A book club book! And one which surprised me a lot, largely in how much I loved it.
This is the second book by Becky Chambers that I've read; the first one was fine, but didn't do much for me personally, and I had sort of expected that her work would remain in the category of "fiction that many people I know love, but that is not for me for whatever reason." But part of what's so nice about being in a book club is that sometimes I get nudged into giving an author or genre or whatever another chance, and in this case I could not be more delighted to have experienced this.
This is a novella about a monk, who decides that the life they're living no longer works for them, and so they needs to make Big Changes and go out into the world. Do they have a plan? No. Do things immediately work out for them? No. Do they discover a previously unknown talent that makes it all worth it? No. But they get to live, and have an adventure, and go on a completely senseless roadtrip, and along the way they find what makes it worth it.
The worldbuilding is wonderful, the relationships at the core of the story are so incredibly satisfying, and it's a story about reaching and searching that doesn't arrive at answers that are too easy, but it also doesn't punt on giving us answers the text implicitly promised us. I loved it and want to read it again immediately.
Grade: A
