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Book Review of The Things That Keep Us Here

The Things That Keep Us Here
lens avatar reviewed on + 15 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1


A Wonderful Return to Fiction
This book was a change of pace for me. I read non-fiction almost exclusively now, though I've had plenty of experience with fiction in my past. :)

There are already a few good reviews of the story, so I'll take this opportunity to complement this book and its author on some of the finer points that made this a real treat for me.

The short chapters made this book especially hard to put down. Gentle cliffhangers would be revisited after the focus shifted for some five or six pages and it was easy to keep up with multiple story lines.

The long-running mysteries of the book are treated perfectly. With one, I was anxious for tidbits of information in order to solve what I knew was being saved for the big reveal. In another, the signs were there all along, but they were so seamlessly interwoven into the story that I didn't even know the mystery existed until it was solved! A great touch.

The technique of introducing certain chapters with press releases really set the mood and added a definite sense of realism.

Finally, I'll list a few of the themes that Ms. Buckley explored to perfection: the bonds between a mother and her children, the accepted inconsistencies of many types of relationships and most notably, human (and inhumane and even non-human) nature in the face of varying degrees of adversity.

I highly recommend this book and await the opportunity to enjoy the author's second offering.