Warning: Spoilers below!

Liked:

• I think David Mitchell is a tremendous writer. His prose is often very good and fun to read. It’s clear that he has talent galore, so I wouldn’t mind reading other works of his.
• The Robert Frobisher story, the Luisa Rey mystery, and the Timothy Cavendish piece were my favorites. All of those had interesting plot lines that made me want to keep turning the pages, and I felt that Robert Frobisher was perhaps the most fleshed out of all the characters in the entire novel.
• For me, the novel as a whole worked best when read as a collection of six discrete short stories instead of the nested stories they were intended to be.

Disliked:

• I didn’t like the structure of this novel one bit. Sure, I guess you could say it was “clever” to break each story off in the middle, continue with the next, and then finish each one off in reverse chronological order, but I found that to be annoying. The structure itself became more prominent than the stories, which should never be the case, IMO. Plus, there was simply no good reason to structure the story that way. It was merely for effect, which added to my annoyance.
• The post-apocalyptic future stories were incredibly dull and monotonous. I am not ashamed to admit that I skimmed almost the entire second half of “Sloosha’s Crossin’ an’ Ev’rythin’ After” because I couldn’t stand Zachry or any of the other characters in it. Ugh. And the Sonmi story was just a bit more tolerable than that. Too bad those two stories were by far the longest in the whole book.
• I didn’t see the point of having each story loosely connected to the subsequent one via such contrivances as someone finding a previous character’s letters or reading a manuscript about a previous character. Again, that just seemed like more “look at how clever I am!” posturing rather than an organic element of the book.
• The end of each story was rather…anticlimactic. Honestly, when I finished the book, I was rather unsatisfied that such a lengthy journey came up so short when all was said and done.

Rating:
I know critics and readers alike have mostly raved over Cloud Atlas, but I simply can’t share their enthusiasm. Though well written by a talented author, the stories lacked the kind of substance I was hoping for. This book seemed more like a technical exercise in structure than a deep, thought-provoking novel, so I couldn’t get into it as much as I had hoped to. Nevertheless, I still think it warrants 3 stars out of 5.

Orphaned while onboard ship from Ireland, seven-year-old Lavinia arrives on the steps of a tobacco plantation where she is to live and work with the slaves of the kitchen house. Under the care of Belle, the master’s illegitimate daughter, Lavinia becomes deeply bonded to her adopted family, though she is set apart from them by her white skin.

Eventually, Lavinia is accepted into the world of the big house, where the master is absent and the mistress battles opium addiction. Lavinia finds herself perilously straddling two very different worlds. When she is forced to make a choice, loyalties are brought into question, dangerous truths are laid bare, and lives are put at risk.

The Kitchen House is a tragic story of page-turning suspense, exploring the meaning of family, where love and loyalty prevail.

Warning: Spoilers below!

Liked:

• It was interesting to read about some of the dynamics found on a typical plantation at the turn of the 19th century. This isn’t a subject I’ve read much about, so almost everything was new to me (with the exception of slaves being treated like property/animals instead of people). It seemed that the book was well researched in this regard.
• Belle was probably my favorite character out of all of them. She had a rather complex life, and though I didn’t necessarily agree with everything she did (especially that menage a trois involving Ben and Lucy), but her actions remained pretty consistent throughout and she was believable.
• I liked that there wasn’t a 100 percent happy ending. I figured something bad would happen to Marshall, which would pave the way for Lavinia and Will Stephens to get married, which would have been eye-roll inducing. But that’s not exactly how it played out, so I was pleasantly surprised.
• Mama was a very memorable character as well. I ended up liking her a lot, too.

Disliked:

• I think the author went a bit too far in heaping all these tragedies on a single family. Sure, not everyone’s life was idyllic, but come on. We’re talking sexual abuse of a minor, rape, incest, torture, murder, spousal abuse, inbreeding, alcoholism, drug addiction, and mental illness all in one or two generations??? Yikes, talk about overkill.
• I call b.s. on Marshall being able to hide his character from Lavinia prior to their marriage. He was a monster and a drunkard at 16 when he raped Belle, but then he turned into some kind of saint when he went to Williamsburg? He became so kind, caring, and compassionate that Lavinia fell for him and believed that he was worth marrying? I don’t know… it doesn’t seem that someone as violent and brutal as Marshall would have been able to hide his nature for that long. Or maybe Lavinia was just that naive (also a possibility).
• If Lavinia cared for the slaves so much, why didn’t she tell Belle about her freedom papers much earlier? I get that she couldn’t do it when the papers were first delivered because she was just a child, but how about later? Why did she wait so long?
• The stuff about Marshall’s mother’s mental illness was boring. Every time that character was featured (I’ve already forgotten her name), I just started skimming.
• I don’t know why the slaves didn’t take any action against Marshall. They had no problem killing the tutor, but then they let Marshall go around having his way with the women and beating up Lavinia? It seems someone would have/should have done something about him (and Rankin for that matter).
• I didn’t really buy Lavinia as an opium addict. That just seemed way too far out of character, despite the things Marshall was putting her through.

Rating:
The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom is one of those books that is a bit difficult to rate. It had a lot of problems, and yet those problems didn’t entirely prevent me from enjoying the story. It could have been much better for sure, but as it is, it wasn’t all that bad. I guess 3 stars out of 5 sounds about right.

As these two likable sisters try to understand their aunt’s puzzling instructions to “seek a thing of utmost value” from within the house, they’re both distracted by romantic entanglements with men from their pasts. The Summer We Read Gatsby, set in the end-of-an-era summer of 2008, is filled with fabulous parties, eccentric characters, and insider society details that showcase Ganek’s pitch-perfect sense of style and wit.

Warning: Spoilers below!

Liked:

• Well, I love anything that has to do with Gatsby, so I appreciated the frequent references to the various characters in FSF’s work and to the novel itself. However, Gatsby really had very little influence on the plot as a whole, which was a tad disappointing.
• The book was well-written. I think Danielle Ganek has some real talent, and I would certainly be open to reading more from her in the future.
• I thought Peck was a terrific character. I enjoyed her little quirk of saying “Literally…” before nearly every sentence out of her mouth. I can totally picture someone like that! She was funny and eccentric without quite reaching the territory of annoying or unbelievable.
• Because of the book’s title, I kept trying to discover parallels between Ganek’s story and Fitzgerald’s. It seemed to me that Cassie as narrator = Nick as narrator. Did that make Peck the female version of Gatsby since she was trying to recapture a past love? Or was Miles supposed to be Gatsby because he was the fabulously wealthy one? And then if Miles was Gatsby, then Cassie couldn’t be Nick because she didn’t have that kind of connection with Miles. I gave up in exasperation, of course, but it was still a fun mental exercise!

Disliked:

• There were just way too many storylines going on at once. There was Lydia’s death and the home sale; the search for the “thing of utmost value;” the thefts by Biggsy; Miles and Peck; Cassie and Finn; and then various references to Cassie’s life/job/ex-husband in Switzerland, as well as the girls’ childhoods and their memories of their father, etc. It made my head swim at times!
• I thought the author tried to hard to make Fool’s House sound like the center of the hippie art scene. Someone making a sculpture from a used compost bin isn’t art; it’s just plain silly.
• Because there was so much going on, Ganek wasn’t able to do any of the storylines sufficient justice. For example, the way the painting mystery was built up made it seem as though there was going to be a major reveal/twist of some sort, but that didn’t happen. Each of the storylines ended rather abruptly and they all fell flat, IMO.
• Biggsy was such an annoying character — and not in a good, love-to-hate-him sort of way. He served zero purpose except to be set up as a straw man foil for the girls to focus their energy on. I mean, why even have the stupid painting mystery (and Gatsby first-edition misdirect) if neither item was going to turn out to be authentic? It was just a waste of time.
• I didn’t feel any kind of chemistry between any of the couples in the book, so the love stories had me snoozing.

Rating:

I really wanted to like The Summer We Read Gatsby by Danielle Ganek, at first because of its title alone and then because of Peck and Cassie. But there just wasn’t enough character development, plot development, or overall substance for my tastes. If this book had had any other name, I probably would have abandoned it about 1/4 or 1/2 way through. As it is, I give the novel 3 stars out of 5.

A British couple invites the newlyweds to join on a climbing expedition to Mount Kenya, and they eagerly agree. But during their harrowing ascent, a horrific accident occurs. In the aftermath of the tragedy, Margaret struggles to understand what happened on the mountain and how these events have transformed her and her marriage, perhaps forever.

A Change in Altitude illuminates the inner landscape of a couple, the irrevocable impact of tragedy, and the elusive nature of forgiveness. With stunning language and striking emotional intensity, Anita Shreve transports us to the exotic panoramas of Africa and into the core of our most intimate relationships.

Warning: Spoilers below!

Liked:

• I liked the setting of the story and enjoyed learning a little bit about life in Kenya. Usually I find it tiresome when authors spend a great deal of time on descriptions of local customs and whatnot, but strangely enough, I wanted more out of Shreve here.
• The scene describing what happened to Diana was pretty harrowing. I liked it, and thought Shreve did that part great justice. I wonder if small excursions like that offered disability insurance back in the ’70s (or whenever the action was supposed to have taken place). I know they would have been sued to Kingdom Come if that happened today!
• I’m glad that Margaret was able to make the ascent by herself. Given what had happened over the course of the book, she deserved to reach the summit; Patrick did not. I liked that it was her moment of triumph, and hers alone.
• When Patrick and Margaret’s marriage began to show signs of strain, I thought for sure Patrick would have an affair (which I guess is up for debate, since his interactions with that Italian doctor were quite suspect). It therefore threw me for a loop when Margaret ended up being the one to fall for another man. I just wish she’d actually gone through with it instead of agreeing to walk away from Rafiq altogether.

Disliked:

• Patrick was one of the most boring, loathsome characters I have read about in a long time. I simply cannot understand what Margaret saw in him, and why she would even want to try to work out their marriage. This is something Shreve should have at least tried to establish. Since she didn’t, I was completely distracted wondering why Margaret didn’t just divorce the asshole.
• I have a hard time believing that rats would have scared Margaret so much that she would hold hands with Arthur all night long. Seriously, who holds hands with a casual acquaintance like that? And then to have that be the catalyst that resulted in Diana’s death was pretty cheap, IMO.
• The first part of the book was so slow and boring that I almost gave up on the whole thing. I might have been better served doing so, as nothing the rest of the way made the effort worthwhile.
• I hated the ambiguous ending. Sure, life isn’t always cut and dried, so there will be times when big questions remain up in the air. But again, Patrick had so little going for him that I simply cannot believe that Margaret would want anything at all to do with him. I really believe there should have been zero ambiguity on that front. Margaret should have left him. Period.

Rating:

Anita Shreve used to be one of my favorite authors. I still remember books like Fortune’s Rocks and The Last Time They Met, and how enjoyable they were to read. But I honestly can’t think of another Shreve title that I’ve enjoyed since then. It’s odd, because I truly think she is a great writer and I love her style; it’s just that the content and characters are severely lacking. I give this book 2 stars out of 5, and will probably be taking a break from Shreve for a while.

In a story spanning five decades, Last Night in Twisted River –- John Irving’s twelfth novel -– depicts the recent half-century in the United States as “a living replica of Coos County, where lethal hatreds were generally permitted to run their course.” From the novel’s taut opening sentence -– “The young Canadian, who could not have been more than fifteen, had hesitated too long” -– to its elegiac final chapter, Last Night in Twisted River is written with the historical authenticity and emotional authority of The Cider House Rules and A Prayer for Owen Meany. It is also as violent and disturbing a story as John Irving’s breakthrough bestseller, The World According to Garp.

What further distinguishes Last Night in Twisted River is the author’s unmistakable voice –- the inimitable voice of an accomplished storyteller. Near the end of this moving novel, John Irving writes: “We don’t always have a choice how we get to know one another. Sometimes, people fall into our lives cleanly–as if out of the sky, or as if there were a direct flight from Heaven to Earth–the same sudden way we lose people, who once seemed they would always be part of our lives.”

Warning: Spoilers Below!

Liked:

• I liked how the author melded so much of his real life into Danny’s. This was the first John Irving book I ever read and even without knowing anything at all about his personal life, I could just tell that the details he attributed to Danny’s education and writing style were straight from Irving’s own experiences. If I liked this aspect of the book without even knowing anything about Irving, I can only imagine how his true fans must have reacted.
• I kind of liked that this was the book Danny was writing. I had it figured out well before the final reveal, but still, the conceit was pretty cool.
• The Ketchum character was fairly interesting. I didn’t like everything about him, but I definitely paid more attention to the story whenever he was around.
• I paid particular attention to what Danny was going through when he lost Joe. I can’t even fathom what it would be like to deal with the death of an only child, and found Danny’s reaction heartbreaking. I just wish more time had been spent on this part.

Disliked:

• Danny was probably the most boring character out of the entire bunch. I don’t understand the choice of having the story be mostly about him. Sure, plenty of other books have rather boring narrators, but in those, the main plot is usually about the truly interesting character. For example, Nick Carraway talks about the far more fascinating Jay Gatsby and Fred tells about the inimitable Holly Golightly. Why couldn’t Danny have been the vehicle to tell us an engrossing story about Ketchum?
• There were lots and lots of pointless scenes throughout the book. Seriously, this was a tough novel to get through because of all the extraneous stuff and all the sidetracking that Irving did. There were several places where I had to force myself to keep going instead of putting the book aside for good.
• Ugh, more political ranting from an author. Was it really necessary to go into the 9/11 thing and spend so many pages bashing Bush? How did that even fit in with the rest of the book? Would the story have changed in any significant way if this part had been left out? No. So why risk alienating half of your readers???
• The whole idea of running away from Cowboy Carl seemed utterly ridiculous to me. Was this meant to be funny? As I said, this was my first Irving, so maybe he always introduces ludicrous plot points like this one. Seriously? An 86-year-old former law enforcement officer stalks Danny and Dominic for half a century? And then kills Dominic in cold blood? How dumb. Plus, if Cowboy Carl really was a threat, then why didn’t Danny and his father move all the way across the country (as was suggested many times)? It made no sense at all.
• The Lady Sky thing was just…just… wow, I don’t even have the words to express how stupid it was that Danny remembered and hooked up with her 40 years later. Yes, if they were college sweethearts or something, a reunion 40 years later would seem plausible. But he met her for what, an hour, after she skydived into a pigpen??? Good lord.
• I seriously despised the graphic details of Danny beating the two dogs with squash racquets. I mean, he hit them on their heads “as hard as he could” and even shoved one of the sawed-off racquets down a dog’s throat. And then he came back to deliberately kill one of the dogs. WTF??? Just run down a different road, asshole.
• All the restaurant stuff involving menus and recipes seemed incredibly pointless as well. Again, I’m left to wonder why editors don’t insist on using the ‘delete’ key with some of these authors. Just because someone is firmly established and has a reputation as good as Irving’s doesn’t mean they are completely infallible in their writing choices. I just wish editors would do their jobs!

Rating:

I think I made a mistake in choosing Last Night in Twisted River as my first John Irving book. I’ve heard much better things about The Cider House Rules and A Prayer for Owen Meany, so perhaps I should have started there. As for Twisted River, the scope of the novel was just far too ambitious and the execution was too poor to result in a good product. I give the book 2 stars out of 5.

The stress of the lawsuit makes it difficult for Gus to focus on the novel he has been contracted to write, which is based on the suspicious death of billionaire Konstantin Zacharias. It is a story that has dominated the party conversations of Manhattan’s chattering classes for more than two years. The accused murderer is behind bars, but Gus is not convinced that justice was served. There are too many unanswered questions, such as why a paranoid man who did not go anywhere without bodyguards was suddenly left without protection the very night he perished in a tragic fire. Gus believes the answers lie with Konstantin’s hot-tempered and vengeful wife, Perla. He intends to uncover the truth, even though doing so will gain him another dangerous enemy.

Reaction

If you’re wondering why I don’t have my standard list of Likes and Dislikes for this book, it’s because I couldn’t finish it. The summary above sounds rather interesting, doesn’t it? That’s what convinced me to check out the book from my library in the first place. But the actual story was extremely slow and plodding, and even after finishing 40 percent of it, I couldn’t figure out what the damn plot was about. It seemed to be little more than a catalog of rich people and their fancy apartments and toys. Seriously, the author sprinkled so many brand names throughout the pages that I’m convinced he received product placement fees for his efforts.

Anyway, after checking some other reviews, I learned that Dominick Dunne has written some other books about this same high society set, and those previous novels were rather well received. Doesn’t matter; this one was such an utter waste of time that I’m inclined to forget about this author altogether.

Rating:

As with all books that were too boring for me to finish, I give this one 0 stars out of 5.

Warning: Spoilers below!

Liked:

• It’s clear that Gruen did a lot of research for this book. The circus scenes felt authentic, and some of the language seemed to come from that time period (though some was distinctly modern as well). When I was reading, the setting came through loud and clear.
• Walter was an interesting character — maybe the most interesting of the bunch. I thought Gruen could have done something more with his backstory or his developing friendship with Jacob. I would have enjoyed reading about that. But what a terrible ending Walter endured…. redlighted off a trestle and left to die all alone with two broken legs? Wow.
• I know a lot of readers have complained that the stuff involving Rosie was too hokey and cheesy. I can totally understand their point of view, but I have to say I liked it. I don’t pretend to know anything about animals in general or about what elephants in particular can do, so Gruen may indeed have been far off in her descriptions. But I developed a soft spot for Rosie, just as Jacob did, and I got just as angry whenever August started beating on her.
• I liked the ending. Yes, it was totally far-fetched, but that was the only time I warmed to old-man Jacob.

　

Disliked:

• There wasn’t any tension in this book at all. We know that Jacob lived to a ripe old age, so all the talk about redlighting meant someone else was going to get tossed, not him. His older self mentioned having been married to his one true love for more than sixty years, and since there was never another woman mentioned, we knew that he would end up with Marlena. To me, those two outcomes should have remained in doubt to at least add some conflict and give the characters something to work towards.
• August was such a caricature of a villain that it was hard to take him seriously. All that was missing was a long mustache that he would twirl while hatching evil plans. Of course a beautiful, kind, gentle soul like Marlena would end up marrying an utter brute like August [/sarcasm]. Isn’t that how it always works? Then she can be the damsel in distress for the hero of the story to come and save. Ugh.
• Speaking of “heroes,” Jacob was such a timid one that he didn’t deserve to get the girl in the end. Seriously, if any literary protagonist needed a healthy dose of the best testosterone supplements, it was this guy. I spent most of the book just wishing he would grow a pair and take care of August himself.
• As much as I liked Rosie, I could barely contain myself when it turned out that she was the one that killed August by tearing her stake out of the ground, splitting his head open with it, and then calmly planting the stake back in place. WTF???? The whole scene was pretty damn absurd, but I might have been able to swallow it still — if the elephant hadn’t planted her stake back in the ground after she was done!!! Now come on, my suspension of disbelief can only extend so far! And just how convenient was it that Rosie killed August so neither Jacob nor Marlena would have to get their hands dirty? I was wondering which one of them would actually commit the deed, so the fact that Rosie did it was the only surprise in the entire book.

Rating:

To be honest, the only reason I picked up this book was because of all the rave reviews I’ve seen and because of the amount of time it has spent on the New York Times bestseller list. I expected Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen to be a highly engaging novel with vivid characters, a memorable setting, and a terrific story, but basically got your average clichéd love story. Seriously, take away the circus setting, and this book probably wouldn’t have even been published! I give it 3 stars out of 5.

But the family’s world turns upside down when Dan disappears one day from their Massachusetts summer retreat known as The Hollow. There is initially a frantic search led by Joshua and Chief Sammons, but no one seems to have heard or seen anything on the morning Joshua disappeared.

As the days melt into weeks and then months, Joshua and Natalie slowly give up hope of ever seeing Dan alive again. Nevertheless, Joshua won’t rest until he finds out exactly what happened to his son — which he eventually does.

Liked:

• There were a few good scenes in this book. I particularly liked the passage near the end where Joshua fantasizes about a typical day with Dan: swimming, playing tennis, having a barbecue for dinner. That was truly heartbreaking considering what had happened by then.

Disliked:

• There was so little urgency after Dan’s disappearance that I couldn’t help but feel that this book is inappropriately named. It should be called “The Aftermath” or something, because the focus is actually on what happens to Joshua and Natalie after Dan disappears. I knew this wasn’t going to be a typical procedural chronicling the search for Dan, but still… It was quite jarring for Dan to disappear on one page, and then have the author meander through flashbacks and so forth on the next.
• It was really hard to develop any kind of connection to Joshua. Despite being the main character, he was written as distant and cold. I never felt his despair at losing Joshua, his frustration with the authorities’ lack of progress, or his guilt about cheating on Natalie. This was not a good character to spend the whole book with.
• I’m not sure how it escaped both Joshua and Chief Sammons that one of Dan’s teen friends HAD to be involved somehow. The Tall Pines thing was a completely unnecessary distraction since Joshua and Natalie were not connected to that in any way. That whole plotline was stupid, and only served to pad the page count.
• The whole scene where Joshua broke into that barn and retrieved files from a password-protected computer was ridiculous, from coming “prepared” with birth dates and license plate numbers to hiding behind a stack of boxes to prevent discovery.
• Perhaps even more ridiculous was how Joshua wheedled confidential loan information out of the bank manager. First the bank manager refuses, citing the confidentiality problem. Then he relents as soon as Joshua says, “But this is very important.” Well, OK then. As long as it’s important….
• I thought it was rather creepy that Joshua and Natalie named their second child Dana. Uh, replacement much? She won’t have issues later on or anything.

Rating:
I thought The Disappearance by Efrem Sigel would be an interesting story about loss in the aftermath of an only child’s disappearance and death. But thanks to the coldness and distance of the parents, this was instead a fairly meaningless glimpse at the lives of two random people who just happened to lose a son. I give the book 1 star out of 5.

Once the Rosenthals arrive at Arcadia Falls, Meg realizes that the place is the site of a story she used to read to Sally when the girl was younger. It was called “The Changeling Girl” and was written by Vera Beecher, the founder of the school, and Lily Eberhart, her lesbian lover who died under suspicious circumstances in 1947. Meg also happens to be writing her dissertation on Beecher and Eberhart, and thus cannot wait to delve into the school archives to see what she can dig up about the pair.

The school year gets off to a rough start, however, as a student named Isabel Cheney falls off a nearby cliff during First Night festivities. Sheriff Callum Reade comes out to investigate, and school dean Ivy St. Claire expresses grave concern as well. Meg wonders if this is a safe place for Sally, and briefly considers going back to Long Island before deciding to give the school a real chance.

Meg then discovers Lily Eberhart’s long-lost journal and gets caught up reading about her life with Vera Beecher. The history of the school is contained in that journal, as well as the story of Lily’s affair with a man — and the resulting child, which was given up for adoption. As Meg reads all this, she begins to wonder if Isabel’s death was an accident after all. Isabel had access to the journal, so if she learned these secrets, then she might have been killed to ensure silence.

The rest of the novel deals alternately with Meg’s strained relationship with Sally, her burgeoning romance with Callum, and her unofficial investigations into the school’s past and Isabel’s death. All storylines are tied up by the end, and the main characters triumph as expected.

Liked:

• The atmosphere of the school was pretty interesting. I wasn’t aware that this was a “gothic” novel before I started listening to it, but I thought the author did a great job of setting the scene.
• The woman in white mystery had a lot of potential, and I’d hoped there would be something more to it than there really was. The author’s explanation, while making sense, was extremely anticlimactic and commonplace.

Disliked:

• Meg was far too much of a whiner and pushover for my tastes. She was not a very interesting lead character, and I absolutely hated how she caved in to her snotty daughter’s every whim. I know Sally recently lost a parent, but that’s no excuse for acting like a spoiled damn bitch. And there are few things I hate more than parents who let their kids walk all over them.
• I could’ve done without the “love story” between Meg and Callum Reade. He was the only adult male character in the entire book, so of course he and Meg had to hook up, right? Whatever.
• Was the reader supposed to care about a 40-year-old murder? I wasn’t expecting this to turn into an extended episode of Cold Case! Lily’s journal entries were boring and Vera only existed in those pages, yet I was supposed to care about their love life and personal drama? Yeah, right. BORING.
• There should have been more scenes involving students and classes. I don’t mean that every other page had to contain descriptions of schoolgirl costumes and feature detailed conversations between the girls about dating and boys, but what was the point of setting the novel at a school if there was no intent to include typical school scenes?
• In the same vein, was I supposed to care about the switched orphan baby crap? Or who was whose grandmother? Maybe I didn’t pay close enough attention to the entire story, but these “reveals” seemed rather weak to me.

Rating:

Arcadia Falls started out well. I was looking forward to an interesting story about a mother trying to work out her relationship with her daughter after the death of the husband/father. But the plot went in an entirely different direction, one that didn’t appeal to me at all. I suppose that’s not wholly on the author, but still… this just wasn’t for me. I give it 2 stars out of 5.

Sheila becomes pregnant just four short months later, and Pete decides to marry her — much to the shock of his parents. He doesn’t care what it looks like, though; he’s in love and is eager to begin a full life with Sheila. They welcome daughter Rowan into the world, and Pete feels his world is complete. That satisfaction doesn’t last long, however, as Shelia begins drinking heavily again. One afternoon she gets into another car crash after having had several drinks. This time Rowan was one of the injured parties as well. Pete won’t stand for that and orders Sheila to leave. Seeing as she would be facing jail time anyway, she slinks back off to Boston.

The story then skips ahead to when Rowan is a senior in high school. She and Pete were close when Rowan was growing up, but she has begun to drift in recent months. Pete knows she’s drinking, and worries that her risky behavior will have a negative impact on her chances of going to college. Now Pete has to do what he can to put Rowan on the right path so she doesn’t ruin her life just as her mother did.

Warning: Spoilers below:

Liked:

• I liked the fact that Shreve didn’t go overboard with Rowan’s drinking and have her enter rehab or a 12-step program. Look, plenty of high school kids drink and do stupid things — up to and including getting someone killed. It’s unfortunate, but it’s a fact of life. That doesn’t mean they’re full-blown alcoholics, though. It just means they’re incredibly young and stupid.
• It was interesting to get a book from Shreve that focused on a single father raising a daughter on his own. She kind of touched on this theme in a previous novel (Light on Snow), but the stories themselves are vastly different.

Disliked:

• I wasn’t really invested in any of the characters. Readers learn the most about Pete, but even he still felt shadowy and unformed by the end of the novel. We didn’t learn enough about Sheila to understand why Pete wanted to be with her in the first place or why he invited her back into their lives at the end. And Rowan… well, she was just kind of a generic teen girl that could have been ripped from the pages of countless other novels.
• The climax of the story was pretty melodramatic. Drunk kids go swimming/diving in a rock quarry on prom night, one dies, one gets injured. Geez, does that sound like an after school special, or what?
• Since we didn’t get much about Sheila anyway, I think the book would have been much better if her scenes were whittled down to just the basics and more of the story focused on Pete raising Rowan on his own. The Pete/Rowan scenes were definitely the most interesting in the novel, so the work as a whole would have benefited from having more of them.
• Did Shreve have to include so many accident scenes? Again, just one or two would have sufficed to give us a look at what Pete did on the job. Whenever Shreve cut away to those scenes, it just detracted from the main storyline. The book was so short as it was that it just felt like she was wasting time there.
• The main story didn’t have much substance to it. Take away the EMT scenes and the early stuff about Sheila, neither of which are essential to the plot, and what’s left? Not much of anything.

Rating:

I generally like Anita Shreve books (or I used to at any rate), but I was a bit disappointed with Rescue. This novel didn’t have any of the unexpected twists, relatable characters, or beautiful writing that usually mark this author’s work. This was an average piece that deserves an average rating. I give it 3 stars out of 5.