The Net Beneath Us - Carol Dunbar

Author: Carol Dunbar

Narrator: Cassandra Campbell

Genre: Literary Fiction

Rating: 4 stars.

In a Nutshell: A debut literary fiction about the journey of a family through grief and loss. Well-written, but ponderous. You need to be in the right mood for this – it gets pretty gloomy at times. If you are an audiobook listener, go for the audio.

Story Synopsis:

Elsa has just received devastating new: Silas, her logger husband, has met with a serious accident. Now it is up to Elsa to take care of her house in the woods, manage living off-the-grid just like Silas wanted, take care of her two little children – five year old Hester and not-even-a-year-old Finn, and also stay true to her own desires while maintaining an open communication with her in-laws – Silas’ Uncle Ethan and Aunt Luvera. Will city-bred Elsa be able to handle life on this rural farm without her husband’s help?

The story is written in a third person limited perspective of various characters and covers the period of one year beginning with the accident.

Where the book worked for me:

🌹 A literary fiction is nothing without well-sketched characters, and this one is a winner in that department. Every single main character comes in various shades of grey. Each of them is battling some or the other regret. As the narrative voice flits across each of them, you truly get to understand them, empathise with them, and sometimes, even get frustrated with them. The characters feel real and none of them are depicted as perfect. The contrast between Luvera and Elsa’s approach to life adds well to the drama.

🌹 A major chunk of the story comes from Elsa’s perspective, and it is her character that provides the greatest dramatic effect in the story. Her stubbornness, her courage, and her independence are balanced by her moping over “what-if”, her strained relations with her family, and her uncertainty about what to do next. She carries the story well on her shoulders.

🌹 It would have been so easy to portray the grief only from Elsa’s point of view but the author shines an equal spotlight on all of her key characters. I admired her decision to also give a voice to little Hester’s feelings. She is one adorable girl and her angle elevates the story to a whole new level.

🌹 The story covers almost all feelings that come with life-changing news – shock, anger, depression, resignation, hope, faith, courage, moving on… It does justice to most of these emotions. The way the grief-handling is written, you don’t just view the pain of the characters but actually feel it with them.

🌹 There is an underlying feel of authenticity to the portrayal of living life off the grid. The blurb indicates that the author has drawn on her own experiences to show the wonder and harshness of such a lifestyle. That’s probably why it feels so genuine. Loved the realistic depiction.

🌹 The story is set in Northern Wisconsin, and thought I haven’t ever been there, I could still see the landscape through the beautiful visualisation. I am sure locals will appreciate it even more.

🌹 For a debut work, the writing is amazingly nuanced. Obviously, you know where it is going, but in literary fiction, the journey is of greater value than the destination.

🌹 Loved the metaphorical title – suits the story so well.

Where the book could have worked better for me:

🌵 Too intense on the feelings. My fault, not the book’s. I should have read it at some other time.

🌵 The story attempts to shove in some paranormal feels. (Or maybe, magical realism is the better word for these elements.) It broke the grounded feel of the plot.

🌵 There are too many things happening to too many characters in the novel – a common feature of a character-driven story. But while most worked well, I wasn’t at all happy with one element in the Tommy track. It felt forced in to create a shock effect and didn’t proceed logically from Elsa’s character.

🌵 To a certain extent, the plot makes use of the found family trope. While this works mostly well, the reason why they weren’t as connected with each other when Silas was active doesn’t come out well. Some of Elsa’s antagonism feels baseless and I never quite understood why she was so adamant about not accepting help from Ethan and Luvera.

The audiobook experience:

The audiobook, clocking at a little more than 10 hours, is narrated by Cassandra Campbell. She is one of my favourite narrators, and as such, I am not surprised by the brilliance of her performance. She brought this book alive in the best way possible. Not many narrators can do justice to children’s voices without sounding funny or whiny. But I loved her voice for both Hester and Finn.

Moreover, this is a very slow-paced book, so audio is definitely a better way for you to experience the story without its feeling dragged.

This book is in many ways healing, and in equal ways, frustrating. But overall, it offers a story that does justice to its intention. Recommended to fans of character-driven literary fiction who won’t mind the slower pace. Go in when you are mentally prepared for an intense emotional experience.

My thanks to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the ALC of “The Net Beneath Us”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the audiobook.

PS: I don’t understand how some GR reviewers have filed this book as a mystery-thriller. Such incorrect tagging creates wrong expectations for potential readers. There’s nothing ‘thriller’ in the content, and remember that the author/publisher haven’t made this claim. Don’t go in expecting a mystery – there’s none.