Book Review: Dreams of Arcadia by Brian Porter

“Life is inscrutable, he decided, but oddly beautiful…”

Brian Porter, Dreams of Arcadia

Review:

With a mysterious overtone and a literary delivery, Dreams of Arcadia is a spectacular and unique read.

Nate Holub needs a change of scenery. He leaves his life in the city and takes a veterinary job in his deceased father’s hometown. There, he reconnects with his family. He also has to face a different pace of work in the country. At the same time, he also comes to realize that there is more to his father’s death than he’d previously believed.

I’ve never read a book that had such a central focus on veterinarians. Admittedly, I have a low threshold for animals in any sort of distress so there were parts of this I found difficult to read, but overall it was fascinating. I love to read novels where I end up learning something. I also enjoyed the characters as well as the writing style. Wonderfully rural!

A huge thanks to the author for inviting me to read a digital ARC through NetGalley!

Likes & Dislikes:

What I liked:

• A unique subject matter (at least in my reading experience).
• Excellent writing.
• Great characters.
• The family dynamic.
• I share a name with one of the characters which I don’t see too often!

What I didn’t like:

• Given the main character is a veterinarian, there is a lot of medical content involving animals that sometimes became more graphic than I normally like to read. Once I got used to it, I found it more interesting.

Afterthoughts:

Since the book is still a bit a ways from its publication, I cannot add the purchase links below just yet. I will try and remember to come back and add them in June! This is definitely a book literary fans will want to keep on their radar.