4 Stars
This book has been called a deconstructed
psychological thriller and a social commentary.
I would tend towards the latter description because this is certainly
not a thriller in the typical sense. It lacks
mystery and suspense and focuses on the impact of a crime.
Blake Campbell confesses to killing his girlfriend,
Sara Morgan. He is acquitted on the
grounds of temporary insanity. Each of
the twelve chapters is narrated from the perspective of a different person who
is affected by Sara’s death. We meet people
connected to Blake (his sister and his best friend from college), and we meet
people connected to Sara (her stepmother, her half-sister, her college
roommate, and a girl Sara babysat). Some
of the characters (like a journalist covering the case and a young woman who
meets Blake in rehab) are more on the fringes of events.
The book examines how a murder affects family
members, friends, and the community at large.
Each of the characters is unique; once they are introduced, it is not
difficult to keep them differentiated. For
me, the creepiest chapter is the one featuring Jessica whom Sara babysat. Jessica begins a correspondence with a serial
killer arrested at the same time as Blake.
The last chapter allows us to meet Sara after an evening spent
babysitting Jessica.
In terms of structure, this book reminded me of Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips (https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/2020/01/review-of-disappearing-earth-by-julia.html)
which has 12 stories examining the impact of an abduction on the lives of women
in a community. In both novels, there
are connections among the characters. Sometimes
a character is the protagonist in one chapter but is mentioned in another
character’s story. There’s a missing
person in the first chapter of Nothing
Can Hurt You and her fate is revealed in a simple reference in the third
chapter. The difference is that the twelve
chapters in Disappearing Earth are
all set within a year of the abduction whereas Nothing Can Hurt You covers different time periods, all but one
after Sara’s death. For example, Sara’s
half-sister Luna was two years old when Sara was murdered; we encounter her
just after she graduates college.
My mother died very recently and I’ve heard stories
from many people about how her life intersected and influenced theirs. Everyone had different recollections and
memories, many of which I was unaware. Some
knew her well for much of her life and some had come to know her only recently,
but all had an impression to convey. Reading
Nothing Can Hurt You is a similar
experience because the reader meets a variety of people who had different
connections with Sara and Blake and so had contrasting impressions and opinions
of them.
Because of the subject matter, this is not an easy,
light-hearted read, but it is thought-provoking. It certainly had me thinking about fairness
and justice. Is the sentence given to
Blake a fair one? Do Sara and her family
receive justice? One character describes
justice as an impossibility: “’There is
no such thing as justice. It’s an idea
that makes people feel better, that’s all.
There is only revenge, or mercy.
And you can’t have both.’”
Pick up this book, though you should be warned that
the title is not a guarantee.
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