Review: "Oyster" by Marianne Ackerman

Oyster by Marianne Ackerman
Published 2026 via Dundurn Press
★★★★

Amelia's life is trucking along quietly—working halfheartedly on her next novel, taking editing work to pay the bills, in irregular contact with her family. Then her father dies, and her niece wants Amelia's opinion on an outline for a novel, and things start to change.

This is an odd duck of a book (or should I say an odd oyster?), although I mean that in a positive way. At first it feels like Amelia is struggling, but as time goes on it starts to become clear that although she is to some extent stagnating, she's also okay with where she is; although her family is complicated (because of course they are, because what family isn't), they know their roles and how to play them and also that they'll all be there when the dust settles.

The novel-within-a-novel is a curious thing: Ginny has an idea; Amelia has experience; what comes out of it is not what either of them might have expected, and neither of them quite knows what to do with it. I'm fascinated by the way that part of the story unfolds. Amelia is trying to figure out just what to do with her role in it all, Ginny partly wanting credit and partly wanting to be absolved of responsibility and partly afraid of fallout, and the people around them not always playing the roles Amelia thinks they should.

It's a quiet novel—for all that there's a death and a car crash and relationships on the rocks, we're mostly in Amelia's not entirely happy mind as she works out what is next with her not entirely fractured family and her not entirely fresh career. It took me a moment to get into the book (and I didn't love the ending), but the middle soared along as everyone quietly subverted expectations. 3.5 stars; I think this one will stay with me.

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