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A review by kelmallo
After the Eclipse: A Mother's Murder, a Daughter's Search by Sarah Perry
5.0
I am enthralled, captivated, lost, and ultimately found in Sarah Perry's memoir. By the end of the first day, I had already read over 100 pages, if that says anything. Earlier in the year, I had pinned "The Song of Achilles" by Madeline Miller as my book of the year (a must-read historical fiction novel that is so beautifully told I could cry), however "After the Eclipse" is now putting up a good fight.
Further review to come, as I allow the pages Sarah so beautifully wrote to sink further into me, word by word and line by line.
P.S. - Since I can't seem to add quotes to Goodreads as of yet from Sarah or the book, I'll feature them at the bottom of my review. Again, isn't her writing mesmerizing?!
"But a violent act is an epicenter; it shakes everyone within reach and creates other stories, cracks open the earth and reveals buried secrets. I want those stories, I want those secrets.”
"I had seen what a person could do and I could never unsee it; I was unclean, poisoned. I looked into my pupils in the mirror and there seemed to be no bottom to the black. Just as much as I feared him out in the world, I feared him within me."
"Almost worse than missing than the sorrow of missing her was the fact that Mom's death had revealed everything to be meaningless. So much of what I'd thought was true had turned out to be an illusion. I saw the people around me living by these illusions - that love and safety could be counted on, that life had meaning and the future could be controlled - and I did not see that I could ever again share their suspended belief."
"Sometimes suicide was a door in my peripheral vision, a potential exit that I could step through at any time. I felt better and calmer just knowing it was there, that I wasn't trapped."
"To live in the world, I realized then and still believe, you have to participate, you have to make relationships and meaning for yourself, because there is no ultimate design. You have to pretend that it is impossible for a killer to come in the night and destroy everything. I will never forget that improbability is not the same as impossibility."
Further review to come, as I allow the pages Sarah so beautifully wrote to sink further into me, word by word and line by line.
P.S. - Since I can't seem to add quotes to Goodreads as of yet from Sarah or the book, I'll feature them at the bottom of my review. Again, isn't her writing mesmerizing?!
"But a violent act is an epicenter; it shakes everyone within reach and creates other stories, cracks open the earth and reveals buried secrets. I want those stories, I want those secrets.”
"I had seen what a person could do and I could never unsee it; I was unclean, poisoned. I looked into my pupils in the mirror and there seemed to be no bottom to the black. Just as much as I feared him out in the world, I feared him within me."
"Almost worse than missing than the sorrow of missing her was the fact that Mom's death had revealed everything to be meaningless. So much of what I'd thought was true had turned out to be an illusion. I saw the people around me living by these illusions - that love and safety could be counted on, that life had meaning and the future could be controlled - and I did not see that I could ever again share their suspended belief."
"Sometimes suicide was a door in my peripheral vision, a potential exit that I could step through at any time. I felt better and calmer just knowing it was there, that I wasn't trapped."
"To live in the world, I realized then and still believe, you have to participate, you have to make relationships and meaning for yourself, because there is no ultimate design. You have to pretend that it is impossible for a killer to come in the night and destroy everything. I will never forget that improbability is not the same as impossibility."