Book Review: Starling by Sarah Jane Butler

My Rating : 4.5⭐

“We are women who live needing nothing, needing no one. We are women who live in full connection with our mother earth. We will never betray her.”

Nineteen-year-old Starling has spent her life living off the grid with her mother traveling across the country in their camper van. Once part of a community of travelers, it has been a while since she and her mother have been on their own. As the story begins, we find them living in their van parked deep in the woods. Starling’s mother ,Mar, is an artist whose paintings and artwork are often bartered for necessities. Though they have friends in the outside world and a community of fellow travelers that they have left behind, Mar is unwilling to be a part of any community, her fierce independence, preference for isolation and need for personal space override her social needs.

“This was Mar’s idea of heaven, a space under the trees with no one else for miles.”

Starling misses the friends she made in her “tribe” and is often tempted to contact them, (with a cell phone her mother does not know she possesses) but her love and loyalty toward her mother keep her from doing so.

“Starling had been leaving places all her life. Still, though, every time she arrived somewhere new she was like a sprig of mint in water–she couldn’t help but put out hopeful roots.”

Starling’s life changes when, after a morning of foraging, she returns to their van only to find her mother gone. From what she can make out, her mother left with a packed bag and deliberately left her behind. After waiting for a few days only to be disappointed when her mother fails to return to the van, Starling ventures out on her own, braving the elements, walking and hitchhiking, initially hoping to find her mother in the few familiar places she might be in the outside world but is unsuccessful in her search. She realizes, that for the first time in her life she is completely alone and must find a way to support herself. What follows is the story of a brave young girl, attempting to walk her own path and find her place in the world.

“Was she free now? Free to make her own life and find her own way? The world beyond the van was dirty and corrupt. It rejected her, as she rejected it.”

I‘ll admit that it took me a bit to completely engage with this story (almost the 30% mark) but once I adjusted to the pace and style of writing, I was immersed in the narrative and eagerly followed Starling’s journey as tried to make sense of her situation. The author eloquently describes Starling's thoughts, memories and her struggle to come to terms with her mother’s abandonment. We can feel how conflicted she is when finds feeling moments of happiness in a life that she has been conditioned to judge as wrong. At each point of her journey, we see Starling’s thoughts drift back to her life with her mother, and she is reminded constantly of the principles and convictions her mother has ingrained in her. (“People do not live in towns. They cling together, existing and no more, because they are afraid to live fully and freely as we do.”) The cynicism, distrust and commercialism she associates with life as a “townie” often holds her back from fully opening up to new experiences. She finds kindness but also experiences disillusionment, loss and disappointment – not knowing quite how to navigate her way around new people, places and emotions. In a corner of her heart, she harbors hope that her mother will return and they will be reunited. For the first time alone in her life, missing her mother, craving for friendship and a sense of belonging on the one hand but feeling suffocated and also craving for the solitude of living and sense of freedom living in the heart of nature afforded her.

“Starling wondered where she belonged now. Could she be woven into this place of streets and bricks and orange light, and people who let their plants die of thirst?”

Sarah Jane Butler’s prose is exquisite and her descriptions of nature are vivid and captivating. The author balances the poetic, descriptive writing in these segments with a retrained, often factual, style of storytelling (which, for some, might result in difficulty to connect with the character emotionally) when describing Starling’s thoughts and behavior. I found the narrative, which is presented to us from Starling’s perspective commensurate with the character and how she evolves through the course of the story. Given how Starling has been brought up in survival mode, its suits her character that her actions would be governed by her thoughts and convictions and lesser by her emotions, at least initially. Her emotional side comes into play gradually as she acclimatizes to her new circumstances. I also like that author gives readers the space to figure out how they relate to the character and the story without overdoing it in terms of over-the-top sentimentalism or melodrama. In doing so , each of the characters comes across as well fleshed out and believable. Overall, I enjoyed “Starling “ by Sarah Jane Butler and would definitely be looking out for more by this author in the future.

Thank you, Sarah Jane Butler, Fairlight Books and NetGalley for the digital review copy of this beautifully –written novel. All opinions expressed in this review are my own. This book is due to be released on September 29, 2022.