August 27, 2017

Pretend We Are Lovely - Noley Reid


Tin House Books, July 18, 2017.

 

Four Stars


 

Pretend We Are Lovely explores the lives of the Sobel family in small town Virginia in the 1980s. The parents, Francie and Tate, are recently separated and the entire family is still dealing with the aftermath of the death of their son/brother seven years previous – the boy died under suspicious circumstances, and Francie carries the blame for his loss.

 

Francie has always struggled with food, but with her estranged husband out of the house, her eating disorder has completely taken over the family. She compulsively weighs each item she eats and records the calories in a notebook kept in the kitchen. Her daughters, ten-year-old Enid and thirteen-year-old Vivvy, cannot help but observe their mother’s obsessive behaviour regarding food, and it affects them both dramatically. In contrast, their father Tate brings the girls unhealthy snacks such as donuts, sneaking them into the house behind their mother’s back. Because of both parents, the girls end up having complicated relationships with food, often confusing nourishment (or its denial) with love.

 

We witness the lives of the Sobel family over the course of one summer vacation, in which the girls are mostly left to their own devices. Francie is lost in her own world of food obsession, and college professor Tate has begun an affair with a nineteen-year-old student – likely transferring his paternal feelings from his estranged daughters to another young girl. Enid and Vivvy, meanwhile, are on their own – Enid binge eating while Vivvy starves herself, and both girls experiment with the boy next door.

 

As Francie spirals out of control, starving herself and eventually disappearing, the rest of the family is damaged almost beyond repair. The level of dysfunction at play here is difficult to read, as the girls are taught to confuse hunger with desire – to fit in, to be loved, to be forgiven, and much more. The alternating point of view chapters create a strong narrative in which the painful misunderstandings between family members are highlighted. All of them are keeping secrets, but each character knows more about the others than they think. This novel is an intimate, voyeuristic view of gritty and believable familial dysfunction.

 

The shifting relationships between the family members are realistic and their distinct voices are insightful and raw. Although it took some time, I felt connected to all the characters as they evolved, despite or even because of their flaws. The story is often depressing, and it was painful to see the dangerous effects of the parents’ behaviour on their impressionable children – but even so, the novel is filled with a tenuous sense of hope that the family can come back together and even thrive. I was very impressed with Reid’s writing and I would love to read more by this talented author.

 

I received this book from Tin House Books and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

August 24, 2017

The Lying Game - Ruth Ware


Simon & Schuster, July 25, 2017.

 

 

Three Stars


Isa is a new mom in her early thirties with a successful career as a lawyer, when she gets a text from a childhood friend that brings her back to her boarding school days. The text is from her friend Kate, who still lives in her crumbling childhood home on the marshes of Salten, and it only consists of three words: “I need you.” Isa doesn’t hesitate when she packs up baby Freya, tells her husband she is going to a high school reunion, and jumps on a train to Salten.


Kate and Isa were also close to two other girls at school, Thea and Fatima. As the novel alternates between the past and the present, we learn about the complicated dynamic between the girls. They meet on the first day of the school year and are quickly introduced to “the lying game,” in which the girls award each other points for telling outlandish yet convincing lies. There are only a few rules to the game, but the most important is that the girls never lie to each other. They trust each other with their deepest secrets, but how well do they really know each other?


Now, many years later, the friends are reunited in Salten, where they town is desolate and decaying, and Kate’s family home is falling slowly into the sea. Fatima and Thea received the cryptic text as well, and when all the women arrive, Kate reveals why she has summoned them – a body has washed up on the shores of the marsh, and it may be connected to the secrets and lies of their boarding school days. The only way to keep their secret is continuing to play the lying game.


This is a thriller, but it has a slower, darker pace – until the tense atmosphere is escalated at the end. It is more complex than some thrillers, and yet it is implausible in many ways. The urgency that brings the girls back together seems especially contrived and unnecessary. I found Isa to be melodramatic and immature, although all the main characters are well-developed and distinct – in fact, I think it might have been better if the narration alternated between all four of the girls. Although she narrated the entire novel, Isa was actually the least interesting character – but maybe she was also the most relatable because she was so generic. However, even with these minor flaws, I found this novel to be very entertaining and unpredictable, and I sped through it to find out the girls’ secrets, and the consequences of the lying game.


I received this book from Simon & Schuster and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

August 20, 2017

Conversations with Friends - Sally Rooney


Crown Publishing, July 11, 2017.

 

Four Stars


 

Conversations with Friends is an intense character study, following the lives of two young women who were once lovers and are now best friends. Frances and Bobbi are twenty-one-year-old college students in Dublin, where they perform spoken-word poetry in night clubs and interact with the various artists and literati of the city. One night they meet photo-journalist Melissa, who wants to write an article about their work, and their lives are changed forever.

 

Frances is cool and calm in the face of strong emotion – she is darkly funny and yet deeply serious. Bobbi is beautiful and confident, and often self-involved when it comes to understanding the emotions of others. When the two young women are thrown into the lives of Melissa and her handsome actor husband Nick, their beliefs about themselves and others are challenged in unexpected ways. Bobbi, who is confident in her attraction to women, becomes obsessed with Melissa. Meanwhile, sexually-ambiguous Frances finds Nick intriguing despite herself – he is apathetic yet attractive, and she can’t help but seek him out to spend more time with him.

 

At the start, Frances is mostly amused by her flirtation with Nick – it is as if she is practicing for a more meaningful future relationship, both in conversations and in the bedroom. She sees him as a negative symbol of wealth and patriarchy, which is ironic because it doesn’t bother her that her dad pays her bills. Frances’ analysis of her own thoughts and feelings are self-conscious, and her intellectual debates with friends will make you cringe with their self-aware awkwardness. In her naivete, Frances explores the complications of intimacy, and the misunderstandings that stem from email and messenger conversations – feelings are often confused, and both Nick and Frances assume the other is cold and lacking emotion when in fact it is simply lost in translation.

 

Throughout the novel, Frances’ various relationships take on new meanings and fill new roles in her life – with Bobbi, with her mother and father, and especially with Nick and even Melissa. Intellectual stimulation is the most important aspect of Frances’ life, and yet she is forced to reconcile herself to the physical world as well. She has always placed mind over body, but eventually health concerns force her to pay attention to her physicality and put herself first.

 

The conversations between friends, lovers, acquaintances, and even adversaries are always at the forefront of this intelligent, thought-provoking novel. It is a novel of ideas, although they are always applied thoughtfully to the characters and their development. At first this reminded me of another 2017 novel, Elif Batuman’s The Idiot – both books feature a naïve young female protagonist, using deadpan humour and probing intelligence to explore a troubling relationship in the age of the internet. However, Frances is much less endearing and less likeable, which isn’t necessary a bad thing. The problem for me was the ending, in which it didn’t seem that Frances truly developed or changed at all – despite all her experiences, there was no real growth, and that was disappointing. However, the strength of this novel is in its concepts and conversations, written in a unique prose style that I savoured throughout Frances’ oddly compelling journey – despite or maybe because of Frances’ many issues, I found this book impossible to put down and I will be seeking out more by the talented Sally Rooney.

 

I received this book from Crown Publishing and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

August 15, 2017

Fierce Kingdom - Gin Phillips

Random House Canada, July 4, 2017.

 

Four Stars


 

Fierce Kingdom is a terrifying novel about the lengths a mother will go to in order to protect her child. Joan and her four-year-old son Lincoln are spending a fun and relaxing day at the zoo, when they hear what sounds like fireworks in the distance. At the end of the long day, they head toward the front gates and encounter a shocking scene – there are armed gunmen at the exit, standing over bloody bodies on the ground.

 

Thinking fast, Joan grabs Lincoln and runs back into the labyrinth of the zoo – and she keeps running for the next three hours, right up until the novel’s thrilling ending. Luckily, Joan has spent a lot of time at the zoo, and she remembers an empty exhibit where they can hide until the police arrive. She has her cell phone and is able to contact her husband, who tells her that the police are on their way – but soon after she is forced to throw her phone away to distract the gunmen, leaving her at the mercy of the dark zoo at night.

 

Staying just a step ahead of danger, Joan encounters another small group of people who are also on the run – but working together puts her and Lincoln in more danger. Joan quickly realizes the sacrifices she is willing to make to save her child, and she is shocked by her own actions. The novel questions our duty towards other people in contrast to our animal instinct to survive with our own loved ones. The zoo setting is important because it shows the humans that are trapped there as nothing more than animals in a cage, desperate to survive – suddenly life is pared down to the essentials of food, shelter and staying alive.

 

Most of the story is told from Joan’s perspective, but we do meet some other characters, including one of the gunmen. Learning about his motivations for the attack is intriguing, and the behaviour between the men becomes increasingly animalistic as well. Each narrator also has flashbacks describing their life before the zoo attack, which are emotional and compelling, fleshing out these characters into three-dimensional people. The background stories increase the stakes, as we become invested in the survival of Joan, Lincoln and the others.

 

The events at the zoo aren’t always realistic, but it’s certainly a believable situation that could happen to anyone at any time. The difficult decisions of motherhood become clear and concise, as Joan sacrifices everyone and everything – even herself – to protect Lincoln. Fierce Kingdom is a thrilling story, difficult to put down and exciting from start to finish. This is a great summer read that will likely be one of the most popular books of the season, and well worth reading.

 

I received this book from Random House Canada and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

August 12, 2017

When the English Fall - David Williams


Algonquin Books, July 11, 2017.

 

Three Stars


 

When the English Fall chronicles the lives of the peaceful farmers in an Amish community in Pennsylvania. When a catastrophic solar storm leads to the collapse of the “English” (the Amish name for any non-Amish people), the community continues its self-sufficient way of life. Meanwhile, the world around them has effectively come to an end.

 

Modern life is at a stand-still – with no electricity and no way of trading, the English soon run out of food. In contrast, the Amish have storerooms full of meat and vegetables, as well as their ongoing crops in the field. It proves to be too much of a temptation to the people around them, who become desperate and invade the Amish farms. Instead of trying to work together, the English come with violence that they wreak on the peaceable community.

 

The story is told through the diary of a farmer named Jacob, who lives on the land with his wife, son and daughter. The daughter has had seizures in the past in which she foresees the fall of the English – where she was once an outcast for this oddity, she is now viewed as a prophet for the Amish community. I thought that the daughter’s role could have been a much stronger part of the story – there were some really good plot elements that were left unexplored.

 

The novel begins with the discovery of Jacob’s diary by the military, years after the apocalypse. Again, I thought this aspect of the plot would be developed much further – I kept waiting for the timelines to come together, but the novel ended suddenly and without resolution. When the English Fall has the potential to be an excellent examination of civilization and what is left when it is stripped down to its core – especially when a non-violent community must consider taking up arms to defend itself. Overall, it was just too short and lacking in depth. However, if the author chose to develop this plot further, I think it could be something great.

 

I received this book from Algonquin Books and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

August 08, 2017

We Shall Not All Sleep - Estep Nagy


Bloomsbury, July 4, 2017.



Three Stars



We Shall Not All Sleep covers the events of three summer days in 1964, on a small island in New England. Seven Island is shared by two wealthy families, the Hillsingers and the Quicks – although technically related by marriage, there is animosity between the families and they do not mix with each other. However, the events of these three days draw them together in unexpected ways.


Lila and Hannah are sisters that have married Jim Hillsinger and Billy Quick, respectively. The sisters hold the families together, although there is little communication between them. However, on the anniversary of Hannah’s death, Lila finds herself drawn to her brother-in-law Billy – especially as her husband Jim pulls away from her. Recently ousted from his career at the CIA due to allegations of treason, Jim is desperate to control his environment, and he begins by sending his twelve-year-old son Catta to neighbouring Baffin Island to “become a man.”


The story takes place at the height of the Cold War and McCarthyism, and the historical aspects of the novel were the most compelling for me. Hannah was once a member of the Communist Party, and before her death, her past came back to haunt her – her story is told in flashbacks as she is persecuted for something she never even really believed in. There is intrigue and mystery in Hannah’s story. Then there are the more literary issues of class, wealth and family conflict on Seven Island. Finally, there is also Catta’s boyhood adventure on Baffin Island. The novel jumps between these three plots and really three different genres, and it’s sometimes hard to follow.


There is also a very large cast of characters, who are often confusing and difficult to keep track of. The narration moves around rapidly, within each chapter, and I found it very distracting. There were a lot of good parts, but ultimately there was too much going on and too many separate stories – they would have been much more satisfying if taken separately and embellished on, instead of being forced to fit together. The writing is strong and ambitious, but the narration is messy and meandering. I think this novel would benefit from having tighter focus on the main plot, but Nagy is still a talented writer to watch in the future.


I received this book from Bloomsbury and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.