I don't know why, but I had it in my head that this was a fun, light-hearted book, sort of in the way that [b:Amphibian|6452033|Amphibian|Carla Gunn|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1328759365s/6452033.jpg|6642202] by [a:Carla Gunn|2922903|Carla Gunn|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1306197890p2/2922903.jpg] is. See, I tend to quickly read summaries of books, decide if it's of interest, and then add it to my "to read" list. I never again look at what the book is supposed to be about so that nothing is given away.

It must have been the title and the cover that made me think this book was entertaining. The content is way too heavy to be considered "light-hearted."

(Stop reading here if you want "nothing given away".)

Beth is a farmer's daughter to a poor family in rural country during WWII. They're so rural and back-country that it might as well be 100 years ago. Her father went crazy about a year prior and is prone to fly into rages unexpectedly. Her mother is part submissive, part willfully blind to the abuse he gives his family, the daughter in particular. The older brother is mostly "normal" until you find out he's got a thing for cows. Beth drops out of school after being stripped and tormented by the other kids. Even when she confesses to her mother what happened, her mother refuses to believe it "they're nice kids, they'd never do that." So Beth finds friendship with a local biracial Aboriginal girl and the two of them explore their sexuality together.
All the while, there's another local "crazy man" who's been possessed by the trickster Coyote and has a hunger for young children. Beth is haunted and stalked by Coyote.

It's all very dark and other-worldly. Not at all whimsical and fun. The writing captivated me and compelled me to keep reading, but the storyline also caused me some stress because of all the awfulness that went on.

Great Canadian literature, but don't let the cover & title fool you!

Set on a farm near a reserve in the interior of British Columbia during WWII, this is fifteen-year-old Beth Weeks' coming-of-age story. Her father was injured in the first war, presumably intended as an explanation of his brutish behaviour, but as this would have happened more than twenty years earlier I'm more inclined to think that it is his true nature. There is a large cast of characters, few particularly likeable, and most are in conflict with each other. While I liked Beth's mother and her scrapbook of collected recipes and household tips from which the title comes, I found the rest of the characters were overwhelmed by aberrants of one kind or another. Anderson-Dargatz had a choice of writing nostalgic memories of growing up in a farming community mid-century with the tragedies and sad occurences of normal life, but instead emphasized a dismal story of abuse, violence, misogyny and conflict. And despite some good writing, there was little sense of place. Disappointing. ( )

Kann mich nicht erinnern ob es wirklich der Inhalt war der mir nicht gefiel, oder die Tatsache es handelt sich hier um die Übersetzung. ( )

This book is very well written and has some great moments but it is pretty bleak and I need a happy book now!I loved the descriptions of day-to-day life on the farm and the view of life in town as well. I enjoyed the inclusion of Native lore and magical realism very much as it felt true to the reality of having Native neighbors, friends and farmhands. I had previously read [b:Turtle Valley|2164768|Turtle Valley|Gail Anderson-Dargatz|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320500180s/2164768.jpg|4435620], not knowing that is a "sort-of sequel" and wish I had known that beforehand and had it to read now as I don't remember it well and want to know what happens to the characters.

*SPOILER ALERT* -I am conflicted by the abuse in the book as I feel the book could have been just as good without (some of) it and I am finding that there is so much of it in literature lately that I am becoming desensitized to it - and I don't like that feeling. While I am very aware it is a horrific and prevalent problem, for me it is starting to feel like a writing cliché. I hate even writing this, but it is getting to the point where I will avoid books where this is part of the plot. ( )

This is no warm, fuzzy Little House on the Prairie type of book. The narrator is Beth Weeks, a fifteen-year-old living on a remote Canadian farm during World War I. The book is filled with one mentally ill or socially outcast person after another, scraping an existence out of the hostile countryside. And throughout is the legend of Coyote told by the local Indians, the supposed cause of everyone’s craziness and evil.

Have you ever seen those nature specials where they show the sea turtles hatching? The baby turtles are trying to make their way into the ocean, but there are a hundred predators waiting to eat them – that is what this book felt like, except the predators are all waiting around to rape Beth. The book would have been better if it had explored any one of the sub-plots more: Maud’s scrapbook, how John’s mental illness affected the family emotionally, Beth’s exploration of lesbianism, the magical realism of the Coyote folklore…. And I thought the narrator’s voice was inconsistent.
( )