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A review by octavia_cade
Before You Knew My Name by Jacqueline Bublitz
dark
sad
medium-paced
4.0
I think what I liked best about this was how often it avoided melodrama. There were several different points where I thought "oh no, here it comes" - not because I dislike melodrama, although I often do - but because the general restraint shown as the story went on was so finely balanced that I kept expecting it would topple, and then being consistently surprised (and pleased) when it didn't.
In many ways this is an older, grimmer, more monochrome version of The Lovely Bones, and while I confess to liking that book better, the sort of muted emotionalism of this one is also affecting. The murder is solved, but life for the people around Alice, the people who never really knew her, becomes a little lighter in the aftermath of her death. The blurb on the back of the book calls this "strangely joyous," which I think is overstatement. It's not joyous at all, but there is a sort of head-down-get-on-with-it minimalist optimism that adds sympathy and realness to the characters.
In many ways this is an older, grimmer, more monochrome version of The Lovely Bones, and while I confess to liking that book better, the sort of muted emotionalism of this one is also affecting. The murder is solved, but life for the people around Alice, the people who never really knew her, becomes a little lighter in the aftermath of her death. The blurb on the back of the book calls this "strangely joyous," which I think is overstatement. It's not joyous at all, but there is a sort of head-down-get-on-with-it minimalist optimism that adds sympathy and realness to the characters.