Sarah O'Connor

I received this book from River Street Writing in exchange for an honest review.

“What could he do if he let himself get lost in an image?” (Hartwell 75).

Teenager Dieter lives with his grandfather in a small town in southern Quebec with only his best friend K to give him company. But when K abandons him for a wealthier group of friends, Dieter finds himself in the company of Hazel, an eccentric and reclusive artist who lives in the woods who agrees to help Dieter with his photography. When Dieter learns that K is institutionalized and her emotional state worsens, Dieter confides in Hazel who comes up with a plan to help her.

I am always grateful to River Street Writing for sending me books from Independent Canadian presses because it gives me a chance to not only find local publications for which I can find new writing, but also new authors who I may have missed otherwise.

Sadly, No Wrong Seasons just wasn’t for me. I think Hartwell is a very good writer, her descriptions were apt and really brought readers into the setting and story she was telling, but I felt like there was a line drawn between me and the other characters, like despite the revelations that were given I was never allowed to fully know any of them. And while I understood the parallels between Hazel and K’s stories and characters, I did think it was strange that their voices and traumas were nearly identical.

There was also some weirdness with the point of views throughout the book. The novel starts by following four characters: Dieter, K, Hazel, and Dieter’s grandfather Dr. Hardcastle, but halfway through for seemingly no reason Dr. Hardcastle’s point of view just stops and isn’t returned to for the remainder of the book. It’s not that he was any more interesting than the other characters, I just don’t understand establishing a point of view and having it regularly shown only to seemingly forget about it halfway through.

Also, from a publication standpoint there was some weirdness with the formatting. Multiple times throughout the book a sentence would cut halfway through and be continued on the next line indented. It wasn’t common enough to be a writing choice on Hartwell’s end, but enough to be an obvious editing error which is disappointing to see. I can understand formatting errors in an ARC, but not a final printed copy of the book.

There are definitely readers for No Wrong Season but I just wasn’t one of them. Hartwell is a very talented writer whose words paint a scene, and I know there are many readers out there who will enjoy this, I’m just sorry I wasn’t one of them.

Publication: October 28 2025
Publisher: Inanna Publications
Pages: 350 pages (Paperback)
Source: River Street Writing
Genre: Fiction, Canadian
My Rating: ⛤⛤⛤
Summary:

Dieter lives in a small lakeside community in southern Quebec, where it is possible to hide, and at the same time, where nothing is hidden. A discovery in the forest results in a chance meeting with Hazel, a reclusive visual artist who becomes his mentor.
When Dieter’s childhood friend K is institutionalized by her parents following a suicide attempt, Dieter embarks on a mission to seek answers. As her situation worsens, Dieter confides his fears to his mentor. Hazel intuits echoes of her own traumatic past in K’s story, and she is compelled to leave the comfort of her bitterness and seek redemption in action.