The Brickworks: Review by bookmarkedbybritt
Review by bookmarkedbybritt on Instagram:
Some books are just charming, and there is no other way to describe them. The Brickworks falls thoroughly into this category.
Set in late 1800’s Ontario (with frequent flashbacks to Edinburgh, Scotland), we follow fast friends Brodie and Alistair as they work to overcome their pasts and build an independent future. The books starts us off with the devastation of the Tay Bridge collapse in 1879. Brodie’s father, the train driver is killed, but also is blamed for the tragedy of the event. Brodie goes into engineering to resolve his heart that his father could not be to blame. He meets Alistair and they realize their future is closer if they work together and the brickworks is born!
This book was an impeccably researched historical fiction that was reminiscent of some of my favourite old homesteading novels in its honest portrayal of people establishing themselves on the land and living an honest life. There is a lot of detailed writing on industrialization, which was incredibly fascinating. It was crazy to imagine the creativity and ingenuity needed to make any sort of advancements in history through this time.
I do feel this book was an excellent example of how history can be written in a loving and caring way. Brodie and Alistair are constant friends, really brothers, and it was lovely to see them grow as men in their camaraderie. Truthfully, it was also humorous to see them try to fumble through wooing their respective loves: both were wholly out of depth, but it added to their charm. The compliment of secondary characters were also exceptional- I felt like I could reach over and touch them for how real they felt!
Now, the land was not always kind and there was a significant amount of heartbreak in this book (CW: child death, grave injury, depression, arson) which I think added to the realness of the story.
The only real challenge I had was the lack of quotation marks/punctuation in some places. It’s not my cup of tea in style, but otherwise the book was really very good! I’d definitely recommend this and hope some of you give it a try!
I was gifted this book by @river_street_writes – thank you! All opinions are solely my own.
Set in late 1800’s Ontario (with frequent flashbacks to Edinburgh, Scotland), we follow fast friends Brodie and Alistair as they work to overcome their pasts and build an independent future. The books starts us off with the devastation of the Tay Bridge collapse in 1879. Brodie’s father, the train driver is killed, but also is blamed for the tragedy of the event. Brodie goes into engineering to resolve his heart that his father could not be to blame. He meets Alistair and they realize their future is closer if they work together and the brickworks is born!
This book was an impeccably researched historical fiction that was reminiscent of some of my favourite old homesteading novels in its honest portrayal of people establishing themselves on the land and living an honest life. There is a lot of detailed writing on industrialization, which was incredibly fascinating. It was crazy to imagine the creativity and ingenuity needed to make any sort of advancements in history through this time.
I do feel this book was an excellent example of how history can be written in a loving and caring way. Brodie and Alistair are constant friends, really brothers, and it was lovely to see them grow as men in their camaraderie. Truthfully, it was also humorous to see them try to fumble through wooing their respective loves: both were wholly out of depth, but it added to their charm. The compliment of secondary characters were also exceptional- I felt like I could reach over and touch them for how real they felt!
Now, the land was not always kind and there was a significant amount of heartbreak in this book (CW: child death, grave injury, depression, arson) which I think added to the realness of the story.
The only real challenge I had was the lack of quotation marks/punctuation in some places. It’s not my cup of tea in style, but otherwise the book was really very good! I’d definitely recommend this and hope some of you give it a try!
I was gifted this book by @river_street_writes – thank you! All opinions are solely my own.