I'm generally not a huge thriller / mystery fan.
Wait, no. That's not quite right. Let me reword that.
I'm generally a huge well-done thriller / mystery fan. I generally don't read much of the genre, since I find much of the books that fall under that category neither thrilling nor mysterious. There are other books to read, of course, so I don't try many, and the ones I have tried are... okay.
And then a friend lent me What Remains of Her.
Jonah Baum is a poetry professor in Vermont. And then his wife and young daughter disappear from his home. There is no evidence, but plenty of suspicion, and it is all directed toward Jonah.
Unable to remain in the home he shared with his wife and daughter, he moves to an abandoned cabin in the woods and as he ages, he becomes more and more withdrawn. He becomes known as the town recluse, and people generally forget about him or ignore him. Except for his daughter's childhood best friend, Lucinda. Lucy knows Sally wouldn't just disappear, not after the secrets shared about the woods and what, and who, they saw there.
Twenty years after the disappearance, Jonah happens upon a girl in the woods, a girl who needs his help, and he is drawn to her, wondering if she is somehow the reincarnation of his daughter. As the search for this girl intensifies, Jonah is caught up in his memories of the search for his wife and daughter, and now, perhaps, at last, the truth will be uncovered.
The story flips between Jonah's point of view and Lucinda's, so right off the bat, if switching perspectives bothers you, give this one a pass. Personally, I enjoy that. (Clearly, as my first book was writing with shifting perspectives!)
This is a weird one. I read some other reviews before composing this one, and people either loved it or hated it; very few in-betweens. Here is what I ascertain:
This story is largely character-driven. If you're going for really fast-paced, you probably aren't finding it here.
There is a big twist at the end, and, honestly, for the first half of the story, I didn't see it coming. So that is really saying something, as that is an area that always seems to fall short for me.
But to get to that twist the pacing felt a little uneven, as though it has spent so much energy developing little threads, and then there was a jump to weave all of them together.
That being said, though it was not one of my favourite reads of 2020, I thoroughly enjoyed it, and if you like thrillers, it's a definite recommended read. Frightening, no, but interesting, yes.
What is a good mystery or thriller you can recommend?
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