I wasn't prepared for how much this book would focus on the family instead of the crime. Susie's murder happens early, but after that the story becomes about all the people she left behind and the different ways they try to live with something that can never be fixed.
I spent a lot of the book feeling sorry for her father. He knew something was wrong and couldn't let it go, even when everyone around him seemed to be moving in a different direction. At times I wanted to shake some of the other characters, especially when their choices hurt the people closest to them, but grief doesn't make people act reasonably.
What got to me were the ordinary moments. Birthdays. Family dinners. The little pieces of life Susie should have been part of. Those scenes hit me harder than anything involving the investigation.
I also liked that the book didn't try to tidy everything up. Life rarely works that way. People drift apart, make mistakes, carry regrets, and keep going because there isn't any other choice.
There were sections where my attention wandered a little, especially when the focus moved away from the Salmon family. Every time the story returned to them, though, I was completely interested again.
When I finished, I wasn't thinking about the murderer nearly as much as I was thinking about the people left behind and how one terrible event changed the course of so many lives.
No comments:
Post a Comment