“Creatures” by Crissy Van Meter was both a sad and moving novel on abandonment, survival and loss. Evie and her father live on Winter Island off the coast of California. Her mom has left, her father has his own issues with responsibility and struggles with drug addiction, and Evie as an adolescent has to figure out how fend for herself and survive in a world where nothing is certain.

The novel falls in a literary fiction genre and Ms. Van Meter’s descriptions and portrayal of Evie’s life on the island and her connection to the ocean are rich and refreshing. Her character development and the way she deconstructs the story is engaging. I would have liked her to expound more on the various aspects of situations that would have brought more satisfying closure, but besides that there isn’t much to fault the story.

This was not your typical “beach” read but the descriptions brought a fulfilling detail to my recent trip to California with the family. I heartily recommend it!

I received this eBook free of charge from Algonquin Books via NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review. I did not receive any fiscal compensation from either company for this review and the opinions expressed herein are entirely my own.