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jacki_f 's review for:
Pretending to Dance
by Diane Chamberlain
Molly and Aidan live in San Francisco and being unable to have children of their own, hope to adopt. However Molly, who was raised by a woman who was not her biological mother, is apprehensive about her ability to be a good mother to a future baby. She carries many secrets about her upbringing. At the end of the first chapter she tells us "my mother murdered my father", but it will take most of the book before we - and she -fully understand what actually happened.
This synopsis is somewhat of misleading: this isn't a mystery or a crime-centered novel, not even close. It's a coming of age book which centres on the year in Molly's life when she was 14. The first half develops quite slowly and it's pretty easy for the reader to guess what's going to happen and this kind of irritated me until I realised that the point of the book is more about Molly's perspective and her lack of awareness about things that are happening around her, rather than being about what actually happens.
By the end of the book I felt somewhat unsatisfied. I didn't really accept that Molly would have cut herself off from her family so completely, nor that no one would have talked to her about what happened. (I also found it hard to believe that her 17 year old cousin would have had any involvement). I'm a bit torn between giving this one three stars or four stars. I like Diane Chamberlain's writing and several of the characters that she creates are rounded and brought vividly to life. The end is also very moving. However ultimately I just felt that it was a "okay/good" book, neither remarkable nor memorable.
This synopsis is somewhat of misleading: this isn't a mystery or a crime-centered novel, not even close. It's a coming of age book which centres on the year in Molly's life when she was 14. The first half develops quite slowly and it's pretty easy for the reader to guess what's going to happen and this kind of irritated me until I realised that the point of the book is more about Molly's perspective and her lack of awareness about things that are happening around her, rather than being about what actually happens.
By the end of the book I felt somewhat unsatisfied. I didn't really accept that Molly would have cut herself off from her family so completely, nor that no one would have talked to her about what happened. (I also found it hard to believe that her 17 year old cousin would have had any involvement). I'm a bit torn between giving this one three stars or four stars. I like Diane Chamberlain's writing and several of the characters that she creates are rounded and brought vividly to life. The end is also very moving. However ultimately I just felt that it was a "okay/good" book, neither remarkable nor memorable.