The Lantern by Deborah Lawrenson

Title: The Lantern
Author: Deborah Lawrenson
Pages: 386
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Release Date: August 9th, 2011
Publisher: Harper
Source: Personal Copy

With her career at a standstill and a social life that’s far from exciting, Eve finds herself accepting a freelance opportunity in Switzerland working with advertising and promotional brochures. Looking for a little adventure, she decides to take a day trip to a maze located at Lake Geneva. Here she meets Dom, a confident and self assured older man who has made his fortune in a geo technology business. Conversation flows easily, and, after an admittedly whirlwind romance filled with trips to the theater, long nights at local cafes, and travels to Italy, Dom asks Eve to move with him to France. Eve quickly accepts, wanting to put down roots of her own, and the two begin their life at Les Genévriers.

The property drew us in immediately. Not love at first sight, exactly, not as explosive as that: more a deep, promising undertow, as if it had been waiting for us, and we for it. It was familiar, in that it was the same sensation as when Dom and I first met: recklessness muted by instant empathy, surrounded by beauty.

At first everything seems fine as Dom and Eve begin repairing the crumbling house and decorating it with antiques and relics from local flea markets. Soon they start discovering many new rooms and hidden chambers filled with many objects that are dubbed “gifts from the house.” After making the choice to do without Internet or telephone, the warm summer days are spent with Eve reading and yearning to translate the authors she loves and Dom composing music on his piano. All seems perfect until one night at a party a local woman, Sabine, thinks she recognizes Dom from her past. Dom quickly dismisses the notion, and Eve accepts everything at first, but the seed of doubt has now been planted in her mind.

A secret can rot the soul. Unspoken, it seeps into the subconscious, it penetrates the body, the character of a person, until at last it takes over all reason and reasoning – until nothing is left but the secret that cannot be told and that must be kept tight inside at all costs. This is devastation, the inner waste.

As the winter months descend upon the house, Dom grows more withdrawn and distant and refuses to discuss his history with Rachel. With her suspicions raised, Eve becomes so desperate to find answers to allay her fears that she overlooks the eeriest things occurring around her such as the smell of strange but alluring aromas and shadows outside her kitchen window. Unknown to the current occupants, the house has a sordid history of its own involving Bénédicte Lincel, her blind sister Marthe, and her destructive brother Pierre. As the years pass, Les Genévriers becomes the site of tragedy, heartbreak, and evil deeds that, once uncovered, could change everything Eve has ever known and trusted.

As much as this pains me to admit, I have not read Rebecca and therefore cannot comment on the claim that this is a modern retelling. There have been a lot of comparisons between Lawrenson and du Maurier’s work in promotional material for The Lantern, and the main character Eve even makes mention of the likeness. However, I will leave the comparing and contrasting of the two works to other more well read bloggers than myself.

On the surface, The Lantern has all the necessary elements for a good Gothic tale. The mysterious setting is filled with crumbling buildings, ghosts, supernatural disturbances ,and family secrets. Before I get into the more critical aspects of my review, I do want to say that I enjoyed the book and found myself quickly turning pages to see where the story would take me. This isn’t to say The Lantern is without flaws, but it does attest to the readability and the general level of enjoyment.

Moving between Eve and Dom in the present and Bénédicte’s story in the past, The Lantern is slow in the beginning but picks up as the stories unfold and come together. The writing kept me feeling appropriately scared, intrigued, etc. However, I didn’t quite buy the ‘romance’ of Eve and Dom. There wasn’t much of a connection between the two, and most of the story was spent with them carrying out different tasks in separate rooms. I think that the story might have been more powerful with a focus on Bénédicte and no romance angle at all. For me the story would have been more enjoyable with Eve being portrayed as a stronger woman who comes to Les Genévriers independent of a man.

The lengthy descriptions of setting definitely place the story firmly within the genre. Lawrenson does a nice job composing a believable, eerie rural setting in France from the buildings to the neighbors. Visualizing the characters and the action was made quite effortless for me as I read. Using a blind character as the basis for a lot of the detailed descriptions of scent was a nice touch. I think without that plot device the descriptive elements would have become too tedious.

I really wish I had read this book in October because I think it would go perfectly during the RIP Challenge. There was just enough of the supernatural to be entertaining without going over the top. As I was writing this review, I reread the first 20 or so pages and was amazed at how much more sense the beginning made the second time around. While I do think the mentions of modern technology took a little away from the Gothic feel, Lawrenson’s explorations of themes such as paranoia and lost love helped me overlook the elements that came across as slightly awkward. While The Lantern may be more enjoyable to those who have not read Rebecca, I do recommend this one for those looking for a very readable ghost story.

Waiting on Wednesday: An Uncommon Education by Elizabeth Percer

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. This is a chance to spotlight an upcoming release that you just can't wait to get your hands on and devour!

An Uncommon Education

Elizabeth Percer

Release Date: May 1st, 2012
Publisher: Harper
Jacket Copy: Harper Summer 2012 Catalog

From a young age, Naomi Feinstein believed that she could save the people she loved. Afraid of losing her parents—her father with his weak heart, her deeply depressed mother—she was determined to become a doctor. An outcast at school, Naomi loses herself in books and daydreams of Wellesley College. But when Teddy, her confidant and only friend, abruptly departs from her life, it’s the first devastating loss from which Naomi is not sure she can ever recover, even after her long-awaited acceptance letter to Wellesley arrives.

Yet Wellesley isn’t the bastion of solidarity and security Naomi had imagined. Amid hundreds of other young women she is consumed by loneliness—until the day she sees a girl fall into the freezing waters of a lake. The event marks Naomi’s introduction to Wellesley’s oldest honor society, the mysterious Shakespeare Society, defined by secret rituals and filled with unconventional, passionate students.

Within “Shakes,” Naomi begins to open up, reflecting a little less and living a little more. Detaching from the past, Naomi immerses herself in this exciting and liberating new world. But her happiness is soon clouded by a scandal with irrevocable consequences. Naomi has always tried to save the ones she loves, but part of growing up is learning that, sometimes, saving others is a matter of saving yourself.

An Uncommon Education is a compelling portrait of a young woman’s quest for greatness. Poignant and wise, it artfully captures the complicated ties of family and friendship, and the importance of learning to let go.

Sounds awesome, right? This would make a perfect addition to my spring reading list. I've always had a soft spot for secret societies and academic settings.

What are you anxiously anticipating?

The Secret Lives of Dresses by Erin McKean

Title: The Secret Lives of Dresses
Author: Erin McKean
Pages: 292
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Release Date: February 10th, 2011
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

Source: Personal Copy

Life couldn't be more plain for twenty-year-old Dora. Raised by her grandmother Mimi, whose love of vintage clothing was not passed on to her jeans and t-shirt wearing granddaughter, Dora's lack of interest extends further than just dresses. With few college dreams or career aspirations, Dora accepts an offer to attend Lymond College in Boston after being persuaded by Mimi and the generous scholarship awarded by the school. Close to completing her major in the exceptionally vague field of Liberal Studies, Dora stumbles upon a job at the campus coffee shop after being told that she would not have any on-campus summer employment. It is during one of her shifts that Dora receives a call from her grandmother's good friend Gabby informing her that Mimi is in the hospital after having a stroke.

As she races back to her hometown of Forsyth, NC to be by her grandmother's bedside, Dora must prepare to be confronted with memories of the past as she takes on the task of running the vintage clothing store. After a chance encounter with a customer, Dora makes a discovery that Mimi had kept a secret for so many years. Each of the glamorous, sexy, and elegant dresses has its own life story created by Mimi and given away to the new owner. With the help of Gabby and Conrad, a young contractor, Dora begins to question everything in her life that she had considered boring and begins to wonder if she can become the strong and confident person she was always meant to be.

After rereading my synopsis of The Secret Lives of Dresses by Erin McKean, I realize that this story was just plain...plain. I can't really describe how I felt about this book other than that it was nice. McKean has created a light and simple read with a straightforward plot. For me this was a case of judging a book by its cover gone wrong. Who wouldn't fall in love with the gorgeous yellow dress on the cover? Plus, the use of the pale green window frame makes the dress catch my eye even faster. The romantic in me wishes I had a closet full of dresses like this one and just as many places to wear them. I also love the idea of vintage clothes, especially those uber-expensive pieces that were so well taken care of they rival any new piece of clothing today. Oh the places they've been and the things they've seen. I'm obsessed with vintage postcards simply for the little glimpse they provide into someone else's story. Robert Olen Butler's short story collection Had a Good Time: Stories from American Postcards sits on my TBR shelf for that very reason. Ultimately, I picked up McKean's work based on the novel's idea and cover, which is something I rarely let myself do.

Overall, I breezed through The Secret Lives of Dresses and would recommend it as a book to read on an airplane or while waiting in line. The story was mostly enjoyable but not very memorable, and I think I received more joy from the act of reading rather than from the content. McKean played it safe with the narrative as it didn't pack any emotional punch. There should have been more focus on the dresses and their "secret lives," because the short stories that were included were pretty boring, and I found myself skimming these sections. For a book with this title, there could have been a lot more exploration of the idea that clothes can make a person: they help them fill a role or boost their confidence no matter their background or size. Instead, we're given a cute story with sterotypical characters and awful names (Maux, Con, Tyffanee? Come on!)

If you are looking for sweet, happy, safe read that can be consumed quickly and provides a slight jolt of sugary good feelings, then I would suggest possibly picking up The Secret Lives of Dresses from your local library.

The End Of Everything by Megan Abbott

Title: The End of Everything
Author: Megan Abbott
Pages: 256
Genre: Psychological Fiction
Release Date: July 7th, 2012
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Source: Personal Copy

While suburbia in America is often portrayed as an idyllic place to set down roots and raise a family, Megan Abbott reveals that these communities can harbor just as many dark secrets as their urban counterparts in her newest novel The End of Everything. Lizzie Hood is a typical thirteen-year-old girl growing up in the Midwest during the 1980s. Practically inseparable from Lizzie, her best friend Evie Verver lives in the house next door - a house where Lizzie not only feels at home but at peace. The two girls seemingly share everything, from their clothes to their dreams and fears, and Lizzie couldn’t imagine her life without her closest friend alongside her.

Then one day everything changes. Evie never comes home, and the only clue to what may have happened is a car Lizzie remembers seeing as her mother picked her up from school earlier that afternoon. As a town torn apart by such a tragedy looks for answers, Lizzie is bombarded with questions from the police as well as Evie’s father. Once the investigation starts pointing to Mr. Shaw, an older man who lives in the neighborhood with his wife and son, a panic slowly grows among the community. In an attempt to gain some control, Lizzie begins her own investigation and starts to unravel the mysteries and secrets that had been hiding all around her.

These are all the good things, and there were such good things. But then there were the other things, and they seemed to come later, but what if they didn’t? What if everything was there all along, creeping soundlessly from corner to corner…and I didn’t hear it? Didn’t see it?

Once I started reading The End of Everything I was blown away by how much the story affected me emotionally. I was quite unable to leave the book sitting before feeling the need to pick it back up and continue toward the end. Abbott’s writing was superb and created lots of tension and pressure from beginning to end. This is not to say that the story was unwound neatly. On the contrary, once I thought I knew where the story was headed, WHAM, a whole new angle was dropped into my lap. All the twists and knots in this story just beg to be disembroiled and untangled through discussion with others. Abbot focuses not on the crime itself but more on the event’s impact of a young girl’s disappearance on the people of a small community. Abbott definitely introduces themes and ideas that could be interpreted as a commentary on suburban life in America.

There are times now when I look at those weeks before it happened and they have the quality of revelation. It was all there, all the clues, all the bright corners illuminated. But of course it wasn’t that way at all. And I could not have seen it. I could not, could not.

Along with being an excellent source of twisted psychological fiction, I would argue that The End of Everything is also a coming of age tale. Lizzie, on the cusp of adolescence, goes through a multitude of changes during the entire ordeal in terms of her relationships and sexuality. Trust, or lack thereof, is constantly confronted over the course of the novel. The distrust between friends, family, and neighbors builds constantly and creates an air of doubt and suspicion over the entire narrative. Abbott plays around with the theme of memory quite a bit - especially the way memory, when coiled with desire and desperation, can distort one’s perception.

Somewhere, though, somewhere in my head, in the back pitch of it, there’s something. There’s something. I just can’t reach it.

Told from Lizzie’s point of view in the present tense, her depiction of events becomes so mingled with her dreams and memories that the reader even begins to question the reliability of the narrator. Such an unreliable narrator adds another layer to Abbott’s novel, and I must say I loved Lizzie’s voice. The way she was written kept me uncomfortable yet enthralled the entire time. Her emotions, while strong, were often romanticized and naïve, but in my opinion this makes for an excellent portrayal of a thirteen-year-old girl just discovering sex and its power often times in a very uncomfortable, for the reader, manner.

Mr. Verver, he was there. I couldn’t remember a time when I wasn’t craning my neck to look up at him, forever waiting to hear more, hungry for the moments he would shine his attentions on me.

The End of Everything is such a multilayered yet quite disturbing thrill ride, but I will say it is not a novel for everyone. I caution potential readers that disconcerting subject matter, such as the relationships between older men and teen girls, is discussed which makes it a little hard to read. However, I think those who pick up this book and give it a go will be surprised at how mesmerizing Abbott’s work really is under the surface. I’m looking forward to reading another book by this author soon.