Hello and happy Sunday. I feel like I haven’t written a review in months because the books I’ve finished lately have been in Spanish, and I read those with my heart. This means that I don’t review them. I’ll tell you, though, that during all of last weekend Bear by Julia Phillips had me in a chokehold.

I can’t tell you that I love this book because it’s kind of disturbing, but it was gripping and relatable and thought provoking. It was also a pretty quick read regardless of the dense subject matter. Sam is our main character. She lives in San Juan Islands with her older sister Elena and their dying mom. Sam and Elena promised each other that they would one day leave their hometown and actually start living their lives, and Sam lives by this promise. One day, from the ferry where Sam works, she sees a bear swimming. The bear then comes to the sisters’ front door, and Elena starts forming this odd attachment with the animal. If anything, this is a brilliant character study that will for sure stir some unpleasant feelings within readers. It’s a rather quiet, philosophical book, but one that you won’t want to put down until you’re done with it. I think this is for sure one of my top reads of the year.