Book Review: ON A CLEAR DAY YOU CAN SEE BLOCK ISLAND

Title: On A Clear Day You Can See Block Island  

Author: Gage Greenwood

Publisher: Tanner's Switch Publishing

Pages: 284

My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

After the sudden death of his wife on account of corporate negligence, Jackson uses the compensation money from her company to move his children into a bigger house on Block Island. Wreath (17), Brian (15), Charlie (13), Chrissy (9) and Angela (8) are excited about the future even as they work through their complicated feelings of grief.

On their very first night in their new home, Wreath dies a horrible death, when she is literally eaten alive in her room by a monster.

Four years later, Jackson is an alcoholic mess. Brian lives out on the streets, addicted to drugs and opioids. Charlie, Chrissy and Angela are living with their aunt, Jackson’s sister, who isn’t much of a caregiver. But that’s not the worst of it. Charlie suffers from crippling anxiety. Chrissy has no memory of the monster that destroyed her family, while Angela has a terrible fear of being alone.

Chrissy questions her family’s insistence on clinging to the story. Then in a library book, she sees a picture of the monster and the blocked memories come rushing back at her.

 

The book is suffused with horror. Chrissy devours horror fiction. She has turned into ‘someone who would find peace in violent words.’ The author uses Chrissy’s interest in horror fiction to recommend some books. There’s also the horror of alcohol and drug addiction.

There were some lines from the book that stood out for me:

Horror wasn’t a spotlight on evil, it was control. If a person could create beautiful sentences from horrific events, then any person could weave their way through life’s trauma. You just have to make the grime shine.

Grief was a mysterious lump on your flesh . . .  One minute, you can convince yourself it’s benign, just an ugly little thing you can learn to deal with, and the next, you’re certain it’s the start of something bigger, the kind of thing that will eat away at your flesh, devour your bones.

A person can only fray for so long before they become nothing but loose strands.

 

The book cover was interesting, with the island, seemingly ordinary, and the lives that it has claimed, visible in the spilling of blood below the surface of the water.

The writing was masterful in the first part of the book, especially the first chapter, inviting the reader to stop speed reading to lavish upon the words the attention the author had devoted to crafting them. Through the first half of the book, we see the pain born of grief and trauma.

We feel a sense of sadness for the plight of this this suffering family. The challenges that batter the kids relentlessly make us feel protective towards them. 

The friendship that siblings Tiffany and Doug show to Charlie was sweet, and I felt bad that things didn’t turn out differently for them. Also why were they attacked?

 

But the second half of the book lost me. The first half definitely felt tighter than the second. And the action against the monsters took too long. Against it, the sibling dynamics was reduced to petty squabbles.

The chapters, alternating between Tiffany and Doug, Chrissy and Angela, and Detective Burns and Jackson, were essentially the same, with each pair facing off against the monster, and each pair coming to the same conclusion about their situation. My attention flagged at this point. It was almost like a sibling fight, with each pair hitting the monster, and being hit back in turn.

There was a hint about a weakness suffered by the monsters, but no explanation for why they have that weakness.

The character of Brian was explored briefly but not in a way that helped the plot along.  

The action vis-à-vis the monsters takes far too long. We can’t imagine how this part of the book will end. What scenario could possibly result in the destruction of such horrible monsters?

 

The climax and the resolution left me feeling dissatisfied. There was no good explanation about why the nightmare ended when it did or even how, and whether it would ever recur.

Some elements in the story didn’t make sense. Why did Angela have the visions about the monsters in the past?

It was surprising that the detailed flashback of Jackson’s wife comes at the 76 percent mark, almost like an afterthought or a force-fit, making it appear like an unplanned addition. Before that, we are told almost nothing about her, which is odd considering that it is her death that sets the plot going.

The relationship between the siblings felt incomplete. Other than the fact that most of them don’t get along with each other, I saw very little of the dynamics between the siblings or the family. The aunt that is apparently caring for Charlie, Chrissy and Angela isn’t even seen in the book.

The chapter titles were intriguing. They made no sense out of context and, at first glance, seemed rather random. It was only when one read the chapter that one could make sense of them.

 

I don’t enjoy monster horror, but I expected better from this because of the themes of grief and trauma that were woven through. But ultimately, this book didn’t work for me. 

 

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

 

Book Review: IN ANOTHER LIGHT

Title: In Another Light

Author: AJ Banner
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing
Pages: 251
My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

 

Phoebe Glassman is grieving the loss of her husband, Logan McClary and toddler daughter, Ava, in a terrible car accident three years ago. Since then, she has lost herself in her work at the funeral home where she works to reconstruct dead faces. Her mother, Lidia, an archaeologist, now suffers from Alzheimer’s Disease.

When the body of a 32-year-old woman, Pauline Steele, is sent to Fair Winds, the funeral home in which she works, Phoebe finds herself taken unawares and desperate for answers.

Not only is Pauline a doppelganger of Phoebe’s, though a decade younger, she also has on her arm a tattoo that Logan had a photo of on his phone. And in the dead woman’s purse, Phoebe finds her own photo.

As Phoebe uncovers more and more evidence of Logan’s affair and duplicity, she becomes obsessed with finding out the complete truth. But the truth is at the bottom of an abyss. Will Phoebe find the answers she seeks? Or will she lose herself in the process?

 

The book is written in the 3^rd person present tense PoV of Phoebe. The author does a fantastic job of portraying the character of Phoebe, her grief, her understanding of betrayal and her desperation to reclaim what is truly hers. We feel a sense of pity and compassion for her, at her constant attempts at guessing and second guessing herself, her feeble attempts at investigation.

My heart ached at the thought of a mother missing out on the milestones in her child’s life, not knowing her favourites.

But some things felt forced. Phoebe deleting her best friend Renee’s text without reading it made no sense.

 
The details about the work done in a funeral home make for interesting, if morbid, reading.

Our heroine has an unusual profession. A trained sculptor, she reconstructs dead human faces for the comfort of the grieving family. She also prepares the bodies of the dead for burial or cremation, embalming etc. As a mortuary cosmetologist, Phoebe knows how much the survivors need restoration of their deceased loved ones’ features to grapple with their grief.

I wondered at Phoebe’s father’s name, Raja. Then learned that the author, AJ Banner, was born in India, and then it made perfect sense.

The writing was beautiful.

Scraping off bacteria like a layer of pond scum.

Protecting the bereaved from the necessary messiness of death.

But now, there is no sign that a marriage once flourished here.

I also liked the character of Mike Rivera, a paramedical employee of the funeral home.

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