Be sure to watch episode 3 before reading my spoilery comments below! (Link to the episode on the CBC YouTube channel above)

It scared me for a second there that Dandelion might be the third to go! That wasn’t really on my bingo card, so to speak. I felt bad for Saïd having to be the tie-breaker.

But yes, Etta & Otto & Russell & James has had the most criticisms of the 3 remaining books, so it made sense for it to go today. It was at the bottom of my list when answering half of today’s questions. Here are my brief thoughts on those:

Whose representation of hope in difficult times did you relate to the LEAST? That was Etta & Otto & Russell & James for me. The ending seemed imaginary, so I didn’t gain any hope from it at all. I agreed with Saïd about Dandelion, that the hope came from Lily finding out the truth about her mother, and realizing that her mother and her aunt were just human beings with problems and flaws who made bad decisions and then couldn’t fix them. A lot of the hope in that book comes from learning to forgive. And I disagreed with Michelle about the mother’s actions not being believable. Plenty of mothers have left their children, and for less of a reason than Lily’s mother. And it was discovered that she hadn’t left her children as completely as it seemed anyway.

Which book had the best writing? This is a tough question to answer, because each book is so different, and they each adopt a style that fits the content. However, I enjoyed the writing of Dandelion the most and of A Two-Spirit Journey the least. (And I did listen to the Two-Spirit Journey audiobook, which kind of made the dry writing even more tedious. I would have preferred to read it physically and get to see the maps, lists, and diagrams they keep talking about.)

Which book had the least satisfying journey? I’ll be controversial here and say A Two-Spirit Journey, because of the frustrating decisions and actions that were consistently taken by Ma-Nee and those around her. I understand that they were all dealing with generational trauma and didn’t know life could be without abuses of all kinds, but a lot of that book just made me angry, whereas I enjoyed the journey in the other two books.

Which brought a fresh perspective of love? I most appreciated the different depictions of familial love in Dandelion, as well as Lily’s journey of learning to love herself and forgive others. Etta & Otto & Russell & James was probably my least favourite perspective of love, since to me it seemed more about letting love go. I wasn’t really moved by the thought that love that has existed in the past will always exist because time isn’t linear. That isn’t my philosophy, I guess.

Another great day of literary debate! I get the feeling A Two-Spirit Journey is going to win, but I still hope Dandelion sneaks in there. We’ll find out tomorrow!