Review: "Mudflowers" by Aley Waterman

Mudflowers by Aley Waterman
Published October 2023 via Rare Machines
★★★

Sophie is not quite at sea in Toronto, making mosaics to pay the rent and falling in and out of bed with her childhood best friend. When Maggie enters the picture, the landscape changes—Maggie is the flame to Sophie's moth. But they're all in their twenties, and stability is a fleeting thing.

Mudflowers follows Sophie through this year or so of attempted growth and change—she's grieving the loss of her mother, figuring out what she wants and doesn't want in a relationship, thinks (this is going to sound like criticism but she's in her twenties, it's just statement of fact) that she's terribly self-aware but is...sometimes self-aware.

I've been reading more lit fic this year, and this falls squarely in that category—a story narrowed in on a relatively ordinary life rather than big events; narration without a lot of drama even as things don't go quite to plan; more thought than action. Sophie would benefit from broadening her social circle, maybe making some more decisions (and mistakes) without considering the opinions of the people she's so deeply entangled with, and maybe examining her own life a little bit less and the world around her a little bit more. Not to be too broad about it, but there are heavy themes of love, loss, and mothers woven throughout the book, all of them with somewhat messy connections and endings (again: not criticism; this time it's not because Sophie's in her twenties but because it's lit fic). This is probably best read relatively slowly rather than all in one go, but even taking my time I lost some steam near the end.

An aside: Sophie's commentary about losing a parent at the beginning of the book is sufficiently on-point that I thought I might have trouble finishing the book, but she ends up focusing more on romantic drama. "Love triangle" is probably too tidy a term for what goes down throughout the book—and for what's to come after the book is over—but much of it will be relatable to those who have had entanglements made up of blurred line after blurred line.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.