Bernhard's story is a harrowing coming-of-age one that focuses on family-ties, loss and forgiveness, the need to discover one's origins, the need to belong and grow, it is a story of two wounded people holding each other up through tough times. Gritty and unflinching, lyrical and sincere, "Winter Loon" confronts child neglect, substance abuse/alcoholism, incest, murder, racism, estrangement and complex family dynamics and still manages to be hopeful and optimistic.

“Without winter, how would we know to welcome spring? No death, no rebirth.”

Arrrrrgh!... this book was SO FREAKING GOOD! The kind of good that encourages poor choices like, “No, it’s fine, I don’t need to shower today. I can just read for an extra 30 minutes then.”

And I know it might seem as though I’m saying that a lot lately, but in truth my “Did Not Finish” pile has been huge. I gave a valiant effort at reading several highly rated books, but just couldn’t get into them. Gotta kiss a few frogs, ya know?!

Somehow I keep happening on (or maybe as a teacher/mom am drawn to) these heart wrenching stories about children. They almost serve as self-help books for me, making me want to be a better human.

Read this story about Wes Ballot, a boy abandoned by nearly all who should have been unmoving in his life. I don’t want to tell you much about his story, other than that as his finds himself, it will make you consider things about yourself as well. A beautiful, harrowing story of love and loss.

“Each new day is like a new life. More chances to make good and be honorable.”

Thanks to Little A and NetGalley for the review copy.

This book isn’t in fact about a Winter Loon although they do make an appearance. This novel is about Wes, a teenage boy living in Minnesota in what I’m guessing is the 1970s or 1980s? I coudn’t get much of a grasp on the time period. At the outset of the novel his mother dies after falling into a frozen lake and Wes is sent to live with his grandparents, Gip and Ruby, in a small Minnesotan town after his father leaves him to go to Montana for work.

It’s hard to believe that this is Susan Bernhard’s debut novel. The writing is mature and sophisticated, and the characters have genuine depth and resonance. The portrayal of a small town will be familiar to anyone who has lived in that setting and the little observations and details really bring the settings and characters to life. This novel made for painful reading at times with some of the themes explored including domestic and sexual abuse, dysfunctional families, racism and poverty. The novel also encapsulates the realities of working-class lives in small town America and captures the teenage experience of first love, friendship, grief, the meaning of family and strained parental relationships. The author did a really great job of encapsulating the coming of age journey of a teenage boy. The dynamic between Wes and his father was at turns heartbreaking and frustrating and there was a sense of fatalism about their relationship. The flashbacks to Wes’ relationship with his mother and his growing understanding of her experiences also made for difficult reading at times. Life is messy but the love they had for each other was genuinely touching and portrayed beautifully. I also thought the love story was really sweet and I was rooting for them until the end.

Ok, enough gushing. I’ve wracked my brains and I really can’t think of any criticisms to level at this book but I really can’t think of anyone. I enjoyed it from start to finish and it achieved exactly what it set out to do. I was absolutely gripped towards the end and stayed up till 2am ugly crying into my pillow in order to finish it. This is the kind of book I would enthusiastically recommend to others to read, particularly those who enjoy sensitive and deep character driven narratives. Also, the cover is gorgeous of course! 😉

Testing the waters is never accomplished within the safety of the shore.

Susan Bernhard presents a novel imbued with the tragedies of second-hand debris of life. The hand-off, the jilted inheritance, the receiving end of the deadly stick, the heavy baggage left in the wings by those who came before us.

Her main character of Wes Ballot is but fifteen years old. But Wes bears the internal scars of hovering in the shadows for most of his young life observing and fleeing from the images of his alcoholic parents engaged in constant battle. Survival meant staying out of the way and making yourself small. Daily existence demanded the caretaking of those who relinquished their own parenting roles.

Bernhard sets up a pivotal situation in which Val shakes her son Wes awake in the middle of the night. She beckons to him to follow her down to the edge of Bright Lake near their shanty of a cabin. Moss, as usual, has taken to the road with promises to be back soon. Val, lit up with high-octane whiskey, bends and sways as they make their way to the frozen lake with the promise to experience the low call of the loon.

And it is here that Bernard will set in motion an out-of-control, rapid-fire situation that will affect all of their lives forever. Val ventures onto the ice swaying to music that only she can hear. Her body plunges into the frigid darkness of the lake water and no panicking effort by Wes can save her. His pitiful screams alert neighbors who call the police.

When Moss returns, he confronts Wes. How could this have happened? Wes is bathed in remorse and humiliated by guilt seeping from his father's cold stare. Moss banishes Wes to the care of his dysfunctional grandparents in Loma. As readers, we observe Wes' condemnation from the frying pan into the fire. We will experience the cyclical nature of neglect, abuse, and cruel indifference.

But Susan Bernhard steadies the hand with her focus on Wes. We will experience the actions and the reactions of Wes as he sorts through the hand that he has been dealt. His "testing the waters" are at the core of this novel. How do we fight the dark knight on horseback when we've never been given the skills to succeed? Always look to the light........

I received a copy of Winter Loon through NetGalley for an honest review. I wish to thank Little A New York Publishing and Susan Bernhard for the opportunity.

Easily, the moral of this story is that grownups are horrible, untrustworthy people. At least it is in the case of Wes Bullet. After watching his mother drown, Wes is abandoned by his father. He is stuck with his grandparents; cold, hard people better suited to a Dickens' novel. And really, the entire book had a dark foreboding feel to it. Ms. Bernhard obviously tried to balance some of this out with other characters, but the shadow of the family members could never quite be relieved. For me, that took this book more from a coming of age story to what I felt was a depressing tale of surviving child abuse, neglect specifically. Even the brighter moments felt uncharacteristic and fleeting. The emotional weight of the story made this one difficult for me to thoroughly enjoy.

Beautifully written and highly emotional for the reader, this is the story of a heartbroken boy dealing with far more than anyone his age should. His mom has died and his father has abandoned him to his grandparents, who are, to say the least, closed off to pretty much all emotion except anger. The secrets of his mother's life loom large but he is lucky to meet Jolene, another teen coping with death and loss. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. This is a coming of age story with lesson for us all.

How do I review this wonderful book without spoiling the plot for everyone. I wasn't exactly sure what was going to happen in this book. More then once I found myself tearing up over Wes' plight.
Being from Northern MN, I found the familiarity of the Ojibway culture comforting.
This book is about running away from the past, making amends to the present and trying to find a future when life has dealt you a bad hand.
I liked the book and the author's writing. Read the synopsis and dive right into the book and the wonderful world of Wes and his circuitous life.

Winter Loon is a beautifully written story of a young boy who comes of age despite the hardships of his life. I realize how generic that sounds, but the beauty in this book is reading it. It's heart breaking and tough to read in spots, but it leaves you, the reader, with a pain in their heart and maybe, just a little bit, in love with Wes.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I received this from netgalley.com in exchange for a review.

Abandoned by his father after his mother drowns in a frozen Minnesota lake, fifteen-year-old Wes Ballot is stranded with coldhearted grandparents and holed up in his mother’s old bedroom surrounded by her remnants and memories.

An okay read.
3.25 stars

Winter Loon by author Susan Bernhard is a great coming of age book deals with sacrifices and pasts that just can’t be forgotten anymore. A great novel.
Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of Winter Loon in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this book from the very first page. The author's mouth-watering use of language sucked me in immediately and held me until the very last page. I loved the story, too. It was a little painful to read at times, but well worth the trouble to push forward. I felt so sorry for the main character, teenage Wes. He deserved better parents. Even so, he was a thoughtful young man who tried to do his best. The story is one of his coming of age and figuring out how to live his own life, despite getting a raw deal in the parents and grandparents lottery. I strongly recommend this book.

Wes Ballott watches his mother die in a frozen lake in Minnesota. After that horror, he is abandoned by his father and forced to live with his chain-smoking, alcoholic bitter maternal grandparents who kept his mother’s room unchanged for years—hiding truths better left buried—but can’t open their hearts to her son.

Everyone Wes comes into contact is the worst possible role model for a parentless child, yet somehow he finds just the right person to help him heal and move on. Despite the stark emptiness of his life, Wes nearly finds a “real” family when he starts seeing a Native American girl. Eventually he loses even her but has a chance to form another family. Wes’s growth from adolescence to manhood is extraordinary, heart-breaking, yet inspiring.

A brilliantly-written coming-of-age story, Winter Loon has taut yet lyrical prose that put me in mind of Louise Erdrich, words which one doesn’t expect from a debut author. I particularly enjoyed her recurrent use of the winter loon, weather, nature, and Native American myths to reflect and contrast with her characters.

Winter Loon is not a vapid read, but underlying the central dread and misery, an uplifting redemption filters through like sunshine through leaves. Watching Wes become a better person than anyone in his dysfunctional family is haunting and magical. Several times, though moved to tears, I was forced to continue reading Bernhard’s elegent prose.