This was unfortunately not for me. I found the description intriguing but the slower pace of the book and somewhat confusing writing, could be due to format of early release, too much to continue. I think this book has a very specific following and I just didn't fall into it. Books are fun that way, they speak to some people and not others.

Thank you Net Galley for a copy of this ARC. This book was a slow starter for me, until I seen it ask come together. Beautifully woven story. The kind that sticks with you.

* Thank you to NetGalley & the publishing house, who provided a free copy of this book for a fair & honest review. *

OK, so as noted by several of the lower-star reviewers — this book is not for everyone, AND THAT IS OKAY. Here’s my response to the 2 most frequent criticisms I saw in the other reviews:

“Vulgarity.” — Life is vulgar, & people swear. Also, fuck off. 🤭

CW — there is a rape scene, & it is graphic. HOWEVER. There is a HUGE difference between a rape scene written by a female-identified writer to demonstrate a moment of brutality *upon which the entirety of the novel hinges* and a rape scene written by a male author to titillate. Every reader has a different threshold. The scene is less than a page long. It’s at location 959 (about 25% in) if you need to skip it.

“Wraps up too neatly” — Take it up with Sophocles; this is basically a modernized version of Antigone, which is why is has a fairy-tale feel to it.

OK, NOW LET’S TALK ABOUT WHY IT’S AWESOME.

That said, I’m *exactly* who this book was written for, so if you’re like me... you’ll be into it.
I will also note that I’m into both Classics & mythology & German Literature & I love the Dresden Dolls & dark Cabaret. So if you nerd out on those things, there’s a lot of Easter eggs in there for you. I mean, you’ve got characters named Siegfried & Tristan & Hilda. So the Hero’s Quest is in there, too.

I tore through this book (seemed pretty substantial, not sure of the page count, but seemed pretty dense) in about 3-4 days. There are a lot of characters, but it never felt (to me, anyway) cluttered. It honestly reminded me a lot of John Irving’s work (and I mean that as a compliment) — what with Germans & a strange specific profession (the ocularist) & a lot of thematic content about destiny.

It’s been a long time since a book made me cry at the end, but the last 10 pages of this had me sobbing, which is probably another reason it reminds me of John Irving — that ability to come full circle & just lay you out completely with a few lines. The Epilogue brought goosebumps to my skin.

This book is lush & poetic & pays careful attention to how language works. The author also has a real ear for dialogue, particularly with the characters Hilda & Siegfried. My suspicion is the author is 2nd generation German & based their speech patterns on real people, because there are some idioms & speech patterns that Germans speaking English have & the author nailed it. I could hear these characters loud & clear.

Also, now I want the band Bleach to be real. I want to hear music that exists in a fictional novel.

I closed the last page of this book feeling like the characters were people I knew, people I want to be happy and live well. They all have a distinctive personality, & I love how deftly the author stitches their stories together. She really has an artful way of showing how one moment is all it takes to alter the direction of a life — how fate & destiny operate in the details, not necessarily the big, defining moments of life. Or rather — the climactic moments are made possible by a series of small, seemingly insignificant choices.

I look forward to reading more books by this author, & as a writer myself, this is exactly the kind of book I want to create one day. I will definitely purchase this in print, I can think of many friends who would love it, & I will definitely read it again.

If you like German lit, classical mythology, John Irving, dark cabaret, Dresden Dolls, Katzenjammer, My Sweet Audrina (VC Andrews), Sturm und Drang, Repo the Genetic Opera, gothic stories, Antigone, or Hedwig & the Angry Inch, odds are you’ll like this book. I hope that this review helps it find its ideal readers. If you get it — you’ll love it.

The writing itself was so beautiful that the story almost didn’t matter. This was a strange book - strange characters and a strange story - but that writing style! Reading this book was a fascinating experience and made me wonder what the author is like and how they came to create this book.

This was one of those books that pulled me in with the description. I struggled through the first chapter and set it aside for awhile feeling a little disappointed. But there was just something that kept me wanting to read a little further in. I'm so glad I did! The characters and the ways they thread in and around each other is irresistible. The momentum of the story was slow to start but built up over time until I just couldn't put it down. There are a lot of themes to the story but I loved the way the threads were woven together and brought me to tears at one point. It was a very satisfying story with a slow build up that was well worth the time.

I’m sorry to say that I didn’t really care for this book. And the description sounded amazing. In spite of, or perhaps because of, an over abundance of themes presented in this novel, the slow pace was off putting. So many themes! Fate, loss, family, violence, abuse, love, loss, etc. There was an interesting dynamic between Johnny and Gareth but ultimately I couldn’t connect with anyone in the book and I found myself skimming paragraphs towards the end just to finish. I see a lot of people did like this book quite a but so don’t let this review put you off on picking this book up. It just wasn’t right for me. Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a free e-book in exchange for an honest review.

This was an enjoyable read - the story is unusual and different from anything I have read in a long time. The characters are wonderful and I especially liked Hilda...she is strong and determined and a fierce mother. The language is beautiful and the turns of phrase are wonderful at times. The descriptive language brings a lot of the details to life.

DNF, unfortunately. Definitely not for me. The author is clearly skilled, and this story definitely has a “something” that should lend itself well to narrative form, but this early copy felt very unfocused and lacking in clear plot direction.

This is not your typical fiction. This is a story of two brothers and two sisters and their journey of life and vision. The story of accidents that happened, the understandings that develop but this story is too much into details about eyes, vision, nerves and their problems and I did not enjoy reading it much.

Thank you NetGalley and Dundurn Press for the eARC.
This is a fascinating book, it's not only a good story, it also has some interesting facts about albinism, loss of sight, glass eyes and Germany from WWII to the fall of the Berlin Wall.
As a person who was born with sight in only one eye, has a German mother and emigrated to Canada, this book really resonated with me.
Great characters, a story that has a touch of mysticism and excellent, intelligent writing make for a novel that's different, in a good way, and it made me read until late into the night. Great stuff!
Highly recommended!

** Many thanks to Netgalley for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. **

Set in 1960s Canada, this novel opens with two childhood friends, Johnny and Gareth, playing as boys do. Johnny takes a tumble from a tree and loses one of his eyes in the process. Two boys who were once so close begin to drift apart and converge over and over as the years go on. What makes the lives of these boys so different? Is there such a thing as fate?

Over the years, Gareth is drawn to a set of albino twins, Clara and Blanca, whose mother is institutionalized due to mental illness stemming from an unspeakable tragedy that happened before her girls were born.

Johnny's mother, a German immigrant, flies her son back and forth from her home country to an ocularist specializing in glass eyes, and with whom she has a connection dating all the way back to childhood.

The novel deals with themes of fate, love, loss, and violence. I was very intrigued by the unique characters and setting at first, but ultimately, the various parts of the story never came together to make a cohesive whole to me. I also was not a fan of the detailed descriptions of sexual acts, particularly rape, which I felt to be upsetting an unnecessary.

Looks like I am in the minority in my opinion, though. This had the potential to be a very interesting book, but unfortunately it just wasn't a good match for me.

I enjoyed this unusual read. In parts, it read like a fairytale. It is based between the 1960s and 1980s, spanning Lake Ontario and Berlin.

Gareth sees his friend Johnny fall from a tree, resulting in his losing an eye. Gareth’s brother Tristan also has an eye problem. So begins a theme of sight, whether it be actual sight or insight.

Gareth goes with Tristan to his eye appointments where he meets unusual twin sisters. Blanca and Clara speak a shared, secret language. They are snow white in colour and have pink eyes. The twins live with their cranky grandad; think a Heidi’s grandad type. There is some shameful secret issue with their sad mum who lives away from them, alone in a cottage.

Johnny’s mum, Hilda, is distraught about the loss of his eye. She is an immigrant from Germany and muses whether this would have or couid have happened had they still been in Germany or if the ancient ways would have protected Johnny. She dwells a lot in the past. There are journeys to her former country to seek solace for her son given his missing eye, and a quest for him to have a normal life in the wake of his deformity. Siegfried could be his saviour in this way. There is a focus on the extraordinary practice of eye making.

Meanwhile, Blanca and Clara live on their difficult life with their closed in grandad. A neighbour, Esther intervenes and takes them under her wing, broadening their lives immeasurably. Gareth and Johnny’s lives become melded with Blanca and Clara’s through terrible circumstances, love, the arts, and old secrets.

The theme of escape is visited, as is being an outsider in your own country, as well as reinvention of the self in new circumstances and surroundings.

This is a well written book with a mythical feeling to it. I recommend it. At times it made me think of the film Big Fish. I think fans of Big Fish would find this read appealing.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Two White Queens and the One-Eyed Jack, Heidi von Palleske

This is a family saga of five children, covering their lives from childhood to adulthood, from the rise of The Beatles to the fall of the Berlin Wall. It is also the story of their parents and their interactions over the years.

The main relationship in the novel is between Johnny and his best friend Gareth. Johnny loses one eye as the result of an accident in which Gareth is involved. They remain friends for the course of the novel, with all the ups and downs that adolescence, early adulthood and adulthood bring. Gareth’s elder brother, who is congenitally blind in one eye, is both help and hindrance to how Johnny deals with his own loss of sight.

Blanca and Clara are albino twin sisters. Gareth first encounters them when they are children; they make an impression that haunts him. But, unlike Gareth’s and Johnny’s own families, the twins come from a broken home. Their mother is institutionalised and their father unknown; they are mostly raised by their grandfather and Esther, a woman downstairs.

Johnny’s mother, Hilda, arrived in Ontario during the war, and still has some Germanic ways. Johnny’s accident puts her marriage under pressure, and that pressure increases when she takes Johnny back to Germany to replace Johnny’s acrylic false eye with a glass one: the ocularist who will make Johnny’s new eye lived in Hilda’s house when she was growing up.

From that setup, the novel moves at a compelling but leisurely pace as relationships grow stronger or weaken, as secrets are discovered and tensions revealed, as talents are discovered, developed or neglected. The action spans Hamburg and Ontario and, perhaps because the author assumes her readers are already familiar with Ontario, the Hamburg is much better depicted. The references to pop culture are spot on, as are the allusions to the politics of the day.

Of a decent-sized cast of characters, there was only one I didn’t quite believe – Uncle Bob – whose role is critical yet not very presaged. We are not shown his conflicts until a little too late for his action to convince. The others are all people I’ve met or people very much like them, and I felt myself wrapped up their lives. And this made it all the sadder that the homosexuality was brushed off with so little comment: this was the eighties and homosexuality was still a big thing.

But the novel is not about homosexuality, or even about sexuality. It is about relationships which endure, a study on why some do and some don’t; it is a portrait of a skill that has been lost to the world, and about becoming an artist. It’s a book that I will reread.

My only gripe is loose writing: “rubbing linseed oil into the huge, round table, bringing it to a high polish with her elbow grease” – grease? Oil? Neologisms pop up “Germany is behind the curve,” and, in the following paragraph “to network,” but that passage is set in the 70s before “behind the curve” and “networking” entered the lexicon. And, in an otherwise moving conclusion, a character ends a succession of paragraphs with the word “to love.”

These are minor gripes and easily fixed. I enjoyed reading this book. Keep an eye out when it hits the shelves.

This book caught my eye because of the title. This book is just completely stunning. It's also pretty raw at times, which I liked a lot. It's all about the choices that people make and the consequences of their actions. It all begins when Johnny (Jack) falls from a tree and loses an eye. Gareth meets albino twins, Clara and Blanca, at the eye doctor and instantly becomes obsessed (infatuated) with them. The story develops as they all move toward adulthood, learning to be themselves and accepting the past. I don't want to ruin this for anyone by giving away spoilers. I just highly recommend this.

Just the title of this book drew me in! This character-driven novel is so captivating and well-written that I connected to the characters on an emotional level in a way I never have with another story.. The intriguing premise of the book includes a perfect blend of music and art along with family secrets and resilience.

I appreciated that the author did not provide a predictable ending. While all the storylines reach a satisfying conclusion, they were not your typical "happy-endings"---just like real life.

Thank you to NetGalley, Dundurn Press, and Heidi von Palleske for the ARC of Two White Queens and the One-Eyed Jack in return for my honest review.

Beautifully written, with a unique voice that's sure to get a legion of fans. The story uses style to bulk up its substance, and both are improved in the end. A lovely story told with elegance.

Took me a second to get into this one, but once I did, I could not put it down! This book combines family drama and the idea of destiny with more poetic, artistic undertones. I have never read anything like it! Thank you to NetGalley and Dundurn Press for a copy of this book for an honest review.

Really intriguing premise with fascinating characters. I'm glad I read the introduction by the author because she's intentionally wrapping together a number of themes and plot points for very specific reasons. Thankfully, for me at least, all of these elements gelled together cohesively and added up to a memorable story that will stay with me for some time.

This book plays around with the idea of fate and destiny--that things both work out how they "should" but not necessarily the way we want them to work out. The result is the endings for all of the characters in this book felt tidy and "right," but weren't necessarily "happily ever after" Hollywood endings. I dug that idea because it mirrors what real life is like. While fate and destiny are the book's central themes, the real backbone of the story is art, and how all of these characters use their artistry to find their way forward and explore their destiny.

The thing I liked best about the book were the characters. There are a number of them, and (with the exception of Tristan, whose perspective seemed underwritten) they all are fully fleshed out and have wholly original stories and journeys you're not apt to see portrayed in other books.

The think I liked least was the formatting of the story. Often the story changes character perspectives mid chapter or even mid page. Every time this happened, it took me out of the story and forced me to stop and clarify where I was in place and time. Every. Single. Time. I'm not sure if the lack of clarity was due to me reading the book in galley form (maybe there will be line breaks, etc to signify these transitions in its final form?) I just know that it was an artistic choice that I found annoying and disruptive.

Thanks to the author and NetGalley for granting me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you, NetGalley and Dundurn Press for this captivating character-driven novel with touches of magic-realism, romance, and a gothic flair. This was a well-crafted novel with a poetic narrative blended with some exquisite prose. Themes include dark family secrets, tragedy, guilt, and resilience, along with art and music.

It deals with physical vision and also the importance of insight. Fate is two-sided and consists of the good and the bad. To get through life one must accept both. A major focus is the ability to reinvent oneself. The profession or lifestyle a person achieves through dedication and hard work may not be the one life or fate chooses for them.

The setting moves back and forth from the shores of Lake Ontario in the 1960s and later to Germany over the decades, and finally in 1989 to the fall of the Berlin Wall.

The characters are unique and memorable, although rather bizarre. They are so well-written that the reader can connect to them on an emotional level. The books’ title is very clever.

Two five-year-old boys are playing at climbing trees. Gareth urges his friend, Johnny to go higher and Johnny falls. This results in a severe eye injury. Gareth blames himself and is horrified when his friend’s eye must be removed. Johnny is fitted with a fake-looking plastic eye which becomes irritated and infected. He is very self-conscious. Gareth learns that his older brother, Tristan, has always been blind in one eye, but accepts it as he has never known anything different.

One day, Gareth accompanies his brother for an eye examination. While in the waiting room he is enthralled by the vision of albino twin girls, Bianca and Clara. With their long white hair and pink coloured eyes, he regards them as enchanting and magical. The girls are teased at school and consider themselves ugly. They live in a squalid upstairs apartment with a cranky, unstable grandfather who reinforces the idea that they are repulsive and freakish. There is also an evil uncle. The girls find a pleasant escape from their unfortunate living conditions, verbal abuse, and lack of nutritious food by visiting a neat downstairs apartment. Esther, a Jewish refugee from wartime Germany teaches them manners and fosters their love of music. Their mother is absent in their lives. She is in psychiatric care, living in a lakeside cottage while receiving electric-shock treatment for depression.

Johnny’s mother is in an unhappy marriage. Her husband has become distant while she devoted her attention to Johnny’s eye infections. She remembers a childhood friend in Germany. Siegfried has become renowned as a leading ocularist, a talented craftsman of glass eyes. She brings Johnny to Germany where he receives a much more realistic artificial glass eye, He is now rid of the troublesome and disfiguring infections. Gareths’ and Johnnys’ lives intersect with the girls whom they regard as beautiful.

As Johnny grows towards manhood, he and his mother travel to Germany every two years to be fitted for new eyes. He is now known as Jack and studies to become a photographer. Clara and Bianca are favourite subjects of his fashion portfolio. The girls are now making tentative steps as punk/opera musicians. Gareth’s talent is painting, and the girls are part of the subject for his largest work of art. He is discouraged from studying at a university level because his less talented teacher hates his slow, methodical pace and also his series of brilliant miniatures he created. She is unlikely to recommend him for higher study. What fate has in store for all these characters is unexpected. Will they find success and happiness in the future?

Two White Queens and the One-Eyed Jack is a totally unique and brilliant novel that will force you to keep reading well into the early hours of the morning.

The lives of two best friends, Jack and Gareth, and their families intertwine with the life of Albino twins Clara and Blanca to create a compelling read that spans decades. Von Palleske's writing is gripping, the characters are some of the most unusual and vivid I have come across (Hilda will always have a special place in my heart) and the story is completely unique.

An absolute must-read.