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A review by queerlitloft
The Road Home by Erin Zak
4.0
The Road Home is such an emotional rollercoaster - make sure you bring a box of tissues for the ride, because this is without a doubt a tear jerker of a story.
There's alot going off in this story and so the romance doesn't overly take centre stage. But having experienced the loss of a parent at a young age, i did find that all the components worked seamlessly together. Afterall, when you're dealing with impending loss and grief, the rush of love and sex is not likely to be at the forefront of your mind, unless you're trying to escape the situation. I was pleased to find that Zak didn't go down this road with her characters. The story focused more on coming to terms with the past and making peace with the present.
Whilst the story is sad and heartbreaking, Zak did a great job of making her story true to life, in every aspect of the characters journeys.
My only dislike was the ending, i felt like having having Gerald turn up at the end of the book as Carol's long term partner, just jarred the flow of the story - mainly because we learn very little about him and their relationship, other than they'd been in love for 27 years.
In which case, you tend to think why keep Gwen's mum and dad together at all, if they were both seeing other people throughout the marriage?
Maybe i didn't understand the author's intentions with that aspect of the story, but i wish it had finished differently.
Everything else i enjoyed, but it's certainly not a book for the faint hearted considering the subject matter.
There's alot going off in this story and so the romance doesn't overly take centre stage. But having experienced the loss of a parent at a young age, i did find that all the components worked seamlessly together. Afterall, when you're dealing with impending loss and grief, the rush of love and sex is not likely to be at the forefront of your mind, unless you're trying to escape the situation. I was pleased to find that Zak didn't go down this road with her characters. The story focused more on coming to terms with the past and making peace with the present.
Whilst the story is sad and heartbreaking, Zak did a great job of making her story true to life, in every aspect of the characters journeys.
My only dislike was the ending, i felt like having having Gerald turn up at the end of the book as Carol's long term partner, just jarred the flow of the story - mainly because we learn very little about him and their relationship, other than they'd been in love for 27 years.
In which case, you tend to think why keep Gwen's mum and dad together at all, if they were both seeing other people throughout the marriage?
Maybe i didn't understand the author's intentions with that aspect of the story, but i wish it had finished differently.
Everything else i enjoyed, but it's certainly not a book for the faint hearted considering the subject matter.