The Weight of Blood

The Weight of Blood by Laura McHugh  336 pages

I usually don’t make New Year’s resolutions, but in 2018 I picked one that I thought I could actually complete.  I decided that I would pick one book that has been languishing on my library shelves. For the March selection, I picked Laura McHugh’s The Weight of Blood. Others I’ve known have told me how much they enjoyed this novel, and I was ready to pull an all-nighter, it was supposed to be that good.

McHugh uses one of my favorite writing mechanics, dualing timelines. In her debut novel, McHugh’s plot line was two disappearances a generation apart.

In current time, sixteen-year-old Lucy Dane has recently arrived from Iowa.  Although her family has deep, deep roots in this Ozark Mountain town of Henbane, she feels like an outsider.

When one of her friends, Cheri, is found murdered, hacked up and put in an abandoned tree log, Lucy vows that she will find her killer. Lucy now has two reasons to go snooping around town. First to learn who killed Cheri and whatever became of the mother who abandoned her.

The other timeline is Lucy’s mother Lila. Many in the town believed she was a witch and never knew what happened to her.

The timelines were confusing at first, as I didn’t get that Lila was Lucy’s mother. Heck I didn’t even realize that it was a competing timeline at first. Ninety percent of all the other characters were in both set of timelines, and since both sections were told in first person, I was a little lost through the first two-thirds of the novel. 

In the second half of the novel, readers get to hear other characters’ point of view. They were told in third person, which I found much easier to figure out exactly where they were in Lucy and Lila’s story.

Although this wasn’t the couldn’t-put-it down read I had anticipated, I enjoyed the story and trying to figure it out.  For me, there were still unanswered questions, which is the reason that

The Weight of Blood receives 4 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

Paris by the Book

 Paris by the Book by Liam Callanan  368 pages

First there is the title:  What an enticement! Paris and books; I GOTTA read this novel.

Then there is the synopsis: An eccentric novelist who has gone missing. His grieving family. A bookstore.  An unfinished manuscript by said missing novelist. I was already anticipating how wonderful this book would be.

Then there is the first sentence: “Once a week, I chase men who are not my husband.” I can’t wait to get my hands on a copy of this novel.

And finally I did. 

Leah steals a copy of “The Red Balloon” from a Milwaukee book store. Robert sees, follows and confronts her. That’s how they met. The encounter sets up a sweet romance between the two who eventually get married and have two daughters.

Leah and her daughter don’t think much about it when their Robert turns up missing. He does that a lot. When he gets stuck in his work, he goes on writeaways. He always leaves a note. But this time there is no note. Still, they shrug it off as sometimes the notes are left in the strangest places.

Months pass, and the family goes about its daily life. Clues begin to surface in the strangest of places. One clue was six capital letters inside Robert’s favorite box of cereal.

Quickly deciphering the code, Leah and her daughters head to France in search of Robert. Looking for a place to stay, they stumble upon a small bookstore, whose owner is eager to sell. Leah buys it and the family starts to settle in with an eccentric cast of supporting characters. Leah discovers one of Robert’s books on the shelves and places it in the store window.

The girls are convinced that they catch glimpses of their father in various Paris locales, but Leah is convinced he is dead. When someone want to buy the book in the window, Leah discovers an “I’m sorry,” written on the inside cover. Who but Robert could have written that, and if did come into the shop, why didn’t he stay? There are so many questions with no answers.

Then a manuscript by Robert turns up. It’s like he’s been watching them, writing as their lives unfold. This part of the novel was rather hazy for me.

The story was interesting and I did enjoy it, but it moves rather slowly. Therefore, “Paris by the Book” receives 3 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.