{"id":4770,"date":"2025-11-11T03:28:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T03:28:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=4770"},"modified":"2025-11-11T03:28:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T03:28:07","slug":"review-swallowing-the-muskellunge-by-lawrence-p-obrien","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=4770","title":{"rendered":"Review: Swallowing the Muskellunge by Lawrence P. O\u2019Brien"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Synopsis:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wild things run loose at the border. They know that the caravan is coming. Their reach is disturbingly effective, and they have a fierce appetite. The sentinels are patient and can be quite disarming.<\/p>\n

From the outskirts of Boston, in 1800, London Oxford\u2019s family climbed aboard a sleigh that was bound for the promised land. They, as part of the Wrights\u2019 caravan, travelled north in the dead of winter. London joined four other young families. Nineteen children were twelve years or younger. Dozens of young, single men, armed with axes, followed on foot. London, who wasn\u2019t always free, was risking everything for a chance at a better life.<\/p>\n

Moving through the frigid cold and the blinding white made the adults tired and numb. They felt like they were already asleep. That might be why no-one noticed the drag marks in the snow, or why so few questioned the disappearances. The little ones were left to run recklessly and unfettered. London felt like that\u2014until that something woke him up.<\/p>\n

Favorite Lines:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026in the end nature does not belong to us, we belong to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe blood-red eyes of the loon were captivated by shadowed wisps lit by the sunset\u2019s tangerine glare.\u201d<\/p>\n

My Opinion:<\/strong><\/p>\n

I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for my honest opinion.<\/p>\n

Swallowing the Muskellunge<\/em> is one of those books that sneaks up on you. It starts slow and earthy, and before you know it, you\u2019re knee-deep in a story that feels both intimate and unsettling. Lawrence P. O\u2019Brien mixes real history with small, quiet moments of fear, love, and survival.<\/p>\n

The story centers on London Oxford and his family, a free Black family in Massachusetts in the late 1700s, trying to hold on to what little freedom and dignity they have while serving the Wrights \u2014 a white family planning to move north into what\u2019s now Canada. It\u2019s not a loud book. Instead, it builds through the weight of ordinary things \u2014 cooking, chores, travel, exhaustion \u2014 all the things that make up a hard life that still manages to have small joys in it.<\/p>\n

What I liked most is how real it feels. The writing doesn\u2019t rush. It gives you time to see the world as London sees it: every sound in the woods, every small act of cruelty, every moment of kindness. There\u2019s a scene where he takes his young son, Abner, on a wagon trip that starts as a simple errand and turns into something terrifying. It\u2019s written so quietly that when the danger comes, it feels almost too real.<\/p>\n

The book doesn\u2019t romanticize anything. It shows how freedom wasn\u2019t clean or complete \u2014 how even \u201cfree\u201d people still lived in the shadow of being owned, watched, or taken. But it also shows a family trying to love each other in the middle of that, and that\u2019s what makes it stay with you.<\/p>\n

This is a slower read, but it\u2019s worth it. If you like stories that feel like they could\u2019ve really happened \u2014 something between historical fiction and family saga \u2014 you\u2019ll probably appreciate this one.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Summary:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Overall, this book is about ordinary people trying to make choices that might finally give their children a better life. O\u2019Brien writes with a calm, observant tone that makes even the hardest moments feel deeply human. It\u2019s a good fit for readers who like historical fiction that feels honest, emotional, and quietly powerful \u2014 the kind of story that stays with you after the last page. Happy reading!<\/p>\n

Check out Swallowing the Muskellunge<\/em> here!<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Synopsis: Wild things run loose at the border. They know that the caravan is coming. Their reach is disturbingly effective, and they have a fierce appetite. The sentinels are patient and can be quite disarming. From the outskirts of Boston, in 1800, London Oxford\u2019s family climbed aboard a sleigh that was bound for the promised […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":4771,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bookreviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4770"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4770\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}