Booklist Review of The Net Beneath Us

Elsa was raised with wealth and privilege, and finds herself in a predicament when she falls in love with Silas, a man who is everything she isn't. Silas grew up in the most rural of places, carving out a living as a logger. Inheriting forested acreage from the aunt and uncle who raised him, he and Elsa build a life together. Years into their happy marriage, following the birth of their two children, Silas suffers a violent logging accident, with no hope for recovery. Elsa decides he should live out his last days in their unfinished house in the woods. This experience and its concurrent grief end up making Elsa not only strong, but wildly in tune with the natural world, as she comes to grips with motherhood, love, and what it means to give back—and go back—to the land. Drawing from her own experience living off the grid in northern Wisconsin, Dunbar's debut novel encapsulates what it means to come home to oneself.

— BoDean Warnock

Booklist, August 1, 2022.