The Berry Pickers is a heartbreaking, stunning tale of Indigenous family separation. We follow a Mi’kmaq family as they navigate life after their four-year-old girl goes missing in the blueberry fields of Maine.

The book is told through two alternating POVs. The first is a youngest son named Joe from Nova Scotia whose family traveled to Maine every summer to harvest blueberries. The second POV is a young girl named Norma who grows up in Maine with an overbearing mother and emotionally distant father.

A truly wonderful story! If the first chapter starts a bit slow, keep going. I was a bit unsure at first, but then it really gets going with so many lovable characters and an intertwined story. Really loved The Berry Pickers!

This story is less about the mystery of what happened to Ruthie; we hear from Ruthie as she ages and know how her story plays out. This is more about the aftermath of the tragedy and how it impacts Ruthie’s family, especially her brother Joe who is haunted by his sister’s disappearance and leaves a trail of heartbreak in his wake.

If you’re up for a family drama that explores race, class, and moving forward through life with grief add THE BERRY PICKERS to your fall TBR.

Amanda Peters wrote a masterpiece of indigenous people and the intersection between their labor and family structure. I really enjoyed learning a little more on the lives of indigenous people. The story was compelling and focused on the stories of Joe and his sister. She was kidnapped by a white family when very young, and the remaining family's life will never be the same. So much of Joe's story is impacted by this tragic event. A beautiful story with beautiful writing.

Great story. When 4-year old Ruthie disappeared, it sparked a chain of events that are heartbreaking and so believable. Very well written debut novel. Thanks to the author, the publishers and NetGalley for an advanced copy. My review is late- the book is out now!

This is one of my top reads of 2023. The writing and the story are stunning, and despite knowing exactly the premise from the first chapter re: the disappearance, so much of this story was surprising and so beautiful. I wish it had not been initially marketed as a mystery, because it’s just a beautiful literary work. I was profoundly moved by much of the novel, but the end had me wiping actual tears from my face. We haven’t been able to keep The Berry Pickers in stock at our store as the entire staff has absolutely loved it and sells it to anyone wanting a beautiful, unforgettable read.

The Berry Pickers is easy to read but deals with the disturbing kidnapping of a 4 year old Indigenous girl from the berry fields of Maine. This loss traumatizes the family and we follow their experiences over many years. Powerful and compelling.

The Berry Pickers starts with a four-year-old girl who goes missing from her native Canadian family and is spending the summer in Maine to pick berries. Ruthie disappears. She is kidnapped by a Maine family that desperately wants a child. She is renamed Norma. Her whole life, she knows something is wrong. Simultaneous to Norma’s stilted upbringing, the native family grieves. This book is full of lost opportunities. It isn't until both her parent’s death that she learns the truth. The book's premise is based on the white man's disregard for the native community. When Ruthie disappears, no one helps the family. I enjoyed the book but was looking for more. It is a great first novel, and I look forward to seeing what the author writes next.

The Berry Pickers is an emotional character driven journey. This book is written in alternating chapters between siblings Norma and Joe. Peters compellingly explores loss and grief through the whole book. The affects of grief on an entire family, especially the experience of losing a child, really impacted me. I loved how even though the story focused on two characters, you can still see how the other members of the family worked through their own emotional turmoil.

Peters' poetic writing is full of beauty and twinged with sadness. The descriptions of the settings and natural world pulled me into the story. Many times as I read, I literally felt myself putting the book closer to my face just to soak in the words. The pacing of the Berry Pickers is on the slower side and takes time to do much reflection on the character's storylines.

This novel. Whew, it's an important story and a tragic one at that. A young Mi’kmaq girl is taken from the berry fields of Maine when she is four years old. The novel alternates chapters from her perspective of growing up as an only child in the suburbs of Boston to two conservative parents and the perspective of her older brother Joe, the last to see her before she disappeared. I was impressed by this debut but was distracted by some of Peters' repetition and heavy-handedness to ensure the reader understood. Nonetheless, this was a good read, and we picked it as our local book club pick this month, and there is much to discuss.

A little slow start, but great story about siblings love qnd mothers love as well as obsetion. This is a story about how obe tragic event can change not just people tgat were involv3d but alos people around them. If you like Firekeepers Daughter this is a perfect book for you.

I loved this book. It was a realistic look at an indigenous family that lost their baby Ruthie on a continent where child removal happens far too often. The characters were complex and made mistakes, their childhood trauma guiding them like a devil on their shoulder. The audiobook narrators were interesting and kept the book moving along.

This was totally out of my wheel house but I will say I loved it and I was good af. The story kept me enthralled.

Norma's spent her childhood always being mindful of her mom's moods and headaches and her parents keeping her close to the house. She always felt like her parents were restrictive and that she didn't look like them, but they would never talk about it. As she got older, she tried to live her life despite still thinking her parents were keeping something from her. When her parents both pass, her aunt is left to finally tell her the secret, that Norma was adopted and Norma's mom had taken her as a child. Now, Norma is searching for her family and trying to figure out how to go forward. Overall, a compelling story of two families who were affected by one woman's choice. While part of the story is from Norma's point of view, the other is from her brother Joe's perspective and how he and their family dealt with Norma's disappearance.

I'm stingy about giving books five stars. I reserve that rating for the really memorable ones that touch me, that teach me and that I find myself recommending to everyone I know. 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗕𝗘𝗥𝗥𝗬 𝗣𝗜𝗖𝗞𝗘𝗥𝗦 is one of those books.

It's hard to believe this stunning and immersive family saga is a debut! The dual POV follows the story of of a young Mi'kmaq girl who goes missing from a blueberry fields in Maine in 1962, and the toll it takes on her family for the next fifty years. Amanda Peters creates such a vivid cast of characters and draws you into their world so gracefully that it I felt a loss when it was over. It was especially poignant to read this Own Voices story during National Native American Heritage Month.

Thanks to Catapult for the copy to review.

The Berry Pickers starts with a four year old girl that goes missing from her native Canadian family that is spending the summer in Maine to pick berries. Ruthie just disappears. She is kidnapped by a Maine family that desperately wants a child. She is renamed Norma. Her whole life she knows something is wrong. Simultaneous to Norma's, stilted upbringing, the native family grieves. This book is full of lost opportunities.
It isn't until both her parents death, that she learns the truth.

The premise of the book is based on the white man's disregard for the native community. When Ruthie disappears, no one helps the family. I enjoyed the book, but was looking for more. I think it is a great first novel and will look forward to see what the author writes next.

Thank you to Netgalley and Catapult for the advanced readers co and catapult for the advanced readers copy.
3.5 stars

The Berry Pickers is one of the biggest surprises of the year for me. I went in with no expectations and this absolutely blew me out of the water. I was interested in the mystery, but more importantly, I was so invested in the characters themselves, mystery aside. I will now read anything Amanda Peters writes.

Apparently the key to my heart is a book with a fruit farm.

A Native American family loses their daughter Ruthie in the Blueberry fields of Maine. The loss haunts the family for years and other tragic events unfold while Ruthie, now Norma, is raised by her new mother and father. The book rotates POVs between Ruthie and Joe (her older brother).
As I read The Berry Pickers I had to message a few friends who’d already read it to swoon over how wonderful I found the book. The characters and surroundings were so vividly written and the writing tugged at my heart. The tragedy is heartbreaking and I felt the pain of a mother who has lost her child. The themes reminded me a lot of Go As a River (lost children, farm life, Native American rep) so if you loved that book you’ll surely enjoy this one too. An amazing debut worthy of all the praise and attention!

The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters was so full of heartfelt drama, complex characters and beautiful writing that I would have never guessed it was a debut novel. The plot centers on Ruthie, the youngest child in a Mi'kmaq family from Nova Scotia who comes to Maine each summer to pick berries. One summer little Ruthie disappears, and with no help from local police, she is never found. The heartbroken family tries to move on but they are never the same again - especially her brother Joe, who had been supposed to be keeping an eye on Ruthie when she went missing.

The other part of the story features Norma, an only child, who lives with overly protective mother and distant father. Norma has dreams of a bright moon, a nice lady by a fire and a kind brother. Her mother convinces her the dream means nothing and that her baby pictures burned up in a fire.

As the reader, we know where the story is going but the journey there is fraught with bumps and tragic twists of fate. The author excels at creating full and rich characters. No one is completely bad or good, despite some of the actions they take. I found even Lenore, Norma's mother, to be sympathetic, as she was blinded with her desperation to have a child. And Joe, for all his poor choices, is clearly traumatized by his grief and guilt over losing Ruthie, which compels him to push away every good thing in his life. Mae, Ruthie's older sister was a powerhouse who did her best to hold the family together. And Norma's Aunt June was a lifeline for Norma when her mother's love was too stifling.

The writing was so beautiful even through all the tragedy surrounding these folks. This line particularly haunted me, "I lived my entire childhood in the shadow of infant ghosts. Their memory haunted my mother, and she carried them around with her, constantly tripping over their absence and blaming me for the fall." I look forward to reading more by this author.

I will recommend this to readers who like complex family dramas.

Thank you to the publisher, Catapult and NetGalley for the digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you netgalley and catapult for the opportunity to read this book in advance of the publication date.

This is an excellent debut. I was very engrossed in the story, but be forewarned there are very sad parts and the ending is a real tearjerker - at least it was for me.
Also, please note that this is not a mystery, so don't listen to reviewers who say it wasn't mysterious...
Thinking about Norma and her white family throughout the book, I was so full of rage. The author did a great job of showing a full range of delusion plus some characters' ability to justify anything in their own head. That is one of the most devastatingly sad aspects of the book.
I will read any book Amanda Peters writes next!