Since I last updated, I finished one book.
I picked up Everything Must Go by Elizabeth Flock because I enjoyed her previous novel, Me and Emma. This book was not as good, in my opinion, but it wasn’t awful either. “To those on the outside, the Powells are a happy family, but then a devastating accident destroys their fragile façade. When seven-year-old Henry is blamed for the tragedy, he tries desperately to make his parents happy again. As Henry grows up, he is full of potential–a talented sportsman with an academic mind and thirst for adventure–but soon he questions if the guilt his parents have burdened him with has left him unable to escape his anguished family or their painful past.” The story is Henry’s, but it bounces all over the place, from the present to the past and back to the present without acknowledging the time shift, so I found it a bit confusing at times. I kept waiting for something to happen, but sadly the book focuses on the fact that everything in Henry’s life stays the same. He lives with his parents, works in the same store where he worked in high school, and fixates on the past, sometimes seeming to forget how old he has become. I understand what the author was trying to convey with Henry as her main character, but I did wish there was more to the story, like there was with Me and Emma. I found it hard to read a less enjoyable book by a previously loved writer! Has that ever happened to anyone else?
Have a great weekend!