I loved Ivey's book, The Snow Child so much. This book was very good - but just not quite as good as the other one.

What I enjoyed about this one:
-I loved how she painted a picture of Alaska - it really made me feel like I was there.
-I liked how the book was written in different perspectives (Birdie, Warren, and Emaleen) and over various points in time.
-I loved the magical aspects of the story that were woven throughout.

What I didn't enjoy about this book:
-I thought that book was unnecessarily sad. Not that every book should have a happy ending, but without giving anything away, it just seemed sad and depressing how the story ended. I felt like I needed a little happiness from the darkness.

I truly enjoyed Eowyn Ivey's The Snow Child and Bright Edge of the World, so I had high hopes for this novel. I did enjoy the magical aspect of Arthur's character, but from the beginning, I could not connect with Birdie. Her reckless behavior in not just the beginning of the novel, but later when Birdie takes her young daughter, Emaleen, to live with Arthur, made her an unlikable character. It seemed she hadn't learned her lesson about leaving her daughter behind, over and over again. Emaleen was the bright light in this story. I eagerly read through this book wanting to see what would happen with Birdie, Arthur and Emaleen, mostly because of Emaleen's spirited, innocent, trusting character I also wished for a "happier" ending, but we can't always have that, and it doesn't mean a story is not a good one. I'd recommend this book, but for me, it doesn't hold up to The Snow Child.

Black Woods, Blue Sky by Eowyn Ivey tells the story of Birdie, a single mother, her young daughter Emaleen, and her love interest Arthur. The overarching theme of the book revolves around the interaction of love and one’s true nature. Set in Alaska, the sense of place is palpable and gloriously descriptive. The majesty of the landscape matched only by the aspirations and inchoate dreams of the protagonists. The narrative, told from Emaleen’s point of view, requires a suspension of disbelief – or acceptance of magical realism – that did not appeal to me. Despite the forewarning about Birdie’s bad choices, I was not prepared for her move off the grid with Arthur and Emaleen. There are seemingly few adults in her sphere, and certainly none she listens to. I also found it unrealistic that Carol and Warren found it in their hearts to adopt an emotionally and physically damaged toddler that they “found” in the wilds of Alaska. This book, while praiseworthy for its sense of place and foreboding, did not hold my interest.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for the ARC in exchange for this review.

A heartbreaking but beautiful coming of age story. A tribute to fairy tales and the longing for love. Love for another being and the overwhelming love for nature. A stunning picture of Alaska in all it's beauty and mystery. Eowyn Ivey has succeeded in matching my love for The Snow Child.

Black Woods, Blue Sky reminds me of reading Grimm’s Fairy Tales for the first time after a childhood spent with Disney movies. There are the familiar notes—an unlikely romance, the allure and danger of a dark forest, an air of magic—but the song is darker and stranger than you remember. The novel takes place in an Alaskan wilderness sketched with such observant precision that it functions almost as another character, and is populated by people whose fundamental believability makes their presence in Ivey’s minor-chord dreamscape feel even more alarming. Most of the conflict in the novel derives from a reveal that I won’t spoil, but I will say that Ivey’s choice to include a child as a main character and narrator raises the stakes of a story that might otherwise feel too familiar in its archetypes. Emmaleen, six years old and the enthusiastic sidekick to her impulsive mother, makes everyone around her feel more flawed and sympathetically human. Unlike a fairy tale, Black Woods, Blue Sky has no neat ending or easy moral; if there is a villain, it might be the inability to accept that the chasm between what we desire and what we can have is ultimately uncrossable.

A young mother struggles to raise her daughter alone. She can barely make ends meet. She yearns for so much more and then she meets a “most unique man”. This is the story that Eowyn Ivey brings to us in her new book Black Woods, Blue Sky. Meet Birdie and Emmaleen who are on their own in Alaska. The setting is stunning. Shy, quiet Arthur is not like the rowdy guys who are always trying to pick Birdie up. There is an attraction and when he invites her and her daughter to move in with him at is cabin in Northern Alaska she says “yes”. Things are not exactly what they seem it is Emmaleen who picks up on it.
This book showcases different types of love. In it we see parental, familial and passionate love. On top of that there is compassion. Each character in this story is three dimensional and I felt as if I had bonded with them. Even Carol, who is Warren’s wife and never appears in the book was warm and well fleshed out. Birdie was so relatable as I saw her pulled in two different directions, raw independence on one side and the nurturing mother on the other. She loved both but they were not easily compatible. Warren had a deep love for Arthur, partly an extension of his respect of Carol, and a growing love and feeling of protectiveness for Emmaleen and Birdie. Poor Arthur was probably pulled the hardest. He truly loved his new family but this was a difficult thing for him.
It is amazing what we are able to overlook and overcome for love. This book shows examples of this. As a fantasy I was initially in love with the premise but I fell in love with the book. The ending was solid. I recommend this to readers of fantasy and non fantasy alike.

Deep deep in the Alaska wilderness, hermit-like Arthur Neilsen is living a certain type of ideal life: self-reliant, solitary, comfortable amidst the dangers and isolation of the deep backcountry. And for Birdie, a bartender/poor-decision-maker/mother in a small, rundown Alaskan resort, his size and strangeness is appealing.

Despite the warnings that nobody QUITE articulates about the nature of Arthur's strangeness, and even though hints and foreshadowing are scattered broadly about what kind of danger Arthur embodies, after a brief, passionate courtship, Birdie and her (5-year-old?) daughter Emaleen fly out to the backcountry to take up life in Arthur's remote, primitive cabin. Their pilot is Arthur's father — foster father, a man wracked by guilt and fear about what Arthur is and will do, but whose inability to speak his truth made me hate the story just a little. As with The Snow Child , Ivey draws on a rich tradition of folklore and magic; the community seems to accept the surprising fact of what and who Arthur is, even if they won't, frustratingly, warn Birdie.

No mistake: this is a beautiful depiction of Alaska, of the nature of wild open space, and the conflicting impulses that send Birdie to her fate. Ivey is a wonderful writer with a passion for this wide, brutal landscape. I admired how the novel sped through the foreshadowed tragedy and found a kind of redemption as an adult Emaleen returns to Arthur's cabin with the senior Mr. Neilsen.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for the eARC in exchange for my unfettered opinion.

“Black Woods, Blue Sky” by Eowyn Ivey is a magical fantasy that takes place in the back woods of rural Alaska. The story is about a negligent young single mother who meets an intriguing stranger. There is a strong attraction between the two of them and without her knowing anything about the strangers past she and her young daughter move into his isolated rustic cabin. There is great depth in these characters as well as the beautiful descriptions of Alaska which also becomes a character in this story. The novel addresses loss, grief, love and acceptance. Overall a very enjoyable read with an exceptional insight into Alaska.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group-Random House for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

A haunting, fractured fairytale retelling that will stay with you long after you read it. It's been a while since I've read the author's Snow Child (which I loved), and I'm glad to say this is easily at par with that, despite it being a completely different book. The author's style is haunting, atmospheric, and lingering, and you will be thinking about this book even after you've finished. Don't hesitate, pick it up!

Three books, three 5-star reviews.

Once again, Ivey has created a wild, magical, moving story. It would be too easy to call this book magical realism or a fairytale re-telling. There is something more mature and ancient-feeling about it all than those terms encompass. Some feeling that sits on the edge of your consciousness. Like, maybe you have heard this story before, in another lifetime, perhaps? Whatever it is, it works. Magically.

Ivey is a master at creating a palpable atmosphere out of the Alaskan wild. Without being overly descriptive, she pulls the reader into the setting effortlessly. Each character is deeply layered and nuanced, and she is able to write from a child's POV without it feeling silly or unsophisticated, which can happen easily in an adult book with a child's POV. The story itself is both lovely and heartbreaking, as seems to be the thread of all her stories.

Eowyn Ivey is an ethereal spirit, gently weaving ancient tales into our consciousness, inviting us to revel in the beauty of nature and the intricate dance of the human experience within it.

Black Woods, Blue Sky beautifully captures the lush and dangerous landscaping in rural Alaska. Birdie, a young, single mom is raising her daughter Emaleen in a small rural Alaskan town. She is scraping by to raise her daughter while still wishing to behave like the young woman she is. Birdie meets a compelling stranger named Arthur who lives deep in the wilderness. There is a very strong attraction between the two and Arthur shows genuine affection toward Emaleen. The two decide to leave the town to live with Arthur in the wilderness. His very rustic cabin has no plumbing or electricity. In spite of this hardship, they create a life together. Arthur harbors, a deep secret and the beautiful prose will give you a sense of foreboding. This very compelling story addresses love and acceptance. The story goes full circle to leave the reader with a very satisfactory ending.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House for this advance readers copy.

A 26 year old, single mother struggling to get by in rural Alaska develops a relationship with an unlikely local man and moves with her 6 year old daughter to his even more remote cabin. As she slowly begins to understand his complicated nature, she is drawn to the his dark side. The book is part allegory, part love story and part tribute to the Alaskan landscape. I love a novel with a unique story, great character development and terrific prose. Toss in some subtlety mounting tension and this novel checks all the boxes. I couldn’t put it down.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I am blown away by how good this was! I haven't read this author before, and was not sure I would like it since it was advertised as a sort of retelling of Beauty and the Beast and I am not a big fan of fairy-tale retellings. However, I requested it because of some reviews that said the nature writing in this book was wonderful and that the story was not at all what they had expected it to be.

That was all I knew going into this book, and they were exactly right. This story follows chaotic yet passionate Birdie and her young daughter Emmaleen, as they move to an isolated, off-grid cabin in the woods to be with Arthur, a gruff and mysterious man who spends most of his time outdoors and who has taken a liking to Birdie.

The nature writing was amazing, and you really feel like you are with the characters in the remote Alaskan wilderness, which I loved. Without spoiling anything, this story alternates perspectives between Birdie, Emmaleen, and later Arthur's father Warren. It gets quite suspenseful and dark in some places, and has a tension that makes you want to keep reading. I also LOVED that this story was not a romance! I went into it expecting it to be romance-focused and that was definitely not the case, so if you are looking for that then maybe this is not the book for you.

This author has a way of humanizing the monster under the bed, and she is great at showing both sides of a story through her use of different perspectives. This book made me tear up about the hard things in life we can't change and yet that make us who we are.

*spoilers below* !!!!!!!!!!!


!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



I absolutely did not expect this story to go from a wilderness adventure where I was certain Birdie's love would transform Arthur from bear to man forever- to a desperate struggle for survival for both Birdie, Emmaleen, and Arthur as they realize you cannot change your true nature, and that love is sometimes simply not enough to save someone - to adult Emmaleen coming back to the cabin to face her childhood for the first time. Emmaleen's acceptance of Arthur and her mother's death and how so much of Arthur made her who she was as he was dying on that mountaintop broke my hearttttt.

Both "The Snow Child" and "To the Bright Edge of the World" are wonderful novels, so Eowyn Ivey's third book is highly anticipated. Again, she takes us to the Alaska wilderness where a young woman named Birdie works at a local bar. She has a young daughter named Emaleen who lives surrounded by "aunts" and "uncles" who give her a sense of safety even when her mother has a wild night. Of course, there is that one day when Emaleen wanders too far and is brought back to camp by a large stranger named Arthur. Arthur is not actually a stranger---he's the son of a local family who lives most of the year in a remote forest camp. He is treated with kid gloves in town, and there is a lot of concern when Birdie and Emaleen join him in the deep forest.

There are whispers of various fairy tales but no exact one you can pin the story on. The real star of "Black Woods, Blue Sky" is the Alaskan wilderness, its delicate and mighty beauties. The first half of the novel moves slowly but picks up when the locals are torn between what they know to be true even though such a thing could not be possible.

There is so much beautiful about this book. Eowyn Ivey is an artist. I look for ward to her next novel. Thanks to Random House and NetGalley for the DRC in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for this advance readers copy, in exchange for an honest review. The Snow Child is one of my all time favorite books and I was so excited to read this new book by Eowyn Ivey, hoping it would be a new favorite. Unfortunately, this story didn’t quite hit the same mark for me. I do still think it was well done and I appreciate the complexities that both frustrated me and kept me in awe. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about this book since I read it and I honestly am still struggling with my opinion of it overall.

I think I struggled the most with the characters in this book. The book description tells us right away that Birdie is a single mother, doing the best she can for her daughter Emaleen but still falling short. It wasn’t this fact alone that frustrated me about Birdie’s character but, just that some of her actions were so entirely negligent and dangerous and left me feeling so angry on her daughter’s behalf. This was a huge road block to connect with her character and the story and I think as a result, I failed to really understand the connection she finds with Arthur. I recognize the themes of loss, grief, interpersonal connection, love, etc that run through this book and I think my favorite part of the story was the end where we got to see it all finally come together through Emaleen.

With that being said, I really enjoyed the magical realism element of the book and loved how the author weaves this throughout the story. It didn’t feel out of place or jarring, which helped at least keep me grounded in the plot. Also, similar to The Snow Child, the descriptions of Alaska in this book- the raw beauty, the nature, plants, animals, etc. - were absolutely stunning. She takes you right there to the setting at hand and you can feel all of it. I hope to visit Alaska someday but, until I get there, these descriptions will keep me ready and waiting. This factor alone was a huge strength of the book for me and is what will keep me returning to whatever Eowyn Ivey writes next.

Overall, while I struggled with this book, I think the lessons, thoughtful questions posed, and important topics raised will make this book a fan favorite. I will be eager to see what other readers think of this and if perhaps, those insights might help me see this a bit differently. I’ll be thinking about this book for a while to come and would definitely recommend to other readers, once it’s available next year!

“Love is the most powerful force in the world. If you couldn’t put your hope in that, what was the point of anything”.

This is the third novel I’ve read by the talented Pulitzer Prize finalist, Alaskan raised, Eowyn Ivey.
“The Snow Child” and “To the Bright Edge of the World” were both books I enjoyed beyond my expectations. Both 5 stars from me.
And this book….”Black Woods, Blue Sky”….
*Wow* …. 5++stars.
….It’s not an easy book to review without spoilers ….
….It’s not a book where a review can do justice enough.
….It’s absolutely a book to read - to love - to experience - to later discuss.

Once again — even more so Eowyn Ivey — blew me away with “Black Woods, Blue Sky”. It’s an award worthy novel.
Ivey’s writing is intimate, endearing, haunting, heartbreaking, mysterious, —genuinely gripping!
It’s well balanced with spellbinding narrative, harsh realities, environment elements, (flora & fauna), magical-folk-myth, and very memorable characters.

The storytelling grabs the reader immediately. The characters themselves will encourage readers into discussions.
Themes of love, loss, grief, havoc, fear, guilt, loneliness, isolation, family, community, friendship, growth, independence, and insights are woven throughout.
The remoteness, wilderness, fears of what’s coming down the pipes, the suspense, the inquisitiveness, as well as the psychological wisdom and tension building gives the reader goosebumps…..as well as a developmental lump in our throats (full fledge globus sensations), near the last twenty-five to thirty percent.

Birdie (a woman who wished she could fly), was a free spirited single mother,
who secretly desired more freedom from her responsibilities. She worked at the local lodge bar.
Birdie drank too much. Her parenting choices for six-year-old-Emaleen were risky….
….yet the love Birdie had for Emaleen was undeniable.
And vice versa.

One night, Birdie was working at the bar. She left Emaleen alone in the cabin… (thinking she would be sleeping at night anyway).
I flashed back to my childhood. My mother left me at home - at night - when I was only five years of age. I sucked my thumb and/or rocked on my hands and knees under my covers.
Emaleen didn’t rock or suck her thumb. She did something that was much more dangerous.

“Emaleen didn’t know what to do. Her mom had been gone a very, very long time, and she was scared, except she didn’t want to think about that, about how scared she was, because the fear might bubble up out of her and grow and grow in a terrible size. Instead, she was trying to keep it wound up in the smallest, tightest little knot, and she could feel it somewhere by her belly button”.

As I mentioned … I can’t say much more about this novel without spoilers …
The characters and story will stay with readers long after finishing the book.
Just read it!!! It’s so easy to recommend! So easy to love!!!

Out-of-context - no spoilers - teaser excerpts:
“Not once had she come across a bear near the creek. In her entire life growing up along the Wolverine River, she had seen only a few, mostly at a distance through
binoculars”.
“Just ‘cause you don’t see them, doesn’t mean they aren’t around, Grandma Jo would say”.

“Unlike some lawman and prosecutors Warren had known over the years, he did not see the world neatly split between perpetrators and victims but rather as a complex interchange of suffering. He had witnessed it again and again, people drawn to the very ones most likely to destroy them”.

“Emaleen had no fear or caution when it came to loving people—she wanted them to be all part of some big, happy family, and she called most everybody, Uncle or Aunt”.
Ha! I could easily relate to Emaleen. When I was around her same age … five or six … I wished for the entire world to be my family!

Love this:
Arctostaphylos uva-ursi or
Kinnikinnick- innik- innik
is a tiny pink and white flower that grows on a clump of tundra.

“That’s how it was with Arthur. Getting close to him, feeling his eyes on her—like touching something dark and wild, and then watching it dart away”.

“She wished for Mr. Warren or Aunt Della or Uncle Syd to come and help them. Her mom knew how to do lots of things. She knew how to find blueberries and catch fish and shoot a gun, but Emaleen was worried that she didn’t know how to keep them safe”.

Spinner -Warren’s dog… they were quite a pair 🐾

A breathtaking novel …. significant …. a gift rich in content …. elegant artistry …. edgy …. utterly bursting at the seams with humanity and love.

This was a beautiful story with complex, well-drawn characters.

This is my first of her books but I absolutely love Ivey’s writing and the way she weaves deeper messages into the dialogue. I was completely immersed in the Alaskan setting—it felt so vivid and real. The plot was both believable and surprising, going in directions I didn’t expect but loved.

I could easily see this becoming a modern classic, it’s one of the few books I’ve read that I would honestly recommend to anyone.

I enjoyed The Snow Child when I first read it, so I was excited to read another eerie and atmospheric tale from Eowyn Ivey! This book was really interesting and had a lot of beautiful writing and scenery, which made it an excellent read for fall and winter.
The characters were all interesting, but lacking in complexity. I didn't like Birdie at all - she was borderline abusive to Emmaleen at times, and she was extremely selfish and immature. Both Emmaleen and Arthur were intriguing enough, but Arthur had no other traits outside of his backstory, and I would have liked to see more development of Emmaleen and her character as she grew up.
The writing and plot were fantastic. Eowyn Ivey did a gorgeous job writing about the landscape of Alaska and bringing the setting to life. The descriptions of the scenery, the vivid imagery and rich writing elevated the story into a fairytale reminiscent of Little Red Riding Hood and East of the Sun, West of the Moon. The pacing was well-done, if a little slow at the beginning. Overall, I really enjoyed this book and I think fans of fairy tale retellings and wintry settings will enjoy this book. Thank you so much to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for the eARC!

"Black Woods, Blue Sky" tells the story of Birdie and her daughter Emaleen. Birdie is a young mother working at Wolverine Lodge, often making poor choices and putting herself before her daughter. When she meets Arthur, a mysterious man who lives up in the mountains, they begin a relationship, leading to Birdie leave everything and take her daughter to go and live with him in his secluded cabin up at the North Fork of the Wolverine River.

This story is built on the foundation of a poor, faulty relationship. One with very little communication, and one that doesn't necessarily warrant the great life change that Birdie decides to undertake. Though the book gets better towards the end, the first three quarters felt a little like a slog, a strange juxtaposition of beautiful passages describing the gorgeous Alaskan wilderness with the tedious, encumbered relationship of Birdie and Arthur. The last section makes up for the mucky, slow first three quarters; however, I'm not sure if it made the whole read completely worthwhile. "Black Woods, Blue Sky" doesn't live up to the high expectations that Eowyn Ivey established with her wonderful first two novels: "The Snow Child, and "To the Bright Edge of the World."

First, thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I thought Ivey's first novel, Snow Child, was excellent, so when I saw this pop up as an ARC, I immediately requested it. I was excited to receive it, and though I didn't like it quite as much as I liked Snow Child, it is written with the same skill and delicacy that novel was, again using the magical realism that infused Snow Child.

This is a moving, powerful, sad, magical, and complex book. In my opinion, the best kinds of books to talk about are those that embrace life's grey areas and have characters that are tough to categorize as good or evil, ethical or immoral, and this book fits that description perfectly. Is Birdie, a young single mother struggling to make ends meet in rural Alaska, doing the right thing for herself and her child to move to a deserted cabin with the town loner, Arthur? Is this offering her child beauty and freedom, or putting her at risk of all the dangers the isolated Alaskan wilderness brings with it? Or both? Is Arthur's father, Warren, knowing the secrets he does, being supportive and hopeful by letting them go, or naive and irresponsible? Ivey is too savvy to every come down fully on one side of that debate or the other, but I know I can't wait until this is published and some of my friends read it, because I want so badly to have that discussion with them.

I somehow missed Ivey's second book, but reading this reminds me that I need to seek it out soon. I gave it 5 stars because it left me thinking, but be warned that this isn't a light or easy read.