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A review by heykellyjensen
Personal Effects by E. M. Kokie
3.0
Now that Matt's brother TJ has died in combat and he's had time to move past the initial shock, he wants to know more about who his brother really was. When the footlockers of TJ's personal effects show up at their home, he takes a chance and goes through them when his father is out. What he finds leads him down a road to learning much more than he expected about the person his brother was.
Kokie's debut is well-written but I couldn't emotionally connect with this story in quite the way I could with other books tackling the personal aspects of war/combat. I think it had to do with the set up. Because TJ's dead, he's an automatic hero, despite learning his personal life wasn't quite what we'd expect it to be. Whenever a character is dead from the start, especially one who has the weight of the meaning of war on them, they elicit something from the reader automatically. There's sadness and sympathy, but more than that, there's the hero effect. While I commend Kokie for not building TJ into a perfect character -- he's not -- it was challenging not to think of him as anything but the victim of war. That's why Matt ultimately has this story; he's out to prove that TJ was a whole person, something much more than a victim of war. I couldn't quite remove that image from my mind, though, even after learning more about TJ.
Matt's character gets a little lost because of this, and when the big reveal comes in the story, I had a hard time understanding his reaction because I hadn't gotten to know him well. I needed more from Matt, since this was really HIS story, despite being a story about him discovering his brother's story.
The writing is strong, though, and Matt's voice was definitely male. I appreciated that Matt wasn't a hero either. Much as I needed more from him to understand his reactions to things, I liked that he was flawed, imperfect, and at the end, doesn't have many more solid answers than he did from the start.
Longer review to come.
Kokie's debut is well-written but I couldn't emotionally connect with this story in quite the way I could with other books tackling the personal aspects of war/combat. I think it had to do with the set up. Because TJ's dead, he's an automatic hero, despite learning his personal life wasn't quite what we'd expect it to be. Whenever a character is dead from the start, especially one who has the weight of the meaning of war on them, they elicit something from the reader automatically. There's sadness and sympathy, but more than that, there's the hero effect. While I commend Kokie for not building TJ into a perfect character -- he's not -- it was challenging not to think of him as anything but the victim of war. That's why Matt ultimately has this story; he's out to prove that TJ was a whole person, something much more than a victim of war. I couldn't quite remove that image from my mind, though, even after learning more about TJ.
Matt's character gets a little lost because of this, and when the big reveal comes in the story, I had a hard time understanding his reaction because I hadn't gotten to know him well.
Spoiler
I was shocked how much he was repulsed in learning his brother was gay. What I had learned about Matt prior to him discovering this about TJ was that he hated people who were so anti-war, who were willing to belittle those who choose to serve, and that he had a big thing for his best friend Shauna. I also knew his father sucked (and ugh, did his father suck). But beyond that? I never had a reason to quite understand Matt's anger at the idea his brother was gay. Part of this surprise for me came about because Matt's built such an image of his brother -- that he'd married this girl in Madison secretly and had a child with her without anyone knowing. This, for me, was the shocking notion. That Matt had this as the image of his brother's secret life was surprising, especially given how calm he was. How almost...eager he was to discover this. I get it's the splitting off from the culturally-ideal notion of family (a wife and a kid), especially as back dropped with don't ask don't tell and the military world, but...I think Matt owed us more. Much, much more.The writing is strong, though, and Matt's voice was definitely male. I appreciated that Matt wasn't a hero either. Much as I needed more from him to understand his reactions to things, I liked that he was flawed, imperfect, and at the end, doesn't have many more solid answers than he did from the start.
Spoiler
My other problem with the book is that it took on a lot -- almost too much -- topic-wise. Aside from grieving loss, there's the unstable family situation (Matt's mom is gone, as is his brother now), the abusive father, the homosexual/don't ask don't tell plot, and the desire to make Shauna a girlfriend (which gets wild in Madison when Harley chooses to make moves on him -- that entire bit felt out of place and uncomfortable to me). I think had the Shauna/romance been taken out, the other heftier plot moments would have been much stronger and much more emotionally powerful. Those moments of lust and of physical reaction to Shauna detracted from it. That's not to say Matt didn't deserve to have those thoughts, but they could have been cut back. An entire chapter about his physical responses to Shauna's body really dragged down the pacing and the impact of the greater story.Longer review to come.