A review by ridgewaygirl
This Must Be the Place by Kate Racculia

4.0

Kate Racculia's debut novel has a fantastic first half, stumbles a little and then makes it securely across the finish line. Arthur Rook is knocked sideways by the sudden death of his wife. He gathers his wife's shoebox of momentoes and her cat and takes off for her hometown, specifically the boarding house run by her childhood best friend. There he meets Mona and her daughter Oneida, who is dealing with adolescence and with connecting with her peers. Racculia writes with a light and thoughtful tone, respecting her characters and weaving in odd lines of rock lyrics. She does seem to waver towards the end on whether to be coldly rational or sentimental, but she pulls it all out in the end. I do like the cleverness of her writing and will certainly pick up her next book.