She Treads Softly: Off the Deep End

Wednesday, December 28, 2022

Off the Deep End

Off the Deep End by Lucinda Berry
1/10/23; 272 pages
Thomas & Mercer

Off the Deep End by Lucinda Berry is a recommended psychological thriller involving two families and a tragic accident

Amber Greer asks her neighbor Jules Hart if she could please give Amber's son Isaac a ride home when she is picking up her son, Gabe. A car accident results in the death of Gabe while his mother, Jules, and Isaac both survive. The aftermath of the accident leaves Jules in an unstable and sometimes violent mental state resulting in her institutionalization for a time. Jules also feels a weird connection to Isaac, which causes Amber to take out a restraining order against her. Then, ten months after the accident, Isaac goes missing and it is feared that a serial killer who was targeting teenage boys has taken him.

The narrative alternates between the point-of-view of Amber and Jules. Neither woman is very likable, but both are broken and dealing with unspeakable tragedy and horror. Jules is legally mentally unstable. Amber blames Jules and is desperately trying to find her son as she refuses to believe a serial killer has him, no matter what evidence is there. The police are involved.

The start of the novel will absolutely grab your attention and keep you reading. Then the plot begins to go downhill as the drama dries up or seems to be repeating itself. Jules is talking to police forensic psychiatrist over chapters and it is tedious. There is foreshadowing that she knows something, but after a few chapters of this, you don't care. Amber is blaming Jules and continually telling the police to investigate her while all current clues seem to point to Isaac being taken by a serial killer.

Then, toward the end we abruptly come to some actual progress, new revelations, and several shocking twists. (Some of which have been done so much better by another author, but no spoilers here.) All progress in the case and new information is saved for the end where numerous facts, ideas, and actions are all thrown at you all at once. You have to suspend disbelief that all of this is happening/discovered at one time. It would have been a much better novel with some clues leading to the ending or perhaps have Isaac narrate a few chapters earlier. The denouement is simply too over-the-top.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Thomas & Mercer via NetGalley.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.