Rating: ★★★
This book was a rogue choice for me. I’ve never read any Anita Shreve and I hadn’t heard of this book before, but I was looking or an audiobook to rent on my Libby app for a long journey, and this one caught my eye. Thankfully, it was quite an engaging storyline and I found the narration interesting, although I felt like the characterisation was lacking and I could have done with some more focus on elements of the novel.
This book begins with a sex scandal at a private boarding school involving three students over the age of 18 and one 14 year old girl. The book follows several people who were involved in the scandal, whether directly or indirectly, including the four students involved, their relatives, friends, teachers who responded to the scandal, journalists who covered the scandal, and police officers who were involved in the subsequent events.
One thing I liked about the book was how the wide range of narrators make us realise how far the effects of a single decision can be felt, even beyond the people directly involved in the relevant event. We see in this book how the decisions of the students on one night affect their entire communities for years to come. However, I generally felt like this book’s approach looked too much at exploring the breadth of an event’s impact rather than depth, and this showed. Most of the characters had only a few chapters exploring their stories, and this meant that their parts of the story felt undercooked. Having such a wide range of characters telling their stories also meant that I felt that I was listening to the same story a million times without going into enough depth.
By the end of the book, I appreciated the purpose of this book in showing the “ripple effect” of decisions, but also felt like the book didn’t tread over any new ground or reveal anything particularly new to me. The book was interesting and engaging while it lasted, but it did not stand out and I don’t think it is very memorable. Especially considering the subject being such a sensitive one, I would have really appreciated this book exploring the issue of sexual assault in more depth rather than taking what, at times, felt like a superficial look at how people’s lives unfolded following the relevant event.
Have you read this book? What did you think?
Ink Drops Books 