Review of IN WONDERLAND by Joyce Maynard (New Release)

3.5 Stars 

This is a coming-of-age story set in 1986 in Maine.

Fourteen-year-old Frances is hired by Regina and Forrest Emerson to be a mother’s helper for the summer at their lakefront home named Wonderland. She has to help look after 12-year-old Hayward and 6-year-old Jilly but her responsibilities are not that taxing. She finds many benefits that she doesn’t have in her home. She is given a shiny new bike and eventually gets tennis lessons at the country club. Best of all, she is able to spend time with Forrest, her father’s charismatic friend.

As expected, Wonderland proves not to be the paradise it initially seems. Frances witnesses the intimate lives and secrets of adults who prove not to be as reliable as she thought. As indicated by the prologue, the summer ends with a death that shatters the family. The book focuses on the events of the summer leading up to this death.

Frances is the narrator so the reader sees everyone and every event from her perspective. Obviously her reliability as a narrator comes into play. She is desperate for attention, something she does not get from her own parents who are focused on their contentious relationship. Because Forrest shows her some attention, she develops a crush on him. When Forrest’s attentions turn elsewhere, Frances’ loyalty shifts to Regina who takes an interest in her. The problem, as she realizes later, is that she is naive and too involved in her own situation to fully understand anyone else’s.

Frances is a very believable teenager. She is very conscious of her body; she is troubled that she has not yet developed breasts and has not started to menstruate. Most of the time she feels invisible and she desperately wants to be noticed and to feel important; this desire is her major motivation. She’s an insecure outsider who doesn’t seem to fit in anywhere. She is interested in sex, but knows very little about it.

By the end of the summer, Frances learns a great deal. She learns to play tennis and she learns about the physical aspects of sex. She comes to appreciate her father’s brutal honesty which contrasts with Forrest’s ability to lie easily. Hayward annoys her throughout, but in the end she recognizes that he is not that different from her. And, of course, she learns a lot about adults, including how they have secrets and may behave less than honourably. Her feelings for Forrest change; she finds she can still love a version of him but she doesn’t like or respect him.

As I read, I developed an intense dislike for Forrest. It’s obvious that he is charming and most people find him irresistible, but I found his behaviour disturbing. When Frances first arrives, he pays her a lot of attention, almost as if he is grooming her. Even if his intentions are innocent, a 37-year-old man should be more aware of how his actions might affect a teenager. He even makes her promises which he doesn’t keep. When Brenda comes along, Frances sees another side to Forrest: he’s a liar and serial adulterer. Frances’ father Hank is Forrest’s best friend so presumably he knows about his activities. So I kept wondering why would Hank entrust his daughter to such a man?

I did have some issues with the novel. It’s a slow burn with needless repetition. The chapters are short, but some just seem unnecessary. At the end there are elements I found problematic. Who saves a fake suicide note on their computer? And the courtroom scenes and verdict are unconvincing. Why, for instance, is Frances allowed to hear the testimony of others before she herself takes the stand? Prospective witnesses remain outside the courtroom until they are called to testify to ensure they do not alter or tailor their own evidence based on what they hear.

The best aspect of this novel is its portrayal of the interior life of a teenaged girl. Frances’ choices and behaviour are not always admirable, but perfectly understandable.

Note: I received an eARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

Review of CONVICTION by Elizabeth H. Winthrop (New Release)

 3.5 Stars

This novel made me think of the conflict between passion and reason and even reminded me of Romeo and Juliet and their rash decisions.

After 9/11, Maggie, raised a “Christian atheist,” converts to Islam. In 2012, she leaves Maine to live in New York City where she gets a job at a bakery owned by a Kurdish man named Sirvan. There she meets and falls in love with Sirvan’s son Ahmet. Angered by what he sees happening in Syria, Ahmet leaves to join a new rebel group emerging there, believing that ISIS will create a Muslim utopia. Without telling anyone beforehand, Maggie joins Ahmet in 2015. Once in Syria, she slowly comes to realize the magnitude of her error when she sees the brutality of ISIS.

The novel gives two perspectives: that of Maggie and that of Ann, her mother left behind in Maine. When she learns that Maggie has left for Syria, Ann grieves the loss of her daughter, worries about Maggie’s welfare, and is also confused, constantly wondering “just how it happened, how her daughter got from here to there, from Maine to Syria, from baking cakes to slinging guns across her back.” There are also snippets of the life of Noor and her family. Noor is a midwife in Syria forced to assist in delivering ISIS babies. From the beginning, the question is whether Maggie’s story and that of Noor will intersect

Maggie’s character is a key element in the novel. Her father describes her as possessing strong ideals and a will of steel. She becomes obsessed with what is happening in Syria; in fact, her father “wishes she would moderate; fixating isn’t going to do anyone any good.” She is horrified not only by Assad’s atrocities but is also angered by the treatment of Muslims in her own country and “always eager to expand her catalogue of atrocities wrought by US foreign policy.” Her desire to help is certainly understandable.

What is less easy to understand is her naivety. She allows her passion to overcome her reason; she really has no idea what awaits her in Syria. By going there, she knows she will be considered a terrorist by her own country, yet she never questions why ISIS might have been designated a terrorist group. I know that I’m reading the novel in 2026 when much more is known about ISIS, but she fully understands that she is going to a war zone and that she won’t be able to return to the US. Sirvan even warns Maggie about his son: “’Ahmet sometimes lets his passions get him into trouble. I would say to you, don’t you let your passions get you into trouble too. . . . His passion is infectious, but he can be headstrong.’”

Maggie’s love for Ahmet is a reason for her decision to join him in Syria, but their relationship is not fully developed. All they have in common is their faith and their horror at what is happening to fellow Muslims. I wanted to see more of their relationship to explain how their love and connection motivated her actions. Once she arrives in Syria, she acknowledges that there is a hard side to Ahmet, one “more myopic and determined than it was before, less tempered by the spirituality that used to balance that determination out.” Clearly she didn’t know him that well or chose not to see him clearly because the reader can certainly see, even before he leaves the US, how narrow are his views and how provocative and uncompromising he can be. Because Ahmet is Maggie’s first love, perhaps her behaviour is more understandable, but her extreme choices are difficult to accept and require some suspension of disbelief.

The novel examines idealism and the risks of its unforeseen consequences when coupled with naivety. Readers should be warned that parts of the novel are difficult to read because the actions of ISIS are described in some detail: hangings, crucifixions, beheadings, suicide bombings, and rape.

Note: I received an eARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

Review of THE SINS OF SUMMER DAUGHTERS by Lo Patrick (New Release)

 3 Stars

This is a mystery with some elements of Southern Gothic, especially its use of a key trope: the oppressive presence of the past.

After her divorce, Meg Gregory returned to Tuskin, a small town in Georgia, bringing her daughter Nina with her. Now, years later, Meg is 64 and her 15-year-old granddaughter Lucy is implicated in the murder of her boyfriend. While determined to prove Lucy’s innocence, Meg is haunted by memories of what happened when she was a teenager. There are a lot of parallels between Lucy’s circumstances and her own, including the suspicious death of a friend, an event which lead to Meg’s fleeing Tuskin for years. Is Lucy innocent? Is Meg?

There’s a dual timeline. Chapters alternate between the present (2024) and 1973. The latter chapters reveal Meg’s past which she has tried hard to forget. Since Meg is the narrator, the inevitable question of her reliability comes into play. She hallucinates sounds and, more than once, confuses what is happening to Lucy with what happened in the past when she was a teenager. It’s obvious that Meg has never recovered from the trauma of what happened. Is she clinging to a version of what happened that helps her cope but a version that is incomplete?

The pace is slow. Much of the focus is on Meg’s state of mind as she grapples with Lucy’s situation and her own trauma. Everything that happens to Lucy leads Meg to compare with what happened to her and how she feels. I understand that this reaction is a trauma response, but it lessens tension in the present.

I did not find Meg a likeable character. Some of her behaviour is just strange. For instance, she rushes to the police station wearing her nightgown and bathrobe even though she could take a few minutes to dress. Later she goes out wearing only one boot? Because of her constant self-reflections, she comes across as self-centred; even Nina accuses her mother of always making everything about herself, though, again, her pre-occupation is understandable. Her most perceptive comment is “I needed to get my head out of the past where it like to sit, on a post, removed from my neck so that it could defy all logic.”

None of the other characters feel developed. Nina, for example, remains a vague presence whose typical response is avoidance. The perspective of other characters would have been beneficial. For instance, I would have liked to be given Lucy’s point of view. Since she barely speaks, it’s impossible to understand the reasons for her choices. Is she really like Meg was?

A major theme is that the past never leaves us. Meg’s past is certainly ever-present. She even comments, “There is no accounting for the past and its incensed determination to penetrate the roots of everything that’s planted after it.” Meg’s relationship with Nina is obviously shaped by Meg’s relationship with her own mother, a stripper who believed “men made all the difference.” Meg does question whether her silence about what happened in the past was a good idea: perhaps if Lucy had known what happened to her grandmother, she would have acted differently.

This book is 400 pages long, but there are a lot of holes. For instance, the role of the Great Dane man is never fully explained, and his re-appearance just raises questions. Meg’s vision at the end is an interesting twist, which confirms her unreliability, though it really shouldn’t come as a total shock. However many readers will undoubtedly crave more clarity.

There are some clever turns of phrase: When Meg blurts out something surprising, she thinks, “This popped out of my mouth like bulge over a pants waist – one day it’s there and you can’t put it back.” And a rain is described as “a pitiful, slow drizzle that there was no good windshield-wiper setting for.” On the whole, however, I found the book a bit of a slog. Being in Meg’s mind so relentlessly is not always pleasant, and in the end there seems little payoff.

Note:  I received an eARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

Review of THE THINGS WE NEVER SAY by Elizabeth Strout

 4 Stars

This is classic Strout – a character-driven novel, focused on an ordinary life, with psychological depth.

Fifty-seven-year-old Artie Dam has a comfortable life. A beloved and celebrated high school history teacher, he has had a long and stable marriage with Evie. His son Rob is successful. And Artie loves sailing which he is able to do regularly on his sailboat. Artie should be happy and outwardly he seems so, but he’s actually not; he is secretly struggling, suffering from what he describes as “an accretion of loneliness,” a feeling which he doesn’t feel he can share with anyone. Then a long-held secret is revealed, and it leaves him feeling even more isolated and questioning what he has believed about the people closest to him.

Artie is as memorable a character as Strout’s Olive Kitteridge and Lucy Barton. His personality shines when he is in the classroom; he is a kind and compassionate teacher who really cares about his students. Remembering a teacher who made a difference in his life, he sets out to do the same for students in his classes. His early life was not easy since he experienced traumatic events involving his mother, sister and son. In the present, he is finds himself increasingly disconnected from Evie, and the departure of a good friend leaves him feeling lonely. And the state of the world has him feeling anxious.

The novel is set before and after the 2024 presidential election in the U.S. The country is fractured and so is Artie’s world. The public situation mirrors Artie’s private one. He has lost his ability to appreciate the good and the beautiful. One day on his sailboat, he admits that it is “a beautiful world” and what he sees is “quietly magnificent,” but it leaves him unmoved: “whatever exaltation was available to my heart is available no more.” He believes “His country was committing suicide,” and he himself experiences suicidal ideation.

The title certainly hints at the theme. Artie comes to realize that “It was a private thing, to be alive.” Everyone holds “within themselves a vast, unknowable universe.” At the beginning of the novel, Strout quotes Carl Jung that loneliness comes from “being unable to communicate the things that seem important to oneself” and Artie expresses the same idea. He asks Evie why people never say anything real, but later explains that “to say anything real was to say things that nobody wanted to know. Or if they wanted to know, they would not care in the right way. Or even understand.” People lie to each other, even if only by omission, so “everything in the world seemed to him to be filled with unspoken truths.”

The consequence, of course, is that people do not really know each other: “All the things in the world that people did not know about one another. Even those very close to them” like Rob whom Artie feels has become “a person who remained deeply inside himself.” The omniscient narrator comments that “mostly we travel through life unsighted, grasping only the smallest details of one another’s selves, including our own. Thinking all the while that we can see.”

I loved the book though it is rather melancholic, and reading it is emotionally draining. Nonetheless, I recommend it for its psychological insight. Teachers in particular will identify with Artie’s classroom experiences.

Review of STOP DEAD by Katrín Júlíusdóttir

 4 Stars

This is the second in the Iceland Mysteries series, set three years after Dead Sweet which I reviewed in 2024 (https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/2024/02/review-of-dead-sweet-by-katrin.html).

Sigurdís has just finished studying forensic psychology in Florida when she receives a phone call informing her that the death of her father Agnar, an apparent suicide, is being re-investigated. She returns to Iceland to be with her family. Though she cannot be involved in Agnar’s case, she is drawn into another one, that of the murder of Olga Einarsdóttir, a ruthlessly ambitious journalist. As Sigurdís investigates, she learns that Olga was disliked by virtually everyone, so there is no shortage of suspects.

The character of the likeable Sigurdís is one major appeal of the book. Her intelligence and determination stand out; even when the case seems to be going nowhere, she doesn’t give up. Her childhood was not easy since Agnar was abusive, but she is now attending therapy sessions to help herself. She remains close to her younger brother and her aunt Halla who rescued the siblings from the dysfunctional family home. She has matured as a detective; she admits that she has learned from her past mistakes when she “followed her hunches without bothering to give her colleagues much idea of what she was doing.”

In my review of Dead Sweet, I predicted that a romance would develop between Sigurdís and Unnar, and I was happy to be proven correct. I knew that the American boyfriend wouldn’t stand a chance once Sigurdís returned to Iceland. The complication, however, is that Unnar is now Sigurdís’s supervisor, even if only temporarily.

This is a fast-paced breezy read. It is very cleverly plotted with a good smattering of both clues and red herrings. These keep readers engaged as they form their own theories. Brief passages featuring Olga’s past and the viewpoint of a “bad guy” are interesting additions. Tension ramps up over time. We learn, for instance, that Sigurdís is being followed and may be in danger.

The case is solved at the end, but the closing is also somewhat open-ended. The last sentence, before the epilogue, certainly grabs attention. And then there’s the unknown: what will Sigurdís’s mother say in the radio interview about Agnar’s death? I look forward to reading the next book in the series.

Review of MURDER TAKES A VACATION by Laura Lippman

 2 Stars

This audiobook accompanied me on my morning walks, but it was not the most entertaining of companions.

Murial Blossom is going on vacation to Europe after winning a lottery. Allan Turner, a charismatic, handsome stranger, befriends her at the airport and even spends a day in London with her before she leaves for Paris where she is taking a cruise on the Seine. In Paris she meets another man, Danny Johnson, who is equally attentive. Murial is surprised when Danny ends up on her cruise and shocked when she learns that Allan died from a fall from his hotel balcony. Strange things begin to happen: Muriel suspects she is being followed, her room is searched, and a man attempts to steal her purse. What is going on?

My problem with the book is the protagonist. Murial is 68 years old and she had done surveillance for a private detective, yet she is incredibly gullible, trusting, and even helpless. She is such a poor judge of character; she accepts whatever people tell her. She takes a sleep aid from a stranger? She lets a stranger watch her while she falls asleep? She never questions suspicious behaviour? And when it comes to men, she behaves like a teenager. Men (Allan, Danny, Paul) seem to flock to her and then she turns into a giddy ninny. She mocks her friend Elinor’s flirtations, yet she herself seems to need male attention, wondering whether each man she meets could possibly be interested in her romantically.

In the Author’s Note at the end, Lippman mentions that Mrs. Blossom is a minor character introduced in the Tess Monaghan series. Readers accused the author of being anti-fat in her depiction so she decided to have Mrs. Blossom as her plus-sized protagonist. I think we are supposed to believe that Mrs. Blossom is comfortable with her size, but that does not seem to be the case. She refers to her size over and over and over again. She even lets a guide intimidate her into not going on a tour because she is self-conscious. This is not what I would call a body-positive portrayal.

There is an attempt to show that Mrs. Blossom attains some self-knowledge: she experienced great love with her husband and has other kinds of love in her life, so she doesn’t need a romance with a man to make her complete. She decides to focus on finding a purpose for her life and doing the things that give her happiness. However, this change comes unconvincingly quickly.

The mystery, revolving around a stolen statue, is lacklustre. The whole thing just seems trivial. And it’s so obvious who is involved in the caper! The fact that Mrs. Blossom doesn’t see what is so patently obvious just adds to the impression that she is naive, if not stupid.

If this is the first of a new series, I will not be continuing. The protagonist is annoying and does not behave in a credible manner, the pace is slow, tension is lacking, and the plot is predictable.

Review of THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB by Richard Osman

 3.5 Stars

I’m a latecomer to this cozy mystery series which has had many rave reviews.

The novel is set at Coopers Chase, a British retirement village. Four residents (Elizabeth, Ron, Joyce, and Ibrahim) meet to discuss unsolved cases but become involved in investigating an actual murder, that of a property developer. And then there’s a second murder.

It is the characterization of the four septuagenarians that stands out. Each is well-developed and differentiated. They bring diverse skills to the group. Elizabeth Best is the ring leader as befits her past life as some sort of spy; she is clever and cunning, able to slyly manipulate people to her wishes, and she has a large network of useful resources. Ron was a union activist and he tends to be argumentative.  Ibrahim, a retired psychiatrist, is the calming influence; Ron’s foil, Ibrahim is quiet and restrained. Joyce, a former nurse, is a bit of a chatterbox who is always seeking male companionship, but her diary entries show that people underestimate her intelligence.

The club members charm PC Donna De Freitas and her boss, DCI Chris Hudson, into becoming police sources. I liked both characters but had to suspend disbelief with their part of the plot. There’s no way that the police would share their findings as they do. And the group always tends to be one step ahead of the police?!

The book mentions some of the challenges of growing old, such as mortality, grief, isolation, and illness, but never in a heavy-handed manner. There is considerable gentle humour: witty banter among cheeky and eccentric characters abounds. Humour also arises from contrast: sharp, intelligent seniors use their apparent frailty to manipulate, deceive, and gain information, and are able to do so because people tend to underestimate them.

There are a lot of red herrings which are central to the plot’s complexity. More than once, someone becomes a suspect with a convincing motive, but then that person proves to have a backstory with an unrelated secret. Characters and objects are often just distractions, all to keep the quartet and the reader guessing. I must admit to not liking the preponderance of suicides and assisted deaths.

A central theme is that of friendship. The four club members have a deep bond. They care for and unwaveringly support each other. The motive for one killing is in fact revenge for a friend’s death. And one friend helps another escape suspicion. Love is also another theme. The love of parents for children (Joyce and Joanna, and Ron and Jason) is obvious. But there are also several examples of long-time devotion in various relationships/marriages: Elizabeth and Stephen; Penny and John; Bernard and Asima; and Matthew and Margaret. Moments between these partners are often the most tender-hearted.

The book is charming and entertaining; I don’t think it’s intended to be taken too seriously. I will probably continue the series (of which there are currently five books with a sixth due this fall) as an occasional break from heavier, more serious reads. Actually, audio versions will probably become companions on my walks.