Life can change in 30 seconds and leave us devastated in 60 seconds. What can I say about grief? It affects all of us in different ways, and sometimes there are no right or wrong ways, just ways which are both right to each other.
Finn and Bridget have moved houses with their sons, 16 year old Jarrah and 2 1/2 year old Toby. The family lives a happy outdoorsy kind of routine life in the new place with sea and the swimming pool and fun. When tragedy strikes one morning….
The book by Jesse Blackadder deals with the aftermath of that tragedy and the way the members of the family deal with it in the next 36 days. Told from the POV of the parents Finn and Bridget and teenage son Jarrah, their emotions, their sacrifices, and their dilemma just seeps into the pages.
The story has been written based on the tragedy which occurred in the author’s life 40 years ago, and that makes it all the more poignant. The book made me feel all the emotions, the days prior and post tragedy were well shown. The book had its niggles. Only the mother’s POV was written in second person You, and that made it odd reading for me, it broke my rhythm. And the ending felt a bit rushed and different.
Overall, an emotional read on a Tuesday afternoon.
I received an ARC from NetGalley, and publisher St. Martin’s Press, and this is my journey into its pages, straight from the heart!!
All my reviews can be found here
Would you read such a book where the story pivots on a tragedy?
Jesse Blackadder is an award-winning novelist, short story writer, freelance journalist and a budding screenwriter. Her novel The Raven’s Heart won the Benjamin Franklin award for historical fiction, and she was awarded an Antarctic Arts Fellowship for her novel Chasing the Light.
The Brennans―parents, Finn and Bridget, and their sons, Jarrah and Toby―have made a sea change, from chilly Hobart, Tasmania, to subtropical Murwillumbah, New South Wales. Feeling like foreigners in this land of sun and surf, they’re still adjusting to work, school, and life in a sprawling purple clapboard house, when one morning, tragedy strikes.
In the devastating aftermath, the questions fly. What really happened? And who’s to blame? Determined to protect his family, Finn finds himself under the police and media spotlight. Guilty and enraged, Bridget spends nights hunting answers in the last place imaginable. Jarrah―his innocence lost―faces a sudden and frightening adulthood where nothing is certain.
Publication Date: 19th March 2019
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
25 Responses
I love emotional reads! St Martin’s Press always has the best books!
I agree but they always, almost always reject me. Only one book per year
Same Shalini. They accepted one time. And I am even doing a book tour for them, because they contacted me personally to host the book tour for them, now figure that one out! I think their all nuts at St. Martins Press
Hahaha…. Lucky you… I keep requesting, they keep rejecting… We have a love hate bond.
The reasons they give are so flimsy
Tragedy is always hard for me to read about.
This was really really
You do these so well. This is a new author for me.
For me too… I loved the synopsis hence requested it
This sounds like something I would love to read myself. Thank you for sharing as always my love
Awww Darling
keep tissues.. The Accident is heart wrenching
Oh I am ready, tissues and all
I should be reading this in the next few days, did you read this last Tuesday or is it already Tuesday there?
Fantastic review as always!
Last Tuesday… I think I had an off and I was lazing around on my couch unwilling to do anything, I even ordered a take-out
Wonderful review, Shalini! Such an emotional story! ♥️
It really was… I think I read these stories in a week hence the box of tissues got done by the time I reached the weekend
Great review Shalini! Also, when I read this, I am positive I’ll need a box of tissues!
You would darlin Jess
I don’t know why I assumed that this is a thriller. I love a good, emotional read. This sounds great though heavier since it touches on the author’s life. Still one I’d like to read though. Great review.
It looks like a thriller, but it is a domestic drama, a very sad one,
Wonderfully written review Shalini. I think it would be far too tragic for me but it certainly sounds like an incredible story.
It is.. I too cried when the accident occurred..
I cry so easily, this might be tough…but your review is beautiful as always.
Aww.. I cried too… And thank you