Category Archives: Book Review Blog

My book reviews and fun bookish news as a book blogger. All about other people’s books, and not my own. :-)

Blog Tour: Review | Hidden, Catherine McKenzie

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Catherine McKenzie’s Hidden is a wonderfully nuanced portrait of infidelity. When Jeff Manning is killed in a car accident, he leaves behind his grieving wife Claire and his grieving co-worker and girlfriend Tish. In such a story, it is all too easy to demonize one of the women, or to portray one as the man’s “true love.” McKenzie stays clear of that trap and in so doing, succeeds in crafting a complex, realistic tale of adult relationships, and the way people make them work.

McKenzie tells the story from all three perspectives, which makes each character come even more vividly to life. We see Jeff fall in love with Claire, and we understand the cause of his jealousy over her past relationship with his brother. We also see his first couple of encounters with Tish, and how they form an immediate connection. I love how his connection with Tish, despite the instant chemistry, was mostly more friendly than romantic, and I especially love how this connection in no way detracted from his feelings for Claire.

9781443411929Claire and Tish themselves were fully fleshed out characters. Claire is a former lawyer who now runs a daycare, and the reasons behind her switch in plans gives an idea of how important family is to her. Her son’s grief over his father’s death is deeply felt as well, and his vulnerability when reading the eulogy at the funeral is palpable.

Tish has a more unusual family situation, with a highly intelligent doctor husband and a genius-level poet daughter. Their accomplishments are in stark contrast to Tish’s own lack of ambition, and despite her natural talent at golf and poetry, she is mostly content to coast. Her connection with Jeff, and the intensity of her feelings towards him, are therefore a significant step forward, and his death forces her even further out of her comfort zone.

Complex relationships form this book, but strong characterization makes it work. We are drawn to all three characters; they feel like people we know, and even though we already know it ultimately ends in tragedy, we still want to see how it progresses. Knowledge of Jeff’s impending death add poignancy to the flashbacks of his chapters, and reading about Claire and Tish’s grief interspersed with Jeff’s story just enhances the nuance.

Hidden is a captivating read, and a compelling portrayal of three people whose lives are inextricably intertwined. A mature, richly drawn narrative that is ultimately more about relationships, and making them work.

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Thank you to the author for the invitation to join the blog tour, and thank you as well for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Review | I, Spy, Jordan McCollum

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17852668Jordan McCollum’s I, Spy, the first in a series starring CIA operative Talia Reynolds, is an entertaining spy thriller. One doesn’t traditionally associate Canada with high-stakes espionage, so I love that Talia is stationed in Ottawa, and that her department has to coordinate with CSIS. Even more interesting, Talia is a Mormon, yet another detail not traditionally associated with contemporary fiction in general, never mind the spy thriller genre.

In this book, Talia is asked to investigate Russian aerospace executive Fyodor Timofeyev, whom CSIS and the CIA suspect of being a spy. Unfortunately for Talia’s personal life, her investigation requires her to pretend to date Fyodor, both to pump him for information and also to distract him while other agents search his room. This comes at a time when her relationship with her boyfriend Danny is on the rocks, mostly because she has been breaking a lot of dates with him lately for work-related matters. Worse, she’s spending even more time with her co-worker and best friend Elliott, and while the relationship is completely platonic, Danny is starting to get jealous.

I, Spy is a fun, action-packed read. I love the references to Ottawa landmarks, although I do think the author went too far in explaining all the minor Canadian-isms. This may just be because I’m Canadian myself, but when a couple of characters buy coffee and donuts at a Tim Horton’s, I didn’t think it necessary for the narrator to explain that a Tim Horton’s is like a Dunkin Donuts.

McCollum has a breezy writing style, and a talent for describing action scenes. At times, Talia and Elliott almost appear superhero-like in their uncanny ability to dispose of bad guys and get out of bad situations, and at times I wished for more realism, but even glossed up, this remains an exciting read. McCollum saves her realism for the personal subplots — Elliott’s fears about his wife’s pregnancy distracting him from performing his CIA duties, Talia and Danny’s repeated miscommunication and resulting strain on their relationship, and, in the most striking passage in the book, Talia’s raw emotions after being sexually assaulted. While most of the plot features the high-stakes espionage operation, the heart of the story lies in the characters’ personal lives, and McCollum reveals the human side of the operation.

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Thank you to the author for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

 

Review | Perfect, Rachel Joyce

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17883962In 1972, two seconds were added to time. Twelve year old Byron knows this because his friend James, the smartest boy at school, tells him so. When Byron notices time shifting, he causes his mother Diana to make a serious, tragic mistake. She seems unaware of the full consequences of the incident at the time, but a strict sense of honour compels Byron to tell his mother the whole story. Her guilt leads her to befriend someone outside her usual social circle, and this in turn sends her life into a horrible tailspin.

Parallel to this story is that of Jim, a middle aged man in the present day. Suffering from severe OCD, he leads a restrictive life. When he gets a chance at love, he must overcome his fears, and his crippling sense of self, in order to grab at it. This story is linked to that of Byron and Diana, and the author brings everything full circle at the end.

Perfect didn’t captivate me as much as Rachel Joyce’s earlier book The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry did. Despite the second storyline eventually tying everything together, its interjections detract from the emotional experience of reading the much more compelling 1972 plot thread. Despite the story being told from Byron’s perspective, its most compelling character is Diana. Sweet and innocent, she is bullied by her husband and taken advantage of by a friend. As readers, we see the warning signs way before she does, and want desperately to stop it from happening, yet, much like Byron, all we can do is watch.

The book’s title comes from a scheme concocted by James for him and Byron to save Diana. James is obsessed with Diana, and even though he’s a twelve year old boy, his attempts to insert himself into her life and “rescue” her creep me out. He’s a bit too intense, and Byron, like his mother, a bit too trusting. For example, when Byron reports to James something his mother’s friend said, James says he should have been there, ostensibly so he could give a different witness perspective, but really, because he wants to be the one to “save” Diana.

Even worse than James is Diana’s friend Beverley. I understand her motivations, but her actions are despicable, and particularly when done to someone as vulnerable as Diana.

In Perfect, Joyce explores the experience of the outcast. Beverley is too poor to fit in with Diana’s socialite friends, and the woman Jim falls in love with is too brash to fit in with his co-workers. Yet even the characters who seem to fit in don’t — Diana’s position within her social circle is easy to sever, and even when Jim’s co-workers rally around him, he is still clearly apart. The book isn’t just about what it means to connect with outcasts, nor just about how we are all outcasts in some way, but rather about relating in general, about the risks the come with connecting with other people and about why such risks may be worth taking. The theme of connection is one Joyce explores as well in Harold Fry, and while I applaud her versatility, I miss the heightened focus on only a handful of memorable characters that made Harold Fry so memorable. In Perfect, only Diana is as compelling, and the story suffers for it.

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Thank you to Random House of Canada for an advance reading copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.