Things Don't Break on Their Own by Sarah Easter Collins

August 2, 2024

Things Don't Break on Their Own by Sarah Easter Collins

One morning, 25 years ago, a girl set out to walk to school. Her younger sister soon followed. One arrived at school, the other didn't, never to be seen again. Her sister's disappearance shaped every aspect of Willa's life. But at a dinner at her best friend's house, Willa realizes that circumstances surrounding her sister's disappearance may not be as they appear.

We all have false memories, either things that didn't happen or memories that are a composite of a group of experiences, or even events where we couldn't possibly have been there (such as the child who is positive that they were at a particular family event, when actually the event occurred years before they were born but they heard about it so often, they are sure they have a memory of it). Recurrent themes here are breaking and mending, re-making something beautiful from the pieces of something else, whether it is a ceramic bowl, a family, or your own identity. While there is a mystery, it is secondary to the characters. I would call this novel psychological fiction or suspense, rather than a thriller. The villain really is the villain, but not in the way you expect. My only criticism is that the ending feels a little rushed. This would be a great vacation or beach read, but also a good book to cozy up with in the winter. It may take a couple of chapters to get into, but stay with it. Recommended for readers who psychological fiction where things are not at all what they appear, such as the books of Gillian Flynn or Freida McFadden.

Many thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for providing an eARC for review.

The Gone Dead by Chanelle Benz

July 11, 2019

The Gone Dead by Chanelle Benz

Billie James is a biracial woman, about 35 years old, who inherited a house in the town of Greendale on the Mississippi Delta.  Her mother, Pia, was a medieval scholar, recently deceased.  She returns to the house with her dog (Rufus, who used to belong to her recently deceased grandmother) because she wants to find out what happened to her father, Clifton James, a well-known local poet who fell and hit his head and died.  Billie was missing for several hours on the day her father died.  Billie and her mother have been estranged for several years from her father’s family, because inter-racial marriage was a felony in Mississippi.  After hearing snippets of information, Billie decides to investigate the events surrounding what happened the day her father died, but her family and the locals don’t want her digging around.

This was a little heavy for reading during the summer, but you take your new library books when your hold comes in.  Very slow moving, like the Mississippi Delta where it is set; the overall themes are the importance of family, place, and the truth.  Many of the characters are well-drawn, even Rufus the dog.  The ending was flat:  one of the things I didn't care for was getting to the end and having one of the characters (Billie's uncle) say, "Okay, this is what happened," after letting the other people in the town lie to her, terrorize her, beat her up, and shoot her dog (the dog is okay at the end).  It turns out Clifton dies as a result of being beat up; he refused to get medical help at the time of the beating and later when De tries to get him to go to the hospital; and when he is found later that night collapsed in his yard, the sheriff doesn't take him to the hospital.

Even though it's described as a mystery, I wouldn't give it that label.  I only finished it because I did want to find out what had happened to the father.  I did not really enjoy this one and don't recommend it.