Mudflowers by Aley Waterman is a spectacular work. I have read a lot of literary fiction and this will be one of my highly recommends. It follows Sophie, a twenty something woman living in Canada. Instead of taking the usual route, this book is more of a character study. It also doesn't uses quotation marks for the dialogues.
We follow the tumultuous relationships Sophie shares with Alex and Maggie. The writing has the effect that made me feel like a close friend of mine is sharing her story while I'm listening to it. Throughout the course, I'm shocked and I related to some of it. I enjoyed reading it and hope to read more from Waterman.
I'd like to thank Netgalley and the publishers for the e ARC. Thank you for this opportunity.

An interesting story but not my cup of tea. The dialog and thoughts all felt very immature and short-sighted. Maybe better suited for someone in their early 20s.

Sally Rooney coded for sure, I’m kind of on the fence about this book. I didn’t really connect with the plot or the characters but none the less the messiness made the book interesting. I really only remember being pissed with Alex and Maggie getting caught by Sophie cause like really y’all got caught, come on now, it seemed a little high school-ish for that scenario to happen with grown adults.I think this is one of those reads that it’s either you get it or don’t and that’s probably why I found parts of it a little odd because I’m part of the few that don’t get it.

This broke my heart in the best way and made me want to be Canadian. I loved it. I can’t believe it is a debut bc the writing feels so… advanced? Stunning!!!

A great character study that deals with the themes of grief, love friendships and betrayal. I really enjoyed the stream of consciousness writing style and fans of sally Rooney will adore Sophie and all her messiness. A lovely easy read.

I really enjoyed this book. Waterman's account of growing up, navigating polyamorous relationships and morning loss felt tender and nuanced. I particularly liked her characterisation, no person felt wholly vilifid or lauded. I found this book to be refreshing and tender.

Absolutely fantastic book!! Could not put the book down once I began reading it. Cannot wait for it to be released. I will recommend it to everyone I know!

It was good but something was missing for me. I’m sure it will be well loved but there was just something that felt a bit flat for me personally

I enjoyed it very much! I would recommend it to a friend.
It wasn’t my favourite read and it was lacking some things.
Overall enjoyable.

This one is going to stick with me for a long time. The messiness and many branches of the found family tree in this book felt so real. I saw my queer Philly in Sophie’s queer Toronto. The writing is absolutely beautiful. I’ll be looking up Aley Waterman’s short fiction and eagerly awaiting future novels.

This read was ok, i enjoyed it and would recommend it but at times was slow and wasn't as gripping but others was relatable.

Absolutely loved this. Follows Sophie over the course of a year, in Toronto, France, and Newfoundland, and her relationships with Alex and Maggie. I thought it was so well done, so well written! Reminds me of a bit of Ghosts by Dolly Alderton but a bit more relaxed.

Reading this novel I was brought back vividly to my twenties. Having a circle of friends, falling in and out of love, how life seemed so very complicated, feelings so intense. How love seemed like it was the only real thing, and how intimacy could be mistaken for it so easily. How betrayal felt like the worst possible thing.

Sophie has experienced a profound loss. Her mother has died, before the novel begins, which she hasn’t really dealt with. She is trying to make a life for herself as an artist, and build a community and ultimately a family. In beautiful prose, Waterman tells the story of the things she goes through in order to do it. It’s hard to believe that this is a debut novel.

Thank you to Rare Machines (an imprint of Dundurn Press) for allowing me to read and advance copy.

While I can completely see how this could be a book that other's love, it fell flat for me. The character's personalities didn't feel complete and I didn't feel any connection. Even though the storyline didn't keep my interest, there were a couple lines by the author that I found to be so beautiful and poetic. I would love to give author another try! I just don't think this story was for me.

Aley Waterman’s debut novel Mudflowers is a loose exploration of grief, love, sexuality, friendship, and finding yourself in your 20s - right up my alley!

The first few pages had me feeling a bit skeptical as Sophie, our narrator, traverses through a number of complex thoughts and feelings, and I found myself getting lost in these journal-like musings without having much opening context to ground her experiences and have them stick for the following chapters. Eventually I felt a good rhythm come in as characters and a loose plot line were introduced.

As the novel continues, the themes become jumbled as Sophie takes brief detours into other subjects, and it was hard to decipher exactly what message Waterman was trying to get across. While I do enjoy a Sally Rooney-esque ‘no plot just vibes’ kind of story, this one had a few too many ‘vibes’ flying around for anything to leave a solid mark on me.

I did love how Waterman writes about certain feelings and experiences with such detail (although some of the metaphors felt a bit too overly specific / abstract), some that I can relate to but have never seen explored in a novel. At moments it felt like I was reading my own internal monologue which was spooky - a bit chaotic, judgemental, and lots of personal reflection.

I’d recommend giving Mudflowers a spin if you’re looking for a moody read with a healthy dose of character-study, but be wary that slow moments that can make this read a bit of a push to get through.

Thanks to NetGalley and Dundurn Press for this eBook, Mudflowers will be released in October!

I absolutely loved the stream of consciousness element of this book as honestly it’s how my brain processes things. it was a really engaging novel even if the image of bisexual women as being more prone to cheat was definitely a downside for me!

i think this is the type of book thats only enjoyable if u can somewhat relate to it. i couldnt relate to the main character at all and i very quickly lost interest in trying to understand her feelings or get to know more abt her. the narrative style didnt help with that bc disliked being stuck inside of sophie's head sm and the books very heavy on introspection. i also couldnt connect to the other characters nor really understand what sophie liked abt them/what they liked abt sophie. so yeah, found this pretty boring overall and it really dragged on even tho its just 200-something pages

Mudflowers started out really strong and had its very amazing parts, which were:

- its writing (!!!!!)
- its pacing (medium-paced, I liked it)
- its characters

I really felt deep into the protagonist, Sophie, and her monologues. This book talked about many things but one that I loved most was about loving someone and also wanting to be loved. There are lots of lines in this book that resonated with me, and one of the reasons why I liked it is it made me feel something. Yeah sometimes that’s enough for me to like a book.

Its only negative part was it got very dragging and boring after 100 pages and only got interesting again like 170 pages in. Other than that, there are many reasons why people should read this book and one of those is the GAYS here, obviously.

Loved everything about this book, it’s definitely one of my high 3 stars out there.

- the story drew me in within the first few paragraphs. The quote “I wanted so badly to love in a good way.” is what really drew me into the story. And honestly I have never read a book where there was no quotation marks around the speaking parts so it took me a bit to get used to it.
- I love the attention to detail this book has. I loved reading about who the main character (Sophie) interacts with and who they were in her life. Sophie is a complex character and during the book it shows how she has these complex feelings, sometimes good and sometimes bad, but she still feels it because that’s what happened when you are human. There were times throughout the book I was annoyed by Sophie’s actions or decisions and looking back it makes me like the book even more. It shows how complex Sophie’s character is and this book is a true character study.
- The sentences read like poetry and there were so many quotes from this book that reminded me of such.
- I appreciated being able to to read this book. Thanks to the publisher and Net Gallery.

My feelings towards this book were very up and down whilst reading.

I love a messy girl Sally Rooney-esque, no plot just life kind of story.
Flipping between finding everyone insufferable but then going along with the chaotic vibes.

Exploration of loss of a parent, grief, relationships in your 20’s and found family.

I did like the ending and thought it was sweet.

Thank you to NetGalley and Rare Machines.
3/5 ⭐️