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A review by nikkisbooknook
Knife River by Justine Champine
3.5
A fractured family, an unsolved murder, small town gossipmongering.
Jess and Liz had hopes and dreams to get away from their small town, mundane lives but their mother going missing robbed them of that. Jess fled the town as soon as she could and Liz stayed behind, staying in their former family home, slowly turning from a sympathetic figure into someone to be pitied.
When their mothers remains are finally found, Jess and Liz will have to deal with the scuttlebutt and rumours starting again. But has the murderer finished with the family? Will the sisters finally get closure? Will they finally be able to put the past to bed and move on with their lives?
Jess is a complete nomad - she drifts through life, with nothing more than a few bags of clothes to call her own. She flits from job to job and girlfriend to girlfriend. Liz is her complete opposite and seems to have grabbed onto her old life and refuses to let go. But her dreams have rotted away, and in turn she has turned bitter and shrewish.
This was a really complex novel where women are all the driving relationships and the bonds that they share, the connections they forge, as the impetus of the storyline. I must admit that neither Jess nor Liz made for very likeable main characters in my opinion. Jess could come across as selfish and rootless and a bit of a user. She certainly had no qualms in moving on from her live in girlfriend when her first love came back on the scene! Liz is quite a harsh character too. I suppose being left to deal with the aftermath of your mothers disappearance would jade you but she just felt so downtrodden sometimes.
Jess and Liz had hopes and dreams to get away from their small town, mundane lives but their mother going missing robbed them of that. Jess fled the town as soon as she could and Liz stayed behind, staying in their former family home, slowly turning from a sympathetic figure into someone to be pitied.
When their mothers remains are finally found, Jess and Liz will have to deal with the scuttlebutt and rumours starting again. But has the murderer finished with the family? Will the sisters finally get closure? Will they finally be able to put the past to bed and move on with their lives?
Jess is a complete nomad - she drifts through life, with nothing more than a few bags of clothes to call her own. She flits from job to job and girlfriend to girlfriend. Liz is her complete opposite and seems to have grabbed onto her old life and refuses to let go. But her dreams have rotted away, and in turn she has turned bitter and shrewish.
This was a really complex novel where women are all the driving relationships and the bonds that they share, the connections they forge, as the impetus of the storyline. I must admit that neither Jess nor Liz made for very likeable main characters in my opinion. Jess could come across as selfish and rootless and a bit of a user. She certainly had no qualms in moving on from her live in girlfriend when her first love came back on the scene! Liz is quite a harsh character too. I suppose being left to deal with the aftermath of your mothers disappearance would jade you but she just felt so downtrodden sometimes.