** OK **
2015 TOURNAMENT OF BOOKS
2015 TOURNAMENT OF BOOKS
More like a cacophony than birds singing
Disjointed storyline that jars.
I like a broken timeline, putting the past in perspective with the present, but with this novel it was like jagged edges. It was almost as if the author had written a linear narrative but taken to the manuscript with scissors and reconstructed the fragments. Rather than a slow suspense-building reveal, with the sins and horrors of the past coming to torment the present, it skated around shards of story poking through the fabric of the narrative.
The language provides menacing characters and locations and the narrative provides suspense and threat. Interest is maintained because, even though there is a rather unrelenting bleakness, you are drawn in to the mystery and touched by Jake's toughness.
A lot is left unrevealed for the reader to speculate about. Fine, but ultimately I ended up dissatisfied with the lack of a conclusion; it was almost as if the author was being too clever to finish off her own narrative.
