I enjoyed the overall concept of the book-i love found family, the community of women, and the exploration of grief.

Unfortunately, the E-reader format made this quite difficult to get through. There were many inconsistencies with the spelling and fonts, and sentences were broken up in ways that had me needing to often reread the same passage multiple times.

This being an ARC, those format issues wouldn't affect someone's reading experience when fully published, of course, but it has affected mine, which is what my rating is based on- in giving it 3 stars to remain somewhat neutral, given the circumstances.

As mentioned above, this novel has some beautiful themes overall, and I look forward to reading the published version.

Hi, It's Me is the second book I've read by Fawn Parker, and with each novel I am more amazed by the level of her writing!

Written in an autofictional way, Parker's imagery was more real and thought provoking since some version of her writer self was placed within the confines of this story. The complex and slow understanding that Fawn experienced after her mother's passing was a fever dream reality; her displacement was palpable and ripe with the realities one endures after living through this type of loss.

Parker writes in such a subtle, dancing and alluding way, creating a light tough, which allows such a heavy subject to be expertly written about; never once becoming too overbearing or difficult to read. This book is poetic and graceful, full of grief, disbelief and yearning.

For some inexplicable reason, my mind kept comparing Hi, It's Me to Mona Awad's Rouge (minus the horror aspects). Both books center around the death of the main characters mother and have undercurrents of vanity and satirical humour. Both are equally addicting, powerful and moving!

Parker has again written a book that I can see being discussed and dissected in psychology or literature classes. It was a pleasure to have read!

Thank you NetGalley, Penguin Random House Canada and McClelland & Stewart for the complimentary copies to read and review.

DNF - I was really looking forward to this story but when it came down to it, the way this was written wasn't working for me.

After the medically assisted death of her sick mother, 29 year old Fawn Parker visits her mother's farmhouse to catalogue her mother's life and legacy. The farmhouse is inhabited by a number of women, know by the town as radically feminist spinsters, who make soap and have odd and particular rules regarding men. An introspective novel that begins as a meditation on grief but slowly unravels into a fever dream of youth, mental illness, and trauma. A unique read that will likely appeal to those who enjoyed Women Talking and novels by Margaret Atwood.

I was very excited to read HI, IT’S ME by Fawn Parker since I really enjoyed this author’s last novel What We Both Know and I really enjoyed this novel too! I love how her poet’s sensibility with language shines in this writing. I love reading fiction written by poets! This novel deeply explores the protagonist’s grief of losing her mother. I loved the Canadian setting, the focus on female friendships and sisterhood and the autofiction aspect as the main character is a writer named Fawn. I enjoyed the footnotes and the narrator’s reflections on her relationship with her mother and herself. I will be eager to read Parker’s next novel and I’d love to read her poetry too!

I think this is objectively a good book, really beautifully written and has a great story, but I found it so hard to connect to this character that under basically any other circumstance I would've felt a really kindred spirit towards. Interesting one

Synopsis:
Shortly after her mother’s death, Fawn arrives at the farmhouse. While there, she will stay in her mother’s bedroom in the house that is also occupied by four other women who live by an unusual set of beliefs.
Wrestling with longstanding compulsive and harmful behaviours, as well as severe self-doubt, Fawn is confronted with the reality of her mother’s death. It is her responsibility to catalogue the furniture and possessions in the room, then sell or dispose of them. Instead, Fawn becomes fixated on archiving her mother’s writing and documents, searching for signs, and drawing tenuous connections to help her understand more about the enigmatic woman in the pages.
In Hi, It’s Me, Fawn Parker is unafraid to explore the bewildering relationship between the living and the dead. Strikingly original, provocative, and engrossing Hi, It’s Me takes us into the furthest corners of grief, invoking the physicality and painful embodiment of terminal illness with astonishing precision and emotional force. This mesmerizing, devastating novel asks: Why must it be this way?

After reading the above synopsis of the book, you might have a multitude of reactions/emotions.
Parker writes a beautiful, daring book on love, family and grief. She writes about mental health issues and illness with such familiar conviction. Parker’s ability to help you feel with the narrator as she tells this story is spot on. I underlined/highlighted sentences and paragraphs to come back to. I never do that to a book. So many things to come back to. A book you will reread!


This book arrives on September 17th, 2024. Don’t miss it.

This seems incredible from what I have read so far, so much so that I will wait to read the rest in print because the formatting is such a mess on my Kindle.