Small Animals Caught in Traps

Cape Disappointment, Oregon is a beautiful and dangerous place. It’s a favorite for tourists looking to experience the wilds of Oregon’s Pacific Coast. It’s an “end of the world” place for hardcore drifters, seekers, survivalists, and lifers who put their lives on the line every day.

C.B. Bernard’s striking debut novel “Small Animals Caught in Traps” centers on the grandeur and peril of Disappointment, seen primarily through the eyes of the Yaw family - Lewis, Janey, and Grayling. Mom and Dad are Massachusetts transplants ending up in Cape Disappointment at the end of their quest to create as much distance as possible from their roots.

Bernard teaches us a great deal. We learn about Oregon, fishing, bears, guns, boats, boxing, arrogant Californians, trivia, and literature. Often we learn through clever, witty, dry dialogue that is laugh out loud funny.

But what “Small Animals Caught in Traps” is really about is struggling to overcome trauma, despair, abandonment, and pain. Is recovery possible? Can we control ourselves sufficiently to learn and improve? Bernard pulls no punches (pun intended) in the stories he tells. Some are graphic in detail. Each time the reader settles in confident that the corner has been turned, Bernard tells us, “Not so fast”. However at the end of the day, “Small Animals Caught in Traps” is a hopeful tale and a wondrous read.

Thanks to Blackstone Publishing and NetGalley for the eARC.

Lewis Yaw grew up in far back east and his did not start out well when he lost a mother at a very young age and had to grow up with a who regrets him every day. Lewis's father abuses often even more so when Lewis witnesses his father at his weakest moments. His father believes that physically fighting your own child as acceptable as it is just another form of communication. Thanks to a teacher that sees a chance in Lewis he is referred to a therapist which turns out to be a boxing gym. Lewis finds that this can be place of escape and ends up being a somewhat successful boxer. He finds within this environment he realizes he can be something more. Eventually Lewis finds his way out and ends up in Disappointment, Oregon where he has exchanged the life of a fighter for the life as a fishing guide where he and his wife Janey who is the sun in his world try to make a better life. When they have their child and see's that it is not the son he hoped for. He heads the advice of a nurse in the delivery room when he mentions how he wanted a son and now what is he going to do, and she tells him teach his daughter and she will do these things better than any man. While Lewis raises his daughter he is haunted by his past as he does not want to repeat the past and be like his father, does not want to be that guy. This is the type of read that compels you to finish it in one day and it has been a while since I have had a book do that but be warned there are some dark spots in this story and in my opinion gut-wrenching at times. I do not know if my review does this book justice but i will definitely recommend this book to everyone i know. Give it a read.