Publication Date: February 21, 2023
A mother clings to twin sons, desperate to keep them from becoming their father, a pirate forever sailing away. In this rain-soaked township, she will attempt to mummify them, piece by piece, to stop them from growing up, a hope founded in magic and immortality. Meanwhile, their father obsesses the seas with his own belief in ever-lasting life, learning too late that his heart belongs on shore.
In Only and Ever This, a family must endure father loss, a mother’s grief, and roiling adolescence, slipping as it does into arcades, caves, and the young love for a ghostly girl up the street.
Creating a review for Only and Ever This by J.A. Tyler requires walking a careful tightrope. First, it’s important to note that the rating is not indicative of the writer’s inability to communicate. Instead, it is more of a critique of a final product that left me hopelessly confused.
The description leads readers to expect a story about a mother who doesn’t want her twin sons to take after their seafaring father. What I got was a story with no definite time and place other than it is coastal, the boys have bicycles, and there is an arcade.
The characters are referred to as Our Mother and Our Father, with the boys remaining unnamed. It is difficult to tell whether the actions taking place in the book are meant to be metaphorical or if they actually transpire. Is the father really a pirate? Does the mother really try to mummify her children?
As an advanced reader, I look toward context clues to help when I need direction in a block of text. That method doesn’t work with this title. While I came close multiple times to simply not finishing the book, I forced myself to keep going to see if I could find a nugget of clarity.
Only and Ever This unfortunately missed the mark for me. While the writer has talent, this story fails to favorably demonstrate it.
J. A. Tyler is the author of The Zoo, a Going (Dzanc Books). His work has been published in Denver Quarterly, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Black Warrior Review, Fairy Tale Review, and New York Tyrant among others. He is also an interviewer for Ploughshares.
