Book Review: A STRANGER COMES TO TOWN

Title: A Stranger Comes to Town

Author: Lynne Sharon Schwartz

Publisher: EastOver Press

Pages: 205

My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐

Joe Marzino, the name in his wallet, wakes up in the hospital after an accident, so he’s told, a stranger to himself. He can’t remember a single thing about himself. A beautiful woman called Norah says she is his wife. They have three children: 16yo Vincent, 9yo Kevin and 4½yo Luz.  

Norah tells him that he is an actor, playing a private eye. As she brings him up to speed on his past, he learns good and bad things about himself. Gradually he comes to know of several things that he has done in the past. Things that are shady and wrong, things he cannot imagine himself doing in the past.

And the evidence seems to be mounting. A rumour about a classmate who has the leading role in a college play that Joe wanted himself. Letting his sister take the blame for his own wrongdoing. Forcing himself on a teenager. Joe cannot reconcile the best of who he believes he is with the worst of what others have told him about himself.

Are they true, these horrible things he is told he did in the past? Joe likes to think that he is a reasonably good guy. Could he have done the bad things—and they are really bad—that he is supposed to have done? Will he ever get to the truth about himself?

 

The book is written in the first-person PoV of Joe.

 

WHAT I LIKED:

The book is packed with information about amnesia, including films on the subject which Joe remembers. It forces us to mull over our sense of self, and the mystery of who we might be, if the past were obliterated for us.

 

Interestingly, Joe is not a completely clean slate. He can identify places and accents, just not himself.

 

It was interesting to see him second-guess himself, every line a new thought as he attempted to suss out his memories. The constant thinking, not quite stream of consciousness, but steady, slowly frames his sense of self.

 

There is an element of mystery as he attempts to figure out who he is, and how he can be the husband and father he is, as also play the other roles he must play.

 

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE:

Joe has an opportunity to re-invent himself, to redeem himself, but he doesn’t take it. This was an example of a character naturally assuming for himself a negative arc. Or more correctly, falling back to the same rhythms his life once held.

 

ALL SAID AND DONE:

I couldn’t figure out the point of the book towards the end. Joe gets some memories back, but the core of who he is does not change. He slips back into the same behaviour patterns.

 

The book ended on a vague, inconclusive note. I couldn’t decide what to make of it. 

(I read this book on NetGalley. Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley.)

Book Review: IMAGINARY STRANGERS

Title: Imaginary Strangers (Dangerous Strangers #1)

Author: Minka Kent

Publisher: Thomas and Mercer

Pages: 269

My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

Camille Prescott is a sociopath. Raised by mother, Lucinda, who has not only never showed her only child any love, but has instead been cruel and neglectful towards her child. The experience has affected Camille adversely, making her incapable of feeling any of the emotions we take for granted.

But that has not prevented her from winging it. Now married to a handsome surgeon, Will, Camille, is mother to two lovely children. When her older daughter, six-year-old Georgie, comes home from school with an imaginary new friend that seems to exert a lot of influence on the child. What’s worse, this new friend knows a lot about Camille’s childhool, things she has worked hard to keep hidden, things that could get her into trouble if they ever emerged into the light.

Pretty soon, Camille is wondering. Is the new friend and her awareness of Camille’s past a coincidence, or is a sinister presence threatening her and her family?

The book is written in the first-person PoV of Camille.

 

WHAT I LIKED: I liked the first chapter, when Camille first escapes from her mother’s home.

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE:

But thereafter she seemed to lose steam. Adult Camille was so tame compared to teenage Camille.

I opted to read this one because of the author’s previous books which I liked. Unfortunately, this one wasn’t her best.

There were long conversations about unnecessary bits. There were also some proofing and grammatical errors. “He chews his inner lip,” we are told. What does that mean?

 

Will was set up as a great catch? He's a handsome surgeon, a loving husband and father. What's not to like? Yet somehow, I didn't like him.

The dreaded Lucinda doesn’t show up at all in this book. Instead the adversary is someone completely different. And that made me feel slightly cheated. It is bad form to prop someone as the adversary and then for them to not even put in an appearance. Whether it is a standalone book or a series, we need to see the characters the author has introduced to us. We spend a great deal of time disliking Lucinda on Camille’s account, and we never get a chance to discover what she’s like for ourselves.

 

 

WHAT DIDN’T WORK FOR ME:

Why isn’t Will’s sister ever named in this book? Not only does she had no presence in the book, she doesn’t even rate a name.

Also, why doesn’t Will ever listen to Camille? Why doesn’t Camille ever try to talk to Will about her past? There are no satisfactory answers to those two questions, other than making the plot forward.

 

ALL SAID AND DONE: I have read better from this author.

 (I read this book on NetGalley. Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley.)