In piecemeal fashion the novel sketches the backstory of a boy who was raised by a mother bear before being taken in by foster parents and has never fully adapted to human ways. Ms. Ivey leaves Arthur’s animal upbringing frustratingly vague, but she finds rich material in Birdie and Emaleen’s dawning understanding of his feral side, and in their tragic attempts to tame it.
Ivey is an enthralling storyteller who paints the Alaskan landscape and its inhabitants with equal affection ... One could quibble with Ivey’s sometimes shaky integration of realistic and supernatural elements, and one vital transition is abrupt. Still, the author weaves the tapestry of her story so deftly, presenting the natural world with respect instead of romanticization, that later developments hit us with devastating force.
Poignant ... Quietly suspenseful, laced with beauty and shot through with darkness, Black Woods, Blue Sky explores the nature of courage, the limits of love, and what happens when nature and civilization collide.
Ivey takes readers on an emotional literary journey that includes touches of magic woven throughout and the question of whether love is enough to change someone
Credit Ivey for freshening up those themes—like Margaret Atwood, she’s gifted at writing about nature in off-kilter but not surrealistic ways—but the book’s overall structure is a bit creaky. A respectable if imperfect attempt to explore the line between human and animal nature.
