The Lowering Days is a work of fiction that feels like nonfiction. Early reviews for this book are really strong. But in audiobook form, this was a miss for me.

Overall, this felt like a story with a lot of potential but missing the mark in connecting with the story’s voice. The narrator’s point of view was full of insight that felt too mature and analytical than the character could actually have been. Although there were solid elements to this story, they didn’t flow for me.

The audiobook narration was proficient but didn’t pull me in like I was hoping. I had to ramp up the playback speed two levels higher than my usual comfortable speed just to feel like there was forward motion. This is one of those books that left me wondering if it would have been better to read than to experience as an audiobook.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, the publisher, and the narrator for the opportunity to listen to an advance copy of this audiobook. The opinions in this review are entirely my own.

I loved this book so much. It’s such a beautifully told story, evocative and atmospheric. It took me back to younger days, growing up in a rural area and I could almost feel everything that was being portrayed. The narration was subdued and perfectly rendered the mood of the story. I’m not always sure that an audio performance is better than holding the book, but in this case I can’t even imagine NOT listening. It was beautifully done.
I loved these fully fledged characters, especially David—his life, feelings, and his relationships. Really lovely.

This beautiful and heartbreaking story centres on two families in Maine, their community and their interwoven lives. This is my first book with David Aaron Baker as narrator. The writing is moving, and the narrator's tone was perfect to imagine yourself among the landscape.

The Lowering Days, Gregory Brown
Along the Penobscot River in Maine, lies a small town no longer sustained by a lumber and fishing. The paper mill has poisoned the river for decades, creating illness, especially among the Penobscot Nation who still fish and hunt on reservation lands. This rare and beautiful debut novel is Shakespearean in scope of the tragedies portrayed within.

“...We can only account for about 7% of all the matter in the known universe . What this means is that you would be a fool to believe that what you can see, feel, & comprehend is more important than what you cannot. Probability would dictate that what exists in the other 93% of matter may hold great importance. So the perplexing truth is that there are quite possibly other worlds playing out that we cannot see or even begin to comprehend. It’s not just that our fathers might be living different lives in some different dimension, but that different concepts of father, and of friend, or of enemy may exist or not exist at all.”

I greatly enjoyed Brown’s prose, his retelling of First Nation lore, was made even more memorable by the audiobook narrator, David Aaron Baker. My Thanks to Harper Collins and NetGalley for providing me with an audio galley.
Highly recommended.

I've gone back and forth with my feelings and thoughts about this book since I finished it a week ago. In the end, it was a beautiful and heartbreaking story about a small community and the interwoven lives of the generations that inhabit such a small place. I felt for David and the rest of his family. I connected with the conflict of family and community. Between new and old. Between native and settler. After all, it was a sprawling tale that spanned decades.

The Lowering Days is the product of David's mother. Her own history is complicated and has its own violence to it. His father is haunted by a past in Vietnam and his desertion. David's life is still going well. His family seems to have slain, or at least momentarily silenced, the demons of the past. Their town even seems to be rebuilding. The old mill is even opening back up to provide desperately needed work. And then it all burns down. A letter to The Lowering Days takes responsibility while expressing the deep sorrow of a people who have lost their home, connecting the mill and all it stands for with that destruction. Tension builds and sides are taken.

The real heart of the story, though, is obsession. Mostly, the obsession between two men. The events in the town bring these back to the surface and two families that had a tenuous peace lose that peace. They lose a lot. There is loss you can see coming and you wish you could stop it,

Upon finishing, I feel all of this come together. During, however, I kept putting this one down and not necessarily needing to pick it back up. It was beautifully written. I can picture the beauty and wildness of the Penobscot Valley. I can feel the tension. But the flow just never quite work for me. That is really the only thing moving my rating from a 5 to a 4. It didn't feel cohesive until I finished and sat with it for a bit. While I was reading there was often a feeling disconnect with the characters. Between myself and them and amongst them.

What? Did I just read a future classic by a debut author? Maybe. In my opinion this should be a GoodReads candidate Best of for Debut Author.

This book is beautifully written in a rather slow burn way. It will resonate with me for quite a while. It really makes you consider what a little forgiveness instead of one-ups-manship would have brought to these families.

The stories of Aldi, Wren and Molly will really stick with me.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher/Harper Audio and the author/Gregory Brown for the opportunity to read this advance read copy in exchange for an honest review. Publication date is March 2, 2021.

The Ames family live in the Penobscot Valley. Seen through the eyes of a boy becoming a man, David (Almerin). Starting with the mill being burned down by a local girl. She has to hide for fear of the repercussions of her actions. Sending a letter to the local newspaper called the Lowering Days started by Almerin’s mother. This enrages some people in the town including Lyman Creel who’s family owned the mill. The Creel family and the Ames family have been intertwined since before Almerin was born. They continue to cross paths throughout the book. “Hide the truth and watch the same mistakes get made.”

What an awesome book! A story of growing up, grief, respect, and how people are more than just one thing. Each character was unique, memorable and so damn complex. I listened to the audiobook by HarperAudio and the production was very well done.


Thank you to HarperCollins Publishing for the advanced copy of the audiobook and NetGallery.

I have received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Lowering Days sounded a bit more interesting than the book actually was. Or maybe it's just me being weird today. For some reason, I was expecting more of anything really. Drama. Action. You name it. I wanted it. We do get some but it's mostly character after character making horrible decisions throughout the book.

Other than that, it was pretty interesting to see how Native Americans valued and respected their land. So they fought to protect it in every way possible. Again, some decisions that were made didn't make sense to me so I did find it kind of annoying that people weren't really thinking about the consequences and stuff.

In the end, it was interesting but I kind of wish the pace of it all was a bit faster.

David Aaron Baker is a great narrator and capably creates different characters with his voice alone. His solemn tones were perfect for this novel which focused a lot on the land and setting. The story is a slow-moving one and we get insight into various characters as they each experience the events in the story. I can't say I was overly invested in the story or characters but the descriptions of the setting were what held my attention and I was able to visualize the places really well though my visualization lacked the people.

The writing was truly beautiful. I really wanted to enjoy this book, but it fell short. However, I did listen to this as an audio-book and I found myself not being able to fully concentrate. There was no hook in the story and it felt like it dragged on longer than it needed to. It was a slow read that I had to force myself to get back to it. The idea of it was good and the story had potential. There were lots of little stories throughout the book and I feel it fell short of a major story.
The overall message was great, to think about how to treat people and the earth. A story of David, his life, and the lives of his family, friends, neighbors and other people around him. The connection to nature and feelings where there, however I like a book with more action in it, a story the makes you not want to put it down. This wasn't it.

The blurb for this book was misleading. Rather than a “divide within the community” this is more of a clash between two men that leads to tragedy, and frankly I thought both of the men were jerks. There was jealousy, macho posturing and violence that you wouldn’t tolerate in a 10 year old. Another part of the book dealt with a 14 year old Native American girl who burns down a paper mill, thus destroying employment opportunities for the community. She and her father then hide out in the woods to avoid her arrest. This book was full of poor decisions.

The book was very earnest about Native Americans and respecting the land, but I found it slow and boring. The narrator of the audiobook was fine, but the book just wasn’t for me. I received a free copy of this audiobook from the publisher.

This book was hard to follow as an audiobook, I had to keep notes on the characters just to remember who was who which took away from my enjoyment of the book. I will try this book again as a physical book when it comes out. Thank you for the opportunity to read this book.

3.5 stars.. I really wanted to like this book as the description really was very promising and I wanted to enjoy the poetry, nature, everything that was so magical in the story, but I couldn't, it was 40% and I wasn't feeling any emotion, I didn't get to feel the magic, I was waiting for something deeper and more profound but it never got to that point.

The idea was amazing, and that's what really made me picked this book, as someone who loves and enjoys nature and even the story behind the plants and animals I was ready to feel all those beautiful feelings but I don't know it felt like something was missing, I need more but it wasn't there. is not a bad story but it didn't make me feel anything that's the only reason I'm giving it 3.5 stars

The narration by Nicole Altvater and David Aaron Baker I like they brought so much depth to the story, especially David.

What a gift of a book this was. There are so many things that I loved about this book but at the very top of my list is the exquisite writing. There are so many sentences in this book that stopped me in my track and made me rewind the audio to listen again. It's truly exquisite writing.

This is the story of a small town in Maine along the Penobscot River. The town is adjacent to where the Penobscot Nation is and the town's mill is harming their land. When the mill is burned to the ground on the eve of its reopening, it causes ripple effects across the town.

Most of the book is told from David Almerin Ames' perspective as when he's old and looking back to this time in his life. There is a wide range of issues covered in the book: identity, family, marriage, racism, war (Vietnam) and what it means to be man.

This is a quiet, slow-moving book. Even though a lot does happen in the book, it's not about the action or the pace, it's about the slow build of the characters, who they are, how they interact, how their lives intersect to both help each other and cause harm to each other.

The characters are well developed and complex and memorable. The setting is vivid and most definitely a part of the story, too. Absolutely magnificent. I have enjoyed every moment I spent with this book.

with gratitude to netgalley and Haper Audio for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Another 5 ⭐️ book at the beginning of 2021! 🎉 This was beautiful, flowing, moving prose as the fictional David Ames tells the story of his life so far and that of those around him. It weaves in the narrative of how David grew up in Maine, on the edge of the Penobscot Reservation and mingles memories of his storytelling parents. His father was 1/4 Passamaquoddy and his mother was a writer and David and his brothers were raised with Indigenous stories and history and an appreciation for the land, the world and wonder while also living in a community of fishermen and labourers.

There are arcs to the plot and storylines including stories of those that David’s family are close to and those that they have bad feelings with. There is a point where the Paper Mill in town is burnt down and the community, many who have lost jobs and income, are on a hunt to find the arsonist. These are important in the telling of the story. But all in all, when I was done, although I felt that the plot was outstandingly well written, none of the main peaks stood out as what I loved most about the book, it was the connection I felt to the characters, I felt I knew them and my heart ached for them. It was the kind of book where you can see the sorrow to come before it happens but in that sorrow, there is also family and love and healing. Overall, it was just a wonderful story of a boys life as he looked back on it as a man. It was real and showed all of our glorious imperfections as people. It was also a beautiful story of our land in North America and how to cherish and treat it and to respect those who originally lived here and still continue to do so.

There were so many moments that felt so real and reflected things that I had watched and lived through and experienced where I have grown up in both serious and beautiful ways. The Indigenous vs white small town community frictions and heated escalations and at the same time, the sounds and smells of snow and ice, the beauty of fall and water and ghost apples and Indigenous traditions and stories.

This was so beautifully written and I loved the perspective it took. I have to say, many times, I feel that I can tell how a book would read in physical form even though I am listening to the audiobook version but with this one, I’m not certain how the reading experience would be since the audiobook was phenomenal. The narration by David Aaron Baker was so beautiful and smooth and calming. There was so much description in this book that I was pleased I chose to listen to it read to me in this medium.

The end had me choked up with moments that reflected things for me personally that resonated, I wont mention so as not to spoil the plot but it was a really close look at David’s life and his feelings and I enjoyed the moment that I was able to see this boy that I had read so much about become the man that I saw reflecting back on all that had happened.

If you enjoy stories such as this, I +++ recommend you find out what the Lowering Days has to teach you 🍎

**Thank-you to Harper Audio and NetGalley for the Advance Audio version Copy of this book which publishes March 2nd, 2021**

Absolutely loved this story! Looking forward to reading more books by this author! Highly recommend!