out really well for me. I was really intrigued by the mentioning of the actual events that took place. Those events included Hurricane Katrina, the great Mississippi flood of 1927, and the oil spill from Deep Water Horizon. The mentioning of these events took me down a research rabbit hole and allowed me to get back acquainted with these events. I was unaware of the Mississippi flood (and I lived there for a year and never heard of it). There were mentioning of Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin, and social injustices that take place for people of color.

Grief was another heavy topic that was present in this story. I think that the way each individual in this family, Corinne, Cora, Uncle Harold, were all acting out in their grief in different ways. I think that the actions of each person showed you where they were in their grief. That was a present topic that could also go for the grieving of the land and water. Grief could have been symbolic in this story.

Although these were things that I liked about it, the actual progression of the story fell a little flat for me. The beginning got me invested, but the progression lost my interest. The major even that Corinne wanted to do in her stance against the Big Oil companies fell flat for me. I was expecting something other than what was done. I felt that I was built up so much in the start of speaking on the "Troubled Waters", but the completion of the story fell short.

I really wanted to enjoy this book. The premise was a good one, and I do enjoy stories where we are given different viewpoints based upon different generations. However, as I started reading, I just found myself unable to connect with either the story or the writing style of the author. it felt a bit jumbled in parts and a bit more drawn out than it needed to be in others. I did enjoy a bit of the backstory; however, sometimes too much backstory can take us away from the present moment, and that is what happened here. With the few small adjustments, this could be a really good story, and perhaps better hold my interest.

this tale spans decades exploring the history of two generations of black women in southern USA: grandmother cora, the sole black student in her elementary school, facing systemic racism as a literal 5-to-7-year-old in the 50s; and granddaughter corrine, raising awareness on climate change after losing her brother in an oil barge accident in 2013. we also get the occasional chapters from harold, cora's son and corrine's uncle.

personally i connected more with corrine, being of similar age and disposition, but i also felt for young cora and the older cora who learns to accept her past and acknowledge how the times have changed since. the past timeline felt a bit disconnected at first but it all ties up well as we get to know the relationships within the family. i thought the heaviness of the themes was balanced by the heartwarming love and care shown between the three.

this is an important work of fiction drawing inspiration from very real events. thank you to the author for writing this and kindly allowing me to read an advanced copy through netgalley.

I just finished reading this amazing tale and loved every minute of it.
I loved Corrinne and Cora.
Although I must say my heart went out more to Cora than Corrinne. I almost didn't like Corrinne at all.
I couldn't imagine how frightening that must've been. I admired Cora so much!
Poor Harold got caught in the middle. He was my favorite character. He's a lot like me a peace keeper in the family. A more terrifying job if there ever was one so I knew how he felt at times.
My favorite part was the ending of this book and it will break your heart into pieces.
A very powerful and emotional story that will rock your world after reading this novel. I will be looking for more by this wonderful lady who wrote this story with her heart.
5 stars for an incredible story that will leave me thinking about these characters long after this story has ended. Believe me they'll not let you put them down until it is over.
I highly recommend this book.
My thanks for a copy of this book. I was NOT required to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are my own.