Growing Up

Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid is a slice of reality in its portrayal of characters and life events.

Emira is in her mid-twenties struggling with career goals. Her friends are all employed full-time, while she is a part-time babysitter and typist. While babysitting three-year-old Briar one night, she is discriminated against in an uppity grocery store. A bystander happens to videotape the episode, but she does not want to pursue any legal action. She does end up in a relationship with the videographer, who is a slightly older white male named Kelley.

Meanwhile, her employer Alix (Briar’s mom) is having her own career struggles. She received fame for her feminist movement, but a move to Philadelphia for her husband’s job has her feeling unmotivated and lonely. She becomes obsessed with Emira. She peaks at her phone every chance she gets, and desperately wants to bond with her.

It turns out that Kelley and Alix have more in common than their fondness for Emira, adding another element to the novel. Alix becomes desperate to keep Emira employed with her family. Readers will have to see how far she is willing to go to make this happen.

I appreciated Emira’s cool vibe and loved her interactions with little Briar. Briar is a unique and innocent voice throughout the book. This is a thoroughly engaging read about life, relationships and needing to make difficult choices throughout the process.

Bottled Memories

The Scent Keeper by Erica Bauermeister is an adult fairy tale. Young Emmeline is raised by her dad on a remote island. One wall of their cabin is devoted to her dad’s passion- storing scents as one would store images with a photo. He uses a special machine to capture scents on small pieces of paper and then rolls and seals the papers into small glass bottles. She has a gifted sense of smell as well, and is raised to hone it even more. She is content with their life, until realizing that her dad has been untruthful. This catapults her into rebellious action, ultimately ending in her father’s accidental death.

Henry is a friend of her dad’s who finds her deeply in mourning and takes her off the island. Together with his wife Colette, they raise Emmeline within their beach resort. Emmeline struggles with school and friendships, until meeting Fisher. He is the only person accepting of her unusual sense and is broken from his life experiences too. Their attempt to run away together ends poorly, and Fisher leaves Emmeline behind to escape his violent father.

Eventually, Emmeline ventures out to look for Fisher and her mother. She finds both and manages to build a relationship with her extremely successful mother. There are two sides to the tale of her parent’s failed relationship. Emmeline must come to terms with where she fits in, and the type of person she wants to be.

The concept of this book is so unique, and there is much more detail beyond my quick summary. Reading people and places, whether through gestures or scents, is the gift possessed by characters in this book. Scents tell a story as they tie all of us to certain moments and people, which is the premise of this book.

Troubled Lives

Good Girl, Bad Girl by Michael Robotham shares the parallel points of view of Cyrus, a psychologist, and Evie/”Angel Face,” a troubled teen.

Cyrus provides his medical insight to friend and police detective Lenny in the murder case of a teen-aged girl named Jodie. Meanwhile, he is involved in the rehabilitative efforts of Evie. It turns out that as a child, Evie was rescued from a hidden room after the brutal murder of her abductor. There is no knowledge of her true identity, family or age and she has never revealed her story to anyone. Ever since being rescued, she has lived in failed foster care situations, until ending up in a secure group home for other troubled teens.

Cyrus goes out on a limb by offering to provide foster care to Edie. This living situation creates its own set of conflicts. Meanwhile, the murder investigation is ramping up. One “sure” suspect is taken in while signs point to there being another person involved in Jodie’s death. The investigation reveals that Jodie had a secret life. Evie crosses paths with this secret life, which is how everything ultimately comes to a head, and the answers to Jodie’s death are finally revealed.

This is a great read, which slowly but satisfyingly releases tidbits of information to keep you guessing until the very end.

Secrets

The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware takes us into Rowan’s jail cell. She is a young woman accused of murdering a girl in her care, and the case against her looks pretty solid. Her story is told in the form of a letter appealing her case to a prominent lawyer. She feels that she must tell her entire story, including all the details leading up to the young girl’s death, in order for him to have a clear picture of her innocence.

The job as a nanny for affluent Sandra and Bill Elincourt’s four daughters seems too good to be true. She will be paid handsomely and be able to live at historic Heatherbrae House. Rowan is filling in after a long line of nannies who have abruptly left the position, so she must commit to starting quickly and staying for at least a year.

Sandra and Bill leave her on her own with the girls almost immediately for work travel. This is when things start going wrong. The combination of the girls’ poor behaviors on top of nightly creepy noises and odd occurrences around the house have Rowan completely on edge. The only person she has to turn to is the handsome caretaker Jack, and even then she is not sure if he is completely trustworthy.

Rowan finds out that there is a tragic past to the house which seems to have affected the girls. As more comes to light, she is confronted by the eldest Elincourt daughter who knows that Rowan is lying about something.

This story is full of secrets, creepiness and lots of twists and turns, especially toward the end, which is when several surprising truths are finally revealed.

A Family Education

Educated by Tara Westover is a riveting memoir that stresses the power of family dynamics in conflict with internal motivation to succeed.

Tara is the youngest of a large sibling group. Her parents are strict Mormons while her dad also displays signs of mental illness, perhaps bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. He is against public education, medicine and government and is constantly prepping for an apocalypse. Tara and her siblings are “home schooled” amidst their dad’s erratic and reckless behaviors. Usually, home schooling is trumped by their work breaking down scrap in the dad’s junkyard.

Once Tara is a bit older, she becomes the ongoing subject of both physical and mental abuse from one of her brothers. Throughout her young life, it is almost impossible to imagine the injuries that various family members endure, all without proper medical treatment. Most notable are multiple instances of traumatic head injury and two serious burns. Tara’s mom uses homeopathic remedies to treat her family, eventually growing a profitable business from her treatments. Tara’s mom is an interesting character, at first seeming quietly indifferent to her husband’s rants to eventually supporting them.

Somehow, Tara and a couple of her brothers manage to escape the family hold, but for Tara it is at the price of most of her family. Tara puts herself through college. Her brilliance captures the attention of her professors which permits her exceptional opportunities to further her education, resulting in a doctorate from Harvard. Tara’s inner drive is remarkable, despite the powerful voices from her upbringing which almost hold her back.

This is a story of resilience, determination and finding oneself. It is also a story of the intense inner workings of family that may be impossible for outsiders to understand.

What Happened to Jane?

The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn describes the life of Anna Fox, child psychologist turned recluse. Anna has gone through a traumatic incident, leading to separation from her husband Ed and daughter Livvy. She has been agoraphobic the past ten months. Her days mostly consist of online chess, an agoraphobic support group, old movies, lots of wine, and watching the neighbors. I wish that I was more familiar with the old movies referenced during the story, because I’m sure I missed important connections along the way.

Anyway, Anna has been able to watch and photograph her neighbors without notice until the Russells move in. Jane, Alistair and their teenage son Ethan provide a new interest for Anna, especially once she happens to meet Ethan and bond with “Jane.” Shortly after their meeting, she witnesses Jane stabbed and bloody in the Russell home. When Anna attempts to get help, all blame turns back on her. It seems that Jane is perfectly fine and everyone believes Anna to be crazy and hallucinogenic due to her heavy use of medications combined with alcohol. Yet Anna can’t shake the feeling that something is seriously wrong. She attempts to figure out what really happened while in and out of a prescription/alcohol-induced daze.

Important truths are revealed along the way (why she became agoraphobic), and the author keeps the reader guessing as to what (if anything) really happened to Jane. Just when I found myself getting a bit frustrated with Anna, the story twisted again to reveal the true villain. In doing so, Anna proves herself to be stronger than she ever believed.

I read that this book may become a movie; it certainly has potential to be a great one.

Getting Well

Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty is about nine people experiencing different degrees of need for escape/recovery. This is what brings them all to Tranquillum House for a ten-day retreat.

Frances is the character we follow most. She is a romance novelist seemingly at the end of her career. Her latest novel has been declined and she is reeling from a nasty review. Tony is the ex-football player who has been “moping” through life since his sports injury. Napoleon, his wife Heather and their daughter Zoe are still mourning their son/brother’s death. Jessica and Ben are recent Lottery winners facing marital issues. Carmel, mother to four daughters, was divorced due to her husband’s affair. Lars is a devastatingly handsome lawyer/retreat junkie. He is there in part to escape his husband’s wish to have a baby.

Masha is the owner of Tranquillum, with her own issues and back story too. In her quest to create the perfect rejuvenating, self-help retreat she pushes the boundaries a bit too far. The retreat begins with days of silence, no speaking or eye contact allowed. During this time, guests have been enjoying daily drugged smoothies. It all comes to a climax when they are given LSD as a means of promoting therapy, followed by fasting while locked into a room together.

This is a great read to escape; I found myself really drawn into the guests as they were developed through the book. I saw a little of myself in many of them. The book concludes with quick snippets of each character’s future. Read to find out if Masha’s therapy helped the guests or not; is she a maniac or a genius?

Keep Guessing

The Things You Find in Rock Pools by Greg Dunnett is quite the murder mystery. The main character, Billy, reminds me of Christopher, the autistic narrator from The curious incident of the dog in the night time. Billy, a 12-year old, is inquisitive, intelligent about his passions and funny at times too. Despite the young narrator, I definitely do not recommend this for young adult readers!

Billy decides to solve the mystery when a young female is killed while vacationing in his beach town. His first suspect proves innocent, and then signs begin pointing to his dad as the murderer. We discover that Billy and his dad are considered missing people and that his dad is wanted for murder. They go into hiding until ultimately the truth about everything is revealed. Also, the story switches back and forth between Billy’s and the investigating officers’ perspectives.

Most chapters closed with a cliffhanger so that I just had to keep reading. And the twists!! I was constantly changing my mind about whether a character was guilty or not. Well-crafted! And now I must switch gears to some young adult literature for a while.

What’s in the Bag?

Something in the Water by Catherine Steadman makes one wonder about how millions of dollars could change people and their relationships with each other. The story starts with Erin digging a grave for her recent husband, then flashes back to the events leading to this point.

Erin and Mark are to be married. During this time, Erin is in the early stages filming a documentary of three prisoners about to finish their prison sentences. There’s Eddie, the former mobster, Holli, possible terrorist, and Alexa, jailed for euthanizing her mother. Erin hopes to capture their experiences as they re-enter the world. Meanwhile, her fiance has just lost his job in the financial sector which is a huge blow.

Once married, they set off on their shortened Tahitian honeymoon. While scuba diving one day, they happen across a plane wreck in the ocean. Mark extracts a duffel from the wreck, which they later find is full of millions of dollars worth of cash and diamonds. There is also a cell phone and a USB drive. They decide to keep the bag and its contents after much deliberation. Unfortunately, Erin’s inquisitive nature leads her to turn on the cell phone, thereby providing a search point for those hoping to get the bag back.

Now they need to cover their tracks and hide the money in foreign bank accounts as quickly as possible. Erin’s documentary subject, Eddie, becomes pivotal as he gives her advice about handling the valuable contents of the duffel and disconnecting herself from two murders.

This is a story with great potential, except for too many loose ends. We never find out who the people in the plane wreck actually are. Also, SPOILERS, it bothered me that a couple who was so in love and who ultimately found an answer to financial stress would turn against each other as they did. Finally, the closing of the book was meant to be shocking, but left me with a “so what?” feeling.

Sparks Ignite

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng kept popping up in my suggested reading list, and I’m SO glad that I finally selected it! What constitutes a good life? What defines a loving mother and a strong family? These questions are grappled with throughout the book.

The story begins as the Richardson family home is burned to the foundation, and then backs up in order to clarify the events/characters leading up to this point.

Events began months earlier, when artist Mia and her daughter Pearl moved into the Richardson’s extra property, an apartment in Shaker Heights. Shaker is an idyllic community where everyone shares common goals: success, kindness and the appearance of perfection. Mia and Pearl have decided to finally grow some roots; Shaker Heights seems a good place to do this.

Moody, one of the Richardson boys, is the first to form a relationship with the newcomers. He develops a close friendship with Pearl. Eventually, Pearl becomes a fixture in the Richardson home, forming relationships with Moody’s sister, Lexie, and with his handsome brother, Trip. Even Izzy, the youngest of the Richardsons and the family outcast, finds a kindred spirit in Mia.

The main problem starts when Mia gets involved in an adoption case between one of her coworkers, and Elena Richardson’s closest friend. This prompts Elena to begin her own investigation of Mia, uncovering surprising parts of her past with Pearl. Through this legal battle, relationships become more complex and entangled until eventually erupting.

Ng does an amazing job of building this conflict and developing her characters. I felt myself pulled in multiple directions; identifying with some while wishing to be more like others. Throughout it all is the undercurrent of Mia’s art, which showcases the need to observe things differently. This is certainly true in art, but also true in life.