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A review by books_in_badgerland
Paper Ghosts by Julia Heaberlin
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
4.0
"My chest tightens with all that he provokes. . . . The idea that we miss so much waiting for what is right in front of us, that the ordinary is magical, that the exotic is in our backyard, that every animal has a soul, that there is this terrible, wonderful novel in every human being."
I'm in my Julia Heaberlin era, folks. I welcome the way her books make me think and feel. While I typically don't go for slower burns, I'm happy to hang out in her worlds for awhile. Her characters are flawed and real. She tends to include art, science, and elements of the unexplainable.
A woman's sister has been missing for years, and she has spent her time concocting a plan to find answers. She has a theory, and proving it involves busting Carl - an aging, acquitted serial killer - out of his living facility to embark on a road trip across Texas.
There are so many unknowns throughout most of the book. In addition, there are frequent internal conflicts and contradictions. Reviews show some readers got frustrated by this and wanted to get to the answers. Did he or didn't he? Is she correct, or is her judgement clouded by intense grief? Knowing the author's style, I knew it would come together well and that I would have increasingly warm feelings about it long after the last page. That's exactly what happened. I'm pretty sure I got misty eyed twice during the acknowledgments.
"Bad people are to be found everywhere, but even among the worst there may be something good." - Dostoyevsky's The House of the Dead
I'm in my Julia Heaberlin era, folks. I welcome the way her books make me think and feel. While I typically don't go for slower burns, I'm happy to hang out in her worlds for awhile. Her characters are flawed and real. She tends to include art, science, and elements of the unexplainable.
A woman's sister has been missing for years, and she has spent her time concocting a plan to find answers. She has a theory, and proving it involves busting Carl - an aging, acquitted serial killer - out of his living facility to embark on a road trip across Texas.
There are so many unknowns throughout most of the book. In addition, there are frequent internal conflicts and contradictions. Reviews show some readers got frustrated by this and wanted to get to the answers. Did he or didn't he? Is she correct, or is her judgement clouded by intense grief? Knowing the author's style, I knew it would come together well and that I would have increasingly warm feelings about it long after the last page. That's exactly what happened. I'm pretty sure I got misty eyed twice during the acknowledgments.
"Bad people are to be found everywhere, but even among the worst there may be something good." - Dostoyevsky's The House of the Dead