“Harrowing” is the term for Sandi Jacobs, a novel that rarely lets up its disorienting swirl of terrors, coming so fast that readers will wonder whether they truly happened or whether Sandi imagines them: when Dustin, the 19 year old who has impregnated Sandi’s 15 year-old sister, abducts elementary-aged Sandi from a boarding school where she’s giving a presentation in Italian, is he really chased by cartoonish thugs who call him a “cracker”? Does Dustin, at 19, truly rent cars and board airplanes with a blood-soaked little girl in tow?
In the climax, some of these unreliable details—like her teen sister’s bizarrely well-paid job cleaning a library—accumulate into a mystery Sandi must decide whether to face. But in the moment they’re merely confusing rather than suggestive, as the storytelling throughout is rarely controlled or convincing. The fevered narrative reads like a draft rather than a polished book as it bucks wildly, leaping in time and perspective with little warning, so much so that little clues don’t get a chance to seed, grow, and entice. Still, there’s raw power in the language, welcome interludes of warmth with a boy named Callum, and some of the jolting plot twists are inspired in concept, if rushed in execution.
Takeaway: A disorienting gush of a novel that dares readers to keep up with its young narrator’s mind.
Great for fans of: Francesca Zappia’s Made You Up, An Na’s The Place Between Breaths.
Production grades
Cover: B
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: C-
Marketing copy: B
