Vanessa Veselka novel is well written, filled with interesting metaphors, and stunning detail. Unfortunately the meandering story and unlikeable characters made reading it a chore. ( )

This novel is the epic story of a very, very complex family. We learn initially that baby girls are born to two mothers on the same day. One of the mothers will raise not only her own baby but the other woman's as well. Fast forward, they are adults and are very different young ladies who are curious about the other birth mother as the woman who raised them has kept it secret which girl matched with this mother. So based on this premise there are many twists and turns in this totally captivating novel ( )

This was fine. I loved Veselka's first novel, Zazen, so I hoped to be similarly dazzled by this...and I wasn't. It isn't bad. It's totally fine. Just not what I hoped. Pretty typical story of two late bloomer sisters trying to figure out a family secret. There's some kookiness in the backstory of the secret, but not really to any benefit of the reader. Veselka is a great writer and I'll be on the lookout for more despite liking but not loving this particular novel. ( )

Thanks to NetGalley for my ARC.

I came to The Great Offshore Grounds purely based on the art. The book cover art is totally beautiful. This concentric circle thing is a major theme in book cover art lately it seems and tends to be a indicator of good things within: The Overstory by Richard Powers, a masterpiece, and the forthcoming Cuyahoga by Pete Beatty, also great. So that stunning art hooked me right in and the synopsis was intriguing.

Two sisters are reunited at their deadbeat father's wedding. At the wedding they are given an inheritance in the form of information that promises a shot at some form of financial security. The information sets the sisters and their adopted brother on a harrowing adventure that is full of heart and humor and brutality and everything you could possibly want in a novel. All of it told in a very original way. All of The Great Offshore Grounds is familiar ground but tread upon in the most original and achingly beautiful way. Synopsis aside you will find yourself rooting for Cheyenne and Livy the novels star half-sisters as they make their way across the country.

Straight out of the gate in the first couple of pages Vanessa Veselka presents herself with full literary force:

"Her secondhand clothes came off as vintage, while her misadventures in body art made her seem a fine vase, badly cracked and chipping but a gritty accent to any room."

I mean come-on that is just drop dead gorgeous writing. Totally beautiful. The Great Offshore Grounds is just full of great sentences like that. Vanessa Veselka reveals herself to be a literary force. This is a great and original novel that treads over familiar ground and themes that well all know: family narratives, revelations of family secrets, cross-country journey's, and sisters - women - forging their way in the world and The Great Offshore Grounds does so in a way you have likely never seen before. The Great Offshore Grounds is vivid and full of heart and thrilling and also darkly funny. ( )