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She’s Not There, By Joy Fielding – A Psychological Thriller

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If they gave an award for best creative fiction loosely constructed on a ripped from the headlines horrific news event, the winner would surely be a close tie between Jodi Picoult and Joy Fielding. New York Times best-selling author Joy Fielding is at her best here in She’s Not There, sure to be a summer slam dunk on dozens of bestseller lists. She’s Not There is the one that would right now top my list of MUST HAVE beach reads for late winter vacation, March break or cottage season.

Thank you @penguincanada @randomhouseca can’t wait to crack this one open. #books #love #reading #happy #ldnont

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Last night when I finished She’s Not There, I wondered to myself why this novel resonated so much with me and why I couldn’t put it down. I came to the conclusion at about 1:30 a.m. that both Fielding reminds me of my favourite author Jodi Picoult in this novel. Both can be experts at spinning a real life event into a creatively re-envisioned page turner. I have adored Picoult from the start and in fact have only in the last couple of years come to really enjoy Fielding. I had high hopes for this Fielding novel. She’s Not There did not disappoint.

“I think my real name is Samantha. I think I’m your daughter.”

Fifteen years have passed from the week at a resort in Mexico when celebrating their anniversary with friends and relatives, Caroline and Hunter make the choice to leave their two daughters inside their hotel room. They both leave the table at half hour intervals to check on the kids and return to their last night at the resort celebration. Until, the last time Caroline returns to the room to check and finds that her two-year-old daughter is missing.

There are obvious similarities to the Madeleine McCann case in which a 3-year-old girl went missing while her parents dined 50 metres away at a holiday resort in Portugal. That case captured global attention. So too does the fictional case of Samantha Shipley.

This is the story, told in alternating chapters of current time action interspersed with snapshots of the years that have gone by. There were three other couples with the Shipley’s at the resort in Mexico when their baby went missing, one of whom was Shipley’s brother Steve and his wife Becky, an infertile couple. Becky and Steve’s marriage is on the rocks. Hunter and Caroline’s marriage is seemingly perfect until that night when the baby goes missing and each one starts to blame the other for her disappearance. Their older daughter Michelle, 5 at the time of the child’s disappearance eventually leaves the resort to return home with the father Hunter and stays with her grandmother Mary. The rest of the guests depart but the Mom is unable to leave Mexico, which is not that far from her home in southern California, but nonetheless places a dramatic distance between her and the rest of her family.

Over the coming years as Samantha continues to remain lost to the family, Caroline is made into a pariah, raked through the coals by media for every single small behaviour. She is blamed, investigated, called cold and calculating. Her husband, a well to do lawyer does not receive the same media scrutiny. Caroline, a former math teacher struggles, as Michelle spirals angrily out of control and becomes a defiant miserable young woman feeling keenly the absence of her sister at all times.

So who is to blame? Did someone take Samantha? Did she climb out of the crib and wander off? Could her sister have hurt her? Did her Mom or Dad hurt her? Did someone on staff at the resort sneak in that night and take the child? All of these questions remain unanswered and Caroline is targeted over the years by half a dozen scam artists pretending to be her missing daughter. If only the could have a few thousand dollars to fly across the country to prove they were Samantha. Unable to move on, even after 15 years, Caroline is at least holding down a job as a teacher again when a phone call comes from a young woman named Lili living in Canada. And then suddenly everyone’s life is thrown back into turmoil. Is she an imposter? Is she Samantha?

I’m not going to spoil it for you. Suffice it to say, I enjoyed this psychological thriller a great deal. It’s one of the best books I have read in many months. I am now a full fledged Joy Fielding fan and in fact spent today hunting down more of her novels at the local library. I can’t wait to see what Fielding comes out with next. She’s Not There was fantastic! Plus can I just add that I enjoyed the level of consistent suspense maintained here without gratuitous sex or violence. She’s Not There has a great plot and was thoroughly enjoyable.

She’s Not There, by Joy Fielding is available from DoubleDay Canada/ Penguin Random House. It was published this past month 2016 and is 355 pages at $22.95. It is a must read for anyone who enjoys psychological thrillers.

 

All The Bright Places Book Review

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All The Bright Places Review

All The Bright Place review

Oh my heart. My sad broken heart. I have literally just finished All The Bright Places and although I will not spoil the ending for any of you dear readers I will say I had hoped with all my heart for something different in the end. Such a beautiful story, powerful words and meaningful substantial topics that I cannot blame the author Jennifer Niven for ending this book as she did. In fact it was probably the only ending possible for these two gorgeous three dimensional characters and yet, but my heart is broken. My heart is broken, in a good way, the way that reminds you try talent, rich precise characters and plot can do that, and should maybe sometimes grab you by the heart and squeeze hard until you feel all the feels of a gorgeous story, well told.

Finch and Violent are high school students who know each other in passing, until one day when they meet on a ledge of the bell tower at their school. Who saves who from jumping that day? What happens next and how will their relationship evolve – these are the questions that drive the plot forward.

Finch, aka Theodore Freak, at school and home, is a moody quirky teen obsessed with death from the time he was small. Violet Markey is grieving the death of her sister, a built in best friend, who ran a successful web site with her and was one night killed in a car crash when the car slid on an icy patch of a bridge while heading home. Violet’s family is still quite broken, but they are survivors and troupers. Finch is intense and brooding and sometimes volatile. Violet is the victim of extenuating circumstances. She exists in a grief-stricken space of surviving sibling and she struggles to move on, paralyzed at school, alienating herself slowly from her friends due to the depth of her sadness, avoiding anything that she once did, and also excusing herself from any academic commitments at school. She is barely existing until that day when they connect on the bell tower and Finch finds her captivating and deeper than he ever imagined. Her begins to transfer some of his obsession to her.

In their last year of high school Violet is counting the days until graduation, but only because she is marking time on earth, not as a result of looking forward to being a graduate. Finch also is marking his time, calling it the time he has been Awake. He disappears from school often for weeks on end and then suddenly he reemerges slightly changed and returns to school. His time asleep is the time he spends lost in mental illness. He doesn’t have the terms that are accurate for his illness and barely starts to get a diagnosis toward the end of the book, but he is Awake when he connects with Violet Markey. At school an assignment comes up that involves travelling to far-flung and sometimes unsung quirky areas of Indiana to map them out. Finch volunteers Violet as his partner for the project and they begin their wanderings all over Indiana. Violet slowly begins to forget to count the days.

At first Violet finds Finch odd, but she also starts to recognize that there is some freedom in the odd behaviours and he seems to not care what anyone thinks of him. She tolerates their wanderings and their project for a bit until she actually starts to enjoy travelling with Finch and spending time with him. Until now she has been the popular girl with the sporty athletic boyfriend and the supportive parents. She is golden, at least until her sister dies suddenly, and then she is indulged as a victim longer than she should be. Their relationship creates conflict slightly because Violet’s old boyfriend is still sort of hanging around waiting for her to snap out of her grief and return to him. Ryan and Roamer and the group of athletes she once hung around with, don’t like Finch and they bully him often. Finch sometimes antagonizes the athletes until he gets a response that is violent and sometimes he reacts standing up for himself as well. But the depth of his reactions is sometimes scary. He is occasionally pulled off one of the bullies when he does retaliate and he can’t seem to stop himself.

Finch’s family seems mostly oblivious to his mental illness. His parents have separated and his Dad is an abusive ex hockey player who “replaced his family.” His Mom is a broken 40-ish woman who tries to pull a career back together in real estate but seems too lost in her own misery to see that Finch’s moodiness is not just normal adolescent behaviour. Finch is extreme and animated in every way. He has some savvy coping skills to avoid ever getting close to a therapist and he frequently erases the concerned telephone messages from professionals striving to help Finch. His Mom remains unaware anyone has concerns ever his mental state. Finch also has two sisters. They visit the Dad weekly and this provides a good deal more information about the context of the divorce and the poor father that he has been to Finch.

As Violet and Finch, two seemingly opposite souls discover all the bright places of Indiana together they begin to fall in love. Together they are combustible.

Jennifer Niven gives readers two incredibly great characters here in All The Bright Places. Finch as narrator is strong and deep and extremely rich material. Violet also takes her turns narrating and the narration switches in alternating chapters for most of the book. Violet is captured well here too. The plot is simple and not overly taxing. The characters take centre stage here.


All the Bright Places is such a heartbreakingly lovely story, with such real emotional tones and strong subject matter, that I really never found any weak spots. There is nothing I would change about this novel, not even the parts where my heart broke. The language is always matched to the tone of the characters and the dialogue is contemporary and real and true. Typically you read a novel, and maybe review it and find something that grates or annoys you about pacing or wording. Sometimes words are too sweet or language seems forced in young adult novels. I didn’t find that here. I honestly can’t find anything here that jars me, or made me cringe. All The Bright Places reminds me once again that some of the best writing happening today is occurring inside the Young Adults genre. Niven has written several other novels but this is her first young adult novel. Be warned this is not for kids under 12 years of age. I will keep it and let my daughter read this one, but not before she is ready. I have heard rumours the book has been optioned to become a motion picture. I will happily go see this movie when it is out.

Pick this one up. You will be heartbroken, but I promise you it will be worth it.

$$$$$ our of $$$$$. I wish I could give it more than 5 out of 5.

  • All the Bright Places, by Jennifer Niven, Hardcover: 400 pages
  • Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers (January 6, 2015)
  • Language: English

The Girl On The Train Review

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The Girl on The Train Review

The Girl on The Train Review

The Girl on the Train, is by far the best book I have read so far this year. The buzz surrounding this one is worth it. The characters held my interest through the entire fictional thriller novel. Plus I never knew who to trust. Unreliable narrator is used very well here by first time novelist Paula Hawkins. The suspense was maintained through until the end of the book. If this is what Paula Hawkins is capable of in her debut novel, then I can’t wait to read more and I hope she writes fast.

Rachel, Megan and Anna are the three female narrators of the book. Rachel is an overweight alcoholic ex-wife who has lost her job and spends her days riding the commuter train because she hasn’t told her roommate that she has no job. She is, even to herself, slightly distasteful. She knows she wasn’t always so. As she rides the train getting further inebriated, she routinely finds herself imagining the lives of the people inside the houses along the various train stops. She makes up lives and names and she also passes by the home she once shared with Tom, which now houses his new family, wife Anna, and daughter Evie. One day, while riding the train as part of her daily charade she sees something in one of the houses along the train tracks. That sets in motion a bit of a quest.

Rachel can’t seem to stop harassing her ex husband Tom and his new wife Anna. We learn that she leaves him messages often and his wife calls her telling her to stop. We also learn that Rachel one day stopped off at Anna and Tom’s house and in a drunken moment grabbed the baby Evie up and walked away with her. She is unstable and an unreliable narrator to say the least. Anna verges on calling police to report her stalker type behaviour.

Anna is a vain blonde new mother who casts herself as a marriage wrecker. She stole Tom from Rachel and now lives inside the former home that Rachel and Tom once shared. She is not the slightest bit regretful that she took Rachel’s husband for her own and she finds Rachel despicable and appalling. Anna is devoted to her tiny family, loves her husband Tom and gloats somewhat over the fact that she now has her perfect family – the one Rachel tried so hard to give Tom. Did I mention there is an infertility angle here? The infertility subplot is small but important in The Girl on the Train in that we are led to believe it is partly why the couple split up. It is apparently one more reason she drinks.

Megan is a disenchanted wife who works at an art gallery and is a chronic cheater. One day Rachel witnesses Megan embracing someone else inside the home she shares with Scott. Soon thereafter Megan goes missing. There have been many parallels and comparisons to Gone Girl, but I feel the comparisons are overstated actually. Both novels are thrillers and both revolve around a main character that goes missing. Both are page turners too. But the plots are quite different.

Megan eventually turns up dead and the subsequent investigation is one that Rachel somehow insinuates herself in quickly. She, however, is also unreliable because she is a drunk. She continues to drink for most of the book erasing her memories of most things and events by getting sloppy drunk every day. After Megan vanishes Rachel wants to remember the events that transpired the night Megan went missing. She vaguely recalls getting off the train that evening and seeing something. She can’t visualize details though.

Is Megan really dead? Did she just walk away bored with her husband Scott and unable to handle his emotionally controlling temperament. Oh yes and I forgot to mention that Megan at one point also was a nanny for Tom and Anna because they live close by. Megan has throughout the plot been keeping her own secrets. It seems possible she might just have walked away. Who was motivated enough to kill Megan? Is she dead? What is the truth about Scott? Is he a killer? Is Megan’s psychiatrist a killer? Who was sleeping with whom?

The Girl on The Train is more than worth the read. It’s my favourite recent book of all the ones I have read lately. The Girl on The Train is published by Double Day and was released late in 2014 in paperback.