By Cierra Buchholz
Emily Janes' fantastically weird and charmingly loveable sophomore novel, Here Beside The Rising Tide, expertly blurs the lines between science-fiction and tragic, character-driven narratives, a multi-perspective novel told through traditional narrative forms as well as media excerpts. This book truly has it all, including adorable and mysterious time-traveling “squidoodles.”
Readers are introduced to the main character, Jenni Farrow, a local on the picturesque Pearl Island, at the age of ten. She lives in a small beach home with her single mother, and is often left alone. Her isolation is remedied when she makes a quick friend in Timmy Caruso, a young boy visiting the island on a family vacation. They spend the summer playing in the water as carefree children, until they encounter a peculiar creature on the sandy beach: the green and slinky animal, unlike anything seen before, a "Squidoodle." Shortly after their discovery, Timmy disappears into the calm crystal waters of the ocean, presumed dead.
The narrative then jumps to the present day. Jenni, an adult now, is having a horrible time. In her forties and living inland, her life shares almost no similarities to the one she had before. Lazy days of strolling the shore with a melting ice cream in hand are far behind her. Instead, she is juggling a messy divorce with her MAS (Male Actualization Society) obsessed husband Chuck, a fast approaching deadline for her next book, and dealing with her abandoned house back on Pearl Island. She is in a spiral. Under the threat of having her two iPad-loving children, Evie and Mason, taken from her by Chuck, she packs them all onto a plane and heads to Pearl Island in the hope that this will give her a quality vacation with her kids and the time and ability to restore her former home. All does not go to plan. Timmy Caruso emerges back into the narrative, though curiously he is still ten years old. Timmy isn’t the only one making a comeback though. The Squidoodle, this time with many others of its kind, reappears as well. Pearl Island and Jenn are left to deal with unexplainable changes in the ocean and an increased danger to step into its once inviting water, often wondering if something else is out there, hiding in the depths.
Intersplicing the traditionally narrated chapters are excerpts from Chuck's beloved MAS podcast and pages of Jenns book series, “Phillipia Bay”. These excerpts give readers insight into the characters by revealing what they create and consume. Additionally, Jane utilizes additional perspectives, like that of Jenni’s editor or her children, which gives readers a more complex view of Jenni and her life on and off Pearl Island. This choice drives home the point that people of all sorts are connected, often through the universality of emotions.
While on the surface the events of this book are fantastical and almost silly at times, the characters' emotional journeys underlying the plot will tug on your heartstrings. Each one of them is forced to face the one constant in the human condition: change. Change shows its face in so many forms: divorce, loss, the ending of a book series, growing up, and even death. But even more importantly, this narrative challenges the idea that change stops being hard once you're “grown”.
Here Beside The Rising Tide is a delightful tale of oddities set on a beautiful island backdrop. The silliness of the children and their unabashedly hopeful world views coupled with the intrigue of unknown sea monsters keeps the plot light and fun to read. This dichotomy with Jenni’s personal struggles and the growing darkness radiating from the ocean keeps the book at a perfect balance of edgy realism and playful sci-fi. Readers will be yearning for a tropical vacation after this one, though maybe they won’t take a dip in the water.
Cierra Buchholz is currently a Northern Arizona University student pursuing her Bachelors in English. She has the pleasure to work doing what she loves at the Franke College of Business as a writing tutor and at the College of Arts and Letters on the marketing team. She is an Editor on the Flagstaff Green Zine and Terrain.org, as well as an Intern for Eggtooth Edition and the Kelp Journal.