Book Review | Book Chatter

Don’t Look For Me
By Wendy Walker
St. Martin’s Press, 9781250198709, September 15, 2020, 352pp.

The Short of It:

Walker hit it out of the park with this one. It met all my reading wants.

The Rest of It:

Molly Clarke suffered a terrible loss. One that involved her young daughter, killed in an accident right in front of her own home. What’s inconceivable to Molly’s family and even Molly herself, is that she was the one behind the wheel. The one who turned as fast as she could, but not fast enough to avoid her daughter running in front of her car.

The family is left utterly distraught. Molly’s older daughter Nic, remembers the moment like it was yesterday and Molly’s husband can’t even bring himself to look at his wife. An accident, yet one so tragic that the family just cannot move past it.

That’s why when Molly Clarke goes missing one stormy night, only to leave her abandoned car and phone behind, people are quick to call it a “walk away”. She just couldn’t live anymore with all those accusing eyes, reminding her every day of what she did.

Did she really walk away? Or has something happened to her?

Don’t Look for Me is a GREAT read and as I mentioned above, it checked all the boxes for me. A good story. Nice plot twists. Characters you care about. Maybe a tad predictable at one point but a good ride to get there. It kept me guessing in a lot of places and had me stopping to piece things together.

I put household chores aside to read it. I read it during the baseball playoffs. I sat on the couch with it when I wasn’t feeling well and it was just what the doc ordered. These days, you gotta keep your mind busy and off of politics and this wretched pandemic. This book helped me do that.

Highly recommend. I’ve read one other book by Walker, Emma in the Night, which I also enjoyed. If you need to immerse yourself into something other than the news, find yourself a copy.

Source: Review copy provided by the publisher
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

The Testaments
By Margaret Atwood
Nan A. Talese, 9780385543781, September 2019, 432pp.

The Short of It:

A solid follow-up to The Handmaid’s Tale and although it’s been years since I’ve read The Handmaid’s Tale, I did not need a refresher before reading this one.

The Rest of It:

Gilead. A place where women are assigned to a certain order based on their “talents”. Some are married off to high-profile men to live a somewhat respectable life, surrounded by other women to cater to whatever they may need, even a baby if they cannot have one naturally. Other women are tasked with finding more women like them. Others, find themselves fighting for the resistance in the form of “Mayday”.

The Testaments focuses on Baby Nicole, who was whisked away from Gilead years ago. Much effort is spent trying to find her but the people involved in her disappearance have organized to the point where her disappearance and her eventual re-introduction is all part of a much larger plan to take Gilead down.

This novel would have been captivating all by itself but reading it during the Supreme Court confirmation process, and realizing how much is currently at stake in the area of women’s reproductive rights, was chilling to say the least.

I enjoyed this read. Atwood is a great storyteller and quickly pulls you in. My only complaint is that it was a little hard to keep track of all the “Aunts”. I often had to go back a few pages to remind myself who was who. My club chose this for our discussion this month and I think it’s a book that needs to be discussed so I am hoping for some good conversation.

Source: Borrowed
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

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