The book centers around an incident that happens at a neighborhood BBQ one afternoon on an ordinary street with ordinary people. Ms. Moriarty has a nice way of dancing around what really happened and keeping you in suspense until well into the book. You must keep reading to find out what the incident was and to see the effect on the characters as the chapters go by.
One thing about her novels that I have thoroughly enjoyed is her
character development. She has a way of writing, that most of the
good writers do, that helps you live inside the character's head - to really imagine these people as someone you know. You develop a relationship with them and you get invested in their lives. In this book, I had a hard time finding one character that I liked at first, but by the end I like most of them.
You would think that tragedy would bind people together, but from personal experience I agree with the direction of this book that hardship and tragedy usually pushes people apart. Don't ask me to explain this strange human truism but it does work out that way more times than not. With Clementine, Sam, Ruby, Holly, Erika, Oliver, Vid, Tiffany & Dakota all in attendance at the meal in question, you get different points of view of the accident and different reactions.
Not to spoil the plot for you, but it does take a while to get to the what actually happened. Along the way, you get to know the ends and outs of their lives and how they all ended up there that afternoon, but I really, really wanted it to get to the point. But
by the end of the book, I got the point finally. The "getting there" is the story. It's really
the story of all of us, how we cope, react, and go on after the bumps in our lives.
So while this one doesn't use a sledge hammer to make the point, hang on until the
end and you will get it. A solid 4 Stars!
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