I found this book on someone’s reading list and decided to give it a go. It doesn’t bother me when I’ve never heard of the author because there are so many talented writers who never seem to break through the craze inspired by the latest fad writer (no offense Freida). Anyway, I confess that I listened to this on Audiobook, so I can’t comment on writing style pertaining to structure, but sometimes that’s better because I can focus on the plot and characters.
I prefer works that show multiple viewpoints; this book didn’t disappoint. The story is relayed through the voices of Grace Evans and Calvin Wells, the two main characters. Grace is a woman who likes to travel alone to places she’s unfamiliar with. The first problem, or so one would think. Calvin is the typical strapping stud that runs the Wyoming Airbnb where Grace decides to vacation.
You can see where this is going.
It’s obvious Calvin is smitten with her. Annoyingly so. That’s the first red flag. He can’t keep his mind off her. Grace, on the other hand, goes back and forth between her attraction to Calvin and her distrust of both him and his farm. A slew of suspicious friends and family members only add drama and intrigue…in a bit of an obvious way.
One of those characters is Calvin’s brother, Joe. Calvin continues to attribute his brother’s issues with anger and alcoholism to guilt surrounding the car accident that led to the death of Calvin’s ex. Calvin also never seems angry about it and never once ponders what he knows happened, thus intentionally misleading readers (though intuitive readers knew something wasn’t right there and probably guessed the truth). Instead, certain factors are conveniently hidden–even in the mind of the culprit–to keep the reader from figuring out what was going on.
Calvin had a lot of problems, actually. The first was his obsession with Grace. He almost sounded like a teenage girl in his lustful crush. It grew extremely tiresome and almost caused me to shelve the book. Then there were the people closest to him who were not only odd but apparently didn’t know him. At all. People he grew up with. A bit unbelievable.
Then there’s Grace. She couldn’t decide whether to stay and play house or run. In fact, though she was unsettled with her host and his homestead, she decided to screw him. Because why not? It kind of made me sad for her, actually. Of course, before her clothes were back on, another unusual incident occured causing her to yet again falter in her opinions.
Something that often bothered her, and that she complained about, was a lack of cell phone service. Anyone who grew up in the country rolled their eyes at her naivety. A word of advice Grace: If you need your phone that bad (which you really do when you decide to shack up with strangers), you should stay in the city. I grew up in the mountains where cell service was spotty, at best, and you had to know which spot in the house had the best reception.
Understandably, the key incident that caused her apprehension was the fact another woman recently went missing somewhere in the area–and she was headed for the same Airbnb. Local LE questions Calvin about it multiple times–in front of Grace, no less–but he claims to know nothing about it, and it turns out she never checked in online. Then again, there’s no cell service there, so… Anyway, the missing woman’s abandoned car is found nearby, causing more intrigue and unsettled emotions.
As usual, I won’t give you any crucial details and will leave you to read the novel yourself. All I can say is this book followed the current thriller trend of obscuring some information while overplaying other information. If you like what’s being produced now, you’ll probably enjoy this book. Especially if you enjoy an ending that comes out of left field.
The Pondering Pot 