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A review by bethreadsandnaps
Desire Lines by Christina Baker Kline
3.0
3.5 stars
This is an earlier work of the author, and I’m not sure it ages well. Much of this book takes place in 1996, ten years after a group of students graduated high school. At graduation, Jennifer disappears and is now missing for 10 years.
Kathryn, unemployed and newly divorced at 28, comes home to live with her mother and lick her wounds. There is SO much shame Kathryn has for being divorced. This book definitely has the most shame in divorce that I’ve ever seen. She’s devastated, and Kathryn’s mother is so worried about her daughter being a spinster. It’s so…odd. Was this what we thought in the 1990s, or is this a very old trope being unearthed? It’s so heavy-handed about this.
This is a very light mystery. It goes at a lackadaisical pace, as Kathryn starts a writing gig, becomes an amateur detective, starts a romance with an old friend, bemoans her divorce. I wish it didn’t get so consumed by the self-pity path. After all, the author is an excellent writer. Creating tension - if this is truly a mystery - might not be her strong suit. Still, this was a compelling enough read.
This is an earlier work of the author, and I’m not sure it ages well. Much of this book takes place in 1996, ten years after a group of students graduated high school. At graduation, Jennifer disappears and is now missing for 10 years.
Kathryn, unemployed and newly divorced at 28, comes home to live with her mother and lick her wounds. There is SO much shame Kathryn has for being divorced. This book definitely has the most shame in divorce that I’ve ever seen. She’s devastated, and Kathryn’s mother is so worried about her daughter being a spinster. It’s so…odd. Was this what we thought in the 1990s, or is this a very old trope being unearthed? It’s so heavy-handed about this.
This is a very light mystery. It goes at a lackadaisical pace, as Kathryn starts a writing gig, becomes an amateur detective, starts a romance with an old friend, bemoans her divorce. I wish it didn’t get so consumed by the self-pity path. After all, the author is an excellent writer. Creating tension - if this is truly a mystery - might not be her strong suit. Still, this was a compelling enough read.