Read it in one sitting as I could not put it down. I knew this would be a strange read for me. I was born and raised in the city this was set. I have multiple strong family connections to the oil sands industry. There were parts about growing up there I appreciated—many even more after time and distance—and many reasons why I couldn't wait to leave as soon as I way able. I'm not a fan of the oil sands, but I also benefitted greatly from them in ways integral to my life, my experiences, my privileges, and my opportunities. All to say, I have a complicated relationship with this city and this industry. I never worked at a camp or in the oil sands, but I lived in a city shaped by them. Kate Beaton does a brilliant job of presenting a complexity that resonates deeply with my experience.

Beaton presents numerous realities that co-exist there. The isolation. The casual, pervasive, disgusting misogyny. (I grew up hearing about the "toonie" thing and hated how it was always treated so indifferently and the violence that implies.) Sexual assault. Discrimination. Hopelessness. The beauty of the Northern Lights. Shared moments of humanity. Longing for a home you wish you could inhabit. Precious community. Empathy and the lack thereof. Young families. The impact of issues like poor education, debt, mental health crises, and the human price of those societal failures—failures we truly should have addressed by now when you contrast them to the backdrop of an industry worth billions. Environmental impact. Indigenous lives forever altered by colonialism and resource extraction. The lies people tell themselves to keep going. The willful ignorance of human lives and injury at the cost of profit and image. Beaton provides us with all the tiles in a mosaic but allows us the freedom to step back and see the whole picture on our own.

Some may champion <i>Ducks</i> as justification for eliminating the oil sands, as an example of how it's an industry filled with horrible people doing horrible things for a horrible purpose. Others will dismiss it entirely, saying that it's just another example of people angry at something they don't understand. I don't think anyone in either of those groups will have read the book.

As Beaton puts it, "Everyone's oil sands are different, and these were mine." As someone with complicated feelings on this city and this industry, as someone who's lived large parts of this life—directly or adjacently—I feel Beaton does a masterful job of presenting a fully realised snapshot of a world that's complicated, full of contradictions, of violence, of beauty, of greed, of kindness, of hope and hopelessness—of humanity—in a way that few have been able to do.

<i>Ducks</i> is less a story about the oil sands than about the people in the oil sands. Beaton is almost like a documentarian at times, but as someone who lived that world, she presents her story with a truth that both can't be denied and allows the reader to make their own judgements and reach their own conclusions.

This is a worthwhile read for anyone curious about the world of oil sands; anyone, like myself, who thinks they know that world; and for anyone who appreciates a true story, well-told.