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A review by kierbart89
Right After the Weather by Carol Anshaw
1.0
I knew this was going to be a tough book to get through from the very first page. When I read in the very first sentence, “Cate prowls across a vast plain of old office desks,” I had a red flag go up that this book was going to be over written. And my instincts were not off. There was actual dialogue where one character says, “She’s plighting her troth.” That is not a thing anyone says.
Then, there is the fact that the book jacket is entirely misleading. You could skip the first half of the book and just read the first paragraph of the book jacket and not miss anything important. You’d read the summary and think most of the book is about how Cate and Neale navigate their relationship after Neale’s assault. In reality, Neale’s assault doesn’t happen until page 140 in a 270-page book. And then the last 130 pages don’t even answer the questions posed on the book jacket: “How does she move forward from this new and isolated vantage point?” I don’t’ really know! Because the book abruptly ended without any resolution or answer to that question.
Final major complaint: there are super weird, random first-person chapters from Nathan, Neale’s attacker. These chapters feel so out of place. Why are they first person? How are we, the readers, coming across these first-person insights? I don’t know. And I don’t think these sections add anything to the narrative.
In sum, this book isn’t about the plot, it is about the characters…but it’s pretending to be a plot-driven novel and it just doesn’t work. This book was so frustrating it took me 11 days to get through when it should have taken 3-4. I wish I had that time back.
Then, there is the fact that the book jacket is entirely misleading. You could skip the first half of the book and just read the first paragraph of the book jacket and not miss anything important. You’d read the summary and think most of the book is about how Cate and Neale navigate their relationship after Neale’s assault. In reality, Neale’s assault doesn’t happen until page 140 in a 270-page book. And then the last 130 pages don’t even answer the questions posed on the book jacket: “How does she move forward from this new and isolated vantage point?” I don’t’ really know! Because the book abruptly ended without any resolution or answer to that question.
Final major complaint: there are super weird, random first-person chapters from Nathan, Neale’s attacker. These chapters feel so out of place. Why are they first person? How are we, the readers, coming across these first-person insights? I don’t know. And I don’t think these sections add anything to the narrative.
In sum, this book isn’t about the plot, it is about the characters…but it’s pretending to be a plot-driven novel and it just doesn’t work. This book was so frustrating it took me 11 days to get through when it should have taken 3-4. I wish I had that time back.