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Sunday, October 14, 2018

A Twist You Can't Miss: Review of Kate A.Boorman's What We Buried


Thanks to Net Galley for the ARC I was given in exchange for my honest review! This book was a real pleasure to read. 

What We Buried by Kate A. Boorman started off promising: the premise was that the parents of a surly young man and vapid young beauty pageant contestant vanish right before the judgement comes in on the case Liv (beauty queen) filed against them. What follows is the harrowing journey the two siblings must share to find their parents and the discovery of something far more valuable.

I'm going yo do this  a little backwards and start with the ending (no spoilers, don't worry). I promise neither of the two things I am about to say are humble brags, they're just true: I read a lot and endings almost never surprise me anymore. Seriously, I don't even remember the last time I didn't see an ending coming . . . until 11pm last night when I finished this book. The ending was a total surprise to me because, even though I had the thought a few times that I knew where it was going, Boorman totally lured we away with faux breadcrumbs so that I was on a different trail. I just don't want to undersell how much I appreciated that: there was surprise at the end of a novel! That being said, I do have a gripe about the ending: the pacing is not great. Throughout the book I felt the pacing was expertly handled: the story never lagged, but it never felt rushed. Then we have the ending and yeah, it needed to slow down. At certain points, I was really confused and listen--I'm a careful reader. I don't race through and skim. I had to reread the last ten pages immediately after I finished because I wasn't sure what was actually happening.

I want to talk a little about Jory and Liv now. They are siblings that both harbor some resentment, although Jory's is more for Liv and their dad while Liv's resentment is more aimed at their mother. It's a smart book in terms of the way the resentment is addressed: the reasons why each feels hurt are complex enough that you never completely despise either sibling, but you do occasionally want to shake both of them. The parents, though, are horribly superficial people who undermine both children's sense of worth: because Jory has Moebius  Syndrome, he is treated like he has little valuable while Liv is treated like her only worth is totally conditional upon her ability to win. "Beauty is her talent," as she is told by her awful, awful mother.

Speaking of the awful, awful mother, I didn't feel that the parents were as developed as they could be. I'm not saying I need a sobbing backstory that justifies their cruelty, but something deeper than what we are shown would have been nice. Right now, both parents are pretty much caricatures: pageant mom caricature and alcoholic dad caricature. They could really just be cardboard cutouts of people and some sense that they were ever, even for a day, happy would have gone really far in making the story a bit more complicated. Still, the real story is Jory and Liv, Liv and Jory, and they are handled well.

This book really flew by. Last night as I was finishing it, there were several times when I thought I should probably put it down and read more today, but I just couldn't I had to finish. And look, I have three kids, so I value sleep: that tells you what you need to know. This isn't a perfect book, but I would definitely call it a must read. 

1 comment:

  1. Hi! I was redirected here by your Goodreads teaser review 🙂. While I'll admit that the caricature parents don't sit well with me, I'm intrigued - especially by what you said about the ending. I blog about YA books, but I rarely read teen thrillers, because more often than not I stumble upon reviews that make me think they're formulaic...but now I have high hopes for this one. (Though I read another GR review that "probably" ended up accidentally spoiling part of the plot for me...aaargh).

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