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A review by vrunda
How Can I Help You by Laura Sims
4.0
Two women, when they meet while working at the library, are at completely different points in their lives, and the book is about how the passion of one, and the ambition of the other, flips the narrative of their lives.
Margo, formerly a nurse, now working in a library has killed a lot of people while she was a nurse. One day, Patricia, a recent graduate and failed novelist comes to work there, and both of them begin a dance of their obsession with each other.
A few days after the arrival of patricia, a patron dies in the library bathroom, which results in an unending spiral of margo and starts patricia's obsession with her in order to fulfill her own goals.
"The moment I walked through the front door, I knew. That deep, abiding quiet, and the sense that the outside world couldn’t reach me here. I was like someone chased by demons across the threshold of a church, stepping into the library that first time. I could have turned around, right there at the door, and stuck my tongue out at the world. Can’t catch me."
This was a very fun read and I particularly enjoyed margo's spiral after the death of the patron. Margo thinks that prolonged cruel life is worse than a quick death, and this was her justification for killing people. She loves the look in people's eyes when they die, and the writing around this has been done beautifully. I truly enjoyed reading the story through both of their perspectives. My favorite part was when margo read "we have always lived in the castle" by shirley jackson. I loved how she describes people in real life as 2D characters compared to the people in books. That part of the book summarizes every reader's feelings.
"It gives me a cool shiver—something I didn’t know books could do."
"While I was reading the description, my pulse sped up. I didn’t know a book could do that, either."
I loved how the author weaves an enchanting story around these two women and their mutual obsessions, passions, and ambitions. Specifically, I was very elated at the way the ending comes to a kind of a full circle moment. After all, both of them really just wanted to help (wink). Although, I would have loved to know how exactly the patron ended up dead there?
Margo, formerly a nurse, now working in a library has killed a lot of people while she was a nurse. One day, Patricia, a recent graduate and failed novelist comes to work there, and both of them begin a dance of their obsession with each other.
A few days after the arrival of patricia, a patron dies in the library bathroom, which results in an unending spiral of margo and starts patricia's obsession with her in order to fulfill her own goals.
"The moment I walked through the front door, I knew. That deep, abiding quiet, and the sense that the outside world couldn’t reach me here. I was like someone chased by demons across the threshold of a church, stepping into the library that first time. I could have turned around, right there at the door, and stuck my tongue out at the world. Can’t catch me."
This was a very fun read and I particularly enjoyed margo's spiral after the death of the patron. Margo thinks that prolonged cruel life is worse than a quick death, and this was her justification for killing people. She loves the look in people's eyes when they die, and the writing around this has been done beautifully. I truly enjoyed reading the story through both of their perspectives. My favorite part was when margo read "we have always lived in the castle" by shirley jackson. I loved how she describes people in real life as 2D characters compared to the people in books. That part of the book summarizes every reader's feelings.
"It gives me a cool shiver—something I didn’t know books could do."
"While I was reading the description, my pulse sped up. I didn’t know a book could do that, either."
I loved how the author weaves an enchanting story around these two women and their mutual obsessions, passions, and ambitions. Specifically, I was very elated at the way the ending comes to a kind of a full circle moment. After all, both of them really just wanted to help (wink). Although, I would have loved to know how exactly the patron ended up dead there?