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A review by chloseencounter
Theme Music by T. Marie Vandelly
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Theme Music has been on my TBR for months and I was so happy to finally get to it. Though this novel didn’t end up being exactly what I expected, I wasn’t disappointed.
The unreliable narrator trope is one of my favorites and I think this book does that trope so well. Dixie is the ultimate unreliable narrator especially considering she doesn’t even know what’s happening most of the time. I enjoyed her as the novel’s voice, she was funny and at times frustrating but I still found myself hoping desperately everything would work out for her. I also liked that at any given time the reader only knew as much as Dixie knew, which kept us in the dark as much as she had been the majority of her life. I found that to be effective and kept me guessing until pretty far into the book.
I had my suspicions about what may have been happening by the climax but I think I literally suspected almost every main character at some point in time. I actually only figured it out because I was skimming the beginning and came upon the first paragraph about the axe, and when I was presented with a four letter word beginning with F again, it clicked for me. Despite having mostly figured it out, I still didn’t expect the ending and was very anxious for Dixie and her neighbors.
I thought that even though the story dragged just a little around the 50% - 75% mark, the ending was satisfactory for me. I especially enjoyed the epilogue because I’m nosy and I want to know where our characters end up. I realize that this kind of ending is not everyone’s favorite but I appreciate being left with some questions, I actually think all the answers are there if we look back (upon a second read I definitely began to theorize why some things happened the way they did) but again, we only ever know as much as Dixie so some things are up to the reader’s discretion. Books tend to have more staying power with me if I’m left to interpret afterward.
This was a successful read for me, I felt pretty enthralled through most of it.
The unreliable narrator trope is one of my favorites and I think this book does that trope so well. Dixie is the ultimate unreliable narrator especially considering she doesn’t even know what’s happening most of the time. I enjoyed her as the novel’s voice, she was funny and at times frustrating but I still found myself hoping desperately everything would work out for her. I also liked that at any given time the reader only knew as much as Dixie knew, which kept us in the dark as much as she had been the majority of her life. I found that to be effective and kept me guessing until pretty far into the book.
I had my suspicions about what may have been happening by the climax but I think I literally suspected almost every main character at some point in time.
I thought that even though the story dragged just a little around the 50% - 75% mark, the ending was satisfactory for me. I especially enjoyed the epilogue because I’m nosy and I want to know where our characters end up. I realize that this kind of ending is not everyone’s favorite but I appreciate being left with some questions, I actually think all the answers are there if we look back (upon a second read I definitely began to theorize why some things happened the way they did) but again, we only ever know as much as Dixie so some things are up to the reader’s discretion. Books tend to have more staying power with me if I’m left to interpret afterward.
This was a successful read for me, I felt pretty enthralled through most of it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Blood, Gore, Murder, Cursing, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Cancer, Child death, and Violence
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, and Alcohol