She Treads Softly: One Little Spark

Thursday, May 18, 2023

One Little Spark

One Little Spark by Ellie Banks
5/23/23; 416 pages
Harlequin

One Little Spark by Ellie Banks is a recommended domestic drama.

A fire destroys a small town and the lives of four women are thrown into turmoil. The story is about these four survivors who are left to pick up the pieces. They also must confront and deal with the many secrets that are now exposed. Do you ever really know the people living around you?

The narrative jumps back and forth in three time periods: the day of the fire, a year before the fire, and a year after the fire. The time jumps make it a struggle to get a handle on the characteristics of each individual, who they are, and how they fit into the plot. Additionally, once I got the characters all sorted out, I discovered that I really didn't like any of them. At a certain point, I was wondering if I really cared about decoding everything that much. The second half of the novel is more compelling and stronger than the first half, which does make up for some of the struggles and confusion at the beginning.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Harlequin via Edelweiss.

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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.