Mystery/Thriller -- 3 stars
Five damaged teenagers meet at a commune called Home. Some are abandoned by their parents, all--though none as much as Saskia--are in the thrall of Home's leader, Abraham. Twenty years later, the five have scattered into lives disconnected from the memories of their time at the commune until they all begin to receive threatening letters. "It's time to come Home. All five of you. Or else." ----- The mystery of why the five of them, one time best and only friends, chose to live their adult lives without any common contact is revealed in a carefully paced story that is as uncomfortable as it is understandable. The complicated family lives of all the characters at Home are well written and make their arrival at Home seem like a common sense last resort even as the cracks begin to form in what they want to believe is their ideal choice. The reveal of what connects and repulses the main five is somehow both expected and surprising. Saskia's final solution is a welcome closing to a quiet book that avoids peaks and valleys by simply moving day to carefully calibrated day without theatrics. A mystery, minus the thrill.
No comments:
Post a Comment