3.5 Stars
Readers should be forewarned that this is a disturbing read about child neglect and abuse by a parent.
Gloria Janes is unhappy: her husband Telly has left and is now living with another woman. Gloria blames her son, 13-year-old Rowan, for Telly’s leaving so one stormy night she locks him out of the house. He runs to find Carl, a homeless man he encountered previously. Because Carl showed care and concern for him, Rowan thinks Carl is harmless, but he suffers from paranoia and his sometimes erratic behaviour can put him and others in danger. Gloria tells herself and her 7-year-old daughter Maisy that Rowan will be found and that Telly will return so they will be a happy family again. But then there are reports that Rowan drowned in an altercation with a man in a boat.
The novel is narrated from the children’s viewpoints. Rowan’s sections focus on his adventures with Carl whereas Maisy’s chapters describe life at home without her brother and the search to find him. Because of their ages, both narrators are not totally reliable; they don’t always understand what they are seeing and hearing. Maisy, in particular, is naive.
The villain of the novel is definitely Gloria. She’s a narcissist who manipulates others to get what she wants. After Telly moves out, she starts stalking him and his new girlfriend. Obsessed with getting him back, she’s always scheming to lure him. She even uses Rowan’s disappearance to try and guilt Telly into returning. It’s obvious she doesn’t really care about Rowan’s being missing because she always makes herself the centre of attention. She gaslights Maisy, often telling her she only imagined what she saw or heard. She uses both love bombing and fear of punishment to gain control and create dependency.
Telly is not as repulsive as Gloria, but he is certainly ineffectual. He too is self-absorbed and so not available when needed. He basically runs away and makes little time for his children; at a crucial time, he pushes Rowan away. It’s understandable that Rowan and Maisy are unaware of Gloria’s duplicity and manipulation, but it’s difficult to comprehend how he wouldn’t be wise to her devious plotting and be concerned about its effect on his children. I suspect that their estrangement might be the result of Gloria’s controlling actions. It is perhaps possible to have some sympathy for him at the end but his virtual abandonment of his children tempers that sympathy.
The characterization of Maisy is interesting. Some of her behaviour seems very authentic. For example, her confusion is understandable: Gloria has told her repeatedly that she has an overactive imagination, so her gaslighting is very effective. And Gloria’s tales of wolves, also repeated frequently, explain Maisy’s bewilderment when events take a dark turn. It’s typical for a child like Maisy to be torn between wanting to please a parent and to keep a sibling’s secret. There are times, however, when Maisy seems older than her age because she makes astute observations, and other times when she seems younger as suggested by her total obliviousness.
The book is not an easy read. Seeing the neglect and abuse to which the two children are subjected makes the reader hope that an adult like Mrs. Spooner will rescue them. The pace is slow and that just prolongs the discomfort the reader will feel. One could hope that people like Gloria do not exist in the world, but that unfortunately is not true.
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