Eowyn Ivey: Black Woods, Blue Sky

Hi everyone

Eowyn Ivey’s Black Woods, Blue Sky is her third book, and after adoring her first two (The Snow Child and To the Bright Edge of the World), I knew I had to buy it immediately. I treated myself to a copy from Bol using my birthday money.

"Birdie’s keeping it together; of course she is. So she’s a little hungover sometimes, and she has to bring her daughter, Emaleen, to her job waiting tables at an Alaskan roadside lodge, but she’s getting by as a single mother in a tough town. Still, Birdie can remember happier times from her youth, when she was free in the wilds of nature.
Arthur Neilsen, a soft-spoken and scarred recluse who appears in town only at the change of seasons, brings Emaleen back to safety when she gets lost in the woods. Most people avoid him, but to Birdie he represents everything she’s ever longed for. She finds herself falling for Arthur and the land he knows so well. Against the warnings of those who care about them, Birdie and Emaleen move to his isolated cabin in the mountains on the far side of the Wolverine River.
It’s just the three of them in the vast black woods, far from roads, telephones, electricity, and outside contact, but Birdie believes she has come prepared. At first, it’s idyllic, but soon Birdie discovers that Arthur is something much more mysterious and dangerous than she could have imagined, and that like the Alaska wilderness, a fairy tale can be as dark as it is beautiful." 

Black Woods, Blue Sky is a very difficult book to review. I had so many feelings and conflicting thoughts about it, and I’ve struggled to find the words to properly convey my experience.

Ivey’s writing is as atmospheric, captivating, and beautiful as ever. The Alaskan wilderness feels alive and is breathtaking, the sense of isolation, the intense emotions, the wildness, and the magical setting are written so vividly that you can almost feel you're there. 
But Birdie’s obsession with Arthur is where the book becomes deeply unsettling, and I’m not sure it was meant to be this way. Her infatuation grows at an alarming pace, and her actions are often shocking. She forces herself on Arthur sexually, she invites herself and her daughter to live with him without considering what’s best for Emaleen, and she repeatedly endangers her child in pursuit of a man she’s barely known for a year. There are so many red flags surrounding Arthur, and yet Birdie ignores them all, even after he nearly attacks Emaleen. She still chooses him over her daughter, expecting a cold, hungry, scared child to stay alone in the woods. Birdie’s longing for connection and escape is understandable, but her self-centeredness and neglectful parenting felt impossible to reconcile with a character we’re supposed to feel sorry for.

What makes this book so challenging is that Ivey doesn’t shy away from showing the consequences of Birdie’s choices. There’s a scene where Birdie longs to be away from her daughter; to be just herself; while simultaneously missing Emaleen and wanting to be with her. That inner conflict resonated with me deeply. But Birdie’s extreme neglect and reckless decisions crossed a line for me. It made me angry, even livid, because her choices endanger Emaleen repeatedly, and she never truly considers the harm she causes.
I also struggled with the ending. Arthur kills Birdie while in bear form, and it’s clear he doesn’t understand the human consequences of his actions. So why lock him up? It felt unfair and unnecessary. If Arthur wanted to live as a bear, why not let him go? The third part of the book, where Emaleen returns to the wilderness, was a perfect way to end the story and gave me some closure, but the handling of Arthur’s fate still bothered me.

This is not an easy read, and it’s not meant to be. Black Woods, Blue Sky is not a book I “enjoyed” in the traditional sense, but it’s one that will stay with me for a long time. 

If you have read Black Woods, Blue Sky; I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Happy reading!
Helena