Book Review: “The Berry Pickers” by Amanda Peters

Oct 18

Håfa adai! Welcome to my review of The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters.

This book review consists of two parts: a spoiler-free plot summary and my thoughts on the story. In the second part, I give my personal rating and break down the setting and worldbuilding, storytelling, cast of characters, and themes. There may be some lightweight spoilers—such as how characters interact with each other and the world around them—but I will not give away any major plot twists or endings. I want to share my opinions of the book and maybe encourage you to purchase a copy of your own.

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Spoiler-Free Plot Summary

Joe was only 6 years old in 1962 when he and his family, like other Mi’kmaq families from Nova Scotia, traveled for seasonal work in the berry fields of Maine in the United States. While his parents and older brother and sister would work the berry fields, he and his little sister, 4-year-old Ruthie, would explore the nature around them. On one such day in August, Joe saw Ruthie wander off to sit on a rock. And then she vanished. The guilt of being the last person to see Ruthie, and the refusal to believe that she is truly gone, will follow Joe for the remaining decades of his life. And while he struggles with the demons it spurs, he clings to the hope that somewhere out there Ruthie waiting for her big brother to find her again.

Norma grew up in a well-to-do family in Maine. But what does it mean to seemingly want for nothing more with a father who avoids building any sort of emotional bond and a mother who is suffocatingly overprotective? Norma feels that her parents’ strange behaviors and contradictory accounts of family history are only the symptom of a far more mysterious problem. Yet when she asks simple questions that any kid would have about their own family—and especially when she tries to talk about her peculiar recurring dreams—her mother is overcome with debilitating headaches, and her father emotionally distances himself further. Despite these reactions, Norma cannot ignore her growing suspicions or silence her intuition. And decades later, the line between imaged dreams and real memories blurs, leaving Norma to want for nothing less than the truth.

Important Trigger Warning for The Berry Pickers

The Berry Pickers centers the abduction of a child and depicts racism, emotional abuse, domestic violence, and pregnancy loss. These themes are essential to the story. If these themes would cause you stress or distress in any way, then please take the necessary steps to prepare and protect yourself before and after reading this book.

The Devastating Statistics of Missing People in the United States

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) is a non-profit organization in the United States that aims to bring home missing children and erase child exploitation and victimization. Almost 30,000 children were reported missing to NCMEC in 2024. The available statistics are horrifying, but they reflect cases that have been reported to NCMEC. It is unknown how many children have gone missing in the United States without ever being reported to law enforcement, NCMEC, or another agency or organization. It is highly likely that the true-to-reality number of missing children in the United States—regardless of age, gender, race/ethnicity, citizenship, etc.—is far more devastating.

Indigenous People Go Missing and are Murdered at Disproportionately Higher Rates

The Berry Pickers begins with the abduction of a 4-year-old Mi’kmaq girl, a First Nations community from the Nova Scotia province of Canada, while her family is in Maine, the United States, for seasonal work. For clarity, “First Nations” refers to the many Indigenous communities of Canada while “Native American” refers to the many Indigenous communities of the United States. Descendants of First Nations and Native American communities are Indigenous, regardless of federal recognition. That being stated, I want to highlight some NCMEC data of missing children from Indigenous communities. According to a NCMEC analysis summarizing 2,966 reported cases of missing Native American children in the United States from January 2012 to December 2021:

the average age of reported missing Native American children is 14 years old
55% of reported missing Native American children are girls or young women
Native American children go missing at a disproportionately higher rate than non-Native American children

The disproportionately high rates at which Indigenous children go missing tragically extends to the rates at which Indigenous adults are murdered or go missing in the United States and Canada. According to the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, Native American communities experience violent crimes, sexual assault and rape, and homicide at rates higher than the national average. And a 2017 study from the Urban Indian Health Institute identified homicide as the third leading cause of death for Native American women. These startling statistics have led to the rise of social movements like Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW), Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women & Girls (MMIWG), and Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, & Two Spirits (MMIWG2S). Organizations like the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center, Native Hope, the Human Rights Research Center, and many more are incredible resources to learn more about these social movements.

My Thoughts on The Berry Pickers: 4.5 stars

Amanda Peters is a Nova Scotian author of European and Mi’kmaq descent. Her debut novel, The Berry Pickers, takes place in Maine (the northeastern most state in the contiguous United States), Nova Scotia (a southeastern province of Canada comprised of the Nova Scotia peninsula and over 3,800 islands), and a few other locations from 1962 to the present day. Its story deeply explores the pain and destruction caused by the unexplained disappearance and unconfirmed fate of a child, as well as the diabolical entitlement some will justify in the name of their own valid trauma.

The narration in The Berry Pickers alternates between Joe (in Nova Scotia) and Norma (in Maine) from chapter to chapter. From Joe’s first-person narration, the reader gets a glimpse into the horrifying domino effect set in motion by Ruthie’s disappearance and other unrelated tragedies they experience while working the berry fields in Maine. Joe tightly clings to his experience as the last person to see Ruthie before she vanished, and the resulting conflict that festers inside of him influences him to take actions that are at some times understandable and, at other times, inexcusable.

Norma’s first-person narration takes the reader through the emotional mine field she was forced to navigate throughout her childhood and into adulthood. Her mother portrays the world as an evil place filled with sinister people holding only malicious intent. Her father backs-up her mother’s few contradictory responses to Norma’s questions with even more contradictions and even outright lies. Her aunties, her mother’s sister and sister-in-law, always seem to have a swift explanation or dismissal for Norma’s suspicions and concerns. All of which leave Norma feeling entirely mislead (at best) or completely gaslit (at worse).

I give Amanda Peters’ The Berry Pickers 4.5 out of 5 stars. I kept seeing this novel prominently featured everywhere in major and independent bookstores as well as many department stores. I truly had no idea what the story was about before starting it, and I was both shocked and intrigued. Amanda Peters employs sharp prose to deliver deeply emotional twists and turns, firmly holding the reader’s attention from start to finish. I highly recommend The Berry Pickers to those who appreciate fiction filled with devastating plot twists.

Dångkulo' na' saina ma'åse'! Thank you so much for reading my review of The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters.

Rating Cheat Sheet

4.75 - 5.00 stars: Everyone should read this book! (If you’re into that sort of thing.)
4.00 - 4.50 stars: I appreciated many aspects of this book. I recommend it!
3.00 - 3.75 stars: I liked some aspects of this book. I won’t revisit it, but someone else might really like it.
2.00 - 2.75 stars: There were some things I appreciated about this book, but I do not recommend it.
0.25 - 1.75 stars: I do not recommend this book. I did not enjoy or appreciate the experience of it.

Post Date: 10 September 2025