JESS JUST READS

A BOOK REVIEW BLOG

The Gosling Girl by Jacqueline Roy

Michelle Cameron’s name is associated with the most abhorrent of crimes. A child who lured a younger child away from her parents and to her death, she is known as the black girl who murdered a little white girl; evil incarnate according to the media. As the book opens, she has done her time, and has been released as a young woman with a new identity to start her life again.

When another shocking death occurs, Michelle is the first in the frame. Brought into the police station to answer questions around a suspicious death, it is only a matter of time until the press find out who she is now and where she lives and set about destroying her all over again.

Natalie Tyler is the officer brought in to investigate the murder. A black detective constable, she has been ostracised from her family and often feels she is in the wrong job. But when she meets Michelle, she feels a complicated need to protect her, whatever she might have done.

Jacqueline Roy’s The Gosling Girl is a psychological thriller that explores the after-effects of a crime committed in childhood, and how hard it can be to reintegrate back into society. Additionally, the novel tackles systemic, institutional and internalised racism and how one’s story can be controlled by those around them.

We meet Michelle after she’s been released from prison. She’s known for killing a young girl when she was also just a child, and she’s served her time for the criminal act. But now that she’s out, attempting to find work, lay down roots, and form some sort of life with anonymity, she’s realising that others aren’t going to let her forget what she did anytime soon — there’s her probation officer, who she’s required to see on a regular basis, there’s the media, who are reluctant to leave her out of the press, and there’s writer Zoe, who is so desperate to pen Michelle’s story, she just might blackmail her to get it done.

“Of course she would, even though she knows she’s being bribed, paid for her memories in cake. She’s told to help herself. She chooses a macaroon and a slice of Swiss roll, not the kind you buy at supermarkets, the kind that has real cream and homemade jam.”

Written in third person, Jacqueline does well to craft an unreliable narrator in Michelle — she hides more from us than she reveals, and the only time we really feel like we understand her history or her emotions is when she’s in a session with Zoe for the book.

And on that note, I found Zoe to be the most interesting character in the novel. The cagey, slightly odd writer who wants to pen a book about Michelle’s side of the story. She’s questionable the entire way through, and to be honest I was expecting something major to happen with Zoe’s character — a big revelation, or a significant betrayal of Michelle. But everything that happened felt a little lacklustre. To be honest, I’m not sure I ever grasped Zoe’s desperation for doing the book — she acted like she was on a timer, and the book had to be done as quickly as possible. Why? Why is Zoe so chaotic in her home life, and why does she seem to be so financially strapped? There were definitely a few missing elements to her character that I hoped would be fleshed out some more.

“Tyler lets herself out and walks down to the car. She realizes she’s been holding her breath since leaving the house, keeping herself reined in. She leans against the side of the vehicle, trying to stay calm. She pictures Julie gouging pieces out of herself because the physical pain is so much easier to bear than the loneliness of grief.”

Despite devouring this novel in a short span of time, there were elements of the novel I’m still working to process. Michelle’s characterisation felt flat and underdeveloped to me, like the writer was trying to keep her so unreliable and withdrawn that she actually felt too thin on the page. Is she a violent person? Capable of change? I don’t even know, because the original crime isn’t ever really tackled and Michelle seems quite placid for most of the novel.

The second crime that is hinted in the blurb resolves itself rather quickly, and Michelle isn’t even a suspect for long. In fact, she’s never a suspect. She’s merely questioned. So I never felt that concern or worry for Michelle because I know that her past conviction wasn’t going to mean a false conviction this time around (which is what I suspected after reading the blurb).

“It makes a change, having someone to be with on a day when she isn’t at work. She can’t believe her luck, bumping into Lucy after all this time.”

Recommended for fans of psychological thrillers. Readership skews female, 25+

Thank you to the publisher for mailing me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Gosling Girl
Jacqueline Roy
February 2022
Simon & Schuster Book Publishers

The Islands by Emily Brugman

In the mid-1950s, a small group of Finnish migrants set up camp on Little Rat, a tiny island in an archipelago off the coast of Western Australia. The crayfishing industry is in its infancy, and the islands, haunted though they are by past shipwrecks, possess an indefinable allure.

Drawn here by tragedy, Onni Saari is soon hooked by the stark beauty of the landscape and the slivers of jutting coral onto which the crayfishers build their precarious huts. Could these reefs, teeming with the elusive and lucrative cray, hold the key to a good life?

The Islands is the sweeping story of the Saari family: Onni, an industrious and ambitious young man, grappling with the loss of a loved one; his wife Alva, quiet but stoic, seeking a sense of belonging between the ramshackle camps of the islands and the dusty suburban lots of the mainland; and their pensive daughter Hilda, who dreams of becoming the skipper of her own boat. As the Saari’s try to build their future in Australia, their lives entwine with those of the fishing families of Little Rat, in myriad and unexpected ways.

A stunning, insightful story of a search for home.

Emily Brugman’s debut novel The Islands is a multi-generational literary tale that documents Finnish migration to the Abrolhos Islands off the coast of Western Australia.

Although this is a fictional tale, The Islands is heavily influenced by the stories of Emily’s ancestors from 1959 – 1972, as well as extensive research into these islands and cray fishermen from the mid-20th century. The Islands is set across many decades and moves back and forth between different members of the family. Over the course of the novel, we observe each character during pivotal moments in their lives.

“A year for the Saaris was now lived in two parts: on-season and off-season. Their first season on Little Rat had been a moderate success, from an economic standpoint, and the couple looked ahead with a suspicious and careful optimism characteristic of their people.”

At its core, The Islands is about the pursuit of a sustainable and secure life. But it’s also about resilience — both physical and emotional — and perseverance. We witness what that can encapsulate whether you’re 40, 60 or 14. In this isolated and secluded setting, we meet women experiencing loneliness, experiencing childbirth for the first time. We read as their children then mature into teenagers within this barren but plentiful landscape — we follow them as they discover impulses and sexual desire. We come across men working to earn for their families, having arrived with the hope of a land that provides.

“They carried him to camp and laid him down on his side, covering him with a blanket. Hilda stood watching from a corner. Helvi was crying and so was Aiti, although she was trying not to. Hilda wanted to cry too, but she didn’t think that would be right after what she’d done. So she just stood there. And Lauri didn’t move.”

Scattered throughout the novel are Finnish verses, then translated into English. By embedding Finnish language into the novel, readers are further immersed in culture, community and these characters’ historical journey.

There is a strong sense of song and music throughout the book, and the Finnish verses also allow the characters to have a stronger connection to their heritage because it feels like knowledge is being passed between generations.

“Towards the close of his first season, Onni woke to find Little Rat covered in dead shearwaters, their dishevelled bodies in oily black heaps on the coral ground. Those shaggy mutton birds, as the Aussies called them. They flew thousands of miles every year, across open ocean, through torrents of rain and wind. They didn’t always make it, and every so often they’d wash up on shorelines in their hundreds. A wreck. That was what they called it, when they washed up like that.”

Evocative and emotional, Emily Brugman’s The Islands is recommended for literary readers, and fans of grand familial sagas steeped in wild, forbidding settings like a Hannah Kent novel. Readership skews female, 30+

Thank you to the publisher for mailing me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Islands
Emily Brugman
February 2022
Allen & Unwin Book Publishers

The Fields by Erin Young

It starts with a body — a young woman found dead in an Iowa cornfield, on one of the few family farms still managing to compete with the giants of Big Agriculture.

For Sergeant Riley Fisher, newly promoted to head of investigations at the Black Hawk County Sheriff’s Office, an already horrific crime takes on a personal edge when she discovers the victim is an old friend, from a dark past she thought she’d left behind.

Rumour travels fast in small towns, while sweltering heat and state-wide elections only add to the pressure-cooker atmosphere. When another body is found, Riley is in danger of being engulfed by the fear and the frenzy. Something deeply disturbing is out there – and it reaches far beyond Black Hawk County.

Erin Young’s The Fields centres around a series of unexplained murders in a small Iowa town, and the local police sergeant in charge of solving the mystery.

The Fields falls neatly into the rural crime genre, set in a small American town with resemblance of tropes easily registered in this genre — close-knit communities, a closed-off, guarded police detective with past trauma and a chaotic family life, multiple unexplained murders that aren’t easily connected, and there’s even a moment in the novel where the protagonist is suspended from her job and must continue on regardless.

“As she crossed to the house, the rain stopped as suddenly as it had come. Before she reached the porch, Riley heard something down near the creek. A soft rustle of grass. She peered into the darkness but saw nothing. Maybe a woodchuck?”

Erin Young establishes pacing and setting immediately — from the first chapter, we’re thrust into the hot, desolate Black Hawk County. And before long, another body is discovered. Additionally, Erin has crafted a complex, layered protagonist with Riley. She’s still holding onto trauma from an event years earlier, and the discovery that one of her high school friends has been murdered brings back a lot of memories from that time in her life. I don’t feel that any of this is resolved by the end of this novel, but I believe more books featuring Riley are planned.

Through its plotting and ultimate resolution, The Fields provides commentary on America’s agricultural industry and genetic engineering, and the price that organisations will pay to maintain their stake in the system. Whilst the book doesn’t come across preach-y, the ending is quite convoluted and at times hard to follow. Perhaps a little overstuffed.

“It wasn’t long before she smelled it — the rot-sweet stink of death. A few yards later, she heard the bleep of a camera. Flies buzzed her face. Ahead, she picked out Bob Nolan’s bulk. The crime scene investigator was crouched among the roots.”

Whilst the premise of the novel and subsequent mysteries were enough to keep me engaged, I did feel like there were two elements in this book that were working against each other — is this a thriller novel? Or is this a book trying to take a stand on America’s agricultural industry and how big corporations are bulldozing small businesses into extinction? I’m not sure, and that’s what I struggled with.

The ending was so chaotic and convoluted, and I found it hard to keep track of all the side characters. Additionally, the chapters move between POV (mostly it’s Riley, but it does shift to other secondary characters), which I can see is required to give readers greater understanding of the complex plot, but it does slow down the novel and pull the reader away from the primary investigation.

“Twilight brought the bugs, followed by reporters from The Courier and a local news crew, hovering at the edges of the tape, cajoling the officers they knew for information. Things like this didn’t happen in Black Hawk County, where stores still closed on Sundays and strangers were noticed.”

Whilst this is marketed as a debut novel, it is actually a crime debut from an already established author writing under a pseudonym. Grisly and gritty, The Fields is recommended for readers of crime, thriller and mystery. Readership skews 25+. Note: there’s a lot of graphic detail in this book. It didn’t bother me, but if you prefer to shy away from detailed murder victims, maybe this isn’t the book for you.

Thank you to the publisher for mailing me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Fields
Erin Young
January 2022
Hachette Book Publishers

Notes On An Execution by Danya Kukafka

Ansel Packer is scheduled to die in twelve hours.

He knows what he’s done, and now awaits the same fate he forced on those girls, years ago. Ansel doesn’t want to die; he wants to be celebrated, understood.

But this is not his story.

As the clock ticks down, three women uncover the history of a tragedy and the long shadow it casts. Lavender, Ansel’s mother, is a seventeen-year-old girl pushed to desperation. Hazel, twin sister to his wife, is forced to watch helplessly as the relationship threatens to devour them all. And Saffy, the detective hot on his trail, is devoted to bringing bad men to justice but struggling to see her own life clearly.

This is the story of the women left behind.

Blending breathtaking suspense with astonishing empathy, Notes On An Execution presents a chilling portrait of womanhood as it unravels the familiar narrative of the American serial killer, interrogating our cultural obsession with crime stories, and asking readers to consider the false promise of looking for meaning in the minds of violent men.

Danya Kukafka’s Notes On An Execution offers a reprieve from the stereotypical ‘serial killer’ novel. We meet Ansel Packer in a Texan prison on the day he is scheduled to be executed for murdering multiple women. There is no doubt that he’s the murderer — he’s confessed to it, he acknowledges it. But who did he hurt and how did events unfold?

To fully understand this, we meet three women whose lives interacted with Ansel’s at titular moments in his life. The story toggles between multiple storylines, traversing different points of view and moving between the past and the present. As someone who devours serial killer stories, I found this book to be an incredible read.

“That night, Lavender slept sitting up in the storage room, an iron paper towel rod clutched in her hand like a gun. She found it when she reached for her sweater — a cold lump in the breast pocket. It was the locket she’d given to Ansel, curled up regretful. She’d unclasped it from his neck the last time she’d given him a bath and pocketed it thoughtlessly.”

Danya’s writing is beautiful —poetic and addictive. Her characterisation is skilled and flawless. It’s rare for me to give such glowing praise for a novel but I really did love this one (I completed it in half a day, I was so desperate to finish).

We are driven forward by Ansel’s inevitable death — the countdown to his execution. These other stories, offered intermittently and almost chaotically, are a glimpse into the past.

The three women we meet in this novel are Lavender, Ansel’s mother, Hazel, the sister to Ansel’s wife, and Saffy, the detective who lived with Ansel in foster care and is now tasked with proving he’s responsible for the murders. Each shift in POV isn’t for very long, and we move through the past with quick pacing and little time to reflect. This novel is designed to paint a portrait of Ansel’s life to dates so that we might come to understand his rocky descent into murder.

“If there was a before, it began with Lavender. She was seventeen years old. She knew what it meant, to bring life into the world. The gravity. She knew that love could swaddle you tight, and also bruise. But until the time came, Lavender did not understand what it meant to walk away from a thing she’d grown from her own insides.”

Ansel’s chapters are written in second person — the confronting ‘you’ triggering a sense of dread and unease as the reader settles into Ansel’s story. Whilst we never feel like we understand him or his actions, his life and his story is the centrefold of this tale — everything else merely revolves around him as we are propelled towards his death.

Overall, the pacing and character development drew me in and kept my engaged throughout the entire novel. i did find the climax of the novel to be a little skimmed over — Ansel’s sudden deterioration into the final murder didn’t feel natural or realisitc. But when it comes to murder, and even multiple murders, a person’s actions don’t always make sense do they?

“Here is what you remember of your mother. She is tall, and she is mostly hair. She crouches in a garden, lazes in a rocking chair, sinks into a rusty claw-foot tub. Sometimes the tub is filled with water and your mother’s long dress floats wet like a jellyfish. Other times she is dry — she holds out a strand of her own hair, a gift, glistening orange.”

Haunting and ambitious but addictive, Danya Kukafka ’s Notes On An Execution is recommended for readers of literary fiction, thriller and crime fiction. Additionally, readers looking for serial killer stories or female-centric writing will enjoy this. Readership skews 25+

Thank you to the publisher for mailing me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

Notes On An Execution
Danya Kukafka
January 2022
Hachette Book Publishers

Olga Dies Dreaming by Xochitl Gonzalez

It’s 2017, and Olga and her brother, Pedro ‘Prieto’ Acevedo, are bold-faced names in their hometown of New York. Prieto is a popular congressman representing their gentrifying, Latinx neighborhood in Brooklyn, while Olga is the tony wedding planner for Manhattan’s power brokers.

Despite their alluring public lives, behind closed doors things are far less rosy. Sure, Olga can orchestrate the love stories of the one percent, but she can’t seem to find her own . . . until she meets Matteo, who forces her to confront the effects of long-held family secrets.

Twenty-seven years ago, their mother, Blanca, a Young Lord-turned-radical, abandoned her children to advance a militant political cause, leaving them to be raised by their grandmother. Now, with the winds of hurricane season, Blanca has come barreling back into their lives.

Set against the backdrop of New York City in the months surrounding the most devastating hurricane in Puerto Rico’s history, Olga Dies Dreaming is a story that examines political corruption, familial strife and the very notion of the American dream – all while asking what it really means to weather a storm.

Xochitl Gonzalez’s Olga Dies Dreaming is a revolutionary, multi-generational tale about family, race, identity and politics. Two Puerto-Rican siblings living in gentrified Brooklyn are grappling with their responsibility to their mother — a radical activist who abandoned the family when protagonist Olga was twelve years old. She is now thirty-nine and her mother is a fugitive fighting for Puerto Rican independence, meanwhile manipulating her two children in a series of letters scattered throughout the novel.

Olga Dies Dreaming is a pointed commentary about American society and politics — about race and poverty, and how societal structures within America ensure that the poor stay poor, and the wealthy only gain more power. Whilst some of the political aspects of the novel may go over readers’ heads, the carefully crafted plotting and pacing still allows for an enjoyable read.

“Sometimes, when he contemplated the direction of his life, he felt his wounds were self-inflicted. He ran for office because everyone ignored his neighbourhood…these days, all eyes were on Sunset Park, and it was he, Prieto, who had put them there. For better and for worse.”

At their core, Olga and her brother Prieto are trying to prove that they’re more capable than what others believe. Olga is a savvy wedding planner, successful but depressed. Prieto may be a popular U.S congressman but he is hiding in the closet and is being blackmailed by high-powered real estate moguls. Both siblings are grappling with the trajectory of their lives.

Set mainly in the Summer of 2017, Xochitl’s writing is slick and omniscient — she’s an incredibly talented writer and this is an equally impressive debut. Her writing is observant and conveys layered emotion. Chapters end with open-ended dialogue or observations, allowing deeper character observation for the reader.

“He didn’t, in fact, agree with that assessment; he sometimes felt Olga underestimated him. When it came to business at least, Dick always saw the dark sides of things, but his gift, he felt, was for sensing the opportunities that often lie in wait.”

The pacing does differ across the course of the novel and the middle third of the book in particular feels painfully slow. The final part of the novel, once the hurricane hits, holds a much more consistent and engaging flow.

Readers who aren’t overly invested in literary fiction, nor interested in a novel that provides commentary on the American sociopolitical environment, admittedly might find their interests lulling throughout the story.

“Close up, Olga could see that Matteo was quite handsome underneath his scruffy semi-beard. He had a splattering of freckles and the kind light brown eyes that Olga used to call Coca-Cola coloured when she was a kid.”

Pointed, punchy and purposeful, Olga Dies Dreaming is recommended for literary readers. Readership skews 30+

Thank you to the publisher for mailing me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

Olga Dies Dreaming
Xochitl Gonzalez
January 2022
Hachette Book Publishers